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Vocabulario de la lengua general de todo el Perú llamada lengua Quichua o del Inca: corregido y renovado conforme a la propiedad cortesana del Cuzco
The Vocabulario de la lengua general de todo el Perú, composed by the Jesuit scholar Diego González Holguín, was printed in the workshops of Francisco del Canto in 1608. This volume reflects the impetus after the Tercer Concilio Limense to disseminate a standardized version of Cuzco Quechua as the general language of the Viceroyalty of Peru: this is how it indicates “las propias letras de cada vocablo que hasta agora no ha salido”, “la pronunciación natural que la enseña la buena ortographia”, “la suma de vocablos de cosas de Dios, alma, virtudes”, “la correcion de la propiedad y definición”, among other language policies.
However, the ultimate purpose of González Holguín’s Vocabulario transcends philological exigency: after the approval of the book, an epistle dedicated to Dr. Hernando Arias de Ugarte is added where he justifies the writing of the text for the better evangelization of Peru “to free them from the hunger and death ”. Finally, after a brief clarification to the reader, González Holguín develops the entire Quechua-Spanish dictionary. In this way, the abundant pagination of the text is clearly justified by the purpose of the work that complements others of the same Jesuit pen as the Vocabulario de la lengua general del Perú, llamada quechua, y de la lengua española (printed by Antonio Ricardo in Lima in 1604) or the later Arte y vocabulario de la lengua general del Perú, llamada quechua, y de la lengua española (printed by Francisco del canto in 1614).
Jean Christian Egoavil
Proyecto Estudios Indianos