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Good Faith and Truthful Ignorance: A Case of Transatlantic Bigamy
Good Faith and Truthful Ignorance uncovers from history the fascinating and strange story of Spanish explorer Francisco Noguerol de Ulloa. in 1556, accompanied by his second wife, Francisco returned to his home in Spain after a profitable twenty-year sojourn in the new world of Peru. However, unlike most other rich conquistadores who returned to the land of their birth, Francisco was not allowed to settle into a life of leisure. Instead, he was charged with bigamy and illegal shipment of silver, was arrested and imprisoned. Francisco’s first wife (thought long dead) had filed suit in Spain against her renegade husband.
So begins the labyrinthine legal tale and engrossing drama of an explorer and his two wives, skillfully reconstructed through the expert and original archival research of Alexandra Parma Cook and Noble David Cook. Drawing on the remarkable records from the trial, the narrative of Francisco’s adventures provides a window into daily life in sixteenth-century Spain, as well as the mentalité and experience of conquest and settlement of the New World. Told from the point of view of the conquerors, Francisco’s story reveals not only the lives of the middle class and minor nobility but also much about those at the lower rungs of the social order and relations between the sexes.
In the tradition of Carlo Ginzberg’s The Cheese and the Worms and Natalie Zemon Davis’ The Return of Martin Guerre, Good Faith and Truthful Ignorance illuminates an historical period—the world of sixteenth-century Spain and Peru—through the wonderful and unusual story of one man and his two wives.
So begins the labyrinthine legal tale and engrossing drama of an explorer and his two wives, skillfully reconstructed through the expert and original archival research of Alexandra Parma Cook and Noble David Cook. Drawing on the remarkable records from the trial, the narrative of Francisco’s adventures provides a window into daily life in sixteenth-century Spain, as well as the mentalité and experience of conquest and settlement of the New World. Told from the point of view of the conquerors, Francisco’s story reveals not only the lives of the middle class and minor nobility but also much about those at the lower rungs of the social order and relations between the sexes.
In the tradition of Carlo Ginzberg’s The Cheese and the Worms and Natalie Zemon Davis’ The Return of Martin Guerre, Good Faith and Truthful Ignorance illuminates an historical period—the world of sixteenth-century Spain and Peru—through the wonderful and unusual story of one man and his two wives.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
206 pages, Paperback
First published December 6, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 11, 2021
2021, 2019: Read again for undergraduate history course in Colonial Latin America.
2017: A truly remarkable social history of the conquest of Peru and those Spaniards, men and women, that participated. What was the mid-level conquistador of Peru and Chile, Francisco de Noguera's greatest legacy? Not the ingots of gold and silver from Peru, nor the lands and titles accrued on two continents. It is the documents in the Archives of the Indies that made it possible for the Cooks to bring his life story to those fortunate enough to read their work that make Noguera's legacy, though now nonexistent, still live.
2018: annual reading with students of Colonial Latin American history. This is the best social history of the post-conquest Indies and an excellent insight into the people, most often lost to obscurity, that peopled Spain and her far-flung empire. In a transatlantic case of ostensible bigamy, Francisco and his two wives, Beatriz and Catalina, and their families, all come into clear view, their posterity emerging from the scattered and fragmentary documents among the archives in Iberia. From the frontier and factional fighting in Peru after the conquest of the Inca, to the rise of Spain as first-rate power, the details of the work bring to life the personal connections forged halfway around the world, motivated by gold, glory, and God, the lives portrayed here were not unusual, but we know of them because the historical record, pieced together by the Cooks, transcended obscurity.
One of the great social histories ever.
2017: A truly remarkable social history of the conquest of Peru and those Spaniards, men and women, that participated. What was the mid-level conquistador of Peru and Chile, Francisco de Noguera's greatest legacy? Not the ingots of gold and silver from Peru, nor the lands and titles accrued on two continents. It is the documents in the Archives of the Indies that made it possible for the Cooks to bring his life story to those fortunate enough to read their work that make Noguera's legacy, though now nonexistent, still live.
2018: annual reading with students of Colonial Latin American history. This is the best social history of the post-conquest Indies and an excellent insight into the people, most often lost to obscurity, that peopled Spain and her far-flung empire. In a transatlantic case of ostensible bigamy, Francisco and his two wives, Beatriz and Catalina, and their families, all come into clear view, their posterity emerging from the scattered and fragmentary documents among the archives in Iberia. From the frontier and factional fighting in Peru after the conquest of the Inca, to the rise of Spain as first-rate power, the details of the work bring to life the personal connections forged halfway around the world, motivated by gold, glory, and God, the lives portrayed here were not unusual, but we know of them because the historical record, pieced together by the Cooks, transcended obscurity.
One of the great social histories ever.
October 26, 2015
I read this for a college class, very interesting further review will come.
November 27, 2018
I actually really enjoyed this book. I know it seems like it would be a dry read and while it wasn't quite a can't-put-it-down fantasy novel, it was fascinating. I watched a Peruvian history and a Spanish history class just before reading this book on Great Courses, which provided an excellent background for understanding Good Faith and Truthful Ignorance, and made me really appreciate reading the experience of an average Spanish soldier/conquistador, rather than just hearing of the Pizarros, etc. I've also personally done research in South American parroquias and legajos, and the amount of research that went into this book is astounding, it's impressive beyond words.
November 4, 2019
Interesting
I had to read this for a college class; it's unlikely that I would chose this to read for any other reason. That said, it's a good read that reaches into the past to bring some of the lives of those people to our time. It's too bad that there wasn't more written at the time and preserved for us now. This illustrates the value of studying history: learning from other's mistakes, and comparing their lives to ours. We've got it pretty good!
I had to read this for a college class; it's unlikely that I would chose this to read for any other reason. That said, it's a good read that reaches into the past to bring some of the lives of those people to our time. It's too bad that there wasn't more written at the time and preserved for us now. This illustrates the value of studying history: learning from other's mistakes, and comparing their lives to ours. We've got it pretty good!
July 28, 2020
Who knew the dusty AGI archives could harbor such intrigue! Thoroughly enjoyed it. And I wasn’t expecting the ending.
October 21, 2021
5 Word Reviews:
The 1600's were lowkey shady
The 1600's were lowkey shady
November 8, 2022
Was a very interesting account of sixteenth century life in Spain and the Spanish colonies.
February 14, 2023
This is a book with chapters and all
August 8, 2015
It was a textbook I had to read for my Latin American History class. It was one of the easier textbooks that I had to read and was written like a story. It was well set up and didn't give too much information away at the wrong time. It would be easy to read and understand if you knew a little bit about the history of the Conquest, but it wouldn't be necessary. Decent read overall.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews