Visita de la Provincia de León de Huanaco en 1562

The account presented by Iñigo Ortiz de Zúñiga in the Visita de la Provincia de León de Huánuco admittedly is not presented with the drama of the chroniclers, but what is lacking in style is recompensed by the richness of the material collected. Professor Murra’s publication of this second volume provides much valuable information for studies focusing on either side of 1532. The Visita was an attempt to gain knowledge of the state of tributary peoples, and the Instrucción given the Visitador gives insight into the concerns of the Spanish colonial administration in the sixteenth century. At the same time, Murra and his fellow contributors direct their complementary essays to an examination of the Incaic system. The work provides a very interesting grass-roots look at the conditions of a microcosm of sixteenth-century Peru.