Perspectivas urbanas en la relación de las fiestas limeñas por la entronización de Carlos IV de Francisco de Arrese

Abstract

The lists of festivities organized in Lima for the coronation of Carlos IV, dated in 1790, contain a marked urban perspective for the configuration of Lima as a symbolic space in which the ethnic nations participated at the end of the colonial period. Specifically, I analyze the text of Francisco de Arrese (Description of the Royal Festivals, which for the happy exaltation of Lord Don Carlos IV to the Throne of Spain, and of the Indies, celebrated the very Noble City of Lima Capital of Peru) as a paradigmatic example of an official account of the celebration in which the imperial political propaganda is especially significant in a crucial moment like the years after the rebellion of Túpac Amaru II. The leading role of urban perspectives in the text emerges on two juxtaposed planes: that of the urbs and that of the civitas, that is, through the representation of its physical essence (urban and architectural) and of its ephemeral transfiguration leading to the festive event as the center of the complex social configuration of the city. I focuse on the analysis of these complementary and significant urban perspectives of the evolution of Lima at the end of the colonial period.