The Jesuit and the Incas : the extraordinary life of Padre Blas Valera, S.J. / Sabine Hyland.

0472113534 (alk. paper)
9780472113538 (alk. paper)
0472030418 (pbk.)
9780472030415 (pbk.)

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, ©2003.

English

xii, 269 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm.

BX4705.V2747 H95 2004

271/.5302
B

"This is the story of Father Blas Valera, the child of a native Incan woman and Spanish father, caught between the ancient world of the Incas and the conquistadors of Spain. Valera, a Jesuit in sixteenth-century Peru, believed in what to his superiors was heresy: that the Incan culture, religion, and language were equal to their Christian counterparts." "As punishment for this treachery he was imprisoned, beaten, and finally, exiled to Spain, where he died an untimely death at the hands of English pirates in 1597." "Four centuries later, this Incan chronicler had been all but forgotten, until an Italian anthropologist discovered some startling documents in a private Neapolitan collection. The documents claimed, among other things, that Valera's death had been faked by the Jesuits, that he had returned to Peru, and, intriguingly, while there had taught his followers that the Incas used a secret phonetic quipu - a record-keeping device of the Incas - to record history." "Far from settling anything, the documents created an international sensation among scholars and led to bitter disputes over how they should be assessed. Are they forgeries, authentic documents, or something in between? If genuine, they will radically reform our view of Inca culture and Valera. The author insightfully examines the evidence, showing how fact and fiction intertwine, and brings the dimly understood history of this author-priest to light."--Jacket.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-262) and index.

History, languages, and cultures of the Spanish and Portuguese worlds.

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