Epítome cronológico o idea general del Perú. Crónica inédita de 1776 (review)

In his introduction, Victor Peralta Ruiz convincingly argues that criollo José Eusebio Llano Zapata (1721-1780) was the author of this eighteenth-century chronological synopsis of colonial Peru. The otherwise anonymous manuscript is located in Volume XLIII of the document collection entitled Benito de la Mata Linares of the Real Academia de la Historia de España. Its author was schooled by the Franciscans, tutored by the Jesuits, and married a descendant of Inca ruler Huayna Capac. During his life in Lima, Llano Zapata published a series of literary and scientific works while holding minor scholarly posts. The author left Peru in 1751 and after a four-year journey through South America arrived in Cádiz where he sought a more prestigious and lucrative position than what could be gained in Peru as the illegitimate son of a cleric. With an extensive library and a dedication to Enlightened Catholicism, Llano Zapata began to write the Epítome in 1766 and completed his draft in 1776. The text contains blank pages that Llano Zapata intended to fill with additional images and figures of viceroys, Incas, and other personalities of the period.

As evidence of the authorship, Peralta Ruiz points to the promotion of Inca rule with evidence of Llano Zapata's elemental understanding of Quechua. To substantiate these claims, Peralta Ruiz provides a careful account of language and phrases that link the text to Llano Zapata's other published works as well as proofs of events that he may have witnessed. In the historian's estimation, Llano Zapata employed a chronology of government to emphasize continuity between the Incan past and his present of eighteenth-century Spanish rule. Unknown or unconcerned with the supposed inferiority of Americas' inhabitants, Llano Zapata emphasized the legitimate rule of Manco Inca that ended with Viceroy Francisco Toledo's execution of Tupac Amaru I. Rather than the superiority of Spanish rule, Llano Zapata pointed to the practice of a false religion that caused the abrupt fall of the Inca empire.

Peralta Ruiz describes Epítome as the only general and civil history of Peru written by a native inhabitant in the eighteenth century. The text includes a geographical description of the viceroyalty, a review of the Inca rulers, and a narrative of the Spanish conquest (including the immediate civil wars) followed by a chronology of political events as well as earthquakes, epidemics, and comet sightings. With almost a complete absence of indigenous, African, and mixed-descent populations, the author promoted the idea of Peru as a powerful and wealthy region with its capital of Lima. The organization of the text is hardly unique as the author drew from other chronicles and cited the work of Miguel Feijóo and Alonso Carrió de la Vandera. Still, as a resident of colonial Lima with access to official documentation, Llano Zapata provided detailed information regarding the city's institutions, an official entrance of a viceroy, an Inquisitorial auto-da-fé, and a statistical description of Lima. Notably, the account provides detailed information on pirate attacks and Spanish defenses in a manner that underlines the empire's scientific progress. Most interestingly, Llano Zapata called attention to the Spanish advance of knowledge including descriptions of maritime expeditions in the Atlantic and Pacific as well as Amazonian explorations.

Victor Peralta Ruiz provides a detailed account of how he ascribed the authorship to José Eusebio Llano Zapata and a thoughtful review of the Epítome's importance to scholars of late colonial Peru. The transcription is annotated carefully (but not excessively) to clarify historical personages, to point out textual omissions, and to note the works cited by Llano Zapata that are listed again in the final bibliography. Unfortunately, my copy was missing various pages that will surely be rectified by Fundación MAPFRE Tavera. With a focus on the authority of...