Unlocking the Doors to the Worlds of Guaman Poma and His Nueva Corónica

Rolena Adorno, Ivan Boserup

"Honored by UNESCO’s Memory of the World designation, [Andean Indian] Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala’s Nueva corónica y buen gobierno (1615) rewrites Andean history in accordance with the author’s goals of reforming Spanish colonial rule in the continent-spanning viceroyalty of Peru. Housed at the Royal Library of Denmark since the 1660s, brought to international attention in 1908, and first published in facsimile in 1936, the autograph manuscript has been the topic of research in Andean ethnology and related disciplines for several decades. Now, on the eve of the 400th anniversary of Guaman Poma’s composition of the Nueva corónica, a renowned group of international scholars has focused fresh attention on the work, its author, and its times. Accomplished Andeanists such as R. Tom Zuidema, Frank Salomon, Jan Szeminski, and Regina Harrison are joined by other notable and younger scholars...