Founded by the conqueror Francisco Pizarro in 1535, Lima (or the City of the Kings, as it was initially known) became the head city of colonial Peru and the foremost example, argues Alejandra B. Osorio, of a great modern metropolis in the New World. In this provocative analysis of Lima in the baroque sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Osorio offers rewarding perspectives for understanding the Peruvian capital’s status within the Andes, the Spanish empire, and the world.
Osorio begins by examining the struggle between Cuzco and Lima over preeminence in the Andean viceroyalty. Although the former had been the Inca capital and based its claims to be the “head city” (cabecera) on Roman principles of antiquity and the fact that the Spanish city was built on the ruins of the conquered capital, Lima used other criteria to press its own primacy. Lima’s claim was of necessity modern, derived from...
