Pedro Cieza de León
Encyclopedia
c.1520 ---Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
, Spain 1554) was a Spanish conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
and chronicler of Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
. He is known primarily for his history and description of Peru, Crónicas del Perú. He wrote this book in four parts, but only the first was published during his lifetime; the remaining sections were not published until the 19th and 20th centuries.
Early life
Cieza de León was likely born in 1520 in Llerena, a town in southeastern ExtremaduraExtremadura
Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain whose capital city is Mérida. Its component provinces are Cáceres and Badajoz. It is bordered by Portugal to the west...
. Little is known of his early life; given the fact that he left home at age thirteen, it is doubtful that Cieza de León received more than a rudimentary education at a local parish school. His father, Lope de León, was a shopkeeper in the town, and his mother, Leonor de Cazalla, was a native of Llerena, and there is scant documentary evidence of the young Cieza de León’s childhood.
In South America
Cieza participated in various expeditions and helped found a number of cities. These activities include the following:- 1536 and 1537: Expedition to San Sebastián de Buenavista and to Urute with Alonso de Cáceres.
- 1539: Foundation of San Ana de los Caballeros (ColombiaColombiaColombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
), with Jorge Robledo. - 1540: Foundation of Cartago (Colombia).
- 1541: Foundation of Antioquía (Colombia).
- He took possession of an encomienda in Cartagena of IndiesCartagena, ColombiaCartagena de Indias , is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department...
, which he granted to Sebastián de BelalcázarSebastián de BelalcázarSebastián de Belalcázar was a Spanish conquistador.-Early life:He was born Sebastián Moyano in the province of Córdoba, Spain, in either 1479 or 1480. He took the name Belalcázar as that was the name of the castle-town near to his birthplace in Córdoba...
. - 1547: Cieza de León participated in missions headed by Pedro de la GascaPedro de la GascaPedro de la Gasca was a Spanish bishop, diplomat and the second viceroy of Peru, from April 10, 1547 to January 27, 1550....
in support of the royalist campaign against Gonzalo PizarroGonzalo PizarroGonzalo Pizarro y Alonso was a Spanish conquistador and younger paternal half-brother of Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of the Inca Empire...
's rebellion. - 1548: He reached the "City of Kings" (present-day LimaLimaLima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
), where he started his career as a writer and official chronicler of the New WorldNew WorldThe New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
. During the following two years he traveled across the Peruvian territory, collecting interesting information he would later use to develop his works.
Later life and the fate of his writings
Cieza returned to Seville, Spain, in 1551 and married a woman named Isabel López de Abreu. In this city he published, in 1553, the first part of the chronicles of Peru (Primera Parte). He died the following year, leaving the rest of his work unpublished. His Second Part of Chronicles of Peru, describing the Incas, was translated by Clements MarkhamClements Markham
Sir Clements Robert Markham KCB FRS was an English geographer, explorer, and writer. He was secretary of the Royal Geographical Society between 1863 and 1888, and later served as the Society's president for a further 12 years...
and published in 1871. In 1909, the fourth part of his chronicle, focusing on the civil wars among the Spanish conquerors was published under the title Third Book of the Peruvian Civil Wars. The third part of Cieza de León's Crónicas del Perú, which examined the discovery and conquest of Peru by the Spaniards, was considered by historians to be lost. The document eventually turned up in a Vatican
Roman Curia
The Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the entire Catholic Church, together with the Pope...
library, and historian Francesca Cantù published a Spanish version of the text in 1979.
Significance
Though his works are historical and narrate the events of the Spanish conquest of Peru and the civil wars among the Spaniards, much of their importance lies in his detailed descriptions of geography, ethnography, flora and fauna. He was the first European to describe some native Peruvian animal species and vegetables.External links
- PEDRO DE CIEZA DE LEON. SEGUNDA PARTE DE LA CRÓNICA DEL PERÚ. DEL SEÑORÍO DE LOS INCAS
- Pedro Cieza de León. Crónica del Perú. Cuarta parte. Libro II, Guerra de Chupas (esp)
- Pedro Cieza de León. Crónica del Perú. Cuarta parte. Libro III, Guerra de Quito (eng)
- PEDRO DE CIEZA DE LEON. PARTE IV DE LA CRÓNICA DEL PERÚ. TERCERO LIBRO DE LAS Guerras cipiles del Perú, EL CUAL SE LLAMA LA GUERRA DE QUITO (esp)