Cobo’s plan for his work was quite ambitious. He initially proposed to write
a total of 43 books divided into three parts, which would deal with Pre-
Columbian America, the discovery and conquest of the Caribbean and South
America, and New Spain. Only sections of the first and second parts are
known to have been completed. These two parts cover the Incas and their
land and the founding of Lima by the Spaniards. Cobo’s chronicle not only
discusses the history and customs of the Incas and the people they conquered,
but also touches on such topics as astronomy, religion, botany, and zoology.
He conducted interviews with descendants of the Incas in Cuzco, lending an
air of immediacy to his account, even if it was written 100 years after the
onset of the Spanish invasion.
Like so many authors of his day, Cobo borrowed liberally from other
chroniclers, including José de Acosta, Pedro Pizarro, Garcilaso de la Vega,
Cristóbal de Molina, and Alonso Ramos Gavilán, whose manuscript he
relied on, in part, for descriptions of Copacabana and the Inca sanctuaries on
the Islands of the Sun and the Moon on Lake Titicaca. Cobo’s chronicle is
especially valued for its account of Cuzco’s ceque system, which is based on
a lost manuscript, probably one authored by Polo Ondegardo, in 1559.Further Reading
Cobo, Bernabé. “Historia del Nuevo Mundo.” In Obras del P. Bernabé Cobo. Vols. 1–2. Biblioteca de
Autores Españoles, nos. 91–92. Madrid: Editorial Atlas, 1964 [1653].
———. History of the Inca Empire: An Account of the Indians’ Customs and Their Origin, Together
with a Treatise on Inca Legends, History, and Social Institutions by Father Bernabé Cobo. Translated
and edited by Roland Hamilton. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979 [1653].
———. Inca Religion and Customs. Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton. Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1990 [1653].
Hamilton, Roland. “Cobo, Bernabé (1580–1657).” In Guide to Documentary Sources for Andean
Studies, 1530–1900, edited by Joanne Pillsbury, vol. 2: 152–55. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 2008.
■ADRIANA VON HAGENCOCA
In 1555 the Spanish chronicler Agustín de Zárate wrote of the rigors of the high
Andean environment. To live in these mountains, he said, was to endure rain,
hail, snow, and intense cold. Yet, he added, there were warm valleys where one
could cultivate a plant called coca, the leaves of which alleviated pain and
hunger and which the Incas prized more highly than gold or silver.