Encyclopedia of the Incas

CALANCHA,   ANTONIO DE  LA

Born    in  Chuquisaca  (Sucre),    Bolivia,    in  1584,   Calancha    entered the order   of

St. Augustine   in  Chuquisaca  before  moving  to  Lima,   where   he  studied at  the

Augustinian  college     of  San     Ildefonso,  and     later   read    theology    at  the

University  of  San Marcos. He  played  an  important   role    in  the Augustinian

hierarchy   in  Peru,   serving as  rector  of  the college of  San Ildefonso   and prior

of  Augustinian convents    in  Trujillo    and Lima,   where   he  died    in  1654.

Calancha’s  most    important   work,   the Córonica    moralizada  del Orden   de  S.

Agustín en  el  Peru    (The    Moralized   Chronicle   of  the Order   of  St. Augustine   in

Peru),  the first   volume  of  which   appeared    in  1638    and the second  in  1653,   is  a

history of  the Augustinians    in  Peru.   Calancha    believed    that    his order   had been

preordained  to  convert     the     Incas   to  Christianity.   Written     in  an  erudite     yet

ponderous   style,  Calancha    interweaves information on  the Incas,  as  well    as

the religion    and myths   of  the Native  peoples of  Peru    and Bolivia,    with    the

evangelizing    efforts of  Augustinian friars, many    of  whom    were    dedicated   to

stamping    out native  religion    and destroying  the huacas. For his account of  the

peoples of  Copacabana  and the nearby  Inca    sanctuary   of  the Island  of  the

Sun,    he  relied, in  part,   on  the writings    of  fellow  Augustinian Alonso  Ramos

Gavilán.

Calancha’s   chronicle   is  unusual     for     its     descriptions    of  the     Augustinian

parish  at  the pilgrimage  center  of  Pachacamac, on  the central coast   of  Peru,

and the role    of  the Augustinians    in  early   attempts    at  evangelizing    the exiled

Inca     court,  and     its     ruler, Titu     Cusi,   in  the     tropical    forest  refuge  of

Vilcabamba. He  also    provides    us  with    one of  our most    detailed    accounts    of

the techniques  of  recording   information in  the quipus, the Inca    knotted-string

recording   devices.

Further Reading

Calancha,    Antonio     de  la.    Crónica Moralizada.  Transcription   by  Ignacio     Prado   Pastor.     6   volumes.

Crónicas    del Perú,   nos.    4–9.    Lima:   Universidad Nacional    Mayor   de  San Marcos, 1974–1982   [1653].

MacCormack, Sabine. “Calancha,  Antonio de  la  (1584–1654).”   In  Guide   to  Documentary Sources for

Andean  Studies,    1530–1900,   edited  by  Joanne  Pillsbury,  vol.    2,  95–101.     Norman:     University  of

Oklahoma    Press,  2008.

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