Yale University Collection of Latin American Manuscripts

Scope

This collection is microfilmed from original documents in the Manuscripts and Archives Department at the Yale University Library.  The text of all of the documents is in Spanish.

The Andean Collection (Microfilm F 2212 A57 2000) includes manuscripts and printed works which can be used to study the history of Peru from the prehispanic period to the middle of the nineteenth century. The materials document the cultural history of the Andean people before the Spanish conquest; colonial civil administration; the role of the Catholic church in colonial society; the Bourbon reforms, the war of independence; the anarchy of the early republican period and the war of the Confederation Peru-Bolivia.

On the history of the Andean people before the conquest, the collection includes copies, complete and partial, of various accounts written by chroniclers Juan de Polo de Ondegardo, Juan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti, Antonio de la Calancha and Fernando de Montesinos.

The materials related to the colonial period are numerous and varied, and document the central area of the Peruvian viceroyalty (currently Peru and Bolivia) and its other areas such as Quito, New Granada, Chile and Rio de la Plata. To study the colonial civil administration during the 17th and 18th centuries, the reports written by the viceroys are valuable sources. There are also account books and legal writs which can be used to analyze the economic and political role of the Church in the colonial milieu, in particular the role of the Jesuit and the Mercedarian orders. The Bourbon reforms which took place in the Peruvian viceroyalty are especially well-documented in the numerous royal and vicergal decrees, issued mostly in the second half of the 18th century.

Concerning the War of Independence period, there are letters, reports and administrative texts by prominent personages such a Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín, Juan de Berindoaga and Antonio José de Sucre. The turbulent initial years of the republican period can be reconstructed from correspondence by generals Agustín Gamarra and Antonio Gutiérrez de la Fuente. Finally, there are several letters and military reports on the war of the Confederation Peru-Bolivia, an ambitious political plan to create a union between the two countries led by the General Andrés de Santa Cruz. (Description taken from Guide to collection)

The Mexico Collection (Microfilm F 1226 .M48 2000) is comprised of both originals and copies of government documents, including letters, decrees, edicts, ordinances, accounts and reports; church documents; correspondence; legal writs; political writings, and literary texts. The materials document the history of Mexico from the pre-Columbian period to the beginning of the 20th century, and illustrate the history of the peoples before the arrival of Spaniards; the Spanish conquest; the colonial civil and judicial administration; the role of the Catholic church in colonial society, the Bourbon reforms; the movement for independence; the First Mexican Empire, and the early republican period.

On the history of the peoples who inhabited the Mexican territory before the arrival of Spaniards, the collection includes originals and copies of works written by authors in the 18th and 19th centuries. There are texts by the historian Mariano Fernández de Echeverria y Veytia and the travelers Brantz Mayer and Brasseur de Bourbourg. Concerning the Spanish conquest, the collection includes a copy of Crónica de la Nueva España by Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, the most prominent humanist in Mexico during the 16th century. Although unfinished, Cervantes’s text is a detailed and fascinating account of the military enterprise of Hernán Cortes and his comrades.

The texts concerning the colonial period constitute the core of the collection. To study the colonial civil administration during the 17th and 18th centuries, the reports written by viceroys and local authorities are valuable documents. The numerous legal writs are outstanding sources for understanding judicial administration and the literary culture of lawyers. Legal writs and decrees also provide rich information to analyze the economic, social and political significance of the Catholic church and the Jesuit, Franciscan, Dominican, Mercedarian, and Augustinian orders. The Bourbon reforms undertaken by colonial administration in the Mexican viceroyalty are extensively documented in the numerous royal and viceregal decrees, edicts, and ordinances promulgated mostly in the second half of the 18th century.

On the independence movement, there are letters, reports, accounts and administrative texts by some of its leading protagonists, including Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Agustín de Itúrbide, and Viceroy José de Iturrigaray. The correspondence of the Itúrbide family represents, for instance, an exceptional primary source documenting the social and political turmoil of that time. Additionally, the account written by Gregorio Melero y Piña, a follower of Miguel Hidalgo, is vivid personal testimony of military and political conspiracies in San Luis Potosi. There are also original texts written about the political milieu by Carlos María Bustamante, the most important Mexican historian of the early 19th century.

The history of the first Mexican Empire, established by Agustín de Itúrbide after independence was achieved, is documented generally in several letters and official reports which trace its establishment, political opposition to it, and the abdication of Itúrbide. On the initial decades of the Mexican Republic, there are diverse and numerous materials, including military and diplomatic reports, constitutional texts, and administrative papers. (Description taken from Guide to collection)

The Spain Collection (Microfilm DP3 S62 2000) includes state documents such as decrees, ordinances, wills and reports; ecclesiastical texts; church documents; correspondence; accounts of events; political writings; and literary texts.  They cover a broad period of Spanish history, from the beginning of the sixteenth until the end of the nineteenth century.  The majority of documents date to the peiod of the monarchs of the Bourbon dynasty: Philip V (1700-1746). Ferdinand VI (1746-1759), Charles III (1759-1788) and Charles IV (1788-1808).(Description taken from Guide to collection)

The Brazil and Portugal Collection (Microfilm F2521 B762 2000) includes a series of letters, mostly thank you notes from the emperor and empress of Brazil to various Brazilian cardinals. Also found is a miscellaneous copy volume of writings about the Amazon River.  The only item from Portugal is a letter by a cosmographer concerning the death of a descendant of Vasco de Gama. (Description taken from Guide to collection)

The Caribbean Collection (Microfilm F1621 C27 2000) is comprised of both originals and copies of materials from and/or related to Cuba, Jamaica, Santo Domingo (the Dominican Republic), and the Virgin Islands.  These include manuscripts and printed works which can be used to study the history of the Caribbean region from the sixteenth century to the late eighteenth century.  A number of items relate to Fernandez de Villalobo’s Estado eclesíastico político y militar de la América o Grandeza de Indias. A report by the head of the Real Compañía de Havana details the company’s history, finances, and proposals for reform.  Correspondence of Pedro Xavier de Vera, a Spanish business agent residing at the royal court in Madrid, with ties to Cuba and other Caribbean regions, provides detailed insights into the workings of the colonial economy.  There are also documents related to the abortive Spanish invasion of Mexico in 1829.

The Jamaica materials consist of a series of land and property records which can be used to study the island’s plantation system.  The texts include conveyances, leases, releases, mortgages, powers of attorney, lists of charges, correspondence, wills, newspaper clippings, abstracts of titles, articles of marriage and estate maps.  The earliest documents relate to the properties of the Dehany family.  The documents detail the terms of sales, size, locations, and sometimes the items produced on various plantations.  Also documented are the complex problems arising from mortgages, trusts, and divisions of the estates by inheritance.  Most documents contain little information about slavery, because they date to the time period after Britain abolished slavery, but some are of interest.  A 1758 lease of properties by Philip Dehany contains lists of names of the slaves associated with each estate, and a counterclaim relating to slaves of the Amity Hill Estate has a listing of the total number of slaves belonging to a given occupation or age group with the estimated value of that group.  The Santo Domingo materials date to the colonial period.  Of interest is a proclamation by the governor of Saint Domingue (Haiti) concerning property rights and poltical principles governing the French takeover of the island of Hispanola in 1795.  The Virgin Islands documents consist of reports by the governor to officials in Washington, D.C. (Description taken from Guide to collection)

The Central America Collection (Microfilm F1437 C35 2001) is comprised of materials from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.  Of particular import are those from Guatemala.  These include manuscripts and printed works which can be used to study Guatemalan history from the late sixteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century.  There is a handwritten transcript of a late sixteenth century report of an inspection tour made by a member of the Guatemalan audiencia to the cacao growing regions, which includes details of the customs of the native Americans of that area.  Documents related to the establishment of the royal mint in Guatemala, and the scarcity of currency include royal decrees, proposals, and reports.  Materials related to the move of the site of the Guatemalan capital from Santiago de Guatemala (Antigua) to present-day Guatemala City, include the lengthy opinions of two oidors concerning the site selection, a brief report discussing the new site’s advantages, and correspondence which describes the 1773 earthquake, which led to the relocation. (Description taken from Guide to collection)

The Southern Cone Collection (Microfilm F2217 S68 2000) is comprised of originals and copies of materials from Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay.  The majority pertain to Argentinian history from the late eighteenth century to the middle of the present century.  Of particular significance is a nineteenth century bound volume bearing the imprint “De Don Jose San Martin.”  It contains numerous handwritten passages drawn from philosophical texts, religious and political treatises, as well as literary works, which reflect the education and thinking of this leader of South American independence.  A summary of documents dealing with the abortive Alzaga rebellion, written by the acting viceroy, discusses the political situation in Argentina just prior to independence. Materials about Buenos Aires’s Las Bocas neighborhood are useful for the study of Italian immigration to Argentina, and the history of the Argentine-Italian community.  Of note regarding Paraguay are handwritten copies of several little-known texts that deal with the country’s history in the early nineteenth century. (Description taken from Guide to collection)