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Good Faith and Truthful Ignorance

A Case of Transatlantic Bigamy

Good Faith and Truthful Ignorance cover image

Book

Pages: 224

Illustrations: 30 b&w illustrations

Published: December 1991

Authors: Noble David Cook, Alexandra Parma Cook

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.

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Author/Editor Bios Table Of Contents Rights Additional Information

Author/Editor Bios

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Alexandra Parma Cook is an independent scholar.

Noble David Cooks is Professor of History at Florida International University. They are coeditors of The Discovery and Conquest of Peru, also published by Duke University Press.

Table Of Contents

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List of Illustrations and Maps ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xv

Prologue. Justice Be Fulfilled 1

The Indies

I. She Who Died 7

II. Hardship and Risk 9

III. Neither Rectitude nor Tranquility 14

IV. The Healthiest in Peru 18

V. This City is Traitorous 21

VI. This Is the Head 28

VII. Such Little Penitence 29

VIII. Kissed Her on the Cheek 32

IX. The Crown Jewel 36

X. They Would Kill Me 37

XI. Silver Common as Copper 41

XII. On the First Ship 43

XIII. I Promise You 44

XIV. Relieve My Conscience 50

XV. Used Force 53

XVI. Justice Will Not Be Lost 57

XVII. She Should Receive 62

XVIII. No Case Is So Expensive 64

XIX. In Truthful Ignorance 67

The Trial

XX. He Should Be Jailed 71

XXI. In Search of the Fugitive 73

XXII. I Have Presented Myself 76

XXIII. Are You Married? 77

XXIV. This Claim 80

XXV. Foul Odors and Vapors 83

XXVI. I Consent 84

XXVII. No Hope of Survival 88

XXVIII. Give Me the City 90

XXIX. A Wise Man 91

XXX. Shock and Great Sadness 97

XXXI. Never Forgive the Nuns 102

XXXII. He and She Knowing 104

XXXIII. Married Life Together 107

XXXIV. Compel and Force 108

XXXV. Leave the House 111

XXXVI. Contrary to the Truth 112

XXXVII. Shall Not Meet 115

XXXVIII. Carnal Intercourse 116

XXXIX. To Sin Mortally 119

Fateful Decisions

XL. The Principal Houses 123

XLI. I Am Despoiled 127

XLII. And Gave Freedom 133

XLIII. Perpetual Memory 133

XLIV. Carry the Name 136

XLV. Interred in My Chapel 138

XLVI. From the Estate 141

XLVII. He Had Consummated 142

XLVIII. Has Not Fulfilled 145

XLIX. As Good Brothers 146

Epilogue. Treasures Upon Earth 151

Glossary 155

Currency and Measures 160

Chronology 161

Notes 165

Bibliography 191

Index 199

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Sales/Territorial Rights: World

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Additional Information

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Paper ISBN: 978-0-8223-1222-2 / eISBN: 978-0-8223-9689-5 / DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822396895

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