‘Arca, archivillo, archivo’: the keeping, use and status of historical documents about the Spanish Conquista

Abstract

Developing a relativistic concept of the pre-modern archive, this article considers the relationship between knowledge inside and outside the archive to determine how Spain's historical documents about its new American territories were kept and used. The starting assumption is that collections of documents about the Spanish Conquista circulated among people and were not permanently stored within fixed archival spaces, such as small lockable cases (arcas), private collections of documents (archivillos), or the actual state archives (archivos). This article thus re-evaluates the state of knowledge about the new American territories of Spain and its distribution across various archives and collections. It draws particular attention to the use of historical documents by official chroniclers of Spain and historians of the Conquista of the Spanish Americas.

Papeles en movimiento

“…Aunque la dispersión documental entre los «archivillos» de secretarios, relatores y otros oficiales siguió siendo una constante a lo largo del siglo XVI (Brendecke, 2010), también es cierto que existieron iniciativas para repartir, tratar y clasificar los documentos en el Consejo de Indias. Y es que, como señala Rodríguez de Diego (2018), bajo el reinado de Felipe II, los documentos fueron adquiriendo un carácter «administrativo» en razón del uso que se les dio en las prácticas de gobierno.…”

“…38 La documentación «histórica» seguía una dinámica ligeramente diferente, puesto que el esfuerzo por recoger este tipo de papeles tenía más bien que ver con la voluntad de evitar la difusión de los materiales «sensibles» para la imagen de la monarquía. El archivo, en este caso, permitía limitar el acceso a la documentación a un grupo restringido de cronistas (Brendecke, 2010). Así, por ejemplo, en el corregidor de Soria recibió una cédula para que enviara al Consejo de Indias los papeles «tocantes a las nuestras Indias […] que quedaron y están en poder de los herederos» de Francisco de Gómara.…”

Archival practices in Early Modern Spain: transformation, destruction and (re)construction of family archives in the Canary Islands

“…discrete assemblages of documents circulated with people, rather than resting in fixed archival spaces'. 24 This itinerant character of documents at the time is also manifested by their dispersion and their being held by depositaries in charge of their custody. In some cases, the medieval tradition of depositing documents in ecclesiastical institutions, considered safer places, was maintained.…”

The New Culture of Archives in Early Modern Spain

“…20 As far as the early modern age is concerned, Fernando Bouza has published various works on Philip II's use of archives in claiming the Portuguese throne, on the function of the archive as an instrument of the Spanish monarchy's modus gobernandi, and on archives as expressions of human memory. 21 Bouza's distinction between 'archivos' and 'archivillos' -also embraced by Arndt Brendecke 22 -has been particularly useful in dissecting a situation in which the centralizing project of the royal archive of Simancas coexisted with the individual secretaries' habit of retaining many of their documents in their private homes.…”