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Spanish Letters of marque???


Korisios

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I know of one Black guy that piratered under the Spanish collors to hunt down english and other pirates.

He had it's base at Guatemala. this makes me wander:

Does any of you know about Spanish Letters of marque???

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I know of one Black guy that piratered under the Spanish collors to hunt down english and other pirates.

He had it's base at Guatemala. this makes me wander:

Does any of you know about Spanish Letters of marque???

I'm sure I have read an account somewhere of someone that was issued a letter of marque from one of the Spanish colonies. There was certainly a lot of activity in the West Indies by Spanish privateers around the early 1700s it would seem.

This book has an account of some of the things that the Spanish Privateers were up to in 1728:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=z6U1AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA288&dq=spanish+privateer&hl=en&ei=55wjTY6mAcXIhAeR5ui3Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=spanish%20privateer&f=false

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...and then I discovered the wine...

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Does any of you know about Spanish Letters of marque???

Yes I do....here's a 1729 Commission for a Spanish Guarda Costa operating out of Havana:

Commission of a Spanish Guarda Costa

16 April 1729

By Don Dionysio Martines de la Vega, Brigadier in His Majesty's army, His Governor and Captain General of this city of the Havanna, and island of cuba &c.

Whereas Captain Don Felix Joseph da Costa Hurtado junior hath made his request to me, that I would grant him liberty in the same manner as has been done to other Captains fitted out to sea in a warlike manner as privateers to cruise on the seas on the coasts, havens, bays, or anchoring places round the island of Cuba; Now know ye that by virtue of the power and authority granted unto me in a schedule of the 6th of June 1728, and a written order of the 20th of November 1727 from the most illustrious lord Don Joseph Palmo, of His Majesty's Council, Secretary of State, Marine, and the Indies; Also having weighed the several good qualitys, as well of valour, experience, and practice, not only in naval but in military affairs conspicuous in the above mentioned captain; and he being actually in possession of a sloop now in this port called the Santa Rita, and the souls armed with six guns, six patereros, seventy musquets, with ammunition proportionable, carrying eighty men completed and victualled; By these presents, in the royal name of His Majesty, (whom God preserve), and in conformity to the above mentioned schedule royal and written order, I constitute and name the said Captain Don Felix de Hurtado, and do hereby authorise him to arm out in a warlike manner the said sloop, whereby he may exercise that office or function in that sloop or embarcation, which he shall think necessary to depute or substitute against those who shall traffick in these seas, loaded or loading with logwood or other woods for dying, in the ports, and upon the coasts of our lord the king, and against any other embarcations who shall introduce or trade in prohibited goods, as well under sail as at an anchor, in the ports, bays, or other places frequented by any shipping upon the island of Cuba; And in the same manner, if he shall find upon the said coasts any notorious pirates that do infest the same, he has in that case liberty granted him to levy men in that same place, as well as in any other parts of this island, by publick proclamation in conformity to the usual practice; And having made capture of any prise or prises, he is either to send them or bring them to this port of the Havanna, having no lawful impediment to the contrary; and, after a judicial condemnation, the whole value of the prise or prises may be distributed between the captain and his people, and those at whose charge the privateer was fitted out; the enjoyment whereof I yield to them in conformity to the above mentioned royal orders; And for execution of the whole I grant unto them all necessary power and authority; And I do hereby strictly enjoyn all the men already levied for the abovementioned sloop to receive and obey for their captain, armed out as a privateer, the already mentioned Don Felix Joseph de la Costa Hurtado, and from this time forward, in the name of His Majesty, (whom God preserve), and by virtue of his royal authority I do appoint, and he is hereby appointed to use and to execute this his employ with all the essential privileges, enjoyments, and emoluments annexed thereunto, without the least diminution; And I ordain his orders to be obeyed, not only by writing, but by word of mouth, in the same manner as if they had been wrote or spoke to by myself under the penalty of severe chastisement to those who shall act anything to the contrary. And if by any accident of wind or weather he shall meet with any squadrons of ships of war of his Majesty, and if he shall arrive into any of the ports of his dominions, it is my request and desire of all general officers, judges, and courts of justice that they shall give all favour and assistance that may be asked and thought needful for the abovementioned Captain fitted out in a warlike manner, taking care that he may be supplied with ammunition and provisions at the currant prices at the places where he shall arrive. And having given, and being also offered for his security Don Miguel d'Isagora, a substantial person inhabiting near this town, the same received before and executed in the presence of the principal secretary of the said captain, by virtue of this patent, may carry the colours usually carried by virtue of such a commission, which I have ordered to be delivered to him. Signed with my own hand, sealed with my own coat of arms, and countersigned by the secretary of the government and war, who is to enter a copy of the same in his office, and to make a remark at the bottom of it of the proffered abovementioned security, that the same may appear. Done at the Havanna, 16th of April 1729 N.S.

Don Dionysio De Martines De La Vega

Found in: R.G. Marsden, Documents Relating to the Law and Custom of the Sea. (London: 1916), II:270-273.

-Adam Cripps (marinero de la flota de barlovento, estacianado en San Augustin)

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Great!! Thanks Cripps. two more questions now:

1: do have the text in Spanish also??

2: do you have maybe a picture of the real document.

I would like to have one such a letter within my kitt...

Korisios,

I just have the English transcription copied out of the book cited (I no longer have access to the book). It is possible to translate it back into Spanish and include all the crazy abbreviations and what not the Spanish were fond of, but I am way over loaded with projects at the moment and am hesitant to take anything else on at the moment. I still have documents from two years ago that I haven't finished transcribing and translating...ugg...

-Adam C.

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Korisios,

Like with all handwriting, there's some that's neater than others...but this is the kind of thing Spanish paleographers have to deal with when in the 17th and 18th centuries: https://pyracy.com/index.php?app=gallery&module=images&section=viewimage&img=4193

Now you know why it's been two years and I still haven't finished some of these translations...

Cheers,

Adam

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Hi Cripps, i had no qlue that you where into this and are translateting these documents my question was just a question without the meaning of having you to do or make anything.

But now you mention it...:lol:

I would like to greate (print) a library of copied and made(fake) Spanish documents to illustrate the audience what Spanish colonial live was about in let's say 1720...

So if you don't mind i would like to ask you what it is you do and if you have anything allready digital that I could/may print and use...?

I am especialy interrested in Spanish stuff related to New Spain (Guatemala, Mexico Honduras etc.)...

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Hi Cripps, i had no qlue that you where into this and are translateting these documents my question was just a question without the meaning of having you to do or make anything.

But now you mention it...:lol:

I would like to greate (print) a library of copied and made(fake) Spanish documents to illustrate the audience what Spanish colonial live was about in let's say 1720...

So if you don't mind i would like to ask you what it is you do and if you have anything allready digital that I could/may print and use...?

I am especialy interrested in Spanish stuff related to New Spain (Guatemala, Mexico Honduras etc.)...

This is a 1673 Broadside entitled Vrbis, & Orbis that was printed in Guatemala

urbis_orbis_673_1a.jpg

Unfortunately the pictures to small to make out any detail and they want $12,000 for the original.

Our image above shows clearly that we have in hand an intact bifolium, i.e., two copies, as printed, on an uncut half sheet—one on the recto (at right, in the image, showing through the paper), and one on the verso (at the left)—the two never having been separated.

Guatemala was the fourth Latin American city to have a printing press (after Mexico, Lima, and Puebla de los Angeles); the press was brought at the instigation of the bishop of Guatemala, Payo Enríquez de Ribera, who wished to have a work of his own published. In reply to the bishop's appeal for a printer, José Pineda Ibarra arrived at Antigua in 1660. He had worked as an assistant to several printers in Mexico, but according to Medina did not have his own press; when Payo de Ribera's representative found him, he had moved to Puebla, but was apparently not doing well there. (Medina does not list him as a printer in Puebla—presumably he was again working for others.) The bishop apparently paid for the press that was taken to Guatemala, and Pineda Ibarra later purchased it from him. Torre Revello (quoted in Furlong) remarks that despite the dearth of materials, Pineda Ibarra managed to print exceedingly well: "Ningún tipógrafo de los que le sucedieron, durante el periodo colonial, logró superar la pulchritud y elegancia de sus trabajos." This example shows not only several sizes of type, but a woodcut of a papal tiara, at the top of the edict, flanked by typographical ornaments; a line of typographical ornament also appears on either side of the date of the edict, near the bottom of the page.

The various religious orders in Guatemala had promised to make it worth the while of a printer to come, by giving him commissions. Judging from the list of over 30 works Pineda Ibarra printed before 1673—eulogies, sermons, constitutions, regulations, descriptions of religious festivities—the orders fulfilled their promise; his major productions, however, were Bishop de Ribera's Explicatio apologetica nonnullarum propositionum . . . , 1663, and Diego Saenz Ovecuri's La Thomasiada, 1667. Also a bookseller and binder, Pineda Ibarra died in 1679. He was succeeded in 1681 by his son, Antonio de Pineda Ibarra, under whom the press operated until 1721.

The text in hand, a papal edict of 23 July 1672, changes the office for St. Peter Nolasco used by Mercedarians from semiduplex to duplex, at the request of the Queen of France. The Orden Real de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, Redemción de Cautivos, was already established in Guatemala (cf. Medina, Guatemala, 38), and probably paid Pineda Ibarra to print this work. • Not in Medina, Guatemala; on the printer, see: Medina's introduction, pp. xviii–xx. Not in Valenzuela, Imprenta en Guatemala; O'Ryan, Bib. Guatemalteca; NUC; BMC. See, however, Oswald, p. 539; Furlong, Orígenes, p. 91; and Woodbridge and Thompson, Printing in Colonial Spanish America, pp. 81–84.

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...and then I discovered the wine...

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Hi Cripps, i had no qlue that you where into this and are translateting these documents my question was just a question without the meaning of having you to do or make anything.

But now you mention it...:lol:

I would like to greate (print) a library of copied and made(fake) Spanish documents to illustrate the audience what Spanish colonial live was about in let's say 1720...

So if you don't mind i would like to ask you what it is you do and if you have anything allready digital that I could/may print and use...?

I am especialy interrested in Spanish stuff related to New Spain (Guatemala, Mexico Honduras etc.)...

This is a 1673 Broadside entitled Vrbis, & Orbis that was printed in Guatemala

urbis_orbis_673_1a.jpg

Unfortunately the pictures to small to make out any detail and they want $12,000 for the original.

Our image above shows clearly that we have in hand an intact bifolium, i.e., two copies, as printed, on an uncut half sheet—one on the recto (at right, in the image, showing through the paper), and one on the verso (at the left)—the two never having been separated.

Guatemala was the fourth Latin American city to have a printing press (after Mexico, Lima, and Puebla de los Angeles); the press was brought at the instigation of the bishop of Guatemala, Payo Enríquez de Ribera, who wished to have a work of his own published. In reply to the bishop's appeal for a printer, José Pineda Ibarra arrived at Antigua in 1660. He had worked as an assistant to several printers in Mexico, but according to Medina did not have his own press; when Payo de Ribera's representative found him, he had moved to Puebla, but was apparently not doing well there. (Medina does not list him as a printer in Puebla—presumably he was again working for others.) The bishop apparently paid for the press that was taken to Guatemala, and Pineda Ibarra later purchased it from him. Torre Revello (quoted in Furlong) remarks that despite the dearth of materials, Pineda Ibarra managed to print exceedingly well: "Ningún tipógrafo de los que le sucedieron, durante el periodo colonial, logró superar la pulchritud y elegancia de sus trabajos." This example shows not only several sizes of type, but a woodcut of a papal tiara, at the top of the edict, flanked by typographical ornaments; a line of typographical ornament also appears on either side of the date of the edict, near the bottom of the page.

The various religious orders in Guatemala had promised to make it worth the while of a printer to come, by giving him commissions. Judging from the list of over 30 works Pineda Ibarra printed before 1673—eulogies, sermons, constitutions, regulations, descriptions of religious festivities—the orders fulfilled their promise; his major productions, however, were Bishop de Ribera's Explicatio apologetica nonnullarum propositionum . . . , 1663, and Diego Saenz Ovecuri's La Thomasiada, 1667. Also a bookseller and binder, Pineda Ibarra died in 1679. He was succeeded in 1681 by his son, Antonio de Pineda Ibarra, under whom the press operated until 1721.

The text in hand, a papal edict of 23 July 1672, changes the office for St. Peter Nolasco used by Mercedarians from semiduplex to duplex, at the request of the Queen of France. The Orden Real de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, Redemción de Cautivos, was already established in Guatemala (cf. Medina, Guatemala, 38), and probably paid Pineda Ibarra to print this work. • Not in Medina, Guatemala; on the printer, see: Medina's introduction, pp. xviii–xx. Not in Valenzuela, Imprenta en Guatemala; O'Ryan, Bib. Guatemalteca; NUC; BMC. See, however, Oswald, p. 539; Furlong, Orígenes, p. 91; and Woodbridge and Thompson, Printing in Colonial Spanish America, pp. 81–84.

Cool info! Thanks PoD!

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Hi Cripps, i had no qlue that you where into this and are translateting these documents my question was just a question without the meaning of having you to do or make anything.

But now you mention it...;)

I would like to greate (print) a library of copied and made(fake) Spanish documents to illustrate the audience what Spanish colonial live was about in let's say 1720...

So if you don't mind i would like to ask you what it is you do and if you have anything allready digital that I could/may print and use...?

I am especialy interrested in Spanish stuff related to New Spain (Guatemala, Mexico Honduras etc.)...

Korisios,

I was actually going to be doing a similar project for my "La Mision" project, just a bit earlier and less piratey (1595-1702). The project involved me recreating one of the Franciscan friars that established the mission system here in the Southeast US in exacting detail (as in I was going to tonsure my head, handweave the cloth for the habit, repro and hand-bind books, etc), and do various public history programs, workshops, and school programs. But, that project which was suppose to start on Jan. 1st. has gone on the back burner as mid-December I got the call telling me that I was accepted to Grad school in Michigan and will be moving in a few months.

As for digitalized stuff, everything I have at the moment on here is pertaining to the Florida missions and the friars. This is partly because of the La Mision project, and partly because I was working as an archaeologist on a couple mission sites right before I injured my back. I did more general 18th century documents during my undergrad, as I was studying Spanish paleography as an independent study with one of the professors (BA in History/Anthro at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Fl), but I no longer have any of those saved digitally.

Do you read Spanish? The 1608 picture I posted was a scan from the AGI in Spain, where they've scanned a bunch of their collection that is searchable online. Some of the libraries over there have started scanning books and what not as well, so you might be able to find one you can clean up, print out, and bind up. There for a little while I was going to try and do that for a copy of Don Quixote, but never found a scanned copy that was really usable at the time....maybe I should look for one again....

BTW I'm almost certain there's more abbreviations for Guatemala but the ones I remember are (the ^ meaning it's written above the level of the word): (guat^la) and (quaL^a). Also, if you DO read Spanish but want to get into trying to read the original handwritings...you will definitely want to get a copy of A. Carlin's A Paleographic Guide to Spanish Abbreviations, 1500-1700 (Una Guia Paleografica de Abreviaturas Espanolas). It was a god send when I was doing the independent study... and while the guide cuts off at 1700 for the handwriting examples she uses for the abbreviations, the abbreviations themselves continued to be used up until the mid-18th century when things started getting squirrely again.

Cheers,

Adam C.

P.S. You probably didn't know I was into this stuff as I tend to keep things pretty quiet these days...usually too busy to do more than lurk around on here ;-).

Edited by Slopmaker Cripps
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Great!! Thanks Cripps. two more questions now:

1: do have the text in Spanish also??

2: do you have maybe a picture of the real document.

I would like to have one such a letter within my kitt...

If you're needing a Spanish translation, just go to http://www.online-translator.com/ I have found it's the most accurate online translater there is.

Let every man Know freedom, Kings be damned,

And let the Devil sort out the mess afterwards.

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