Mercedarian friar Martín de Murúa’s
General History of Peru
(
Historia General del Piru
, 1616) is one of the most significant Spanish chronicles of Inca history and Peru’s early colonial period yet to be published in English. Written over several decades and approved by King Philip III for publication, Murúa’s magnificent manuscript disappeared from public view for nearly 350 years until its publication in 1964. Here, translators Brian S. Bauer, Eliana Gamarra C., and Andrea Gonzales Lombardi present the first English translation of Book 1 of Murúa’s comprehensive three-part work.
Book 1 covers both the history of the Inca Empire and the first forty years of the Spanish occupation, up to and including the fall of Vilcabamba in 1572. While the J. Paul Getty Museum produced a digital facsimile of Murúa’s full
Historia
in 2008, it remained underused and, until now, untranslated. This translation revitalizes the momentous early volume with an introduction offering a window into Murúa’s life and the writing of his
, and extensive footnotes that provide the scholarly context of Murúa’s work.
This edition of
The General History of Peru: Book 1
provides long-awaited access to Murúa’s contribution to Indigenous Andean history and early colonial Peru. The book is valuable for English-speaking students and scholars of pre-Hispanic Andean history, especially those interested in the ancient Andean world and colonial Peru’s literary production.