This guide to manuscripts of the Hapsburg period held in archives of Spanish America covers the following countries: Argentina (16 pages), Bolivia (222), the Central American states (11), Colombia (21), Cuba (5), Chile (10), the Dominican Republic (2), Ecuador (8), Mexico (81), Paraguay (6), Peru (42), and Venezuela (7). The volume gives useful practical information on addresses, telephones, and working hours. It also, in either the individual sections or the bibliography, gives references to more detailed, partial guides to the various collections, and to works of history that contain useful archival information.
By “administración virreinal” Professor Hanke means the whole apparatus of colonial government under the Hapsburgs, not just the functioning of the viceroys. So, for some regions at least, substantially the whole range of available documentation is represented here: books of notaries and cabildos, treasury and audiencia manuscripts, and the viceregal records themselves. Ecclesiastical archives are only slightly touched on, however; and private collections are omitted. On the other hand, copies of collections on microfilm are mentioned.
With one exception, the space allocated to the various regions reflects their abundance in documents and their historical prominence. The exception is, of course, Bolivia. Even those of us who are sure that Charcas was the hub of colonial South America will be surprised, if gratified, to find almost half this book given over to Bolivia. The reason is that Professor Hanke has succeeded where others have failed, and persuaded Gunnar Mendoza, the director of the Bolivian National Archive in Sucre, to produce a guide to colonial administrative manuscripts in that splendid collection. The result is highly detailed, and even possesses (menos mal) its own index of topics, names, and places.
Professor Hanke’s guide updates and adds to our old and trusty friend, Lino Gómez Canedo’s Los archivos de la historia de América. Período colonial español (2 vols., Mexico City, 1961). It should, however, be used in conjunction with that work, and also, where relevant, with John J. TePaske (ed.), Research Guide to Andean History: Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru (Durham, 1981). With the wealth of information now available on the contents of South American archives, one may hope that more of the talented young colonial historians in the United States will allow their attention to be diverted from the fertile fields of Mexico to broader pastures still.
