Report on the Newberry Library's 1996 Summer Institute in Spanish and Hispanic-American Archival Sciences

Report on the Newberry Library's 1996 Summer Institute in Spanish and Hispanic-American Archival Sciences:

Colleen Baade
Duke University

On the first morning of the Newberry Library's 1996 Summer Institute in Spanish and Hispanic-American Archival Sciences, twenty-four slightly nervous participants representing a variety of academic disciplines, including literature, history, law, political science, history of science, social sciences, and musicology, found ourselves seated around a table, facing a screen on which was projected a sixteenth-century manuscript copy of the last will and testament of Christopher Columbus. During the ensuing six weeks, the institute's director, Consuelo Varela, instructed us in the art and science of deciphering early Spanish handwritings, from the reasonably legible letra humanistica, to the less familiar letra cortesana and the unintelligible letra procesal. Professor Varela, a senior researcher at the Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos de Sevilla and editor of the complete works of Christopher Columbus, supplied the course with various documents relating to her particular area of expertise, ranging from ships' logs and city chapter acts to Guaman Poma's Nueva corónica y buen gobierno. Much of our time was spent in the tedious, but necessary process of transcribing these documents. (By the time the course was over, most of us were able to recite from memory the typical opening lines of one set of documents from late fifteenth-century Seville: "Nos los alcaldes e el aguagil e el asystente e los veynte e quatro caualleros regidores de la muy noble e muy leal gibdad de Sevylla ...") During the course of the institute, Professor Varela also presented a useful survey of important Spanish and Spanish-American centers for investigation, complete with lively anecdotes about the eccentricities of archives and their archivists.

Free time in the afternoons and all day each Friday allowed us to take advantage of the marvelous resources contained in the Newberry Library's many special collections. One morning we were treated to a presentation on the history of printing by Paul Gayle, curator of the library's Wing collection. Another day, the four musicologists who attended the institute--Colleen Baade, Prisco Hemández, Greta Olson and Timothy Watkins--made a joint presentation for the other institute participants on some of the music manuscripts and prints held by the Newberry, whose music collection includes many Spanish sources. Our stay coincided with a fine exhibit by the Newberry Library entitled México Ilustrado, featuring manuscripts, prints, maps and books from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Participants in the institute were also pleased to be on hand for the library's annual book sale.

The six-week stay in Chicago offered us numerous opportunities to enjoy the city's sights, sounds and tastes. Most participants managed multiple visits to the Art Institute, and some of us even toured the famous Niketwon. Poor graduate students in dormitory housing on Lake Shore Drive were able to watch nightly fireworks from the building's fire escape. A particular highlight was a riverboat tour organized by Chicago's Architectural Society. The institute also coincided with the Ravennia Festival and the outdoor food festival, Taste of Chicago. Of course, the musicologists' contingent made it our policy to hold our own "taste" several times a week by going out for lunch to various Italian, Asian, Mexican and Indian restaurants in downtown Chicago.

For anyone who might consider attending this institute the next time it is made available, I offer the following considerations: While the majority of participants would probably agree that the course proved a useful experience, there were a few complaints and frustrations. The course material was presented in a somewhat unorganized manner, with no systematic examination of the various handwriting styles, and no apparent logical progression in the difficulty of the documents we were assigned to transcribe. Many of the participants would have preferred a more methodical approach to the subject. The majority of our work was done with photocopies and transparencies of documents, which were often more difficult to read than the original documents themselves would have been. However, in spite of such criticisms, I found Consuelo Varela to be a delightful and capable course director; she was very patient, and always available for individual consultation. In the end--as anyone who has done archival work can attest--learning to read and transcribe early handwriting styles is something one learns by doing.

The institute appears to be attended in greater numbers by historians and scholars in Spanish literature than by musicologists, and anyone who has attended gatherings of this sort will have experienced the value of meeting colleagues in other disciplines. Finally, the generous scheduling of free time allowed participants to make good use of the Newberry Library to pursue individual interests and projects, and--when so we chose--to allow ourselves to be distracted from work. As long as there's no severe heat wave, Chicago is a fine place to spend six weeks of summer.


	Report on the Newberry Library's 1996 Summer Institute in Spanish and Hispanic-American Archival Sciences: Colleen Baade Duke University On the first morning of the Newberry Library's 1996 Summer Institute in Spanish and Hispanic-American Archival Sciences, twenty-four slightly nervous participants representing a variety of academic disciplines, including literature, history, law, political science, history of science, social sciences, and musicology, found ourselves seated around a table, facing a screen on which was projected a sixteenth-century manuscript copy of the last will and testament of Christopher Columbus. During the ensuing six weeks, the institute's director, Consuelo Varela, instructed us in the art and science of deciphering early Spanish handwritings, from the reasonably legible letra humanistica, to the less familiar letra cortesana and the unintelligible letra procesal. Professor Varela, a senior researcher at the Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos de Sevilla and editor of the complete works of Christopher Columbus, supplied the course with various documents relating to her particular area of expertise, ranging from ships' logs and city chapter acts to Guaman Poma's Nueva corónica y buen gobierno. Much of our time was spent in the tedious, but necessary process of transcribing these documents. (By the time the course was over, most of us were able to recite from memory the typical opening lines of one set of documents from late fifteenth-century Seville: "Nos los alcaldes e el aguagil e el asystente e los veynte e quatro caualleros regidores de la muy noble e muy leal gibdad de Sevylla ...") During the course of the institute, Professor Varela also presented a useful survey of important Spanish and Spanish-American centers for investigation, complete with lively anecdotes about the eccentricities of archives and their archivists. Free time in the afternoons and all day each Friday allowed us to take advantage of the marvelous resources contained in the Newberry Library's many special collections. One morning we were treated to a presentation on the history of printing by Paul Gayle, curator of the library's Wing collection. Another day, the four musicologists who attended the institute--Colleen Baade, Prisco Hemández, Greta Olson and Timothy Watkins--made a joint presentation for the other institute participants on some of the music manuscripts and prints held by the Newberry, whose music collection includes many Spanish sources. Our stay coincided with a fine exhibit by the Newberry Library entitled México Ilustrado, featuring manuscripts, prints, maps and books from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Participants in the institute were also pleased to be on hand for the library's annual book sale. The six-week stay in Chicago offered us numerous opportunities to enjoy the city's sights, sounds and tastes. Most participants managed multiple visits to the Art Institute, and some of us even toured the famous Niketwon. Poor graduate students in dormitory housing on Lake Shore Drive were able to watch nightly fireworks from the building's fire escape. A particular highlight was a riverboat tour organized by Chicago's Architectural Society. The institute also coincided with the Ravennia Festival and the outdoor food festival, Taste of Chicago. Of course, the musicologists' contingent made it our policy to hold our own "taste" several times a week by going out for lunch to various Italian, Asian, Mexican and Indian restaurants in downtown Chicago. For anyone who might consider attending this institute the next time it is made available, I offer the following considerations: While the majority of participants would probably agree that the course proved a useful experience, there were a few complaints and frustrations. The course material was presented in a somewhat unorganized manner, with no systematic examination of the various handwriting styles, and no apparent logical progression in the difficulty of the documents we were assigned to transcribe. Many of the participants would have preferred a more methodical approach to the subject. The majority of our work was done with photocopies and transparencies of documents, which were often more difficult to read than the original documents themselves would have been. However, in spite of such criticisms, I found Consuelo Varela to be a delightful and capable course director; she was very patient, and always available for individual consultation. In the end--as anyone who has done archival work can attest--learning to read and transcribe early handwriting styles is something one learns by doing. The institute appears to be attended in greater numbers by historians and scholars in Spanish literature than by musicologists, and anyone who has attended gatherings of this sort will have experienced the value of meeting colleagues in other disciplines. Finally, the generous scheduling of free time allowed participants to make good use of the Newberry Library to pursue individual interests and projects, and--when so we chose--to allow ourselves to be distracted from work. As long as there's no severe heat wave, Chicago is a fine place to spend six weeks of summer.
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