The present collection in hypertext format was inspired and sustained since 1996 by Lynn Nelson (emeritus University of Kansas), Jack Owens (Idaho State University), and Ignacio López Martín (European University Institute). It was conceived as the first step of a wider project regarding the use of Internet to study Early Modern Iberian history.
The MS collection has so far four main sections:
1. The building of El Escorial:
A Collection of more than 300 letters regarding the building of El Escorial (years 1566-1571) dedicated to the memory of the Spanish architect and art historian D. Luis Cervera Vera: Years: [1566] [1567] [1568] [1569] [1570] [1571] [1572] [other years]
2. The Late sixteenth century Basque manuscripts:
3. The Cercedilla series:
It contains transcriptions of unpublished sixteenth century manuscripts, demographic data, and other resources of interest for the local history of Cercedilla. (Madrid).
4. The ’straatvaart’ and the Spanish embargoes.
In the future the collection will be integrated by a growing number of transcribed documents and a searchable database of manuscripts coming from the Archivo General de Simancas (AGS, Valladolid, Spain), the Algemene Rijksarchief (ARA, The Hague, Holland), the Gemeente Archief Amsterdam (GAA, Amsterdam, Holland), Algemene Rijksarchief Brussels (ARAB, Brussels, Belgium), the Archivio di Stato of Florence (ASF, Florence, Italy), the Archivio di Stato di Genova (ASG, Genoa, Italy) the Archivo Histórico de Protocolos de Madrid (AHPM, Madrid, Spain), the Archivo Histórico Municipal de Cádiz (AHMC, Cadiz, Spain), and the Arxiv d’Eivissa (A.E., Ibiza, Spain).
The largest majority of docuements available will deal direct or indirectly with the different means used the Spanish Monarchy in their fight against the Dutch rebels between 1572 and 1621. In general, the documents will include a wide range of topics such as economic warfare, contraband, piracy, maritime trade, proto-mercantilism, health and labour conditions in the Iberian harbours, etc.
The transcription of the Mss. started in September 1994. I have been researcher of the department of History and Civilization at the European University Institute (Florence, Italy), where I am about to present a Phd thesis on the origins of Dutch shipping and trade in the Mediterranean 1570s-1620s. After nearly eight years working as webmaster and developer of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (Florence, Italy), I have been recently appointed (March 2006) as webmaster of the European Maritime Safety Agency EMSA (Lisbon, Portugal)
Since 1996, when this collection started, I have always believed in the WWW as an excellent opportunity to spread this sort of manuscripts collections and knowledge. Although the collection represents only a small part of all the material available in the archives above mentioned, its unity and coherence makes them perfect to build the first hypertext Mss collection on Early Modern Spanish history. The choice of a Mss collection concerning the Early Modern Hispano-Dutch history is not a matter of chance. During that period both Spain and The Netherlands faced one of the most important turning points in their history. I hope this contribution will encourage others to supply further historical MS collections, which could be eventually posted in this site.
It is time in my opinion to rescue historical manuscripts and documents from their “priviledged darkness”. In the coming years I would like to see more on-like Mss collections.
Iñaki López Martín
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April 7, 2008 at 2:00 am
David Baeckelandt
This is a great website. I am a renegade history grad student (MA U of IL 1988) doing research on the Flemish in Spanish and Portugese service in the late 15th and first quarter of the 16th century (eg, before the Thirty Years’ War). I am wondering if you are aware of any scholars who have done work in this area or any relevant sources?
Best regards,
David Baeckelandt