In this work, Luis Weckmann has fleshed out in informative detail a thesis he endorsed 30 years ago in his “The Middle Ages in the Conquest of America” (Speculum, 1951). Reiterating this thesis, he states that “the conquistadors and missionaries of the sixteenth century—as well as the explorers, administrators, judges, and bishops—introduced a culture into New Spain that was essentially medieval” (p. 19). He further says that “the Mexicans are in many respects more medieval than a good part of the Western world and even more so than the Spaniards” (p. 19). This statement is similar to one by Lynn White, Jr. (Speculum, 1965, p. 191) that “a good case could he made for the thesis that today the United States is closer to the Middle Ages than is Europe.” Although Weckmann is not the first to advance the thesis propounded in this book, his contribution here is unique in that he is the first to uncover in such rich detail the medieval roots of a given area in the colonial New World. Limiting his research to the period from 1517 to 1650, he casts considerable light on the medieval legacy of the viceroyalty of New Spain as mirrored in the discovery and conquest (part one); in the church (part two); in government and economy (part three); and in society, law, and culture (part four). The end product is a masterful synthesis of the best that has been written on the subject, coupled with his own research.
Some of the 40 chapters in this book are of particular interest. Chapter 1 recounts the early belief that New Spain was an “Asiatic archipelago.” Chapter 12 tells of medieval precedents for the evangelization of the natives and the Christian-pagan synthesis that followed. Chapter 23 relates the medieval roots of the beaterios (largely groups of devout women devoted to prayer and the teaching of native girls) and the scriptorio (schools lor teaching natives the art of illuminating manuscripts). Chapter 26 presents the medieval heritage in commerce and navigation. Chapter 33 shows the medieval strains in Mexican historiography and the press. Chapter 34 details the medieval legacy in Mexican popular poetry, Mexican Spanish, and in the “goliardismo” extant in the satirical and amorous verses of wandering students and lax-living clergy. Chapter 38 uncovers the medieval traces in the viceroyalty’s civil and military construction.
One point of contention, however, is the author’s statement that the Italian Renaissance touched New Spain in only “a fragmentary and tardy manner” (p. 19). I wonder if he has given sufficient credit to the new humanism that the church and religious orders brought to the viceroyalty. It appears to have touched New Spain more deeply than Weckmann is willing to admit.
The volumes are well written and well edited with the exception of a few minor factual errors and a certain irregularity in the footnotes on pages 226—228. The bibliography is excellent, but the index, in its “analytic” dimension, falls short. These strictures, though, do not detract from the overall excellence of the work, which I warmly recommend.
