PERU, 2004, Scott 1389

Father Rubén Vargas Ugarte, SJ, born in Lima October 22, 1886, son of the historian Nemesio Vargas Valdivieso, was a prominent historian of Peru. He entered the Jesuits in 1904 at Pifo, Ecuador, and did his philosophical studies at the college at Granada in Spain and his theology in Barcelona where he was ordained in 1921. He began his historical work in the Vatican archives, especially those of the Indies.

After teaching in secondary schools in Malaga and Madrid, he returned to Peru in 1924 as a teacher in Lima, prefect of studies in La Paz and Sucre, Bolivia (1924 to 1930), and professor of history at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (1931) of which he eventually became dean of the Faculty of Letters (1935), and rector (1947 to 1953). He founded the Institute of Historical Investigations there in 1937. His extensive work on the civil and religious history of Peru was published between the early 1930s until after his death in 1975. One of his works, the Historia general del Perú, seen on the above stamp, comprises 12 volumes. More

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