Baltasar Jaime Martínez Compañón (1737–1797) was a Spanish prelate who served as
Bishop of Trujillo, Peru from 1779 to 1790, at
Trujillo Cathedral, and Archbishop of
Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...
, New Granada, from 1790 to 1797. He was responsible for founding new towns, building schools, and reforming the silver mine at Hualgayoc. He is most remarkable for his efforts to educate Trujillo's Indians and for his research into local plants, animals, archaeological ruins, music, and native cultures.
Background and education
Martínez Compañón was born in
Cabredo
Cabredo is a Spanish village located in the west of Navarre near the border with Álava, from Pamplona, the capital of the Chartered Community of Navarre. In 2012 it had a population of 109 inhabitants. It is located below the Codes mountain ra ...
, Navarre (Spain) and studied Religious Law at the Universities of
Huesca
Huesca (; ) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon between 1096 and 1118. It is also the capital of the Spanish Huesca (province), ...
and
Zaragosa
Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the Huerva and the Gállego, roughl ...
in
Aragón
Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to south): Huesca, Zaragoza, a ...
before earning his bachelor's degree at the
University of Oñate in
Guipuzcoa
Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantique ...
in 1759, and his doctorate at
Oñate in 1763. He was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1761. In 1766, he served as an advisor to the Holy Office of the
Inquisition
The Inquisition was a Catholic Inquisitorial system#History, judicial procedure where the Ecclesiastical court, ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various med ...
in Madrid.
Early career in America
In 1767,
King Charles III of Spain named Martínez Compañón choirmaster of the Metropolitan
Cathedral of Lima
The Basilica Cathedral of Lima, commonly known as the Metropolitan Cathedral of Lima, and formerly the Iglesia Metropolitana de los Reyes, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Lima, Peru. It is the seat of the Archdiocese of Lima. Its construction b ...
, Peru. In 1772 and 1773, he served as Secretary to the Sixth Provincial Church Council of Peru, held in Lima. From 1770 to 1778, he served as rector of the Saint Toribio seminary, also in Lima.
Bishop of Trujillo
King Charles III named Martínez Compañón Bishop of Trujillo, Peru, on February 25, 1778. While there, he explored his bishopric in a visitation that lasted two years, eight months, and eight days. During this time he gathered the information that would become the basis of his projects to found new towns and schools. He planned to create special schools for Indian boys and girls where they would learn trade and craft skills as well as basic literacy. He also imagined an elaborate plan to create a utopian mining town at the Hualgayoc silver mine, outside Cajamarca.
Archbishop of Bogotá
After arriving in Bogotá on March 12, 1791, Martínez Compañón repaired local churches, founded five primary schools throughout the city, and established a seminary. He also became friends with noted botanist
José Celestino Mutis
José Celestino Bruno Mutis y Bosio (6 April 1732 – 11 September 1808) was a Spanish people, Spanish priest, botanist and mathematician. He was a significant figure in the Spanish American Enlightenment, whom Alexander von Humboldt met with ...
.
Death
Martínez Compañón died of old age on August 17, 1797. Local legend holds that a smell of flowers emanated from his corpse and for three days the sun did not shine.
Legacy
When Martínez Compañón died, he left behind a natural history collection of animals, plants, artifacts and manufactures. These comprised a total of 24 boxes. Today part of the collection is held at the
Museo de América Museo may refer to:
* ''Museum'' (2018 film), Mexican drama heist film
* Museo station, station on line 1 of the Naples Metro
{{disambiguation ...
in Madrid, although the majority of it has been lost. He also sent to Spain a nine volume set of watercolor images depicting the people, plants, and animals of Trujillo, the
Codex Martínez Compañón
The ''Codex Martínez Compañón'' (c.1782–1785), is a manuscript edited in nine volumes by the bishop of Trujillo, Peru, made by Baltasar Jaime Martínez Compañón, containing 1,411 watercolours and 20 musical scores documenting life in h ...
. Drawn by local artisans, these 1,372 images are a unique example of vernacular natural history produced in the colonial context. The originals survive today in the library of the
Royal Palace
This is a list of royal palaces, sorted by continent.
Africa
Americas
Asia
Europe
Oceania
{, class="wikitable" width="95%"
, - bgcolor="white"
!align=center, Residence
!align=center, Photo
!align=center, City
!align=cen ...
in Madrid.
References
*
Emily Berquist, ''The Bishop's Utopia: Imagining Improvement in Colonial Peru.'' University of Pennsylvania Press, March 2014.
* Emily Berquist, “Bishop Martínez Compañón's Practical Utopia in Enlightenment Peru,” ''The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History'' 64, no. 3 (January 2008): 377–408.
* Emily Berquist, “The Science of Empire: Bishop Martínez Compañón and the Enlightenment in Peru.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 2007
* José Manuel Pérez Ayala, ''Baltasar Jaime Martínez Compañón y Bujanda, Prelado Español de Colombia y el Perú''. Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1955.
* J. Navarro, ''et al.'', eds. ''Vida y Obra del Obispo Martínez Compañón''. Piura: Universidad de Piura, 1991.
* Joanne Pillsbury and Lisa Trever, "The King, the Bishop, and the Creation of an American Antiquity," ''
Ñawpa Pacha
''Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of Andean Archaeology'' is a semi-annual, peer-reviewed, academic journal published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Institute of Andean Studies (Berkeley, California). ''Ñawpa Pacha'' means "Antiquity" in Quechua. It ...
'' 29 (2008.)
* Joanne Pillsbury and Lisa Trever, "Martínez Compañón and His Illustrated 'Museum," in ''Collecting Across Cultures: Material Exchanges in the Early Modern Atlantic World,'' Peter C. Mancall and Daniela Bleichmar, eds. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
* Daniel Restrepo, ''Sociedad y Religión en Trujillo (Peru) Bajo el Episcopado de Baltasar Jaime Martínez Compañón'', 1780–1790. Vitoria-Gaistez: Servicio Central de Publicaciones, Gobierno Vasco, 1992.
* Ruben Vargas Ugarte, ''Tres Figuras Señeras del Episcopado Americano''. Lima: Carlos Milla Batres, 1966.
* Adrián Rodríguez Van der Spoel, "Bailes, Tonadas & Cachuas. The music of the 18th century Codex Trujillo del Perú. Deuss Music, The Hague, 2013
External links
Catholic Hierarchy Information
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martinez Companon, Baltasar Jaime
Spanish Roman Catholic bishops in South America
Colonial Peru
Trujillo, Peru
1737 births
1797 deaths
People from Lower Navarre
18th-century Peruvian people
Roman Catholic bishops of Trujillo