Uses a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the transcultural phenomenon of the devil in early modern Peru. This work demonstrates that the interaction between the Christian and the Andean worlds was far more complex than any interpretation that posits a clear dichotomy between conversion and resistance would suggest.

In 1571, Diego Ortiz, an Augustinian friar, was executed in the neo-Inca state of Vilcabamba (Peru). His killing, and the events surrounding it, marked the final destruction of the Inca Empire by the Spanish and the definitive imposition of a new order on the continent of the Americas. Ortiz's story was recorded by the chronicler and fellow Augustinian, Antonio de la Calancha, in his Coronica moralizada (1638). He describes Ortiz's missionary work and recounts his often-fractious relationship with the emperor Titu Cusi Yupanqui before turning to his martyrdom, the destruction of Vilcabamba by...