Simulating eyewitness testimony: José de Acosta's "Indians of Peru" in the Latin edition of De Bry

Abstract

This essay studies the textual and visual representation of "the Indians of Peru" and their place in the illustrated edition of the Historia natural y moral de las Indias (1590) by José de Acosta, prepared by the sons of publisher Theodore de Bry. Such edition was published in 1601-1602 as the ninth volume of The Great Voyages. This essay discusses the criteria used by the De Brys to select the work of Acosta and its redesign through the elaboration of engravings to illustrate it. The detailed analysis of engraving IV allows observing the mimicry of the eyewitness' experience that provides alternative images of the inhabitants of the Andes. This study reveals how different ways to look at the "Indians of Peru" may overlap or contradict each other. The De Brys had editorial success thanks to their iconographie view of the New World, which mimicked and made changes to the direct experience of the eyewitness.