A list of Peruvian authors in viceregal times occupies a long chapter in the life of St Toribio[1] by Montalvo; and the bibliographical labours of the Peruvian Leon Pinelo are still invaluable to Spanish students. The most prolific author of colonial times was Dr Pedro de Peralta y Barnuevo, who wrote more than sixty works, including an epic poem entitled Lima fundada.
The topographical labours of Cosme Bueno and Unanue were ably continued at Lima by Admiral Don Eduardo Carrasco, who compiled annual guides of Peru from 1826. But the most eminent Peruvian geographer is Dr Don Mariano Felipe Paz Soldan (1821–1886), whose Geografia del Peru appeared in 1861. His still more important work, the Diccionario geografico estadistico del Peru (1877), is a gazetteer on a most complete scale. In 1868 appeared his first volume of the Historia del Peru independiente, and two others have since been published. His Historia de la guerra del Pacifico is the Peruvian version of that disastrous war. The earlier history of Peru has been written in three volumes by Sebastian Lorente (d. 1884). Mariano Rivero has discussed its antiquities; and Manuel Fuentes has edited six volumes of memoirs written by Spanish viceroys But the most valuable and important historical work by a modern Peruvian is General Mendiburu’s (1805–1885) Diccionario historico-biografico del Peru, a monument of patient and conscientious research, combined with critical discernment of a high order. As laborious historical students, Don José Toribio Polo, the author of an ecclesiastical history of Peruvian dioceses, and Don Enrique Torres Saldamando the historian of the Jesuits in Peru, have great merit. Among good local annalists may be mentioned Juan Gilberto Valdivia, who has written a history of Arequipa, and Pio Benigno Mesa, the author of the Annals of Cuzco.
The leading Peruvian authors on constitutional and legal subjects are Dr José Santistevan, who has published volumes on civil and criminal law, Luis Felipe Villaran (subsequently rector of the university at Lima), author of a work on constitutional right, Dr Francisco Garcia Calderon (once president of Peru), author of a dictionary of Peruvian legislation, in two volumes; Dr Francisco Xavier Mariategui, one of the fathers of Peruvian independence; and Dr Francisco de Paula Vigil (1792–1875), orator and statesman as well as author, whose work, Defensa de los gobiernos, is a noble and enlightened statement of the case for civil governments against the pretensions of the court of Rome. Manuel A. Fuentes, an able statistician and the author of the Estadistica de Lima, has also written a manual of parliamentary practice. Perhaps the most important work on Peru of modern times is that of the Italian savant Antonio Raimondi (1825–1890), who spent the greater part of his life in studying the topography and natural resources of the country. Only four volumes had been published at the time of his death, but he left a mass of papers and manuscripts which the government has put in, the hands of the Geographical Society of Lima for publication. His great work is entitled El Peru: estudios mineralogicos, &c. (3 vols., Lima, 1890–1902), and one separate volume on the department of Ancachs. Peruvian literature since the independence has also attained high merit in the walks of poetry and romance. The Guayaquil author, Olmedo, who wrote the famous ode on the victory of Junin, and the Limenians Felipe Pardo and Manuel Segura are names well known wherever the Spanish language is spoken. Both died between 1860 and 1870. The comedies of Segura on the customs of Lima society, entitled Un Paseo a Amancaes and La Saya y Manto, have no equal in the dramatic literature of Spanish America and few in that of modern Spain. From 1848 date the first poetical efforts of Arnaldo Marquez, who is distinguished for his correct diction and rich imagination, as is Nicolas Corpancho for his dramas and a volume of poems entitled Brisas, Adolfo Garcia for a beautiful sonnet to Bolivar, which was published at Havre in 1870, in his one volume of poems, and Clemente Althaus for his productivity and style. Pedro Paz Soldan was a classical scholar who published three volumes of poems. Carlos Augusto Salaverry is known as one of Peru’s best lyrical poets, and Luis Benjamin Cisneros for his two novels, Julia and Edgardo. Trinidad Fernandez and Constantino Carrasco were two poets of merit who died young, the principal work of the latter being his metrical version of the Quichua drama, Ollantay. José Antonio Lavalle and Narciso Arestegui are chiefly known as novelists. In his youth Ricardo Palma published three books of poems, entitled Armonias, Verbos y Gerundios and Pasionarias, and then, since 1870, devoted his great literary talents to writing the historical traditions of Peru, of which six volumes were published. At the outbreak of the war with Chile he was vice-director of the national library at Lima, which was wantonly pillaged by the Chilean forces. After the evacuation of Lima by the Chileans Palma devoted his life to the recovery of his scattered books and the acquisition of new collections, and he had the satisfaction before his death of re-opening the library, which had obtained about 30,000 volumes, or three-fourths of the number on its shelves before the Chilean invasion.
Of the aboriginal inhabitants of Peru much has been written. The important work of Mariano Eduardo Rivero, of Arequipa, assisted by J. J. von Tschudi, on the antiquities of Peru (Antiguedades peruanas, Vienna, 1841, Eng. trans., New York, 1853) has been followed by other investigators into the language, literature, customs and religion of the Incas. The best known of these are José Sebastian Barranca, the naturalist and antiquary, José Fernandez Nodal, and Gavino Pacheco Zegarra of Cuzco, who published translations of the Inca drama of Ollantay, and Leonardo Villar, of Cuzco.
Among Peruvian naturalists since the advent of the republic, the most distinguished have been Mariano Eduardo Rivero, the geologist, mineralogist and archaeologist, and his friend and colleague Nicolas de Pierola, authors of Memorial de ciencias naturales. The Lima Geographical Society (founded in 1888) is perhaps the best and most active scientific organization in the republic. Its special work covers national geographical exploration and study, archaeology, statistics and climatology, and its quarterly bulletins contain invaluable information. The society receives a government subsidy, and its rooms in the national library in Lima are the principal centre of scientific study in Peru. It had an active membership of 163 in 1906, besides 172 honorary and corresponding members. The historical institute of Peru, also at Lima, is charged by the government, from which it receives a liberal subsidy, with the work of collecting, preparing and publishing documents relating to Peruvian history, and of preserving objects of archaeological and historic character. Its museum, which is of great historical and artistic value and includes a collection of portraits of the Peruvian viceroys and presidents, is in the upper floors of the Exposition Palace. Another subsidized national society is the athenæum, which was founded in 1877 as the “literary club,” and reorganized in 1887 under its present title. Its purpose is to foster learning and literary effort, and it is a popular and prominent feature in the intellectual life of the country.
Religion.—According to the constitution of 1860 “the nation professes the apostolic Roman Catholic religion; the state protects it, and does not permit the public exercise of any other.” There is a certain degree of tolerance, however, and the Anglican and some of the evangelical churches are permitted to establish missions in the country, but not always without hostile demonstrations from the Catholic priesthood. There are Anglican churches in Lima and Cuzco, belonging to the diocese of the Bishop of the Falkland Islands; but their existence is illegal and is ignored rather than permitted. In its ecclesiastical organization Peru is divided into nine dioceses: Lima, which is an archbishopric, Arequipa, Puno, Cuzco, Ayacucho, Huanuco, Huaraz, Trujillo and Chachapoyas. These dioceses are subdivided into 613 curacies, presided over by curas, or curate-vicars. Each diocese has its seminary for the education of the priesthood, that of Arequipa being distinguished for its influence in church affairs. Arequipa, like Cordoba and Chuquisaca, is a stronghold of clericalism and exercises a decisive influence in politics as well as in church matters. There are a number of fine churches in Lima and in the sees of the various dioceses. Monasteries and nunneries are numerous, dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries, but their influence is now less potent than in those days and the monastic population is not so large. In modern times many of the convents have been devoted to educational work especially for girls, which is an obstacle to the successful development of a public school system in the country.
Political Divisions.—The empire of the Incas was divided into four main divisions, Chinchay-suyu to the north of Cuzco, Anti-suyu to the east, Colla-suyu to the south and Cunti-suyu to the west, the whole empire being called Ttahuantin-suyu, or the four governments. Each was ruled by a viceroy, under whom were the “huaranca-camayocs,” or officers ruling over thousands, and inferior officers, in regular order, over 500, 100, 50 and 10 men. All disorders and irregularities were checked by the periodical visits of the tucuyricocs or inspectors. The Spanish conquest destroyed this complicated system. In 1569 the governor, Lope Garcia de Castro, divided Peru into corregimientos under officers named corregidors, of whom there were 77, each in direct communication with the government at Lima. An important administrative reform was made in 1784, when Peru was divided into 7 intendencias, each under an officer called an intendente. These intendencias included about 6 of the old corregimientos, which were called partidos, under officers named subdelegados. Thus the number of officers reporting direct to Lima was reduced from 77 to 7, a great improvement. The republic adopted the same system, calling the intendencias departments, under a prefect, and the partidos provinces, under a sub-prefect. Peru is divided into 18 departments, 2 littoral provinces, and what is called the constitutional province of Callao. This is exclusive of Tacna and its 3 provinces. The departments, which contain 98 provinces, with their areas, capitals and estimated populations of 1906, are as follow: the
- ↑ The city of Lima produced two saints, the archbishop St Toribio, who flourished from 1578 to 1606, and Santa Rosa, the patron saint of the city of the kings (1586–1616), whose festival is celebrated on the 26th of August.
