Sylvia L. Hilton and Ignacio González Casasnovas have compiled a consolidated, annotated bibliography of international coverage, of catalogues, indexes, inventories, checklists, and other printed instruments that identify, localize, and describe the manuscript (printed and unedited) collections pertaining to Iberian American history from the fifteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. The list of publications referring to archives and collections of primary sources is selective, but the compilers have tried to offer the researcher the best possible coverage of printed information about the sources in each archive or depository.
This bibliography contains 3,729 citations (in addition to more than 400 references in marginal notes) to manuscript compilations in archives, libraries, universities, and institutions around the world. Each citation includes the complete title of the work, full name of the author, compiler, editor, coordinator, place of publication, publisher, institution or printing office, year of edition (with a footnote indicating its reprint), volume, and pages.
The guide is divided into six principal sections: General Works, Iberian America (Puerto Rico and the 19 republics), non-Iberian America, Europe, Asia and Oceania, and Indexes. The indexes are devoted to authors, subjects, geographical regions, proper names, institutions, and journals.
In a 22-page introduction, Hilton and González explain their criteria for including or excluding references. This guide concentrates on the instruments of printed research, such as book or newspaper publications. Its structure is geographical, and its collection method has relied on various research centers in Madrid, Seville, London, and correspondence with other research libraries. The editors also offer a critique of the existing bibliographical sources on Iberian America, indicating how this work differs from previous publications and from a project that is presently being realized at the University of Florida.
Some scholars might note the compilers’ failure to include certain guides. Although no bibliography is ever exhaustive, this guide contains by far the most complete and precise coverage of its kind ever accomplished on this particular topic. There are plans to publish supplements in an appropriate American journal, assuming that many manuscripts of interest to historians still exist without printed catalogues.
This work constitutes the first step toward the creation of a Madrid-based reference center at the Instituto Histórico Tavera, and this guide serves as a catalogue for the 1,770 titles (indicated by a corresponding asterisk) that are actually kept in the library of the Fundación MAPFRE America. Scholars and students of Iberian American history will be deeply indebted to Hilton and González for bringing to fruition this fundamental reference tool, which will facilitate their research planning. The publishers are to be commended for making this fine volume available to the reading public. No library should be without it.
