Libros de fiscal, libros de oidor: la biblioteca de Domingo de Arangoiti (siglo XVIII)

Abstract

The history of Libraries in New Spain seems to be an extensively researched topic. Actually this field of knowledge is still largely unknown despite the interest of different disciplines. This situation can be explained mostly by the lack of attention that historical evidence has generally had. These books witness the number and type of material conforming those book collections. Among these libraries the most forgotten are personal collections, but their study allows to fully understand the characteristics of written culture in the past. They also are documents which contribute to appreciate our bibliographical legacy. In this paper, we explain through one colonial library the complexity of historical sources and the enormous possibilities of information that we can extract from these testimonies.