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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2010
Protocolos or notarial acts are one of those historical sources that everyone talks about but few use. A few social historians such as James Lockhardt and Ruth Pike have assayed the rich ores of these documents (for Lima and Seville, respectively). Art historians have used them with profit, but only a few of an older generation of French historians and Louis-André Vigneras have done much with them for voyages of exploration. Yet they are the last truly rich source of historical information still awaiting study by students of the Expansion (1).
* The author is Associate Professor of History at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. He would like to thank the Council on Research at LSU for its support of his research at the Archivo de Protocdlos of Seville.
1. A general history of notarial records in Spain is Antonio Matilla Tascón, ‘Escribanos, notarios, y Archivos de Protocolos en España’ In Spain, Directión General de Archivos y Bibliotecas, Boletin, Nos. 84–85 (Julio-Octobre 1965), 16–26. Reprinted from Archivum 12 (1962), 3–19.
2. The notarial records of San Lucar were lost in a fire in 1923. The records for Cadiz are fragmentary but now in the care of the Deputation Provincial, which has issued a catalogue.
3. For a list of holdings for eaoh Archivo Historico Provincial see, Spain, Inspection General de Archivos. Guia de los archivos estatales Espanoles: Guia des Investigador (Madrid: Servicio de Publicaciones del Ministerio de Education y Ciencia, 1977), 45–71Google Scholar.
4. Based on José Gustalver y Gimeno, ‘El Archivo de Protocolos de Sevilla’, in Discursos leidos ante la academiade buenas letras por los Excellentes Senores José Gastalver y Gimeno y Manuel Blasco Garzón, 26 Enero 1936 (Seville: Imprenta Martinez, s.f. but 1936). A copy is in the office of the archive.Google Scholar
5. Some archives held by notarial colleges require a formal petition to the Chief Notary for permission to use the papers.
6. Most of this information came from Mena, Jose Maria de, Las Calles de Seville. Antequera: Graficas San Rafael, 1973.Google Scholar
7. Published at Madrid by the Compania Ibero-Americano de Publicaciones and by Tipografia de, 1930–193.
8. Documents from other notaries and years still turn up in any given notary's papers. This is due to the way in which some of the bundles (less often the Books) were assembled and moved over the years.
