This collection is comprised of 23 volumes containing manuscript copies of letters, documents, and more relating to New Spain, primarily in the 17th and 18th century. The original sources (dating 1583-1778) were selected, arranged, and copied between 1772 and 1778 under 46th Viceroy Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa. The correspondence of the viceroy deals primarily with the administration of New Spain, government revenue, encouragement of agriculture and industry, development and fortification of frontier provinces, church matters, and diplomatic affairs. These volumes also relate to many aspects of social and everyday life in the 17th and 18th centuries, with content on hospitals, prisons, factories, educational institutions, and indigenous peoples of Mexico, California, Florida, and Cuba. Several volumes have ornate and illustrated title pages; the majority bear a printed bookplate of Mateo Seoane.
Please see the box and folder listing for more information about each volume in the collection.
Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa (1717-1779) was the 46th Viceroy of New Spain, serving from 1771 to 1779. Born into a noble family in Seville, Spain, Bucareli y Ursúa had a career as a military officer. He served in campaigns in Italy and Portugal, where he served as lieutenant-general. In 1766, Bucareli y Ursúa received an appointment as governor-general of Cuba. Bucareli y Ursúa was appointed as the Viceroy of New Spain, and he arrived in Mexico City in 1771, to be seated as the highest colonial administrator in the colony. During his tenure as viceroy, Bucareli y Ursúa oversaw the liberalization of Spanish American trade following the authorization of intercolonial trade by King Charles III in 1774. He also established the first trade association for mine owners and granted them special tax breaks to increase their profits.
Bucareli y Ursúa was committed to the expansion of control over the peripheral regions of New Spain. He authorized expeditions of Franciscan and Dominican friars into the Californias, and the establishment of missions there as well as the fortifications of presidios in Northern New Spain. He also authorized sailing expeditions to explore the Pacific Northwest, which extended as far north as modern-day Alaska. Bucareli y Ursúa, like all other viceroys, served as the President of the Royal Audiencia, the highest court in the colony, which also had certain legislative functions. Following royal reforms to the institution, it became independent of the viceroy in 1776. Bucareli y Ursúa, perhaps most notably, founded several important social institutions in Mexico City during his time as viceroy, such as a military hospital and a hospital for the mentally ill. He also modernized the landscape of Mexico City and the surrounding area. Having commissioned a new layout for further expansion of the city, Bucareli y Ursúa established La Alameda (a well-known and famous downtown park in Mexico City), a European-style avenue in Mexico City which today bears his name (Avenida Bucareli), and a system of drainage canals in the Valley of Mexico to drain Lake Texcoco upon which the city was built. Bucareli y Ursúa died in office in 1779.
