In this blog post, you will find a book that can help you Learn How to Decipher Spanish Documents From the Twelve Through the Seventeenth Centuries. As a researcher you may slowly be making your way back to Spain following the paper trail left by your ancestors, only to find that you can’t read them. I know that those documents may look foreign and undecipherable. I know this because I am in the same boat and that is the reason that I have not ventured any further into Spanish genealogical research.
The documents that I have found are dated in the 1500’s but for the love of God I can’t even make out what they say. I know I have the right ones since I have seen other researchers cite them.
Here is a free resource that you, if time is made to read it, will help you immensely to learn how to decipher those documents. It is a book called “Manual de Paleografia Diplomatica Espanola de los Siglos XII al XVII” and it is in Spanish. The translation of the title goes something like this “Manual of Spanish Diplomatic Paleography of the XII to XVII Centuries”.
Cover Page of Book: Manual de Paleografia Diplomatica Espanola de los Siglos XII al XVII
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This book was written by Jesus Munoz y Rivero back in 1880 but its instruction is timeless to help you learn how to decipher Spanish documents.
As the title mentions this manual covers Spanish paleography from the twelve to the seventeen centuries. It contains great references to what abbreviations mean and it also has many examples of documents that you can practice what you learn with.
Even if you don’t need at this moment or you have yet to find any Spanish documents I highly want to encourage you to get a copy of this book. It is better to have it in your digital library than later on need it and you can’t find this post or the book.
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Other Great Resources To Help You Read Documents
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Learn to Read Spanish Documents from the 16th and 17th Centuries