Working from the original manuscript and consulting with fellow Quechua- and Spanish-language experts, Roland Hamilton here provides the most complete and authoritative English translation of approximately the first third of The First New Chronicle and Good Government. The sections included in this volume (pages 1–369 of the manuscript) cover the history of Peru from the earliest times and the lives of each of the Inca rulers and their wives, as well as a wealth of information about ordinances, age grades, the calendar, idols, sorcerers, burials, punishments, jails, songs, palaces, roads, storage houses, and government officials. One hundred forty-six of Guaman Poma's detailed illustrations amplify the text.
Roland Hamilton earned a Ph.D. in romance philology from the University of Madrid in 1973. He taught in the Department of Foreign Languages at San José State University for over thirty years before retiring. An authority on Peruvian culture centering on the Incas, he has also translated and edited History of the Inca Empire and Inca Religion and Customs by Father Bernabé Cobo and Narrative of the Incas by Juan de Betanzos. He lives in Los Gatos, California.