Home > Ricardo Palma

He lead an active life as a naval officer, journalist, and politician before gaining fame as a historian with a book on the Inquisition of Lima, Peru in 1863. He was in charge of the national library for many years, rebuilding it - after it had been destroyed in the War of the Pacific - into one of the top South American libraries. He is most famous for the creation of the genre tradición - a combination of fiction and history that forms a sort of historical anecdote. His works concerning colonial and early republican Peru were published from 1872 to 1910 in a series of volumes called Tradiciones peruanas, of which many different selections and versions are available.

As a history resource, the "Tradiciones peruanas" are badly lacking, with many imprecisions and plenty of hearsay. However, they are a fine way to get acquainted to the general "feeling" of Peruvian history, as well as very entertaining.