Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala: El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno (the “Inca Chronicle”). [1612-1616].
GkS 2232 4º

Title page on which Poma and the Spanish King kneel before the Pope	The first page	P. 398: Pizarro sets the house of Poma’s grandfather on fire in order to get his gold	P. 1148: Illustration of the month of March when it is time to chase parrots out of the corn field

Guaman Poma’s extensive so-called Inca Chronicle is an account of the history of the Andean region dating from the earliest times as well as a series of proposed reforms of the Spanish colonial rule. The long prose text is written in Spanish with occasional use of Quechua, one of the local Indian languages. Poma himself has written it down and drawn the nearly 400 full page illustrations. Not least the suffering of the people under Spanish rule is expressed in these drawings.
The work is addressed to the Spanish King Felipe III. Poma wants to inform the King about the profound crisis which he thinks that the Spanish colonial power has brought to the area. It appears from the manuscript that Poma went to Lima to hand it over to the Viceroy. Later it came to Spain where it most probably was acquired by a Danish diplomat who brought it to Denmark. It is likely that it became part of King Frederik III’s library as early as c. 1660.

20.5 x 14.5 cm.

See also the website of the Royal Library Guaman Poma’s Inca Chronicle.

© Det Kongelige Bibliotek 2003