843c Garcilaso de la Vega, El Inca. (1535-1616) The royal commentaries of Peru, in two parts. The first part. Treating of the original of their Incas or Kings: Of their idolatry: Of their laws and government both in peace and war: Of the reigns and conquests of the Incas: With many other particulars relating to their empire and policie before such time as the Spaniards invaded their countries. The second part. Describing the manner by which that new world was conquered by the Spaniards. Also, the Civil Wars between the Picarrists and the Almagrins, occasioned by quarrels arising about the division of land. Of the rise and fall of rebels; and other particulars contained in that history. Illustrated with sculptures. Written originally in Spanish by the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, and rendered into English, by Sir Paul Rycaut, Kt.

London: printed by Miles Flesher, for Richard Tonson within Gray’s-Inn next Gray’s-Inn-Lane, 1688

$6,000

Folio, 7.5 x 12.25 in. First edition. 1 (1)-(2), A2, B2, C-Z4, Aa-Zz4, Aaa-Zzz4, Aaaa-Zzzz4, Aaaaa-Zzzzz4, Aaaaaa-Nnnnnn4, Oooooo2, *-**2. The frontispiece portrait of the author and ten full-paged plates are present in this copy. This book is bound in worn quarter-sheepskin over marbled boards. The leaves have some light browning and a bit of spotting but nothing that hinders legibility.

This is a history of the reigns of the twelve Inca rulers. It comments on the lands, peoples, government, religion, and economy of the empire they ruled. Garcilaso de la Vega “called ‘El Inca,’ historian of Peru, was born at Cuzco. His father, Sebastiano Garcilaso was a cadet of the illustrious family of La Vega, who had gone to Peru in the suite of Pedro de Alvarado, and his mother was of the Peruvian blood-royal, a circumstance of which he was very proud as giving him the right to the title which he claimed by invariably subscribing himself ‘El Inca.’ About 1560 he removed to Spain, and after serving against the Moors incurred the hatred of Philip II and was imprisoned at Valladolid. He died in Spain in 1616. A diligent student of the language and traditions of his maternal ancestors, Garcilaso left a valuable work on Peruvian history; the first part, entitled Commentarios reales que tratan del origen de los Yncas, was first published at Lisbon in 1609, and the second part, Historia general del Peru, in 1617. His history is a source from which all subsequent writers on the subject have largely been drawn, and still continues to be one of the chief authorities on ancient Peru.” (EB)

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