1609. · Lisbon
by Garcilaso de la Vega, "El Inca"
Lisbon: En la Officina de Pedro Crasbeeck, 1609.. [10],264 leaves plus engraved plate. Small folio. 18th-century Spanish tree calf, spine gilt, leather labels. Ink stain on titlepage, bleeding through to following leaf. Minor foxing and soiling. Very good plus. A handsome copy of the "Royal Commentaries" of the great half Spanish, half Inca historian, Garcilaso de la Vega. He was the foremost historian of early Peru, and his works are the basis of our knowledge of Incan history. Born in Cuzco, the son of a Spanish nobleman and an Indian princess, he was a second cousin to the last Incan rulers of Peru. He left Peru as a youth and lived in Spain the rest of his life. PRIMERA PARTE... deals entirely with the Incan empire and the conquest of Peru. Spanish critic Menendez y Pelayo called it "the most genuinely American book that has ever been written, perhaps the only one in which a reflection of the soul of the conquered raced has survived." Garcilaso de la Vega continued his history of Peru with his HISTORIA GENERAL..., published in 1616. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 609/44. MEDINA, BHA 549. PALAU 354788. SABIN 98757.
(Inventory #: WRCAM48803A)