Libraries

This is the most famous work of the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, commonly named Los comentarios reales. In the XX century, this book is known as a text that should be approached from different perspectives. In Los comentarios reales, the Inca consecrates himself as a mestizo writer who was able to chronicle the “old stories” of the Incas’ past. He was also capable of setting, at the same time, the basis for the foundation of the symbolic platform of the Peruvian nationality.

The first Lisbon edition of the Comentarios was dedicated to the Braganza, which was the family that he tried to serve. Although this work circulated mainly among the Andalusian academy, at his death in his testament the author indicated the possession of at least five hundred copies without binding that most probably he wanted to match with the second part.

Strangely this edition was not read by the Peruvians until Nicolás Rodríguez Franco printed it in 1723. Since the decade of 1950, different intellectuals have indicated the importance that this 1723 edition had for the development of the Creole nationalism of the Viceroyalty of Peru. This fact is illustrated by the prohibition of the Royal Order dictated in 1782, after the upraising of Tupac Amaru in Cuzco.

Shield of the Inca Garcilaso with the aphorism With the sword and with the pen,

Also with an invocation to Virgen Mary