Agustín de Zárate. Historia del descubrimiento y conquista de las provincias del Peru. Sevilla: En casa de Alfonso Escriuano,1577.
Agustín de Zárate, an accountant, travelled to the Indies in 1543 and spent a year in Peru supporting the rebellion of Gonzalo Pizarro against the king. On his return to Spain he was accused of treason and was jailed in Valladolid.
The Historia was partially written during the time of his imprisonment and was published in Antwerp in 1555. Dutch and Italian translations appeared in 1563 and an English version was published in 1581.
Zárate's book was reprinted in 1577 with significant alterations. His work is a complete account of the discovery, conquest and civil wars of Peru. He was an eyewitness to many of the events narrated, and his overall work has been praised for its objectivity. The section dealing with the discovery follows the accounts of Rodrigo Lozano and Nicolás de Rivera el Viejo, according to Raúl Porras Barrenechea. His main sources on Gonzalo Pizarro's rebellion were the papers of bishop La Gasca.
Zárate's Historia is one of the first texts to describe the Incan empire, and it is an invaluable source for Andean ethnography. Together with Historia general de las Indias (Amberes, 1554) by López de Gómara, it is one of the principal sources for the Royal Commentaries by Garcilaso Inca de la Vega.
|
 |