Culture
Excerpts from the Vita Karoli Magni
Let us investigate the work of Charlemagne’s courtier Einhard, the Vita Karoli Magni, or Life of Charles the Great, which was composed during the reign of Louis the Pious, probably during the long decade from around 817-830.
Long Teaching Module: Inca Society
In South America in the centuries before 1500, the Peruvian coast and Andean highlands were home to a series of cultures that cultivated cotton as well as food crops. Of these, the largest empire was created by the Incas, who began as a small militaristic group and conquered surrounding groups.
Illustrations from Guaman Poma, El Primer Nueva Coránica y Buen Gobierno
These two illustrations come from El Primer Nueva Coránica y Buen Gobierno [The First New Chronicle and Good Government] (1615), a history of the Inca Empire and the Spanish conquest of the Andes written and illustrated by Filipe Guaman Poma y Ayala, an indigenous Peruvian Christian noble.
Extract from Garcilaso de la Vega, Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru
This is an extract from the chronicles of Garcilaso de la Vega (1539–1616), the son of a Spanish conquistador and an Inca noble woman, who grew up in Peru but left there as a young man and spent the rest of his life in Spain.
Extract from Garcilaso de la Vega, Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru
This is an extract from the chronicles of Garcilaso de la Vega (1539–1616), the son of a Spanish conquistador and an Inca noble woman, who grew up in Peru but left there as a young man and spent the rest of his life in Spain.
Pedro de Cieza de León, Crónicas
This is an extract from the chronicles of Pedro de Cieza de León (1520–1554), a Spanish soldier and writer who compiled a history of Peru during his seventeen years there.
Report from the General Inspection of the Chupaychu
This is a report from a Spanish inspector dating from 1549, written by a European scribe, based on an Andean’s reading of a khipu, the collections of cords on which Incas recorded information.
Inca Khipu
Andean peoples, including the Incas, recorded information on khipus (also spelled quipu), collections of colored and knotted cords such as this one.
Juan de Betanzos, Narrative of the Incas
This extract comes from Juan de Betanzos’ Narrative of the Incas, which was written in the sixteenth century but not published until 1880. Betanzos (1510-1576) was among the early conquistadors, and served as a military leader and official.
Eighteenth-Century Uruguayan Home
On display here are several objects from the Museo Casa de Nacarello, a small museum in Colonia, Uruguay that aims to recreate daily life in an eighteenth-century home.