The Natural and Moral History of the Indies

by José de Acosta, Clements Robert Markham (Editor), Edward Grimston (Translator)

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This volume, first published in 1880, translates the first detailed description of the geography and indigenous culture of South America, written by Joseph de Acosta (1540 1600) and published in Spanish in 1590. Acosta was one of the first explorers to record and analyse the geophysical phenomena of the 'New World' and attempt to explain them scientifically. Volume 2 contains Books 5 7 of Acosta's work, describing the life of the indigenous population and including a brief history of the end of the Inca empire."

Genres: History, Travel, Science, Nonfiction, Anthropology

284 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1590

About the author

José de Acosta was a sixteenth-century Spanish Jesuit missionary and naturalist in Latin America.

Aside from his publication of the proceedings of the provincial councils of 1567 and 1583, and several works of exclusively theological import, Acosta is best known as the writer of De Natura Novi Orbis, De promulgatione Evangelii apud Barbaros, sive De Procuranda Indorum salute and above all, the Historia natural y moral de las Indias . The latter was published at Seville in 1590, and was soon after its publication translated into various languages. It established the reputation of Acosta, as this was one of the very first detailed and realistic descriptions of the New World. In a form more concise than that employed by his predecessors, Francisco Lopez de Gómara and Oviedo, he treated the natural and philosophic history of the New World from a broader point of view. In it, more than a century before other Europeans learned of the Bering Strait, Acosta hypothesized that Latin America's indigenous peoples had migrated from Asia. He also divided them into three barbarian categories. The Historia also described Inca and Aztec customs and history, as well as other information such as winds and tides, lakes, rivers, plants, animals, and mineral resources in the New World.

Reviews

[Jake]

Acosta had an intense amount of curiosity. The way I thought about it was that he was clearly a ramanujan of the physical sciences. Someone who was clearly intensely intelligent who used fragments of information to string together incredible ideas.

The translation was a bit shit but just to give you an idea, he leads to the conclusion that a physical land bridge must have existed through pure induction. You might say, well if I was a priest in the 1500's I probably could have come to that conclusion as well. He also postulated the existence of a mesophere, that is a region of the atmosphere where the temperature reaches a minimum point through pure induction by noticing that as he reached higher regions the air on average got colder.

He was also incredibly close to putting forth a theory of microbiology too through induction. An incredible mind and we should be thankful to the crown for paying for his journey in the americas to learn for us.

[timv]

This a report on the Spanish holdings in the Americas in the year 1590. I did not read this book straight through. Rather I chose various chapters that interested me and read those. Acosta’s writing reflects the he was both a man of his times and a independent thinker. he is so heavily indoctrinated in Catholicism that it clouds his viewpoint, but on occasion he sheds that cloak and gives a straightforward observation.

If you’re interested in some first-hand observations of the cultures of America not too long after the Europeans arrived, give this book a read. If you’re like me, you’ll find bits and pieces that are well worth your time.

[Catherine]

As crónicas go, this is by far the most fascinating. His concluding chapter presenting a providential historiography of the conquest is so lucid and practical, and his presentations of land-bridge theory are mind-blowing if you remember that he was basically arguing "what you think of as another planet is in fact another side of our own." José de Acosta SJ: welcome to my problematic faves.

[Isaac Lambert]

a fascinating read- have I read anything from the 16th century before? recommended by Randall Monroe of XKCD, this book encompasses nature, science, astronomy, food, and history- from the Jesuit perspective. I wish I could have such a breath of understanding- even in a cursory read where you don't understand all the pieces there are lots of interesting bits which you will be googling to either see what food or animals they're referring, or just to confirm the 'science' is true 🤣, as some is a bit sketchy. as this is an obscure book, often times the only google result is just this book itself!

looking back on the enormity of topics covered here, I think there are many movies which could be inspired by this book- see e.g. Midsommar, which may not even be intentional. Hollywood please take note! relatedly, often times I wish it would have gone more in depth (Cortes + Monteczima, for example), but bits like this would have been more obvious to the reader at these times, so Acosta has a tendency to skip the juicy details. i think I viewed his writing as similar to Herodotus, but more scientific. there are certain portions which are so mythic and fantastic, but written simply as ground truth. there's also a lot of human sacrifice, so be prepared! now I want to visit places like Peru~

[Amanda]

I only read the second volume, aka books 5-8, but I think I probably got the gist of volume one. (There were so many "as I said previously"s it was like my work email!) Nevertheless, I thought this was a really interesting read. The author is obviously super pro-Christianity and pro-Spain and spends a lot of time talking about what he characterizes as the horrible demonic rituals and sacrifices of the Aztecs & Incas. (Though the focus is ultimately a lot more on Mexico than on Peru.) At first I thought "OK this guy is super judgy, as expected", but about halfway through he starts in on how the Spanish histories don't really talk about the clever and civilized things the Mexicans do and how no one really understands how good they are, actually. Then at the end he comes back to the whole "Christianity saved them, and they're lucky the Spanish invaded" idea. A weird trip, but definitely more nuanced than I expected overall. There was a liiittle too much detail for me on all the outfits and dances the Mexicans did for all their many festivals, but there was some cool language stuff, comparing the writing systems of Mexico to the writing systems of China and Japan (with some light racism, to be sure, but also some linguistic intrigue). And a lot of the history stuff re: of the line of succession and military conquest was stuff that either contradicted Wiki or simply wasn't mentioned anywhere else that I could find, so IDK if this guy was just incorrect or if I discovered some cool new info, but either way, it's neat. Pretty cool book. But if you thought this review was long, definitely don't read this book, it is not a light romp.

[Nate]

Bit of slog to read straight through. But there's lots of interesting information in here.

I very much preferred Cieza de Leon.

[Andrea]

Not as bad as La Araucana, but definitely not my first choice of late-night reading.