Solórzano übersetzen

Forschungsprojekt

This project will produce a digital, bilingual Latin-English critical edition of the Disputationum de Indiarum iure, sive de iusta Indiarum occidentalium gubernatione (Madrid, 1639), commonly known as de Gubernatione, by Spanish colonial bureaucrat Juan de Solórzano Pereira. This text is a foundational work of Spanish colonial administrative jurisprudence, and although the author published a Spanish version of the text, Politica Indiana (Madrid, 1647), de Gubernatione has never been translated from the original Latin. In this text, Solórzano compiled and explained legislation that broadly governed the institutions and issues that were specific to the New World, such as the treatment of Indigenous peoples by Spaniards, the encomienda, the functioning of the church under Patronato Real, the responsibilities of colonial officials, and taxation. This unique work by a highly trained lawyer and bureaucrat who had extensive New World experience offers unparalleled contemporary insight in how the institutions of colonialism were broadly constructed. Solórzano reflected on the reality of attempts to implement royal legislation and provides an academic context and justification of these colonial institutions. His work is therefore of immense value to scholars and students of colonial Latin America, legal history and intellectual history who will have unparalleled new ways to interact with this text through its translation and publication in a digital format.