A remarkable compilation of legal instruments from Castile and Peru reflecting the distinctly transatlantic legal culture of the Spanish Empire.

vii (paper) + 195 + iii (paper) leaves, paginated in a modern hand in pencil 1–390 in the lower inner margins [collation: composite manuscript mounted on guards/stubs and sewn onto recessed supports], at least two watermarks present: one depicting a monstrance enclosing the IHS monogram, surmounted by a bird, the second a simple cross within a mandorla-shaped frame, seventeenth century documents on official sello segundo paper, largely blind-ruled and written in brown ink in a single column of varying lengths in a plurality of Spanish chancery hands, all documents conclude with elaborate notarial signatures and rúbricas, several with pen-flourished headings in brown ink, and numerous documents retain imperial seals, interspersed throughout are modern archival leaves bearing typed descriptions and summaries of the adjacent historical documents, these with a watermark depicting a crowned cartouche enclosing an enthroned female allegorical figure holding a spear and shield charged with a cross. Bound in a modern archival quarter binding of brown morocco over patterned paper boards, the spine and corners in morocco, the spine minimally decorated and lettered: INFORMACIONES / DE / LIMPIEZA / E HIDALGUIA, text block generally solid though rugged in condition, with roughened and stained edges throughout, notable water damage to the front board and extending through approximately the first 150 pages, occasional ink corrosion, in several instances resulting in complete burn-through and localized losses to the paper support. Dimensions c. 320 mm × 220 mm,

Provenance
(1) This document contains legal instruments issued on behalf of eleven families over a span of 226 years in both Spain and Peru: Torre-Blanca (1573); Cabrera Barba / Barba Verdugo (1594); Baranda (1612); Zúñiga Morales / Zúñiga (1618); Pérez de Urdiales (1623); Orellana / Zelada Coronel (1636); Martínez de Cabrera (1636); Peralta Barnuevo / Rocha / Llaguno Gómez (1686); Peralta (1686); Morcillo Rubio Auñón Argumanes (1729); Rodríguez de San Isidro Manrique (1652; copied 1799). These notarized copies prepared by scribes would have been held in a centralized repository such as the Real Audiencia of Lima or perhaps in a secondary notarial archive.

(2) Bound together and arranged chronologically in the nineteenth or early twentieth century, with a reference number “99-01” on the first archival leaf, indicating it may have been held in a municipal archive.

(3) Private Collection.

Text
pp. 1–44, Record of limpieza de sangre submitted by Diego de Torre-Blanca, resident of the town of Lora in Andalusia, before Señor Martín de Ayllón, ordinary magistrate of the said town, in order to obtain permission to sail to the Indies, dated 1573; pp. 45–162, Judicial executory decree and patent of hidalgo status obtained by Francisco Cabrera Barba, inhabitant of Carmona, through contested proceedings against the royal fiscal authority before the Alcaldes de Hijosdalgo and the Royal Chancery of Granada, dated 1594, with the original instrument held by Martín Barba Verdugo of Chuquisaca (La Plata); pp. 163–198, Record of limpieza de sangre for Juan de Baranda and Diego de Baranda, carried out in the city of Seville before Don Diego Fajardo, lieutenant to the royal governor of that city acting on behalf of His Majesty, and before Juan de Acosta, royal scribe, dated 1612; pp. 199–210, Petition of the Licentiate Francisco de Zúñiga Morales concerning the ecclesiastical benefice of San Pedro de Acas, incorporating a royal cédula recounting the services of Captain Diego de Zúñiga, one of the founders of the city of La Plata and grandfather of the petitioner, dated 1618; pp. 211–248, Record of limpieza de sangre and hidalguía concerning Diego Pérez de Urdiales, a native of El Puerto de Santa María and resident of Carrión de Velasco in the Huaura Valley, conducted before Juan de Palma Morales, deputy to the corregidor of that town, and before Don Luis de Córdoba, ordinary magistrate of the City of Kings (Lima), dated 1623; pp. 249–256, Deposition submitted by Juan de Orellana, a native of the town of Zaña in the kingdoms of Peru, attesting to his legitimate birth as the son of Andrés de Orellana and Doña María Zelada Coronel, made in the city of Trujillo before Dr. Jerónimo de Villalobos, deputy corregidor and chief judicial officer acting on behalf of His Majesty, dated 1636; pp. 257–268, Record of limpieza de sangre prepared at the request of Joan Martínez de Cabrera before the Licentiate Don Gonzalo Yáñez Ortega, chief alcalde of Villanueva de la Serena, a town belonging to the Order of Alcántara in the kingdoms of Spain, dated 1636; pp. 269–301, Deposition submitted by the accountant Don Francisco de Peralta Barnuevo, acting as husband and legal co-representative of Doña Magdalena de la Rocha, regarding her hereditary right to the office of Procurador de Número of the Royal Audiencia of Lima, which office had recently been sold to Pedro Llaguno Gómez, dated 1686 (the document relates to the lineage of Dr. Don Pedro de Peralta, the noted Peruvian author, and of his brother Fray Juan José de Peralta, Bishop of Buenos Aires); pp. 302–329, Record of limpieza de sangre for Dr. Don Joseph Morcillo Rubio Auñón Argumanes, prepared at his father’s petition in the town of Villarrobledo before the ordinary alcaldes of that town, dated 1729; pp. 330–390, Documents pertaining to the mayorazgo held in the city of Zamora, in the kingdoms of Spain, by Don Pedro Rodríguez de San Isidro Manrique, formerly resident in the city of Arequipa, dated 1652 (this testimonial copy having been issued in 1799 with an accompanying inventory of the papers concerning the administration of the entail).

Spanning more than two centuries, the volume preserves proceedings concerning lineage, nobility, hereditary privilege, and office-holding for eleven families navigating the social and bureaucratic realities of the colonial Spanish world. The compilation was assembled and bound in the nineteenth or early twentieth century, likely from the holdings of a municipal or family archive, though the texts themselves span the years 1573–1799. While roughly half of the documents originated in Spain, their preservation together strongly suggests later colonial use in Peru or Upper Peru (Charcas/La Plata). References to Lima, Arequipa, Huaura, Chuquisaca, and Zaña point to a broader Andean provenance for the compilation itself. Similar notarial compilations are held today by the Archivo General de la Nación del Perú with other more elaborate compendiums also known such as the so called “TCU Lima Manuscript” in Fort Worth, Texas. The volume reflects the distinctly transatlantic legal culture of the Spanish Empire: several documents belong fundamentally to the legal traditions of Castile and concern noble status, limpieza de sangre, and hereditary privilege, while others were produced directly within the institutions of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Assembled together, the manuscript appears to have functioned as a portable archive of lineage, legitimacy, office-holding, and eligibility for ecclesiastical and civic advancement. Particularly significant is the preservation of Spanish limpieza and hidalguía records overseas, where documentary genealogy became essential for office-holding, ecclesiastical appointments, inheritance, university admission, military orders, and social prestige in colonial Spanish America.

Several major themes emerge throughout the collection, all closely tied to the bureaucratic and social mechanisms of the Spanish Atlantic world. A substantial portion of the documents concerns investigations into limpieza de sangre, intended to establish descent from “Old Christian” ancestry, often as a prerequisite for travel to the Indies, ecclesiastical advancement, or public office, as in the case of Diego de Torre-Blanca (pp. 1–44). Other records concern formal recognition of hidalguía, including the lawsuit of Francisco Cabrera Barba before the Royal Chancery of Granada (pp. 45–162), in which noble status and exemption from taxation were contested before the highest courts. Several documents relate to hereditary office-holding and elite family strategy in colonial Peru, notably the Peralta Barnuevo litigation over the office of Procurador de Número of the Royal Audiencia of Lima, while the Zamora papers (pp. 330–390) concern a mayorazgo, the hereditary entail through which aristocratic families preserved wealth and status across generations. Taken together, the manuscript preserves a remarkable cross-section of the legal instruments through which ancestry, privilege, legitimacy, and social authority were constructed and defended across the Spanish Empire.

LITERATURE
Unpublished; Related literature: Tamar Herzog, Defining Nations: Immigrants and Citizens in Early Modern Spain and Spanish America, New Haven, 2003; Kathryn Burns, Into the Archive: Writing and Power in Colonial Peru, Durham, 2010; Dery Martínez-Bonilla, “The TCU Lima Manuscript: Images as Testament of Validity and Innovation,” M.A. Thesis, Texas Christian University, 2019.

We thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Peter Bovenmyer for their assistance in preparing this sale.