Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru (Texas Pan American Series)
Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr
Published: October 1987
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 1530
ISBN-13: 9780292770386
Subjects: Native American Studies; South American; South America - History; History - General History; History: American
Description: "Royal Commentaries of the Incas is the account of the origin, growth, and destruction of the Inca empire, from its legendary birth until the death in 1572 of its last independent ruler. For the material in Part One of Royal Commentaries—the history of the Inca civilization prior to the arrival of the Spaniards—Garcilaso drew upon "what I often heard as a child from the lips of my mother and her brothers and uncles and other elders . . . [of] the origin of the Inca kings, their greatness, the grandeur of their empire, their deeds and conquests, their government in peace and war, and the laws they ordained so greatly to the advantage of their vassals."The conventionalized and formal history of an oral tradition, Royal Commentaries describes the gradual imposition of order and civilization upon a primitive and barbaric world. To this Garcilaso adds facts about the geography and the flora and fauna of the land; the folk practices, religion, and superstitions; the agricultural and the architectural and engineering achievements of the people; and a variety of other information drawn from his rich store of traditional knowledge, personal observation, or speculative philosophy.Important though it is as history, Garcilaso's classic is much more: it is also a work of art. Its gracious and graceful style, skillfully translated by Harold V. Livermore, succeeds in bringing to life for the reader a genuine work of literature. Part One covers the history of the Incas up to the arrival of the Spanish."--Publisher's website.

"Although the Incaic theme is supposedly continued in Part Two, which opens with the organization of Pizarro's expedition and his capture of Atahuallpa, the Indians in fact play no more than a subordinate role in it. They move obediently at the Spaniards' behest and after the first clash of their leaders make only occasional and usually tragic appearances: the Second Part is essentially a book about the conquerors."--Introduction, Part One, p. xvi.