The History of the Incas may be the best description of Inca life
and mythology to survive Spanish colonization of Peru. Pedro
Sarmiento de Gamboa, a well-educated sea captain and cosmographer
of the viceroyalty, wrote the document in Cuzco, the capital of the
Inca Empire, just forty years after the arrival of the first
Spaniards. The royal sponsorship of the work guaranteed Sarmiento
direct access to the highest Spanish officials in Cuzco. It allowed
him to summon influential Incas, especially those who had witnessed
the fall of the Empire. Sarmiento also traveled widely and
interviewed numerous local lords (curacas), as well as surviving
members of the royal Inca families. Once completed, in an
unprecedented effort to establish the authenticity of the work,
Sarmiento's manuscript was read, chapter by chapter, to forty-two
indigenous authorities for commentary and correction.
The scholars behind this new edition (the first to be published
in English since 1907) went to similarly great lengths in pursuit
of accuracy. Translators Brian Bauer and Vania Smith used an early
transcript and, in some instances, the original document to create
the text. Bauer and Jean-Jacques Decoster's introduction lays bare
the biases Sarmiento incorporated into his writing. It also
theorizes what sources, in addition to his extensive interviews,
Sarmiento relied upon to produce his history. Finally, more than
sixty new illustrations enliven this historically invaluable
document of life in the ancient Andes.
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