Garcilaso de la Vega (redirected from El Inca)

Garcilaso de la Vega, Spanish poet

Garcilaso de la Vega (gärthēlä`sō thā lä vā`gä), 1503?–1536, lyric poet of the Spanish Golden Age, b. Toledo. Garcilaso, the embodiment of the cultured and gifted courtier, was chiefly responsible for the renovation of Spanish poetry. He was the first to adapt successfully the Italian 11-syllable line to the mood and content of Spanish poetry—an innovation suggested by his friend Boscán. Garcilaso's verse, noted for its delicacy, was published with that of Boscán in 1543. It includes sonnets, elegies, odes, and three eclogues.

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Garcilaso de la Vega, Peruvian historian

Garcilaso de la Vega (gärsēlä`sō dā lä vā`gä), 1539–1616, Peruvian historian; son of the Spanish conquistador Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega and an Incan princess and therefore called the Inca. He grew up in Peru during the turbulent post-Conquest period. He went (1560) to Spain, where he first served in the army and later began to write. His most important work, The Royal Commentaries of Peru (1609–1617; tr. 1871) is a valuable source of information about the conquest of Peru and the lives and legends of the Inca.

Bibliography

See biography by J. G. Varner (1968).

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Garcilaso de la Vega

 known as El Inca

(born April 12, 1539, Cuzco, Peru—died April 24, 1616, Córdoba, Spain) One of the great Spanish chroniclers of the 16th century. Garcilaso was the illegitimate son of a conquistador and an Inca noblewoman. Raised in his father's household on a vast estate in Peru, he absorbed the traditions of both cultures. After going to Spain in 1560, he served as captain in the Spanish army against the Moors, and then he entered the priesthood. He is best known for La Florida del Ynca (an account of Hernando de Soto's expeditions north of Mexico) and his history of Peru. He was related to his namesake, the Spanish Golden Age poet Garcilaso de la Vega (b. 1503, Toledo, Spain—d. Oct. 14, 1536, Nice, duchy of Savoy).