Juan de Velasco y Pérez Petroche (1727–1792) was an 18th-century Jesuit priest, historian, and professor of philosophy and theology from the Royal Audience of Quito

Royal Audience of Quito

The Royal Audience of Quito was an administrative unit in the Spanish Empire which had political, military, and religious jurisdiction over territories that today include Ecuador, parts of northern Peru, parts of southern Colombia and parts of northern Brazil...

. He was born in Riobamba

Riobamba

Riobamba is the capital of the Chimborazo Province in central Ecuador, which is located at the Chambo River Valley of the Andes. It is south of Ecuador's capital Quito and located at 2754 m on the Avenue of the Volcanoes...

 to Juan de Velasco y López de Moncayo and to María Pérez Petroche. Among the universities where he taught was the Universidad de San Marcos in Lima

Lima

Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...

 in the Viceroyalty of Peru

Viceroyalty of Peru

Created in 1542, the Viceroyalty of Peru was a Spanish colonial administrative district that originally contained most of Spanish-ruled South America, governed from the capital of Lima...

. He is best known for his history book Historia del Reino de Quito, although he also wrote books in fields other than history, such as physics textbooks and poetry anthologies.

The book Historia del Reino de Quito is important in the history of Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

 and of the city of Quito

Quito

San Francisco de Quito, most often called Quito , is the capital city of Ecuador in northwestern South America. It is located in north-central Ecuador in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha, an active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains...

 because it alleges the existence of a pre-Inca kingdom in what is now Ecuador and which is known as Reino de Quito (Kingdom of Quito). The book is mentioned, discussed and criticized by several historians such as Marcos Jiménez de la Espada

Marcos Jiménez de la Espada

Marcos Jiménez de la Espada was a Spanish zoologist, explorer and writer, born in Cartagena, Spain, although he spent most of his life in Madrid, where he died. He is known for participating in the Pacific Scientific Commission, with whom he traveled America from 1862 to 1865...

, Federico González Suárez

Federico González Suárez

Federico González Suárez was an Ecuadorian priest, historian and politician who served as the Archbishop of Quito for twelve years. Prior to becoming the Archbishop of Quito, he served as a senator in the Ecuadorian government in 1894 and then as the Bishop of Ibarra from 1895 to 1905...

, Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño

Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño

Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño was an Ecuadorian historian and politician, born in Quito on December 11, 1890 to Don Manuel Jijón Larrea and Doña Dolores Caamaño y Almada. He was the mayor of the city of Quito in the 1940s. He was a member of the Ecuadorian parliament and a candidate for the presidency...

, Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco

Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco

Alfredo Pareja Diez Canseco — born Alfredo Pareja y Diez Canseco — was a prominent Ecuadorian novelist, essayist, journalist, historian and diplomat. An innovator of the 20th century Latin American novel, he was a member of the literary Grupo de Guayaquil...

, Misael Acosta Solís, Enrique Ayala Mora and Galo Ramón Valarezo.

A picture of Juan de Velasco was in a 1947 60-cent postal stamp of the Ecuadorian postal service http://www.sellosmundo.com/America/Ecuador/sello_15018.htm.