Good Faith and Truthful Ignorance: A Case of Transatlantic Bigamy

By Alexandra Parma Cook, Noble David Cook, Independent Scholar Alexandra Parma Cook

Book Overview

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 mentalit 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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822312220
• ISBN13: 9780822312222
• Release Date: December 1991
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.7" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A great social history

Not difficult to read, provides a look at many aspects of life in the Colonies and Iberia. Useful (especially for those who don't speak Spanish) references and maps in the back. I didn't give it five stars, however, because I think it was a bit choppy in the writing, jumping from place to place. I also think--even though I could be totally off the wall on this one--that the authors tried too hard to hide their bias for one of the women. I'm not much of a social historian, I'm much more of a structuralist, so I do recognize my own bias while reading this.

Sexual intrigue in the early Spanish empire.

Two worlds collide from across the Atlantic Ocean when a well-respected man is charged with the dishonorable crime of bigamy. The defendant, Francisco Noguerol de Ullua, is a true man of his time striving from humble beginnings to shake off the weight of his birth and claim glory in the Americas. His crime is the consequence of unfortunate circumstances of miscommunication, strained familiar relationships, and the resurrection of a dead wife. The Cooks chronicle these true events providing a peek into 16th century Spanish life and culture in the New World with commentary that is helpful and revealing. This book is crafted in a light that truly makes the events of 400 years ago come to life-an excellent choice for students of Latin American history, legal history, or social history. Maps, glossary, and a chronicle of events included.