“The Archivo General de Simancas: An Introduction”
Mediterranean Studies Summer Skills Seminar
14—17 June 2025 • Remote
The Summer Skills Seminar, “The Archivo General de Simancas: An Introduction” will be held via Zoom from Monday, 14 July to Thursday, 17 July 2025 from 10am to noon and 1pm to 3pm MDT.
This seminar offers an introduction early Modern Spanish paleography and the organization of the General Archive of Simancas and an insight into the rich sources of the Spanish monarchy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Using a hands-on approach, students will learn to analyze original documents and to read and transcribe sources in early modern Spanish and in other languages, enabling students to read documents at the AGS and from across the global empire of Early Modern Spain.
Course overview
Since 1540, the Archivo General de Simancas (AGS) has kept the memory of the Spanish Monarchy in a medieval castle near the city of Valladolid. The documents comprise more than 13 kilometers of files ranging from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, with more systematic holdings from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As an administrative archive of the Monarchy, the AGS is organized according to the councils and institutions of the Spanish dynasties. Among many other topics, this collection includes detailed diplomatic negotiations with European powers, the administration of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Dutch territories, the management of war and the royal treasury, as well as maps and plans as the Spanish Monarchy became the first global empire. Although most of the documentation relating to the Americas and the Pacific is located in the General Archives of the Indies (Seville), the AGS almost monopolizes the collections devoted to Europe and the Mediterranean and the Islamicate world, from Morocco to Persia.
The seminar combines several approaches and skills:
1) Understanding the institutional logic of the Spanish Monarchy to learn what was documented and how and where it was organized.
2) Identifying the typology of the documents and their standardized sections and contents.
3) Introducing early modern Spanish paleography with special emphasis on abbreviations, dates, numbers, places, and names.
The seminar’s structure aligns with the typical phases of a researcher’s work, from the initial selection of a topic and identification of relevant archival sections to the subsequent reading and editing of sources. The approach is highly practical, developing skills to search and read authentic documentation using PARES, the online portal of Spanish archives. While the majority of the documentation is in Spanish, there are also a considerable number of texts in Italian, Latin, French, and even Arabic and Greek. The contents of the seminar will be adapted as much as possible to the students’ needs and interests. The objective is to provide tools and techniques to successfully utilize the AGS documentation for a wide range of research projects, as well as for other studies conducted at the various Spanish State Archives that utilize PARES, the Spanish archives web portal, where you can access images of documents online from any location.
Students who complete the course will receive a certificate attesting to their work in this area. Learning to read early modern documents can certainly improve your Spanish and your understanding of old literature, as well as be of use in the job market. In addition, skills in paleography will allow students to deal with many of the premodern manuscripts in Romance languages and will make a difference in research work. We also hope that understanding the inner logic of the Simancas archive will enable students to address novel global and imperial topics.
This Summer Skills Seminar builds on the experience of earlier editions, which participants described as “transformative” in terms of their research, and which provided them with an opportunity to network and lay the foundations for future collaborations. For information and participant reviews of our former Skills Seminars see here.
Faculty
The course will be conducted by Prof. Rubén González Cuerva (Early Modern History, Spanish National Research Council). A graduate of the Autonomous University of Madrid (PhD, 2010) and now a historian of early modern Euro-Mediterranean diplomacy, González Cuerva has been using the collections of the AGS since 2006, primarily for research into Habsburg intra-dynastic relations and the foreign policy of the Spanish Monarchy. His books include Baltasar de Zúñiga. Una encrucijada de la Monarquía hispana (1561-1622) (Polifemo: 2012), (with Alexander Koller) A Europe of Courts, a Europe of Factions: Political Groupings at Early Modern Centres of Power (1550 – 1700) (Brill: 2017), (with Miguel Ángel de Bunes Ibarra) Túnez 1535: voces de una campaña europea (CSIC: 2017), (with Francesco Caprioli) Reconocer al infiel: la representación en la diplomacia hispano-musulmana (siglos XVI y XVII) (Sílex: 2021), and Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress (1528-1603): Dynastic Networker (Routledge: 2022) and he has written 75 more chapters and articles in 6 languages. He has held the Marie Curie Fellowship and has been Leonardo Fellow.
Application & Information
Applicants should have a good reading knowledge of modern Spanish. The language of instruction is English.
Please note: sessions will not be recorded; synchronous attendance is required.
The regular application period is until April 28.
Applicants will be advised of acceptance by May 5. Payment is due on May 12. Applicants waiting on a grant or subvention may request an extension for the second payment.
Late applicants may be accommodated if space remains. Full payment will be due within three days of acceptance, including a $75 surcharge for late applications.
All payments are final and non-refundable. A letter of confirmation/ receipt will be provided by the Mediterranean Seminar, together with a certificate of completion once the course has concluded.
Fees
• $1100 for Full Professors, Librarians & Professionals
• $825 for tenured Associates, Emerita/us, Retired Faculty, Independent Scholars & Non-Academics;
• $575 for non-tenured Associates and Assistants, Postdoctoral Fellows & Graduate and Undergraduate students;
• $400 for Adjuncts, Lecturers & Contingent faculty.
Members of University of Colorado departments may be eligible for a discount.
Limited reductions are offered to applicants who are (1) nationals; (2) current residents; (3) AND faculty or students in low-per-capita GDP countries may apply for a reduction (the Low-GDP Bursary program).
Payment information will be provided at the time of acceptance. Posted fees do not include a 5% processing fee.
All fees are non-refundable.
How do we determine our fees?
Why have our fees gone up?
Can I get a reduction in fees?
What is the low-GDP Bursary program?
Program
Monday, 14 July 2025
1. What’s in the castle? An introduction to the General Archives of Simancas
2. Online research: searching and reading with PARES
Tuesday, 15 July 2025
1. It’s my first day… Strategies and practices for using the archive
2. Knowing and reading the “State” section
Wednesday, 16 July 2025
1. How much is lxqclxiiiUdccxii mrs? Numbers and economics
2. Knowing and reading the “War and Marine” section
Thursday, 17 July 2025
1. What else? Administrative sections and other archives
2. Transcribing and editing original sources
Important dates:
Application period: 28 April 2025
Acceptance/stand by notifications: 5 May 2025
Full payment: 12 May 2025 (subject to extension for late applicants/ or pending grants)
NOTE: Numbers are limited; participants are encouraged to apply early.
Information
For general information regarding fees, enrollment, and administrative matters, contact the Mediterranean Seminar; for questions regarding seminar content and materials, contact the instructor directly.