Peralta Barnuevo y Rocha, Pedro de (1664–1743)

Pedro de Peralta Barnuevo y Rocha (b. 26 November 1664; d. 30 April 1743), Peruvian polymath. Peralta was born in Lima and educated at the University of San Marcos. An acountant, lawyer, mathematician, and cosmographer who taught mathematics at San Marcos and served as its rector, he was considered by contemporaries to be a "monster of erudition" and was recognized for his learning in both France and Spain.

Poet and historian, Peralta wrote numerous comedies and poems as well as the epic Lima fundada (1732). This history of Lima eulogized Francisco Pizarro and underscored the accomplishments of Lima's creole nobility in the offices of church and state.

Several viceroys relied upon Peralta's mathematical abilities and supported his proposal to fortify Callao. The marquis de Castelfuerte (1724–1736), moreover, asked Peralta to prepare his final report. Peralta used the opportunity to argue for maintaining Lima as it had been under Hapsburg rule and to decry the viceroy's loss of authority to name provincial officials and the resulting reduction of Peruvian appointees.

See alsoPeru: From the Conquest Through Independence .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

D. A. Brading, The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots, and the Liberal State 1492–1867 (1991), pp. 391-399.

Additional Bibliography

Williams, Jerry M. Peralta Barnuevo and the Discourse of Loyalty: A Critical Edition of Four Selected Texts. Tempe: ASU Center for Latin American Studies Press, Arizona State University, 1996.

                                   Mark A. Burkholder