Francisco Ruiz Lozano
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Francisco Ruiz Lozano (1607,
Oruro Oruro (Hispanicized spelling) or Uru Uru is a city in Bolivia with a population of 264,683 (2012 calculation), about halfway between La Paz and Sucre in the Altiplano, approximately above sea level. It is Bolivia's fifth-largest city by populat ...
,
Alto Perú Upper Peru (; ) is a name for the land that was governed by the Real Audiencia of Charcas. The name originated in Buenos Aires towards the end of the 18th century after the Audiencia of Charcas was transferred from the Viceroyalty of Peru to th ...
—1677,
Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
) was a Peruvian soldier, astronomer, mathematician and educator. Ruiz Lozano was born in
Oruro Oruro (Hispanicized spelling) or Uru Uru is a city in Bolivia with a population of 264,683 (2012 calculation), about halfway between La Paz and Sucre in the Altiplano, approximately above sea level. It is Bolivia's fifth-largest city by populat ...
(now in
Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
). He studied with the
Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
in Lima at the College of San Martín. It was here that he acquired his love of mathematics. He also studied hydrography, as a mathematical science. In 1651, he moved to Mexico City to continue his studies at the
University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...
. In Mexico, he also learned navigation, not only in theory, but also in practice. Together with his teacher, Fray Diego Rodríguez, he observed the Comet of 1652. They reported on it in ''Discurso ethereológico del nuevo cometa, visto en aqueste Hemisferio Mexicano; y generalmente en todo el mundo. Este año de 1652'', published that year in Mexico City. He returned to Lima in 1655 in the party of the new viceroy,
Luis Enríquez de Guzmán, conde de Alba de Liste Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...
. Enríquez de Guzmán had been viceroy of New Spain, and was now taking up his new position in Peru. He appointed Ruiz Lozano captain of Spanish infantry. He served as the first director of the nautical school founded in 1657 in Lima, at the Hospital of Espiritu Santo, a sailors' hospital. The mission of the nautical academic was "to form men skillful in the handling of ships for the defense of the viceroyalty." He was also ''cosmógrafo mayor'' of Peru. The duties of ''cosmógrafo mayor'' included publishing almanacs and sailing instructions. He served for several years as the director of the Hospital of Espiritu Santo, improving its building and its financial situation. In 1658 he married Jacoba de la Cueva, a native of Lima. He was tutor to the sons of Viceroy Enríquez de Guzmán and, together with
Juan Ramón Koening ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...
, a tutor to the son of the viceroy who succeeded Enríquez de Guzmán,
Diego de Benavides y de la Cueva Don Diego de Benavides de la Cueva y Bazán, 1st Marquess of Solera and 8th Count of Santisteban del Puerto (sometimes ''Don Diego Benavides y de la Cueva, conde de Santisteban del Puerto'') (1607, Santisteban del Puerto, Jaén, Spain – ca ...
. He held the first university chair of mathematics in Peru. In 1660 or 1661 he was in Portobelo,
Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...
, where he acquired various kinds of merchandise. In 1662 he was in
Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...
on similar business. Over his lifetime, he pursued mercantile affairs nearly everywhere in Spanish America —
Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...
,
Cartagena de Indias Cartagena ( , also ), known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias (), is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region, bordering the Caribbean sea. Cartagena's past role as a link ...
,
Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...
, Valparaiso, Concepción and
Talcahuano Talcahuano () (From Mapudungun ''Tralkawenu'', "Thundering Sky") is a port city and commune in the Biobío Region of Chile. It is part of the Greater Concepción conurbation. Talcahuano is located in the south of the Central Zone of Chile. Geo ...
. Later, probably under the government of
Baltasar de la Cueva Enríquez Baltasar de la Cueva y Enríquez de Cabrera, ''iure uxoris'' Count of Castellar and Marquis of Malagón (sometimes ''Baltasar de la Cueva Enríquez de Cabrera y Arias de Saavedra'') (1626 in Madrid – April 2, 1686) was viceroy of Peru from ...
, Count of Castellar (1674-1678), Ruiz Lozano was named general of the navy of the Southern Sea. In 1665 in Lima he published ''Tratado de Cometas, observación y juicio del que se vió en esta ciudad de los Reyes, y generalmente en todo el Mundo, por los fines del año 1664 y principios de 1665'' (''Treatise on Comets, observation and judgment of what I saw in the City of Kings ima and generally anywhere in the world, from the end of 1664 to the beginning of 1665''). This report was the first publication of European astronomical observations in South America. The comet had first been observed on December 11, 1664. He died in Mexico City, apparently on a commercial venture involving the trading of mercury.


References

* Mendiburu, Manuel de, ''Diccionario Histórico Biográfico del Perú''. Lima: 1885. *Ortiz Sotelo, Jorge, "Francisco Ruiz Lozano, general de la Mar del Sur, cosmógrafo mayor y primer catedrático de matemáticas de Lima (1607 1677)" (in Spanish). The article is available on-line as a Microsoft Word document here

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruiz Lozanoa, Francisco 1607 births 1677 deaths Colonial Peru 17th-century astronomers Peruvian scientists Peruvian soldiers 17th-century Peruvian people