Diego González Holguín

First editions of the two foundational printed works on the Quechua (Quichua) language, among the earliest substantial books printed in the Americas and the first major linguistic works of the Andean world.

• Diego González Holguín (Spanish, 1552–post-1608).
• Vocabvlario Dela Lengva General De Todo El Perv Llamada Lengua Qquichua, O Del Inca. [bound with] Gramatica Y Arte Nveva Dela Lengua General De Todo El Perú Llamada Lengua Qquichua, O Lengua Del Inca.
• Ciudad de los Reyes [Lima]: Francisco del Canto, 1607; 1608.
• Octavo.
• 375, 332, [4], [8], [144 numbered leaves].
• Roman and italic types, double columns (in the Vocabulario), woodcut initials.
• Text in Spanish.
• Contemporary vellum.

Fray Diego González Holguín, a Jesuit born in Extremadura and active as a missionary in Peru, codified the lengua general del Inca for ecclesiastical instruction and evangelization.

The Gramatica of 1607 provides a remarkably sophisticated analysis of phonetics, morphology, and syntax, while the Vocabulario of 1608 systematizes the Quechua lexicon for bilingual use by clergy. Together they constitute the linguistic foundation of all subsequent Andean grammars and dictionaries.

Both works were printed by Francisco del Canto, the pioneering Lima printer whose shop produced the earliest surviving secular and religious works in South America. Complete copies of either work are exceedingly rare.

Early ownership inscription on final pages of the first and second parts of the Vocabulario: “Antonio Bascope y Herbas” (in a late 17th - early 18th century clerical hand), very likely referring to a member of the Bascope family, long associated with ecclesiastical and educational service in Upper Peru (modern Bolivia). The inscription indicates early use in a Quechua-speaking missionary context, providing valuable historical continuity between the Lima Jesuit press and later regional missionary work.