Inventing Lima

This study examines certain key elements of the "making" or "inventing" of Lima as Peru's viceregal capital. Through analysis of seventeenth-century ceremonies of state and local religious rituals, this book asserts that colonial Lima was culturally diverse and its rich population more integrated than historiography would suggest.

"The book s strength lies in shedding light on the city s historical invention, its courtly production, and its modern metropolitan flare, which made it hardly a peripheral creature of the world system . . .Osorio provides a new way of critiquing the relationship between core and periphery, which will provoke much debate." - American Historical Review

"Inventing Lima is a fascinating study of the rise to prominence of a Spanish colonial city. It also represents an important contribution to a better understanding of the crucial role that cities played in the Spanish transatlantic empire. The book is full of penetrating insights into the symbolic nature and function of colonial cities and brings some fresh air to our perception of the history of colonial Peru. The author not only demonstrates that she is well versed in the most cutting-edge studies on the nature of early modern cities, but her research also powerfully contributes to a rethinking of some of our most cherished assumptions regarding the role played by Lima in the course of Peruvian history." - Dr. Alejandro Cañeque, Durham University, UK"[A] small but highly original work... Highly recommended." - CHOICE

ALEJANDRA OSORIO is Assistant Professor of History at Wellesley College, USA.