University of San Marcos

Timeline

1. 1548–1551Convent of Santo Domingo (Our Lady of the Rosary), Lima · LimaOn 1 July 1548 the Dominicans opened general studies at the convent of Our Lady of the Rosary in Lima, teaching grammar, arts, and theology. Friar Tomás de San Martín and the municipal representative Juan Jerónimo de Aliaga, commissioned by the Lima city council, petitioned Charles V and Queen Joanna to upgrade it to a university, giving the Pacific coast of South America Salamanca-style higher education.
2. 1551–1570Valladolid / Lima · CastileA royal decree of 12 May 1551 approved a university in the convent of Santo Domingo in the City of the Kings, earlier than the Mexican decree of September that same year. For the first twenty-odd years it was managed by the Dominicans, with meager funds and a curriculum weighted toward theology, arts, and grammar, forming the so-called "convent period."
3. 1571Lima · LimaA bull of Pius V of 25 July 1571 confirmed the Lima university and granted it the status of a pontifical university. Almost simultaneously, Philip II and Viceroy Francisco de Toledo promoted freeing it from Dominican control and electing a secular rector. It was rededicated to St. Mark in 1574, statutes were issued by Toledo in 1581, and in 1588 it received degree privileges fully equal to Salamanca's; since then it has operated continuously as the highest institution of learning in the Viceroyalty of Peru.