PIZARRO, PEDRO. c.1515-c.1602.
Manuscript Document Signed ("Pedro Pizarro"), 2 pp, small folio, n.p.[but South America], 1580, in Spanish, countersigned by Pedro de Ayala, including a reference to the "repartimiento" (or allocation of labor by a proscribed number of native workers) granted to Pizarro as a reward or his service to the crown during the conquest of Peru. Heavily browned, old tears and repairs, three holes with loss.
A very rare example of a document signed by the most important eye-witness chronicler of the conquest of Peru by Spanish forces led by Francisco Pizarro. Pedro initially served as page to his first cousin Francisco, as well as secretary and chronicler (Francisco was unable to write). He took a more active part in many of the subsequent events of the conquest of Peru, and in 1571 finished his Relación del descubrimiento y conquista de los reinos del Perú (Relation of the discovery and conquest of the kingdoms of Peru). An indication of the rarity of Pedro's signature can be gained from the fact that the Edward Stephen Harkness collection in the Library of Congress includes just two examples of Pedro's signature on a document, as compared to 29 from his cousin Francisco.