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Acknowledgements
Research funding for this article was provided by the Humanities Research Institute (2016) at Brock University. I thank the two anonymous readers who reviewed the typescript for CLAR, as their insightful suggestions helped me improve the article. I also extend my gratitude to the journal’s General Editor for his encouraging remarks.
Biographical note
Felipe E. Ruan is Associate Professor of Hispanic & Latin American Studies at Brock University, Canada. His research centers on topics such as mestizos and mestizaje in early colonial Peru and on the interrelation of monarchical bureaucracy, knowledge, and culture at the sixteenth-century Habsburg royal court in Madrid. At present he is working on a book project tentatively entitled ‘Lettered Empire: Juan López de Velasco, Bureaucracy, Knowledge, and Culture in the Hispanic Monarchy of Philip II.’
Notes
1 ‘Las cedulas y despacho recibi ayer y por todo beso a V.M. las manos que vino muy bien despachado y favorable y para mi fue de mucho contento por la duda en que me habia puesto ver que se dilataba la respuesta. En lo que toca a la description despaña fue en mayor[;] dize que mandara hacer el despacho. En lo de Yndias no ay que avisar ni hazer mas de que Su Magestad acabe de firmar el despacho que se le enviara del Consejo’ (IVDJ Envío 100, caja 141, f. 297r). Maria Portuondo identifies the significance of López de Velasco’s letter in relation to the questionnaires (2009, 212). In the late nineteenth century, Jiménez de la Espada had noted that ‘las relaciones españolas y sus hermanas mayores las ultramarinas […], crecieron y se perfeccionaron bajo la misma tutela, la de Juan López de Velasco’ (1881, 1:lxxix).
2 Victoria Ríos Castaño (Citation2011) traces the relationship of the Relaciones topográficas and the Relaciones geográficas de las Indias but does not reflect in depth on the role López de Velasco played in both projects. Duccio Sacchi’s (2000) research is a cogent and suggestive attempt at reading the American and Castilian questionnaires as complementary projects, although some correctives are in order. Alfredo Alvar Ezquerra keenly notes that ‘la historia de España en el siglo XVI es indisoluble a la de las Indias’ (1993, 3:30), and that ‘[e]n forma y en el fondo, […] las Relaciones Topográficas, tuvieron en los cuestionarios de las Indias […] un antecedente directo’ (ibid., 3:42). Alvar Ezquerra, however, does not elaborate further on the relationship. Campos y Fernández de Sevilla (Citation1993, vol. 1) compares the content of the American and Spanish questionnaires, highlights the relationship between the projects but focuses mainly on Spain.
3 Campos y Fernández de Sevilla provides a list of the provenance of extant responses received to the 1575 and 1578 questionnaires. Listed are provinces in Mediterranean regions in the east (Murcia and Alicante), Extremadura in the west (Cáceres and Badajoz) and the central region of Castilla la Nueva (Madrid, Guadalajara, Cuenca, Toledo, Ciudad Real), with Salamanca in the west, and Jaén in the South (2003, 495–96). Territories not included in the questionnaire projects were: northern regions (like Old Castile and Galicia), Navarra, Aragón, Cataluña, Valencia, and Andalucía. The replies are found in Alvar Ezquerra et al. Citation1993, vols. 1 and 2.
4 The 1575 and 1578 questionnaires for Spain are reproduced in Alvar Ezquerra et al. Citation1993, 4:203–13. Alvar Ezquerra reproduces the questionnaires published earlier in Miguélez Citation1917–1925, 1:261–76. Campos y Fernández de Sevilla notes that the 1575 (2003, 446) and the 1578 questionnaires (2003, 464 n37) were printed, like the American questionnaires López de Velasco prepared which were distributed in printed broadsheets.
5 An early modern printed copy of the 1584 questionnaire is found at Archivo General de Indias [AGI], Patronato, 18, N.16, R.2. The 1577 printed questionnaire is found at the Biblioteca Nacional de España [BNE], MS 3035, f. 42r–43r. It is also reproduced in Álvarez Peláez Citation1993, 597–607. Partly based on Jimenéz de la Espada (1881–1897), Cline offers a table outlining the provenance of extant American questionnaire responses: the bulk are from New Spain (166), fewer from Peru and Quito (21), Venezuela (12) and Nuevo Reino de Granada (7), and one from Puerto Rico (1964, 350). For additional details about replies from New Spain, see Cline Citation1972. For the Quito Audiencia, see Ponce Leiva Citation1991; for Venezuela, Arellano Moreno Citation1964; and for the Nuevo Reino de Granada, Patiño Citation1983.
6 Following Jiménez de la Espada (Citation1881–1897), Cline gives priority to the American project, although he ultimately acknowledges the significant reciprocity between the Peninsular and American endeavors (1972, 188).
7 Although the terms ‘Relaciones greográficas’ and ‘Relaciones topográficas’ originate in the nineteenth century, it bears noting that in the early modern period the word ‘geografía’ was defined as ‘descripción y pintura de la tierra’ (Rosal Citation1611). Covarrubias, on the other hand, glosses ‘topografía’ as ‘descripicion de lugar […], loci descriptio’ (Citation1611, s.v. ‘topografia’). In selecting ‘topográficas’ for Spain and ‘geográficas’ for America, nineteenth-century scholars perhaps aimed to convey the much more ‘localized’ nature of the project for Spain in contradistinction to the more expansive, ‘global’ approach for the Indies, expressed in the term ‘geográficas.’
8 The full title of the 1575 questionnaire for Castile is: ‘Instrucción y memoria de las diligencias y relaciones que se han de hacer y embiar a su Magestad para la description y historia de los pueblos de España, que manda se haga para honra y enoblecimento de estos reinos.’ There is some slight variation in the 1578 questionnaire López de Velasco prepared: ‘Instrucción y memoria de las relaciones que se han de hacer y enviar a S. M. para la description y historia de los pueblos de España. Que manda se haga para honra y ennoblecimiento de estos reinos’ (Alvar Ezquerra et al. Citation1993, 4:203, 213). For America: ‘Instruction, y memoria, de las relaciones que se han de hazer, para la descripción de las Indias, que su Magestad manda hazer, para el buen gobierno y ennoblecimiento dellas’ (1577) (BNE MS 3035, f. 42r). The 1584 questionnaire repeats the title verbatim (AGI Patronato, 18, N.16, R.2, f. 1r).
9 AGI Indiferente, 426, L. 26, f. 37v. There is an error in the cataloguing of this document, incorrectly describing it as: ‘Carta acordada del Consejo a Antonio de Cartagena, su receptor, dándole orden de pago de 330 reales a Juan López de Velasco, por la impresión de su libro’ (http://pares.mcu.es/).
10 Alvar Ezquerra notes that Clemencín (Citation1821) is perhaps the first to use the term Relaciones topográficas in the 1820s (1993, 3:26). The work of Fermín Caballero (Citation1866) on the questionnaires for Spain is also significant. For the Relaciones geográficas see Jiménez de la Espada 1881, 1:ix–cxxi). For America see also Cline Citation1964, Solano and Ponce Citation1988, and Mundy Citation1996. More recent studies include Manso Porto Citation2012 and Sánchez Martínez and Pardo Tomás Citation2014.
11 Citing Ricardo Padrón (Citation2002, 31), Portuondo explains that ‘the changes in spatial thinking brought about by the Ptolemaic grid were far from pervasive and that in the case of Spain, its expansion overseas took place with the aid of maps firmly rooted in the sense of space of the medieval itinerary in the form of the portolan chart’ (2009, 34).
12 The history of ‘descriptions of the land,’ however, can be traced to early explorations in the Caribbean, as Antonio Barrera notes (Citation2006, 39 and 42). Manso Porto notes that on his fourth voyage (1502) Columbus had instructions to prepare a report of his exploration (2012, 24).
13 In a 25 April 1584 letter to Mateo Vázquez, López de Velasco writes: ‘[H]a veinte años o más que tracto papeles del servicio de su majestad, desde que el licenciado Castro yéndose al Perú dexo començada la recopilación de las leyes de yndias que proseguí yo siendo secretario de los presidentes de yndias, don Juan Sarmiento y después Tello de Sandoval, y se acabó con la visita que hizo el señor Juan de Ovando … ’ (BL Add. 28345 ff. 67r–68v). A 1565 payment order notes that López de Velasco received 40,000 maravedís for ‘lo que ha trabajado en recapitular provisiones y cédulas que se han despachado desde el descubrimiento’ (AGI Indiferente, 425, L. 24, f. 241v). On the Copulata see Peña Cámara Citation1941.
14 Brendecke explains that ‘entera noticia’ or ‘vera pura et integra informatio’ (Citation2012, 105) was the intended objective (even if elusive in practice) in terms of ascertaining knowledge in investigative, legal, and governance matters (2012, 103–21).
15 For a full account of Santa Cruz’s cosmographical activity and the work he produced see Mariano Cuesta Domingo’s Alonso de Santa Cruz y su obra cosmográfica (Citation1983).
16 AGI Indiferente, 1505, f. 307r. The request also asked for the papers of ‘el Alimirante Colón.’ Part of these papers are found listed in an inventory of López de Velasco’s books and papers compiled in 1599, about a year after his death: ‘Cronica y nauegacion de Cristobal Colon de mano, enquadernado en papelon cuero Colorado y dorado’ (AHPM Legajo 2428, f. 1026v).
17 AGI Patronato, 171, N.1, R.16, ff. 8v, 9r and 14r. The inventory is transcribed in Jiménez de la Espada 1885, 2:xxx–xxxviii.
18 AGI Patronato, 171, N.1, R.16, f. 9r. Crespo Sanz notes that the map described here might be the one included in the Escorial Atlas Santa Cruz prepared between 1539 and 1545 (2014, 114–15). Regarding the size of the map described in the inventory, Crespo Sanz explains that ‘un pergamino de cordero puede tener 80 cm. de altura, por lo que cuatro pieles de ancho daría lugar a una pieza de unos tres metros’ (2014, 116). In a letter to Philip II in the early 1550s, where Santa Cruz lists his cosmographical accomplishments at court, there is the following description of a map of Spain: ‘De las cosas de geografía, tengo hecha una España del tamaño de un gran repostero, donde están puestas todas las ciudades, villas y lugares, montes, ríos, que en ella hay, con las divisiones de los reinos y otras muchas particularidades’ (Medina Citation1908, 1:346). Crespo Sanz believes that this description might be of the map of Spain in the Escorial Atlas (2014, 109 n201).
19 A precedent to Santa Cruz’s Iberian project was that of Hernando Colón (1488–1539) (Columbus’s second son), who led a cosmographical knowledge-collection initiative (from 1517 to 1523) in the early days of Charles V’s reign (Rodríguez Toro Citation2000; Marín Martínez Citation1970).
20 The following description of and commentary on Santa Cruz’s instructions has benefited from my reading of Portuondo on the topic (2009, 110–14).
21 AGI Patronato, 18, N.16, R.3, f. 1v.
22 AGI Patronato, 18, N.16, R.3, f. 1v.
23 AGI Patronato, 18, N.16, R.3, f. 2v.
24 Santa Cruz writes: ‘yo di cierto memorial al Marqués de Mondéxar [Luis Hurtado de Mendoza] de ciertas cosas que me parecía que cumplían al servicio de Vuestra Magestad, y él las vido y notó muy bien, y me respondió que las más eran muy buenas y muy necesarias para las cosas […] en el Consejo de Indias’ (Medina Citation1908, 1:350).
25 The Copulata was published in Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y organización de las antiguas posesiones españolas de ultramar, vols. 20–25, bearing the misleading title Gobernación espiritual y temporal de las Indias (Portuondo Citation2009, 117 n28). It was edited by Angel de Altolaguirre y Duvale, and published by the Real Academia de la Historia (avaliable online at https://archive.org/). The original is at the Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, códice 93 (Portuondo Citation2009, 117 n28).
26 Derived from the Latin ‘factum,’ hecho could mean ‘deed,’ ’an act’ or ‘done.’ Moreover, although the categories ‘fact’ and ‘truth’ were slowly coming together (Shapiro Citation2000, 212), the distance between them can be still perceived in the phrase ‘la verdad del hecho.’
27 On eyewitness testimony see Cunill Citation2017.
28 On the outcome of the questionnaires Portuondo rightly cautions that, ‘[g]iven that we have no textual evidence of what Velasco, or any of his contemporaries, thought of the responses to the questionnaire and their maps, any conclusions about the project’s ‘usefulness’ need to be handled as speculation’ (2009, 221). Portuondo offers her own cogent assessment of the effectiveness of the questionnaires (2009, 221–23).
29 ‘Y que por los Consejos de Aragón y Portugal […] se vea la forma que podría [h]auer para distribuir las instrucciones impressas por los pueblos de aquellos Reynos … ’ (cited in Alvar Ezquerra et al. Citation1993, 3:38). Alvar Ezquerra indicates that the memorial is found at the Archivo Histórico Nacional in Madrid, legajo 4409.
30 In a copy of a 1575 memorial to the king asking to be remunerated for his work as visitador, Ovando gives the start and end dates for the visita: ‘servi en la Visita del Consejo de las Indias desde dia [illegible] de junio del año de 67 hasta 12 de Agosto de 71 … ’ (IVDJ Envío 31, caja 43, legajo 95, f. 1r). For details on the visita see Ruan Citation2017a, 33–38.
31 ‘El primero, que con ser el consejo de la indias la cabeça y la me[n]te que [h]a de gobernar todo el orbe de las Indias […] no sabe el sujeto de las dichas Indias. […] El segundo, es que el dicho Consejo ni en todas las cabeças inferiores de todas las Indias […] se saben y pueden saber las leyes y ordenanças’ (Jiménez de la Espada Citation1891, 12).
32 ‘ … al visitador le pareçio ser mas conueniente reducirlos [los dos mil capítulos de leyes] a ordenanças […] las cuales diuidio en siete libros’ (Jiménez de la Espada Citation1891, 13). Ovando describes those seven books: ‘El primero, de la gouernaçion spiritual; el segundo, de la gouernaçion temporal; el terçero, delas justicia tribunales y ministros della, el quarto, de la republica de españoles; el quinto, de la republica de Indios; el sexto, de la hazienda; el séptimo, de la Nauegaçion y contrataçion de las Indias’ (Jiménez de la Espada Citation1891, 13). It appears that only parts of the first and second books were completed by the time of Ovando’s death in 1575. Portuonto offers an overview of the seven books (2009, 117–19). On Ovando see Stafford Poole’s Juan de Ovando (Citation2004).
33 An early modern printed copy of the Ordenanzas is reproduced in Muro Orejón (Citation1957). Sánchez Bella (Citation1987) reproduces the Título. Comprising 135 Articles, a manuscript copy of the Título is found at AGI Indiferente, 427, L. 29, ff. 5v–66v. In the lower left margin of folio 5v there is the following inscription: ‘Ynstru[c]zion pa[ra] hazer las descripciones.’ Solano and Ponce seem to mistake the Título de las descripciones for the Libro de las descripciones (1988, 16–74).
34 Solano and Ponce reproduce the 1569 questionnaire (1988, 12–15). Brendecke notes that the questionnaire is available at AGI Mexico 336A, R 2, Doc 104, and that it was sent along with a Real Cédula of 23 Janurary 1569 (2012, 330 n74).
35 For details on López de Velasco’s career, see Pérez Rioja Citation1958, Berthe Citation1998, Portuondo Citation2009, 142–54, Coll-Tellechea Citation2012, and Ruan Citation2017a.
36 In a February 1573 letter to the king, Antonio Gracián writes: ‘tambien me pide Juan Lopez de Velasco Chronista de Indias, los papeles de La Florida que tengo entre los del Doctor Juan Paez que se me entregaron por mandado de S. M.’ (IVDJ Envío 59, caja 79, f. 93r).
37 Campos y Fernández de Sevilla notes that the manuscript is found at the Archivo General Simancas, Estado, leg. 157-103 (2003, 545). I have not been able to consult this source document myself. Alvar Ezquerra proposes that the historian and antiquarian Ambrosio de Morales, influenced by Páez de Castro, was involved in the preparation of the 1575 questionnaire (1993, 3:35–36). In a more recent study Alvar Ezquerra acknowledges the important role López de Velasco played in the 1578 questionnaire, and even suggests that he also had a role in the one of 1575 (2014, 201 and 333).
38 ‘Los libros de mathematicas que pareciere haber sido del buen Antonio Gracian se vuelvan a su hermano Thomas Gracian[,] aunque son mios por su testamento’ (AHPM Legajo 1638, f. 22v).
39 After his arrival in Spain, Gesio was called on to evaluate López de Velasco’s Geografía y descripción universal de las Indias (1574), and was rather harsh in his assessment. For details see Portuondo Citation2009, 183–93.
40 Campos y Fernández de Sevilla documents a 1574 questionnaire of twenty-four points but with a very limited scope. It was intended for the diocese of Coria, Extremadura, only (2003, 450–51).
41 The Interrogatorio is reproduced in Alvar Ezquerra et al. Citation1993, 3:31–32, and in Campos y Fernández de Sevilla 2003, 448–50. Alvar Ezquerra argues that Páez de Castro’s questionnaire was to serve as the basis for the composition of a Chorographic and General History of Spain (2014, 201).
42 In the 1577 questionnaire: ‘en todo afirmando por cierto lo que lo fuere y, lo que no, poniéndolo por dudoso’ (BNE MS 3035, f. 42v; Álvarez Peláez Citation1993, 599). In 1584: ‘afirmando por cierto lo que lo fuere, y lo que no, poniéndolo por dudoso’ (AGI Patronato, 18, N. 16, R. 2, f. 1r).
43 Other Articles repeat the phrasing: ‘escribirá en ellos lo que tuviere sabido, averiguado y descripto’ (Art. 41); ‘y lo que no estuviere descubierto, sabido y averiguado’ (Art. 70); ‘conforme a lo que estuviere sabido y averiguado’ (Art. 82); ‘aprovecha mucho tener sabidas y entendidas las cosas morales’ (Art. 83) (Sánchez Bella Citation1987, 155, 165 and 170–71, respectively).
44 A cursory look at Toledo’s correspondence in Gobernantes del Perú offers the following examples: ‘hera cosa sabida y pública el dañado propósito’ (Levillier Citation1921, 1:55); ‘entendida y sabida su voluntad’ (Levillier Citation1924, 4:85); ‘cosa cierta y sabida’ (ibid., 6:180); ‘tenían sabida y reconocida aquella entrada’ (ibid., 6:185). In these examples the phrase is used to express certainty without reference to cosmographical descriptions.
45 My view here challenges other interpretations proffering that ‘it is impossible to distinguish any themes or general procedures reserved exclusively for the American viceroyalties or for the peninsular kingdoms’ (Sacchi Citation2000, 296).
46 AGI Patronato 18, N. 16, R. 2, f. 1r.
47 AGI Patronato 18, N. 16, R. 2, f. 1v.
48 BNE MS 3035, f. 42v; Álvarez Peláez et al. Citation1993, 602.
49 AGI Patronato 18, N. 16, R. 2, f. 1v.
50 AGI Patronato 18, N. 16, R. 2, f. 2r.
51 AGI Patronato 18, N. 16, R. 2, f. 1v.
52 Article 81 noted that ‘[el] cronista delas cosas de las Indias en el nuestro Consejo, haga libro general de las cosas naturales de todas las Indias … ’ (Sánchez Bella Citation1987, 169). In a 28 May 1578 petition, López de Velasco requested that the details of the natural historical work Antonio Sánchez de Renedo was preparing in Peru be sent to him at the Council of the Indies: ‘con[v]endria escribir al virrey y gouernador del Peru que entienda lo que tiene [h]echo de la dicha historia y procure enviar lo que dello le quisiere dar el dicho doctor [Sánchez de Renedo] para que aca se vea lo que haze … ’ (AGI Indiferente, 1388, f. 1r).
53 Article 122 of the Ordenanzas undescores the secrecy involved regarding ‘papeles y escripturas […] y las descripciones,’ urging that the Council’s notary of the governance chamber ‘guarde y tenga con secreto, sin las comunicar ni dejar ver a nadie … ’ (Muro Orejón Citation1957, 411). While Article 83 of the Título noted that notaries ‘juren que bien y fielmente harán sus oficios, y especial en esto de escribir la Historia moral y de guardar secreto’ (Sánchez Bella 1987, 171). On cosmography and secrecy in Spain, see Kagan Citation2002, and on secrecy and historiography, see Ruan Citation2017b.
54 AGI Indiferente 427, f. 281v.
55 AGI Indiferente 427, f. 281v.
56 AGI Indiferente 427, f. 282r.
57 Starting in 1577 and for the next eleven years, the instructions for the observation of lunar eclipses occupied López de Velasco’s time (Portuondo Citation2009, 223). By doing so he was complying with the directives specified in the Ordenanzas (Art. 118) and in the Título (Art. 14). A printed copy of the ‘Instruction, y advertimientos para la observacion de los eclypses de la luna … ’ is found at BNE MS, 3035, ff. 40r–41r. Portuondo offers commentary and details regarding the ‘Instruction’ (2009, chap. 6). For a recent study on the topic, see Morato-Moreno Citation2016.
58 Weber’s definition stems from his interest in modern nineteenth-century bureaucracy, which he associated with modernity (Crooks and Parsons Citation2016, 16–17). For early modern Spanish bureaucracy see Christopher Storrs (Citation2016, 291–317).
59 BL Add. 28345 f. 67r.
60 For Páez de Castro, see Ostenfeld-Suske 2016. For Zurita, see the historiographic dispute regarding the first part of his Anales de Aragón (1562), chronicled in Progressos de la historia en el Reyno de Aragón (Andrés de Uztárroz, Juan Francisco, and Diego José Dormer Citation1680) and in Apología de Ambrosio de Morales (1610). Grafton (Citation2007) and Shapiro (2002, chap. 2) offer cogent reflections on the relationship of law and history.
61 Cline points to some of those ‘irregularities’ in some replies, highlighting the variation in respondents’ ‘handling of matters not clearly covered by the instructions,’ as well as how the instructions ‘failed to specify sufficiently how reports on rather complicated jurisdictions were to be divided’ (1972, 191). For extant replies from Peru see Jiménez de la Espada Citation1881–1897, vols. 1 and 2. For Mexico, see René Acuña Citation1982.
62 By focusing on the topic of antiquarianism, Hamann (Citation2017) offers a noteworthy view on how respondents at the local level transformed and appropriated the Castilian and American questionnaires.
63 Canizares-Esguerra writes that ‘el milagro de la formación de un Estado colonial que sobrevivió estable por más de tres siglos fue que este se construyó siempre desde abajo’ (Citation2014, 185). Masters’s (Citation2018) and Dueñas’s (Citation2018) recent research corroborate this view.