Nicebird: Green Papagallos, Murua, and so forth

Well, if you are still a reader of Old Ken's blog—and such is the only possible reason yours truly can imagine for your coming across of this fine rappin'—you may remember that a few years back, I shared with you some news about a little conference up in Cambridge. This was with our friends, those historians of Latin American art history.

But, if you ain't and you just want to hear a good yarn, well put your feet up and get ready for some fun.

Where to start? Well, as you may recall, a Spanish Mercedarian friar Martin de Murua was kicking around the Peruvian highlands in the 1590s. Somewhere along the lines, he had learned to draw and he decided that he wanted to write a chronicle of the Spaniards in South America. While working on this project, he met a native Andean artist named Guaman Poma de Ayala whose artistry we see above.

With Guaman Poma, Murua drafted an illustrated "general history" that he intended to publish in Spain upon his return there. However, for a series of complicated reasons, this publication didn't happen in Murua's lifetime and his illustrated manuscript is now in the Getty Museum (where it's called the "Getty Murua"). Well, in the interim, Murua and Guaman Poma had a falling out of some kind. Guaman Poma went on to write and illustrate his own critique of the spanish presence in the Andes, the Nueva coronica y buen gobierno.

Well, thanks to our friend Juan Ossio (illustrated above), the story is about to get a whole lot more interesting. If (I guess I should add) you like stories like this. About twenty years ago, Señor Juan discovered a third manuscript from the Guaman Poma/Murua collaboration in a castle in Ireland.

Through the offices of other dear friends including Señor Cummins, Professor Ossio was able to persuade the Irish owner to lend this third manuscript - - the "Galvin Murua" - - to the Getty for a year of intensive scientific study and scholarly comparison with the Getty Murua. An exhibition and conference followed, which have been massive hits. Apparently, the exhibition, "The Marvel and Measure of Peru" - - a relatively small show in the Getty's Library - - has attracted over four thousand visitors a week!

So, I could go on and on about all the learned papers I heard over the past Friday and Saturday ...

I could tell you about what the scientific study of the pigments, binding techniques, pagination and other studies have told us about the relationship between these various texts.