CALANCHA, ANTONIO. — Born in La Plata, Peru, in 1584; died in Lima on 1 March 1654. At the age of fourteen he donned the Augustinian habit. He became famous not only as a historian, philosopher, and theologian, but also as a preacher, spiritual director, and student of the natural sciences.
Principal works: De Inmaculata B. Virginis Conceptione (Lima 1629); Crónica moralizada de la Orden de s. Agustin en el Perú (I, Barcelona 1639; II, Lima 1653); De natura et qualitatibus castoris americani (1642).
BIBL.: C. Vela, Ensayo de una biblioteca Ibero-Americana de la Orden de s. Agustin, I, Madrid 1913, pp. 487–94. Davide Falcioni