VALVERDE, VINCENZO. – Dominican bishop, born at Oropesa (Toledo) at the beginning of the sixteenth century, died on the island of Puna (Peru) in November 1542.
A Dominican from 1523, after making his profession he studied at Valladolid, at the school of Vitoria. In 1529, together with several fellow religious, he followed Pizarro to Peru, and in 1536 was appointed the first bishop of Cuzco and protector de los Indios. An adviser to Pizarro, though not infrequently opposed to him, he asserted the Indians’ right to freedom, applying the teachings of his master. He worked to pacify the Spaniards who had immigrated there, divided into the factions of the almagristi and the pizarristi. He was ultimately killed by the indigenous people while he was celebrating Mass. His Relación sobre la conquista del Perú constitutes a primary source for the history of the Spanish colonies.
BIBL.: A. M. Torres, El p. V., Guayaquil 1912; anonymous, s. V. in Enc. Eur. Am., LXVI, p. 864; A. Walz, Compendium hist. Ord. Praed., Rome 1948, p. 490. Piero Sannazzaro