Ruiz Lopez, Hipolito (1754-1816) and Jose Antonio Pavon y Jimenez (1754-1840?)

Guide to Documentary Sources for Andean Studies, 1530-1900 Volume III M-Z

Edited by Joanne Pillsbury

University of Oklahoma Press : Norman In collaboration with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, N ational Gallery of Art

ADVISORY B OARD

Elizabeth Boone • Thomas B. F. Cummins • Teresa Gisbert • Craig Morris Franklif! Pease • Frank Salomon • Santiago Uceda EDITORIAL BOARD

Catherine Julien Kenneth]. Andrien • Eric Deeds

Senior Editors Thomas Abercrombie • Rodolfo Cerr6n Palomino • Sabine Dedenbach-Salazar Saenz Jean-Frarn;:ois Millaire • Monica Barnes • Teodoro Hampe Martinez Lisa DeLeonardis • Mary E . Pye TRANSLATIONS

Roland Hamilton George Shivers Magali Morlion

Assistant Editor

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Guide to documentary sources for Andean studies, 1530-1900 I edited by Joanne Pillsbury. p. cm. Includes index. "In collaboration with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art." ISBN 0-8061-3817-3 (v. l : alk. paper) - ISBN 0-8061-3820-3 (v. 2: alk. paper) ISBN o-806I-3821-1 (v. 3 : alk. paper) - ISBN 0-8061-9963-6 (set: alk. paper) r. Incas-History-Sources. 2. Incas-Antiquities-Sources . 3. Indians of South An1erica-Andes Region-History-Sources. 4. Indians of South An1erica-Andes Region-Antiquities-Sources. 5. Andes Region-History-Sources. 6. Andes Region-Antiquities-Sources. I. Pillsbury, Joanne. II . Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (U.S.) F3429.G845 2008 985'.02-dc22 2006033978

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Ruiz LOPEZ, Hipolito (1754-1816), and Jose Antonio PAVON

Y JIMENEZ

(1754-1840?)

Monica Barnes BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Botanists Hipolito Ruiz Lopez and Jose Antonio Pavon y Jimenez were the leaders of a major expedition to Peru and Chile in search of plants. Along with French botanist and physician Joseph Dombey (1742-94) and two draftsmen, they set out for South America in November 1777. Although fieldwork was planned to last four years, it was not until 1788 that all of the surviving original project members returned to Europe. Louis Feuillee had begun scientific studies of Andean plants in the first decades of the eighteenth century (Feuillee 1714~25).

Although this work was fundamental, Feuillee was only able to describe and illustrate some one hundred plants from a vast area with several major phytogeographical zones and an exceptionally complex flora. Clearly, more work was needed. In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, botany was a prestigious science sponsored by monarchs with imperial ambitions. Earlier in the century the Swedish botanist Carlus Linnaeus (also known as Carol Linne, I 707-78) had devised a system of classification (taxonomy) based upon the sexual parts of plants, which, with many modifications, is still in use today. The crowns of Spain, France, and Britain all wished to have scientific inventories of the plants that grew in the lands under their control. They sought actual examples of dried and pressed plants as well as descriptions, publishable illustrations, and live plants to propagate outside the lands in which they occurred naturally. To this end royal botanical gardens were established as research centers in Madrid as well as in Paris and at Kew, near London. This royal patronage was part of a larger interest, growing out of the Enlightenment, in the emerging European scientific community to classify and understand the natural world and the rational rules governing it. Ruiz, Pavon, and Dombey began their work collecting plant'> around Lima in 1778. By July they were working in the Chancay Valley. In September operations shifted to the

sugarcane fields of Huaura, and in December, to the Lurin Valley. It was probably in Lurin, at the large archaeological site of Pachacamac, that Dombey collected enough ancient artifacts to fill three boxes with ceramics, wooden stafts, netting needles, spindles, gold, silver, and copper instruments and figurines, stone objects, and a balance arm. At Lurin he purchased a fine old tunic. In September of I 778 the botanists sent seventeen cases to Europe-ten to Spain and seven to France. Included in the Spanish collections were 275 pressed plants, 242 colored drawings, as well as bulbs, roots, fruits, seeds, and live plants. Dombey's boxes included 284 dried plants and a mineral collection in addition to the archaeological specimens described above (Steele 1964: 84-86). Aware that the coastal desert, with its irrigated valleys, was only one of western South America's major climate zones, the party left Lima in May of 1779, intending to collect plants from the mountains (sierra) and the tropical forest (selva). They followed the Inca highway to La Oroya and Tarma. Ruiz and Isidro Galvez (1754-1829), one of the draftsmen, continued to the Franciscan monastery at Santa Rosa de Ocopa in Jauja Province. In September Pavon and Joseph Brunete (1746-87), the other draftsman, traveled to Palca. Ruiz, Dombey, and Galvez went to Huasahuasi. The parties avoided at least some of the mountain rainy season, returning to Lima by the end of January 1780. By the end of April they had set out again, this time for Huanuco. There, they found various species of Cinchona, a bark from which quinine is derived (see text II). In spite of the earlier efforts of Charles-Marie de La Condamine and others, quinine was still rather poorly understood in Europe (text II, 18or). By this time the group began to hear rumors oflndian uprisings. They had earlier fended off thieves near Chancay, and so felt inclined to take reports of unrest seriously. At least some of the rumors were true: the rebellion of Tupac Amaru began in 1780 in Tarma, near Cusco. Nev619

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Fig. 141. ''Anguloa, I3letia, Sobralia." From Hipolito Ruiz Lopez and Jose Antonio Pav(m y Jimenez, Florae pcrrivianac, et cltile1 prodm11111s, I 794, pL XXVI. By permission of the British Library 1449.L J 41 ·

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62 l

ertheless, the botanists continued their fieldwork. Ruiz and

Once Ruiz and Pavon had reestablished themselves in Ma-

Galvez began collecting in and around Huarnalies in Octo-

drid, they learned that fully illustrated tomes would be

ber of1780. In the meantime British forces had captured the ship

prohibitively expensive. The original idea was to produce

carrying the first consignment of specimens back to Eu-

fourteen. Only five were ever published during the life-

rope. Although this cargo was eventually ransomed, Dom-

times of the authors. A collection was taken in the Ameri-

bey's fine tunic did not go to his patron, Louis XVI, but was

cas to subsidize the great work. In l 794 the first volume of

eight volumes, but the number was amended to twelve or

shipped to Madrid. It is most likely now in the Museo de

the Florac pcruvia11ae ct chilensis (fig. l 4 l; see text III) came

America and bears acquisition number l 4501.

off the presses. Called the "Prodromus" (meaninga prelim-

In January 1782 Chile became the scientists' field of

inary work to some larger study), it introduced 136 new

operations. They established a base in La Concepcion, re-

genera while correcting 13. Even before distribution to the

maining there for more than a year. The botanists observed

public, Gaspar Xuarez began to offer a pirated edition in

the growing conditions of Araucaria araucana, the Chilean

Rome. The book quickly attracted criticism from one of

"pine" or monkey puzzle tree, then being used for ships'

Spain's most prominent botanists (Cavanilles

l

796), and

masts. While in Chile, they also attended a long, cere-

Ruiz felt compelled to divert some of his energy to rebuttal

monious conference between Chilean officials and Indian

(text IV, l 796).

leaders at Fort Arauco. In 1783 Ruiz and Pavon trekked to Santiago while

Sales of the legitimate work were very slow and did not off~et

the costs of printing subsequent volumes. Neverthe-

Dornbey examined the mercury mines near La Serena.

less, volume

Everyone left for Lima early in November of l 78 3. 00111-

species in Linnaeus's first four classes of plants. In l 798 the

l

of the Flora appeared in 1798, covering 277

bey decided to return to Europe, traveling there via Brazil

Systcma 1Jcgetabilium fiorac pcruvianae et clzilensis appeared,

and arriving in Cadiz early in l 78 5. The French researcher

outlining the plant classification of the entire series. Vol-

seemed poised to preempt his colleagues' publication of the

ume 2, published in 1799, presents 25 l species in Linnaeus's

expedition's results while the rest of the party was still in

fifth class; volume 3 appeared in l 802. ln the late 1790s and

the field. Perhaps for this reason, several unsuccessful at-

early 1800s, Ruiz published a few leaflets, each dealing

tempts were made on Dombey's life in Cadiz, and he es-

with one Andean genus. Although roo plates were pre-

caped to Paris.

pared for volume 4 and a few for volume 5, these two

In May of l 784 Ruiz and Pavon, still in South America,

volumes were not published until the mid-twentieth cen-

put fifty-five cases of specimens on the ship San Pedro de

tury: volume 4 appeared in 1957, and volume 5 was pub-

Alcantara. Fieldwork continued in Huinuco and the nearby

lished in the Ana/es de/ lnstituto Botanico A. ]. Cavanillcs

jungle until a series of disasters struck. First, their house in

de Nfadrid in the late 1950s. The laurels from volume 4

Huanuco caught fire. Lost were three years of diaries and

were republished in 1989 (text III, 1989). A few plants sent

three folios of botanical descriptions written during four

to Paris by Dombey were incorporated in Charles Louis

years. Then, on 2 February 1786, the San Pedro de Alcantara

L'Heritier de Brutelle's Stirpcs novae (1784-85). The Flora

sank off Portugal and the specimens were lost. On 14 May

peruviana was republished in 1965. Ruiz also published separate descriptions of individual species in the first few num-

1787 Brunete died. It was obvious that the expedition was nearing exhaustion, and on l 2 October l 787 they received

bers of the transactions of the Real Academia Medica Ma-

orders to return to Spain. Early in 1788 they dispatched

tritense and in An 11/ustration of tlzc Getms Cinchona ( l 82 l),

twenty-nine boxes to Europe on two separate ships. Con-

edited by the prominent British botanist Aylmer Bourke

tained in the boxes were three thousand plant descriptions

Lambert.

and 586 drawings, among other items.

Some of the surviving materials from the expedition are housed in Madrid's Jardin Botinico. Ruiz's account of work in South America appeared more than a century after

COMMENTARY

his death (text I). A good history of the expedition and its

Publication of the expedition's results was almost as difficult

publications is that of Arthur Steele (1964). Included in

as the fieldwork itself and, in fact, was never completed.

Steele's bibliography are lists of documents relevant to the

622

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Ruiz-Pavon project preserved in Seville, Simancas, Madrid, Lima, Chile, and England (Steele 1964: 338-43). Dombey's correspondence also sheds light on the expedition (Hamy 1905).

TEXTS

Published Editions Quinol