This work of Juan Friede on the early history of Colombia is an invaluable contribution to historical source materials. His eighth volume, here reviewed, makes available to the researcher the practically untapped resources of the Archivo General de Indias de Sevilla as they pertain to Colombia. Friede’s book is one of the monumental publications produced by the Academia Colombiana de Historia as part of the activities celebrating the 150th anniversary of their country’s declaration of independence.
The time spanned by this volume is 1545-47 in a projected coverage of the period 1509-50, indicating probably one more volume to come. Each volume constitutes a valuable resource in itself, and one does not have to have a special index because each volume has its own, complete with cross-references. A survey of the index indicates the substance of this source.
There are really four indices per volume. A geographical index of three double-column pages adequately covers cities, provinces, and areas (there are ninety-seven different page citations for Cartagena). The second index lists individuals and covers five pages in double columns. (It includes forty caciques and Indians separately by name from “Bahaire” to “Zacancipa”!) The third index of five pages deals with the material by topics (including such things as acts from various areas, goods of deceased persons, cabildo reports, letters, cédulas, reports on commerce and economy, buildings, encomiendas, illnesses, church matters, licenses granted, navigation, reports of all officials, piratical activities, and so on). The last index lists the documents by page number and by document number, in this case 1766 to 1903 or 137 in all. This index gives the writer’s name, the recipient, the subject, and the date of the document. Naturally, each document included carries its citation as to location in the Archivo.
As is true of the others in this series, the volume is one of a numbered issue of one thousand comprising the first edition. They are printed in Madrid by the presses of Artes Gráficas and are in twelvepoint, easy-to-read type. If this monumental work gets the recognition and circulation that it deserves, subsequent editions should be forthcoming soon.
