Jerónimo de Vivar

Jerónimo de Vivar was a sixteenth-century Spanish chronicler known for his narrative of the early colonial period in Chile, the Crónica y relación copiosa y verdadera de los reinos de Chile. His work is a primary source for the Spanish conquest and settlement of Chile, providing detailed accounts of expeditions, indigenous polities, and colonial administration during the governorships of figures such as Diego de Almagro, Pedro de Valdivia, and Francisco de Villagra. Vivar's chronicle has been used by historians of the Captaincy General of Chile, Mapuche, and the wider Spanish Empire in the Americas.

Biography

Vivar is believed to have been born in the Kingdom of Spain in the 1520s and to have arrived in the Americas in the mid-sixteenth century, likely traveling through ports such as Seville and Santo Domingo before reaching the Viceroyalty of Peru. Contemporary figures referenced alongside him include Pedro de Valdivia, Pedro de Valdivia (governor), Diego de Almagro, Gonzalo Pizarro, and Francisco Pizarro, situating him amid the campaigns that reshaped Castile's transatlantic possessions. Vivar's movements connected him with colonial centers such as Lima, Concepción, Santiago, and frontier settlements affected by the Arauco War. His precise biography remains obscure, but administrative records and the internal evidence of his chronicle link him to officials like Jerónimo de Alderete, Gonzalo de Castilla, Pedro de Villagra, and Diego de Muros.

Chronicle and Works

Vivar's principal composition, the Crónica y relación copiosa y verdadera de los reinos de Chile, narrates the conquest and early colonization of Chile from the arrival of Diego de Almagro and the campaigns of Pedro de Valdivia through the turbulent decades of the mid-sixteenth century, including episodes involving Lautaro, Caupolicán, and Galvarino of the Mapuche resistance. The chronicle treats events such as the foundation of Santiago and Concepción, the engagements at the Tucapel and the Battle of Reynogüelén, and the interactions with institutions such as the Royal Audiencia of Lima and the Council of the Indies. Vivar interweaves accounts of explorers like Alonso de Ercilla, Juan Bautista Pastene, and Gonzalo de Castilla with administrative episodes involving Viceroy Blasco Núñez Vela and Diego López de Zúñiga, 1st Count of Nieva. The work survives in manuscript form and has been cited alongside chronicles by Alfonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, Diego de Rosales, Pedro Mariño de Lobera, and García Rodríguez de Montalvo in historiography of Chile.

Historical Context and Sources

Vivar wrote during a period shaped by the aftermath of the Pizarro campaigns, the establishment of the Viceroyalty of Peru, and the imperial policies of the Habsburg dynasty under monarchs such as Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Philip II of Spain. His narrative reflects contact zones involving indigenous confederations like the Mapuche, Inca remnants, and other Andean societies affected by figures such as Manco Inca Yupanqui and Túpac Amaru. Vivar’s sources appear to include eyewitness testimony from conquistadors such as Pedro de Valdivia, Diego de Almagro II (El Mozo), and Francisco de Villagra, administrative records from the Audiencia of Lima, and earlier chronicles by authors like Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, and Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga. The chronicle must be read alongside contemporaneous documents such as letters by Pedro de Valdivia to Charles V and legal petitions to the Council of the Indies to triangulate dates, episodes, and claims.

Assessment and Influence

Scholars have assessed Vivar as a careful recorder of events with particular strengths in military and administrative narrative, placing him in the historiographical company of chroniclers like Pedro Mariño de Lobera and Diego de Rosales. His descriptions of leaders such as Lautaro and Caupolicán influenced later literary and historical portrayals in works by Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna, Diego Barros Arana, and Joaquín Edwards Bello. Historians of colonial Latin America, including Gabriel Guarda, José Toribio Medina, Bernardo O'Higgins, and Julio Pinto have used Vivar to reconstruct episodes of the Arauco War, frontier settlement patterns, and the dynamics of colonial governance under officials like García Hurtado de Mendoza and Diego de Almagro. Debates over Vivar’s reliability engage comparative readings with Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga's epic, legal documents in the Archivo General de Indias, and archaeological data from sites in the Bio-Bío Region and Valparaíso Region.

Manuscripts and Editions

The original manuscript of Vivar's chronicle circulated in manuscript copies and was later edited and published in modern editions alongside other colonial sources; editors and repositories involved include the Real Academia de la Historia, Santiago archives, and collections within the Archivo General de Indias. Critical editions and transcriptions have been prepared by historians such as José Toribio Medina, Diego Barros Arana, and Ricardo E. Latcham, and the work appears in compendia of Chilean colonial documents alongside texts by Alonso de Ercilla, Pedro Mariño de Lobera, and Diego de Rosales. Manuscript witnesses are preserved in institutions like the Biblioteca Nacional de España, Biblioteca Nacional de Chile, and various private and ecclesiastical archives in Lima. Modern scholarly editions provide annotations linking Vivar to documentary sources in the Archivo General de la Nación (Chile), facilitating research by historians such as Armando de Ramón, Ricardo Salas, and Sergio Villalobos.

Category:16th-century historians Category:Historians of Chile Category:Chilean colonial period