44

converts bilingual in Aymara and Spanish. Such works
consisted of catechisms and other religious tracts and

of grammars to be used by missionaries wishing to learn

to speak and understand the language. The earliest work
known to contain Aymara is the anonymous Doctrina
christiana, y catecismo para la instruccién de los Indios,
published in Lima in 1584 (Rivet 1951:4-9).

According to Rivet (1956:631) a study of the
early Catholic evangelization of Peru from 1532 to 1600
and the use of Aymara and Quechua as languages of con-
version is Cristianizaci6n del Pera (1532-1600) by
Fernando de Armas Medina (1953). Two other publications
useful for information about Aymara society in the 16th
century are Visita hecha a_la provincia de Chucuito ...
en_el afio 1567 by a colonial administrator, Garci Diez
de San Miguel (1567), reporting on his inspection of
Chucuito province (see 1-2.2), and an ethnological
appraisal of the Diez de San Miguel inspection, Una
apreciaci6n etnolégica de la visita by John V. Murra
(1964).

The first attempt at a complete grammar of Aymara
was written by Ludovico Bertonio in the early 17th
century. Born in 1552 in Italy, Bertonio joined the
Company of Jesus in 1575. Sent to Peru in 1581, he
remained there for 44 years, dying in Lima in 1625 or

1628 (Rivet 1951:26-27). Bertonio apparently spent most