The village priest who helps inspect Don Quixote’s library is Pero Perez.
Pero Perez is the local curate and a friend of Alonso Quixano. After Quixano’s obsession with knightly books becomes apparent, Perez joins the barber Master Nicholas and members of the household in examining the library. They blame many of the books for encouraging Don Quixote’s delusions and decide that a large number should be burned.
The episode, known as the scrutiny or examination of the library, is more than a plot device. Cervantes uses it to offer humorous literary criticism, allowing the priest to praise some works, condemn others, and defend books he considers valuable. The scene also mentions real genres and authors familiar to readers of sixteenth-century Spain.
A common mix-up is Nicolas, who is the barber, not the priest. Ginés de Pasamonte is a galley slave and autobiographical writer whom Don Quixote encounters later, while Cardenio is another distressed figure whose story occupies part of the Sierra Morena episodes. Pero Perez therefore has a distinctive role as both Don Quixote’s concerned friend and the novel’s unexpected book critic.