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Prudent Deferment: Cosmographer-Chronicler Juan López de Velasco and the Historiography of the Indies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2016

Felipe E. Ruan
Felipe E. Ruan*
Affiliation:
Brock University, Canada
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Abstract

The article examines why the first Chief Cosmographer-Chronicler of the Indies, Juan López de Velasco (c. 1530–1598), did not fulfill his historiographic duty of writing a general history of the Indies. It argues that although Velasco's tenure (1571-1591) at the Council of the Indies saw a high point in the accumulation of historiographic knowledge and information about Castile's Spanish-American possessions, the structural peculiarities of the cosmographer-chronicler's office disposed Velasco to prudently eschew writing an official history of the Indies. To appreciate and understand those peculiarities, the article focuses on three interrelated factors: the patronage networks at the royal court and their relation to monarchical bureaucracy; the Council of the Indies administrative reforms that led to the creation of the chief cosmographer-chronicler's office; and the climate of secrecy and censorship regarding knowledge of the Indies during Philip II's reign. The overarching emphasis, however, entails a consideration of the relationship between knowledge about Castile's American territories and monarchical bureaucracy, from the perspective of the Habsburg royal court in Madrid.

Type
Articles
Information
The Americas , Volume 74 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 27 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2016 

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References

1. Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan [hereafter IVDJ], envío 23, caja 1, leg. 144, fol. 1r.

2. My research draws from three related areas of scholarship: official history-writing about the Americas; early modern science; and monarchical administration. The common thread among these topics is the management of knowledge about Castile's American possessions, from the perspective of the royal court in Madrid. On these topics I have benefited especially from the work of Kagan, Richard, Clio and the Crown: The Politics of History in Medieval and Early Modern Spain (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009)Google Scholar; Portuondo, María, Secret Science: Spanish Cosmography and the New World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Brendecke, Arndt, Imperio e información: funciones del saber en el dominio colonial español, Griselda Mársico, trans. (Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana/Vervuert, 2012 Google Scholar [2009]). Most useful on the Hapsburg court in Madrid has been the work of Manuel Rodríguez, Rivero, “Court Studies in the Spanish World,” The Court in Europe, Fantoni, Marcello, ed. (Rome: Bulzoni, 2012), 135–147 Google Scholar.

3. See in particular recent studies such as Indigenous Intellectuals: Knowledge, Power, and Colonial Culture in Mexico and the Andes, Gabriela Ramos and Yanna Yannakakis, eds. (Durham/London: Duke University Press, 2014); and the special issue titled Indigenous Liminalities: Andean Actors and Translators of Colonial Culture, The Americas 72:1 (2015): 3–140, edited by Alcira Dueñas. Also pertinent is Dyck's, Jason review essay, “Indigenous and Black Intellectuals in the Lettered City,” Latin American Research Review 50:2 (2015): 256–266 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Arndt Brendecke offers details on the relationship of local knowledge and the Council of the Indies: “Informing the Council: Central and Local Knowledge in the Spanish Empire,” in Empowering Interactions: Political Cultures and the Emergence of the State in Europe 1300–1900, Blockmans, Wim, Holenstein, André, and Mathieu, Jon, eds. (Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2009), 235–252 Google Scholar.

4. With López de Velasco, the posts of cosmographer and chronicler were combined into the single office of chief cosmographer-chronicler of the Indies. Prior to López de Velasco, Alonso de Santa Cruz (1505–1567) had fulfilled the role of cosmographer of the Indies, as María Portuondo has noted in Secret Science, 68–71. Arndt Brendecke explains that the Italian-born Pedro Mártir de Anglería (1547–1526) was the first chronicler of the Indies, a post later taken up by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo (1478–1557). Brendecke, Imperio e información, 353–352. Referring to the emergence of works that combined both natural and moral history, such as José de Acosta's Historia natural y moral de las Indias (1590), Portuondo notes that “[b]y the mid-sixteenth century, a new literary genre developed in Spain that fully incorporated the cosmographical and the historical traditions.” Secret Science, 32. It is in this context that Juan de Ovando likely conceived of joining the posts of cosmographer and chronicler into the single office of cosmographer-chronicler of the Indies. See also Domingo, Mariano Cuesta, “Los cronistas oficiales de Indias: de López de Velasco a Céspedes del Castillo,” Revista Complutense de Historia de América 33 (2007): 115–150 Google Scholar.

5. Poole, Stafford, Juan de Ovando: Governing the Spanish Empire in the Reign of Philip II (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004), 116 Google Scholar.

6. Writing to Mateo Vázquez de Leca in April 1584, López de Velasco notes that “[h]a veinte años o mas que tracto papeles del servicio de su majestad, desde que el licenciado Castro yendose al Peru dexo començada la recopilacion de las leyes de yndias que prosegui yo siendo secretario de los presidentes de yndias.” British Library, Add. 28345, fols. 67r –68v.

7. In a February 1572 letter to her brother Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, who was then in Mexico, Calalina de Sotomayor wrote from Madrid that she had presented his petitions at court and in her dealings there “me [h]a ayudado mucho el amistad de Juan López de Velasco, que es grandísimo privado [de Ovando].” Carlo, Agustín Millares, Cartas recibidas de España por Francisco Cervantes de Salazar (1569–1575) (Mexico City: Antigua Librería Robredo, 1946), 79 Google Scholar.

8. Stafford Poole, Juan de Ovando, 87, 90.

9. Munford, Jeremy Ravi, Vertical Empire: The General Resettlement of Indians in the Colonial Andes (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012), 77 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Parker, Geoffrey, Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 2014), 71 Google Scholar.

10. Parker quotes a June 1571 letter from Dr. Juan Milio to Juan de Albornoz in which it is said of Espinosa that “everything—sacred and secular, worldly and spiritual—passes through his hands.” Parker, ibid., 71.

11. In a 1566 letter to the governor of Lombardy, the count of Chinchón wrote that Espinosa had become “the man in all Spain in whom the king places most confidence and with whom he discusses most business, concerning both Spain and foreign affairs.” Cited in Parker, Imprudent King, 71. On the privado or favorite see Feros, Antonio, “El viejo monarca y los nuevos favoritos: los discursos sobre la privanza en el reinado de Felipe II,” Studia Historica: Historia Moderna 17 (1997): 11–36 Google Scholar.

12. Espinosa was named appeals judge of the archdiocese of Zaragoza in 1548, provisor of the diocese of Sigüenza, and oidor at the audiencia of Seville in 1553. In 1559 he was appointed regent of the Council of Navarre. Poole, Juan de Ovando, 98; Millán, José Martínez, “El confesionalismo de Felipe II y la Inquisición,” Trocadero 6–7 (1995): 103–124 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 109.

13. Poole, Juan de Ovando, 89–90; Parker, Imprudent King, 71.

14. Martínez Millán, “El confesionalismo de Felipe II,” 110–113; Millán, José Martínez, “Un curioso manuscrito: el libro de gobierno del Cardenal Diego de Espinosa (1512?–1572),” Hispania 53:13 (1993): 299–344 Google Scholar, 302–316.

15. Poole, Juan de Ovando, 114; Mumford, Vertical Empire, 75.

16. Espada, Marcos Jiménez de la, El código ovandino (Madrid: Imprenta de Manuel G. Hernández, 1891), 9 Google Scholar.

17. On Velasco's career and background, see Rioja, José Antonio Pérez, “Un insigne visontino del siglo XVI. Juan López de Velasco (1530?–1598),” Celtiberia (Centro de Estudios Sorianos) 15 (1958): 7–38 Google Scholar; Berthe, Jean-Pierre, “Juan López de Velasco cronista y cosmógrafo mayor de Indias. Su personalidad y su obra geográfica,” Relaciones (Colegio de Michoacán: Estudios de Historia y Sociedad) 75 (1998): 141–172 Google Scholar; María Portuondo, Secret Science, 142–154; and Coll-Tellechea, Reyes, “Historia literaria, humanismo y sociedad. Juan López de Velasco, perfil de un censor político,” Rumbos del Hispanismo en el umbral del Cincuentenario de la AIH [International Association of Hispanists Congress, Rome 2010], Puga, María Luisa Cerrón, ed. (Rome: Bagatto Libri, 2012), vol. 3, 24–31 Google Scholar.

18. Poole, Juan de Ovando, 33 and 89.

19. Ibid., 33. It bears note, however, that the Supreme Council of the Inquisition was part of the monarchy's civil administration. Lynch, John, Spain 1516–1598: From Nation State to World Empire (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991), 30 Google Scholar.

20. Poole, Juan de Ovando, 80

21. For details on López de Velasco's censorship of Lazarillo de Tormes, see Ruan, Felipe E., “Market, Audience, and the Fortunes and Adversities of Lazarillo de Tormes castigado (1573),” Hispanic Review 79:2 (2011): 189–211 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The Propaladia and the Lazarillo de Tormes were published together in a single volume (Madrid, 1573) by Pierres Cosin, a printer with ties to the royal court. See Cobo, Mercedes Agulló y, “El francés Pierres Cosin: impresor madrileño,” Pliegos de Bibliofilia 27 (2004): 15–34 Google Scholar. Cosin also printed Castillejo's Obras (Madrid, 1573).

22. Poole, Juan de Ovando, 51, 116.

23. Portuondo, Secret Science, 145.

24. Archivo General de Indias [hereafter AGI], Indiferente 426, Libro 25, fols. 247r–248v, available at pares.mcu.es. In 1570, Vázquez's income came from a series of offices: from the Inquisition, 100,000 maravedís (mrs); from his post as Espinosa's secretary, 50,000 mrs; from his royal chaplaincy, 15,000 mrs; and from perquisites, or derechos, an additional 17,000 mrs. Lovett, A. W., “A Cardinal's Papers: The Rise of Mateo Vázquez de Leca,” English Historical Review 88:347 (1973) : 241–261 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 248.

25. Portuondo, Secret Science, 146; Poole, Juan de Ovando, 78.

26. A number of those letters are now at the Instituto Valencia de Don Juan [hereafter IVDJ] in Madrid, at the Biblioteca Francisco de Zabálburu [hereafter ZAB] in Madrid, and at the British Library in London. For details on Mateo Vázquez see Lovett, A. W., Philip II and Mateo Vázquez de Leca: The Government of Spain (1572–1592), Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance, no. 155 (Geneva: Librarie Droz, 1977)Google Scholar.

27. Brendecke, Imperio e información, 314.

28. Sánchez's memorial is found in Colección de documentos inéditos, relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y organización de las antiguas posesiones españolas, vol. 11 (Madrid: Imprenta de J. M. Pérez, Misericordia 2, 1869), 163–170.

29. Ibid., 170.

30. Jiménez de la Espada, El código ovandino, 12.

31. Ibid., 21. Ovando petitioned Espinosa directly to have López de Velasco named cosmographer-chronicler, in a brief undated letter: “Suplico a V[uestra S[eñoría] I[lustrísima] sea servido q[u]el officio de cosmografo y coronista [sic]de las cosas de Indias se provea en Ju[an] de Velasco por q[ue] lo sabra bien hazer y tiene hecho mucho en estar también en los papeles de Indias y es necesario q[ue] se ponga luego en execucion.” IVDJ, envío 25, n. 528, fol. 1r.

32. The office brought together historical (and cosmographical) knowledge about the Indies and the law. In that sense, Ovando was drawing form a Castilian tradition in which “the institutionalization of the relationship between government and history was established much earlier in the fifteenth century than elsewhere, starting with the creation of the office of ‘royal historian’ (cronista del rey).” Kira von Ostenfeld-Suske, “Official Historiography, Political Legitimacy, Historical Methodology, and Royal and Imperial Authority in Spain under Phillip II, 1580-99” (PhD diss.: Columbia University, 2014), 10, n. 25. On the office of royal historian see Cabrero, José Luis Bermejo, “Orígenes del oficio de cronista real,” Hispania 40 (1980): 395–409 Google Scholar. Richard Kagan offers details on the relationship of historiography and law in medieval Castile during the reign of King Alfonso X, in reference to the preparation of the General estoria and the famous legal compilation known as the Siete partidas. Kagan, Clio and the Crown, 22–26. Rolena Adorno investigates the links between notarial records and New World historiography in “History, Law, and the Eyewitness: Protocols of Authority in Bernal Díaz del Castillo's Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España,” in The Project of Prose in Early Modern Europe and the New World, Fowler, Elizabeth and Green, Ronald, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 154–175 Google Scholar. On the relationship between politics and historiography prior to the sixteenth century in the rest of Europe see Speigel, Gabrielle M., “Political Utility in Medieval Historiography,” History and Theory 14:3 (1975): 314–325 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

33. Highlighting the link between Ovando's reforms and early scientific activity, Antonio Barrera-Osorio notes that after Ovando's audit the Council of the Indies “became more engaged in a wide range of scientific practices, including natural history, geography, hydrography, cosmography, and scientific expeditions.” Barrera-Osorio, , Experiencing Nature: The Spanish American Empire and the Early Scientific Revolution (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006), 104 Google Scholar. On early science in Spain, see also Cañizares-Esguerra, Jorge, Nature, Empire, and Nation: Explorations of the History of Science in the Iberian World (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006)Google Scholar.

34. AGI, Indiferente, 427, L. 29, fol. 5v; Ismael Sánchez Bella, Dos estudios sobre el Código de Ovando (Pamplona: Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, S.A., 1987), 140. The Título de las descripciones, or Instructions, is made up of 135 articles. AGI, Indiferente, 427, L. 29, fols. 5v–66v. The marginal annotation on the first folio reads “Instrucciones para hazer las descripciones.” The Título is dated at El Escorial, July 3, 1573, and is reproduced in Sánchez Bella, Dos estudios, 139–211. Portuondo offers a cogent overview of the Instructions in Secret Science, 125–135.

35. Poole explains that although “the king agreed to the junta in May 1568, the first meeting was delayed until July 2 because of the illness and death of the king's son, don Carlos.” Juan de Ovando, 132. On the Junta Magna, see Ramos, Demerito, “La crisis Indiana y la Junta Magna de 1568,” Jahrbuch für Geschichte Lateinamerikas (Anuario de Historia de America Latina) 23:1 (1986): 1–62 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Merluzzi, Manfredi, “Religion and State Politics in the Age of Philip II: The Junta Magna of the Indies and New Political Guidelines for the Spanish Colonies,” in Religion and Power in Europe: Conflict and Convergence, Carvalho, Joaquim, ed. (Pisa: PLUS-Pisa University Press, 2007), 183–201 Google Scholar; and Mumford, Vertical Empire, chapt. 5.

36. Lovett, “A Cardinal's Papers,” 225.

37. Poole, Juan de Ovando, 131. The main topics under discussion were: “doctrina, hazienda, comercio y perpetuidad [de la encomienda],” as the Junta's secretary, Mateo Vázquez, wrote in the record of those deliberations. Lovett, “A Cardinal's Papers,” 256. For more details on the junta's agenda, see Poole, ibid., 131–132. The resolutions of the Junta Magna are reproduced in Francisco de la Cruz, Inquisición, Actas, 2 vols., Vidal Abril Castelló, and Miguel J. Abril Stoffels, eds., (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1996), vol. 1, 129–194.

38. López de Velasco's 1568 testimony is available in Castelló and Stoffels, ibid., vol. 1, 283–286. Espinosa's personal secretary, Mateo Vázquez, recorded the proceedings of the Junta Magna's meetings, which were held “en casa del cardinal [Espinosa],” as Ovando explains in a November 1573 letter to the king. Cited in Lovett, “A Cardinal's Papers,” 246 n. 5. Poole explains that Juan López de Velasco participated in the junta particular within the Junta Magna framework. Juan de Ovando, 131.

39. The 1569 document is entitled “Relación del estado en que tiene el licenciado Ovando la visita del Consejo de Indias,” and is reproduced in Jiménez de la Espada, El código ovandino, 8–10. The Relación also notes that “el visitador [Ovando]” “ha despachado a todas las partes de las Indias para que le envíen esta averiguación [para entender las cosas de las Indias],” ibid., 9. This is likely a reference to the 1569 questionnaire Ovando sent to the Indies as part of the visita, in an effort to gather information and knowledge directly from colonial officials there. Brendecke, “Informing the Council,” 243–244. The Relación" is at IVDJ, envío 88, 542, 2. Regrettably, I was unaware of the document's location during my research visit to the Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan in May 2014.

40. Mumford, Vertical Empire, 78.

41. Poole, Juan de Ovando, 117; Cámara, José de la Peña, “Nuevos datos sobre la visita de Juan de Ovando al Consejo de Indias, 1567–1568,” Anuario de Derecho Español 21 (1935): 425–438 Google Scholar, 436–437.

42. Levillier, Roberto, Don Francisco de Toledo: supremo organizador del Perú. Anexos (Madrid: Imprenta de Juan Pueyo, 1935), 25 Google Scholar.

43. Peña Cámara, “Nuevos datos,” 433 n. 30.

44. The visita comprised two phases, a report on the activities of the auditor or visitador and the reforms recommended as a result of the audit. See Izquierdo, Francisco Fernández, Martínez, Ángeles Yuste, and Camañes, Porfirio Sanz, La provincia de Calatrava de Almonacid de Zorita en el siglo XVI según las visitas. Recuperación de una historia viva de la administración local en la edad moderna (Madrid: CSIC, 2001), 34 Google Scholar.

45. Poole, Juan de Ovando, 140–141; Portuondo, Secret Science, 116–119. Poole, who has studied Ovando's visita of the University of Alcalá (1564–1566), notes that “Ovando's visita [of the Council of the Indies] went far beyond the conduct and functioning of the Council” to become a wide-ranging effort to gather information about the Americas, in his study Juan de Ovando, 117. In the 1569 Relación on the visita's progress, Ovando himself suggests that the council's visita had gone beyond the normal time and scope of an audit: “Y si esto [waiting for the information requested from the Indies] paresciere muy largo segun lo que otras visitas suelen durar . . . ” See Jiménez de la Espada, El código ovandino, 10. On Ovando's visita of the University of Alcalá, see Poole, Stafford, “Juan de Ovando's Reform of the University of Alcala de Henares, 1564–1566,” Sixteenth Century Journal 21:4 (1990): 575–606 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46. Brendecke, Imperio e información, 333.

47. Portuondo, Secret Science, 125.

48. Ibid., 118.

49. Jiménez de la Espada, El código ovandino, 13. In the consulta (ca. 1571), Ovando describes those seven books: “El primero, de la gouernaçion spiritual; el segundo, de la gouernaçion temporal; el terçero, delas justicia tribunales y ministros della, el quarto, de la republica de españoles; el quinto, de la republica de Indios; el sexto, de la hazienda; el séptimo, de la Nauegaçion y contrataçion de las Indias.” Ibid., 13. It appears that only parts of the first and second books were completed by the time of Ovando's death in 1575. For an overview of the seven books, see Portuondo, Secret Science, 117–119. Juan Manzano Manzano offers additional details in Historia de las recopilaciones de Indias, 2 vols. (Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispánica, 1950), vol. 1, 179–234. Ovando's consulta is found at IVDJ, envío 88, 542, 2. Regrettably, I was unaware of the document's location during my research visit to the Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan, in May 2014.

50. Portuondo, Secret Science, 116–117.

51. Orejón, Antonio Muro, “Las ordenanzas de 1571 del Real y Supremo Consejo de las Indias. Texto facsimilar de la edición de 1585,” Anuario de Estudios Americanos 14 (1957): 363–423 Google Scholar.

52. Poole, Juan de Ovando, 156 and 117, respectively.

53. Muro Orejón, “Las ordenanzas,” 409.

54. Ibid., 395.

55. For a succinct overview of the first hundred years of New World historical writing, see Ostenfeld-Suske, Kira von, “A New History for a ‘New World’: The First One Hundred Years of Hispanic New World Historical Writing,” Oxford History of Historical Writing, Rabasa, José, Sato, Masayuki, Tortarolo, Edoardo, and Woolf, Daniel, eds. (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2012), vol. 3, 556–574 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56. Muro Orejón, “Las ordenanzas,” 410. Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo's Historia natural y general de las Indias Occidentales (1535), which drew from classical sources like Pliny's Natural History, “was influential for establishing the empirical epistemological criteria used in subsequent natural New World histories.” Portuondo, Secret Science, 33. In the same work Fernández de Oviedo is quoted as he offers details about the economic potential of the New World while emphasizing also “having personally ‘seen’ and ‘known’ what he described” and providing “explanations of trials he conducted as means of ascertaining matters of fact.” José de Acosta's Historia natural y moral de las Indias (1590) brought together both natural and moral history by combining classical and religious learning and empirical knowledge about the nature and the people of the New World. Thus Acosta could rightly claim in the prologue to his history “que . . . se podrá tener esta Historia por nueva, por ser juntamente Historia, y en parte Filosofía, y por ser no sólo de las obras de naturaleza, sino también de las del libre albedrío, que son los hechos y costumbres de los hombres.” Historia natural y moral de las Indias (1590) (Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, vol. 73 (Madrid: Ediciones Atlas, 1954)), 3.

57. Muro Orejón, “Las ordenanzas,” 411.

58. Ibid.; Portuondo, Secret Science, 121.

59. AGI, Indiferente, 427, L. 29, fols. 13r–15r; Sánchez Bella, Dos estudios, 147–148.

60. AGI, ibid., fols. 32r–34r; Sánchez Bella, ibid., 169–170.

61. AGI, ibid., fol. 33r; Sánchez Bella, ibid., 170.

62. A real cédula of August 16, 1572, requesting historiographic material from the audiencias in the Indies, directs the audiencias as to where the said material is to be sought: “en los arqivos, officios y escriptorios de los escribanos de gobernación y otras partes a donde pueda estar,” and specifies that it be sent to the Council of the Indies where “habemos proveydo persona al cuyo cargo sea recopilarlas y hazer ystoria dellas [cossas acaecidas en esas partes].” The royal decree was sent to the viceroyalties of New Spain and of Peru, and directed to specific audiencias within each: Santo Domingo, Nueva Galicia, Guatemala, Panama, New Granada, Chile, Charcas, and Quito. AGI, Indiferente, 427, L. 30, fols. 233v–234v. The real cédula is reproduced in Francisco de Solano and Ponce, Pilar, Cuestionarios para la formación de las relaciones geográficas de Indias, siglos XVI /XIX (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1988), 15–16 Google Scholar.

63. AGI, Indiferente, 427, L. 29, fol. 33v; Sánchez Bella, Dos estudios, 170–171.

64. Stoler, Ann Laura, Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxieties and Colonial Common Sense (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009)Google Scholar, 63 and 2, respectively.

65. Ibid., 278.

66. Portuondo, Secret Science, 146–147.

67. Juan López de Velasco to Moya de Contreras, August 30, 1570. Millares Carlo, Cartas recibidas, 57.

68. Millares Carlo, ibid., 107.

69. Portuondo, Secret Science, 147; Millares Carlo, ibid., 173–174.

70. Millares Carlo, ibid., 107.

71. López de Velasco's parecer of Fernández de Palencia's Historia is in AGI, Patronato, 171, Número 1, R.19, fol. 1r, and is reproduced in Torre, Lucas de la, Historia del Perú por Diego Fernández, vecino de Palencia (Madrid: Biblioteca Hispania, 1913), 6–8 Google Scholar. The letter of appointment is in AGI, Indiferente, 426, L. 25, fol. 126v, and is reproduced in Maroto, M. I. Vicente and Piñero, M. Esteban, Aspectos de la ciencia aplicada en la España del Siglo de Oro, 2nd ed. (Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, 2006), 415–417 Google Scholar. Both AGI documents are available in digital format at pares.mcu.es. Kagan notes that López de Velasco's “role as cronista mayor mimicked that of Lorenzo Galíndez de Carvajal, the royal chronicler who had previously served as ‘judge and censor’ of chronicles relating to the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.” Clio and the Crown, 166. On censorship and histories of the Indies, see Friede, Juan, “La censura española del siglo XVI y los libros de historia de América,” Revista de Historia de América 47 (1959): 45–94 Google Scholar; Adorno, Rolena, “Sobre la censura y su evasión: un caso transatlántico del siglo XVI,” Grafías del imaginario. Representaciones culturales en España y América (siglos XVI–XVIII) Sánchez, Carlos Alberto González and Vilar, Enriqueta Vila, eds. (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura, 2003), 13–52 Google Scholar; and Baudot, Georges, “Felipe II frente a las culturas y a los discursos prehispánicos de América. De la transculturación a la erradicación,” Caravelle 78 (2002): 37–56 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

72. “Real Cédula dando licencia a Diego Fernández, vecino de Palencia, para imprimir y vender en Indias . . . ‘La historia del Perú.’” AGI, Indiferente, 425, L. 24, fols. 375–376. Fernández de Palencia was in Peru from 1553 to 1561, first as royal notary at Lima and then as official historian to the viceroy de Mendoza, Andrés Hurtado. MacCormarck, Sabine, On the Wings of Time: Rome, The Incas, Spain, and Peru (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007), 84 Google Scholar.

73. Barrios, Rafael Sánchez-Concha, “El Licenciado Hernando de Santillán y sus observaciones en torno de las formas tiránicas de los curacas,” Histórica 10:2 (1996): 285–302 Google Scholar, 288 n.1. In early 1573 Santillán was making arrangements to travel to Peru (AGI, Charcas, 418, L. 1, fol. 245v), and by 1574 he was in Lima where he died prior to taking up his new post. Santillán held several offices in the viceroyalty of Peru: he was appointed oidor of Lima's audiencia in 1548 (AGI, Lima, 566, L. 5, fols. 298r–299r), and in 1563 was named president of Quito's audiencia (AGI, Quito, 211, L. 1, fols.1r–2r). During his tenure at Quito Santillán was also the target of a juicio de residencia or administrative “trial” for colonial officials finishing their tenure in order to hold them accountable for any wrongdoing. Ibid., fol. 202r–202v.

74. “[E]l dicho Diego Hernández por falta de noticia o por otras ocasiones puso en dicho libro en lo mas sustancial muchas cosas contrarias a lo que paso, y otras si referentes, y otras que se deuian poner y no se pusieron de que resulta daño a la autoridad y verdad que en tal historia se requeria, y ofensa a muchas personas que sirvieron muy señaladamente a Vuestra Alteza por querer ofrecer sus servicios, y a otros atribuye los que no hicieron a lo cual, Vuestra Alteza, no se debe dar lugar.” AGI, Patronato, 171, N. 1, R. 19, fol. 2r, at pares.mcu.es.

75. Fernández de Palencia's responses are available in Lucas de la Torre, Historia del Perú por Diego Fernández, 259–310; and also in the document Replica a las objetiones de Santillan, AGI, Patronato, 171, N. 1, R. 19, fols. 1r–26v.

76. AGI, Patronato, 171, N.1, R.19, fol. 1r.

77. AGI, ibid., fol. 1r.

78. On the polemics associated with New World history-writing, see Cañizares-Esguerra, Jorge, How to Write the History of the New World: Histories, Epistemologies, and Identities in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001)Google Scholar; Adorno, Rolena, The Polemics of Possession in Spanish American Narrative (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007 Google Scholar; and Greusslich, Sebastián, “La historiografía oficial castellana y la cuestión de su veracidad. Avances recientes en la reflexión sobre una vieja polémica,” Histórica 35:2 (2011), 135–145 Google Scholar.

79. Richard Kagan explains that “Philip II's determination to keep a lid on the Indies had its roots in administrative practices that date back to the fifteenth century and the efforts of both Spanish and Portuguese rulers to regard maps, charts, and other navigational materials as arcana imperii, state secrets best stored in a locked box.” Clio and the Crown, 163.

80. Portuondo, Secret Science, 159.

81. For details on Toledo's strategy, see Julien, Catherine, “Francisco de Toledo and His Campaign against the Incas,” Colonial Latin American Review 16:2 (2007): 243–272 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

82. Levillier, Roberto, Gobernantes del Perú. Cartas y papeles, siglo XVI. Documentos del Archivo de Indias (Madrid: Imprenta de Juan Pueyo, 1924)Google Scholar, vol. 5, 310.

83. Ibid.

84. Ibid.

85. Ibid., 312. For Toledo's concerns with the writings of Las Casas vis-à-vis the crown's rights of title, even prior to his departure for Peru, see Vaccarella, Eric, “ Fábulas, letras, and razones historiales fidedignas: The Praxis of Renaissance Historiography in Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa's Historia de los Incas ,” Colonial Latin American Review 16:1 (2007): 93–107 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In a letter to Philip II that accompanied Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa's História Índica (1572), Sarmiento de Gamboa also mentions Las Casas in the context of rights of title. Levillier, Roberto, Don Francisco de Toledo. Supremo organizador del Perú. Su vida, su obra (1515–1582) (Madrid: Imprenta de Juan Pueyo, 1942)Google Scholar, vol. 3, 6.

86. Richard Kagan writes that the Council of the Indies denied Sarmiento de Gamboa the approval to publish his work, “confiscated the manuscript and gave it to López de Velasco for inspection.” Clio and the Crown, 165–166. Although I have found no documentary evidence to substantiate Kagan's claims, it would not be surprising to learn that Sarmiento de Gamboa's work had ended up in López de Velasco's hands. Brian S. Bauer and Jean-Jacques Decoster explain that Túpac Amaru's execution marked the end to the war against the Incas and that the crown no longer saw the need to publish Sarmiento de Gamboa's Historia. “Introduction,” The History of the Incas by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa [1572], Brian S. Bauer and Vania Smith, trans. and eds. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007), 1–2. On the significance of Sarmiento de Gamboa's Historia for fashioning the Incas as tyrants, see Mumford, Jeremy Ravi, “Francisco de Toledo, admirador y émulo de la ‘tiranía’ inca,” Histórica 35:2 (2011): 45–67 Google Scholar.

87. Levillier, Gobernantes del Perú, vol. 5, 310.

88. Millares Carlo, Cartas recibidas, p.108.

89. The task of scrutinizing the Geografía was given to the Italian-born cosmographer Juan Bautista Gesio, who had come to the court in Madrid from Portugal where he had worked for many years. See Portuondo, Secret Science, 183–193.

90. AGI, Indiferente, 738, fol. 1r.

91. Portuondo, Secret Science, 193–194. Upon completing the Sumario, López de Velasco sought a monetary reward for his efforts but was turned down. The negative reply came in a September 1582 memorial that offered an account of López de Velasco's work and the monetary gratifications he had received to date, noting that “parece que esta vastamente gratificado de todo lo que [h]a hecho.” Upon reviewing the memorial the king wrote a terse reply in the document's wide margin: “Se le puede responder que se contente con lo que se ha hecho con él.” AGI, Indiferente, 740, N.91, fol. 1r, available at pares.mcu.es.

92. AGI, Indiferente, 740, N.91, fol. 1r.

93. Portuondo, Secret Science, 229–231.

94. Portuondo, ibid., 211–223; Brendecke, Imperio e información, 393–399. The seminal study on the Relaciones Geográficas is Marcos Jiménez de la Espada, Relaciones Geograficas de Indias: Perú (Madrid: Real Academia Española, 1881–1897. Reprint: Biblioteca de Autores Españoles vols. 183–185. Madrid: Ediciones Atlas, 1965). See also Cline, Howard F., “The Relaciones Geográficas of the Spanish Indies, 1577–1586,” Hispanic American Historical Review 44:3 (1964): 341–374 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Mundy, Barbara E., The Mapping of New Spain: Indigenous Cartography and the Maps of the Relaciones Geográficas (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996)Google Scholar.

95. AGI, Indiferente, 426, L. 26, fol. 178r.

96. AGI, Indiferente, 427, L. 31, fol. 29r.

97. AGI, Indiferente, 1505, fol. 307; Portuondo, Secret Science, 165 n.72.

98. Juan de Ledesma prepared the inventory of Santa Cruz's cosmographical documents, and on folio 14r of the inventory López de Velasco wrote “Recibi Los en vi [6] de nov[iembre] de 1573,” and added his distinctive signature. AGI, Patronato, 171, N.1, R.16, available at pares.mcu.es.

99. AGI, Indiferente, 426, L. 29, fol. 1r.

100. Adorno, Rolena, Colonial Latin American Literature. A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 46 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Portuondo, Secret Science, p.165.

101. For details on the Council of the Indies' confiscation of Cieza de León's work, see Kagan, Clio and the Crown, 163; and Portuondo, Secret Science, 167. On January 29, 1578, Cieza de León's brother, Rodrigo Cieza, petitioned the Council of the Indies to return his brother's work. AGI, Indiferente, 1086, fol. 30r.

102. Portuondo, ibid., 169–171.

103. Ibid., 150.

104. Ibid.

105. IVDJ, envío 100, fol. 309r.

106. Portuondo, Secret Science, 157–158.

107. Ibid., 150.

108. British Library, Add. 28345 folios 67r: “Acabada la visita de yndias Juan de Ovando desseo ocuparme bien, y por no aver avido lugar lo que pienso que él desseava, huve de aceptar el officio que tengo, mas por entretenimiento para esperar otra ocasion que por justa ocupacion . . . y por esto y porque el officio no es conforme a mi inclinación ni al fin que se enderezaban mis estudios.” In the letter López de Velasco notes that because he has been financially rewarded poorly in his post, he has lost the drive for the work required of his office (“y averse me gratificado mal lo que en el trabajado, me tiene en desgana de hazer nada”).

109. In the March 19, 1586 consulta to Philip II, Vázquez wrote that López de Velasco was proficient with matters pertaining to the Indies but lacked the desired “style and manner” for questions concerning the king's business (“es bien sufficiente en noticia de lo de Indias, pero en el [e]stilo y manera de dezir en despachos de V[uestra] M[majestad] haber menester aprender mas”). ZAB, Altamira, 142, D. 140, fol. 1r.

110. Portuondo, Secret Science, 154.

111. Brendecke, Imperio e información, 417.

112. ZAB, Altamira, 159, D. 107. The two-part memorandum is archived as one document. The first part bears the descriptor “Razones” and the second “Orden,” in López de Velasco's hand. My commentary focuses on the part labeled “Orden.”

113. In writing the memorandum López de Velasco was participating in debates at court on history-writing, which involved royal historians and treatises such as Juan Páez de Castro's Método para escribir la historia (1562); Esteban de Garibay's De la utilidad de la historia (1593); and Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas's “Discurso sobre los provechos de la historia, que cosa es y de cuantas maneras [hay], del oficio del historiador y como se ha de inquirir la Fe y Verdad de la Historia y como se ha de escribir” (c. 1598). See Von Ostenfeld-Suske “Official Historiography,” 177–178. On debates on history-writing in early modern Europe, see Grafton, Anthony, What was History? The Art of History in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007)Google Scholar.

114. On the back of the memorandum's last folio there is a written summary of its contents, in López de Velasco's hand. One item listed reads, “Junta de ministros doctos, y de otros hombres q[ue] lo sean en letras humanas.” Starting with López de Velasco, Kagan notes, the general history of the Indies the cosmographer-chronicler was to write was conceived as “a collective or collaborative project, the work of an office, rather than an individual.” Clio and the Crown, 173.

115. Richard Kagan defines ‘official history’ as “‘approved’ or ‘authorized’ history, history that receives governmental sponsorship and support,” and “that favors the interests and concerns of the ruler . . . for whom it was originally written.” See Clio and the Crown, 3.

116. For a modern edition of Herrera y Tordesillas's Historia, see Domingo, Mariano Cuesta, ed. Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Océano o “Décadas” de Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, 4 vols. (Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1991)Google Scholar.

117. Portuondo, Secret Science, 266, and Kagan, Clio and the Crown, 171, respectively.

118. Portuondo, ibid., 210. Miguel de Otálora served as interim president until the subsequent president, Antonio de Padilla y Meneses, was appointed officially in 1579. Jiménez de la Espada, Relaciones Geográficas, vol. 183, 72.

119. Von Ostenfeld-Suske, “A New History for a ‘New World’” 572.

120. Kira von Ostenfeld-Suske writes that “Herrera's work reflects the ways in which the New World was subsumed under Spanish politics and administrative structures, in an attempt to govern and impose control.” Moreover, Herrera y Tordesillas's work was conceived “to confirm the justice and right of the Spanish Crown's claim to dominion over the New World.” Von Ostenfeld-Suske, ibid., 571.

121. For an overview of Herrera y Tordesillas's prolific historiographic output, see Mariano Cuesta Domingo's modern edition of his Historia, 25–26. See also Kagan, Richard, “El cronista oficial ¿historiador o consejero? El caso ejemplar de Herrera y Tordesillas,” Revista de Historia Jerónimo Zurita 88 (2013): 199–210 Google Scholar. Significantly, Herrera y Tordesillas composed his Historia under Philip III, in an environment that saw a relaxation of the secrecy that had governed historiography (and cosmography) about Spanish America during the time of Philip II.

122. Tellingly, Herrera y Tordesillas was the first to translate Giovanni Botero's Reason of State, in 1594, at Philip II's behest. See Kagan, Clio and the Crown, 126. Kira von Ostenfeld-Suske explains that “[f]or Herrera, history was clearly an instrument of statecraft.” See Ostenfeld-Suske, Von, “Writing Official History in Spain: History and Politics, c. 1474–1600,” in Oxford History of Historical Writing, Rabasa, José, Sato, Masayuki, Tortarolo, Edoardo, and Woolf, Daniel, eds. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012)Google Scholar, vol. 3, 444.

123. Portuondo, Secret Science, 138.