Beschreibung:

PIZARRO, FRANCISCO, Marqués, Conquistador of Peru . Document signed ("El Marques Pizarro," with neat rubric signature), ALSO SIGNED BY FRAY VICENTE DE VALVERDE, FIRST BISHOP OF CUZCO ("Fr[atrus] Ep[i]sco[pus] Cosconensis," with rubric), Cuzco, [Peru], 14 April 1539. 2 pages, folio, 315 x 210 mm. (12½ x 8¼ in.), written in a typical court hand in dark blue ink on verso of a petition submitted to Pizarro by Pedro del Barco, integral blank with contemporary docket on verso, very minor spotting and very light dampstains to margins, a minor ink stain on integral blank , otherwise in fine condition. THE CONQUERERS OF THE INCA: FRANCISCO PIZARRO AND BISHOP VALVERDE ANSWER A CONQUISTADOR SEEKING TO PROTECT HIS RIGHT TO TRIBUTE FROM THE NATIVES An extremely important early document, dated a scant eight years after Pizarro (1478?-1541) and his band of 180 conquistadores began the epic conquest of the Inca empire and only two years before the death of both Valverde (at the hands of Indians) and Pizarro (assassinated by followers of his chief rival, Diego de Almagro). Apparently unpublished, it sheds new light on Pizarro's administration of the vast lands seized in the name of the Spanish crown from the Incas. The document is the response of Pizarro and Valverd, couched in careful diplomatic terms, to a petition from del Barco (an early conquistador and a founder of Cuzco), requesting that they refrain from interference with the large encomienda or repartimiento granted to him. The document carries the dual weight of temporal and ecclesiastical authority, for it bears the imposing and very rare rubric signature of Pizarro as Marquis (his highest rank, a title which he received only three months before), as well as the rubric signature of Bishop Valverde, the Catholic Church's foremost representative in Peru and a man who played a prominent role in both the capture and later the execution of Atahualpa, the last Inca king. The recipient, Pedro del Barco, a highly respected captain, was apparently from the same Spanish province, Extremadura, as Pizarro himself. In the petition, he styles himself "one of the first conquistadores and settlers of this city." Del Barco was one of the 80 signatories of the founding charter of Cuzco (on 23 March 1534) and was also one of eight men named by Pizarro to the first municipal council. As a reward for his services, del Barco had been granted a sizeable encomienda or repartimiento . This gave him the right to the tribute and labor of all the native inhabitants within its boundaries (and made him nominally responsible for their protection and religious welfare). While an encomienda did not confer ownership of the land itself, these grants, if exploited ruthlessly, were extremely profitable. Some embraced territories as large as several thousand square miles (cf. J. Lockhart, Spanish Peru, 1532-1560: a Social History, 1994, chapter II). Valverde (1501?-1541), probably the best-educated individual in Pizarro's circle, joined the Dominican order in 1524 and accompanied Pizarro to the New World in 1530. The chief ecclesiastic in Peru, Valverde "understood the total implications of the Spanish presence in Peru better than any other member of the expedition," and "was regularly a part of Pizarro's high council...whether the matter was the founding of a city or the execution of the Inca emperor" (J. Lockhart, Men of Cajamarca, 1972, pp. 202-203). Valverde--often depicted at Pizarro's side in the early engravings of the Conquest--is best remembered for his key role in the fateful confrontation with Atahualpa in the great square in Cajamarca on 16 November 1532. Surrounded by a throng of mostly unarmed high Inca lords and nobles, Pizarro's band confronted Atahualpa, seated on a litter. Valverde approached him and exhorted the Inca to embrace Christianity. But when he handed Atahualpa a breviary, the king flung it aside. The Inca King's sacrilegious defiance touched off the slaughter of some six or seven thousa