Provincias - History Lab

Manual calendar and guide for strangers in Madrid

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:51 +0000

An annual publication founded in 1722 by Luis Félix de Miraval y Spínola, who in the same year obtained the marquisate of Miraval, and Gaspar Ezpeleta, and which until 1734 was entitled Kalendario particular. From 1725 its printer was Juan Sanz, then his heirs, and from 1730, Antonio Sanz, his nephew, who in 1769 ceded the rights to the Spanish Crown in exchange for a lifelong pension. The most complete collection was acquired by the Royal Academy of History, and the one in the possession of the National Library of Spain begins in 1744, stamped with a privilege held by Antonio Sanz, printer to the King and his council. The title page states that it contains the births of the kings, queens, the seventy members of the Sacred College of Cardinals, the princes of Europe, the ministers who make up His Majesty’s courts in their kingdoms, with an indication of their private residences in Madrid. In short, it is a very complete guide to the State Administration of the ancien régime, with an indication of its executive and consultative bodies (royal councils, boards), scientific and academic institutions and other bodies and entities that the Spanish monarchy created throughout the eighteenth century (including the Royal Public Library itself), the book includes the names of the archbishops and bishops of Spain and the Indies, the composition of the courts (chancillerías and audiencias), the list of kingdoms and provinces and partidos, with the names of their governors, intendants and corregidores. It begins with the Gregorian calendar, with the saints’ calendar for each day and astronomical data, and also contains the 40-hour jubilee, as well as statistical data on marriages, births and deaths in the parishes of Madrid, and a summary of the sick in their hospitals. There is also another section on the days on which the court dresses up or the days on which the mails come and leave the General Post Office of Castile in this court, or the list of the Knights of the Golden Fleece. It will also include the values of Spanish coins and their exchange values with the most important coins in Europe. From 1768 it will be accompanied by the Estado militar de España, with its own title page, with the names of the captains and lieutenant generals of His Majesty’s Army, field marshals, brigadiers and naval officers, etc. In the 1767 edition he began to include engravings, such as those of Charles III, the Princes of Asturias and the one of the Palace of Aranjuez, and later those of Charles IV and Queen Maria Luisa, before including those of Ferdinand VII and his daughter, the young Queen Isabella II, in the 19th century. He would also print a dozen maps of Spain and plans by Tomás López and his sons. In 1774, it left the Royal Printing House of the Gazette, and included the lists of knights of Charles III, professors of the Royal Studies, ambassadors and consuls and vice-consuls of the King abroad, the chronology of the kings of Spain and the calendar of the main fairs. In 1790 it already included an index, at the end or at the beginning, and in the 19th century, the lists of the Royal Order of Noble Ladies, the economic societies and the Royal Seminary of Nobles. Its volume increased over the years, from a hundred to over four hundred pages. During the invasion of the Napoleonic army, the kalendario did not appear in 1809 or 1810, and in 1811 it left the printing house of Miguel Segovia, printer to the Royal Navy, from the Royal Island of León in Cadiz, produced by two of the editors who were in charge of the main guides for foreigners, litigants, commerce and finance, and war and the navy in Madrid, and entitled Guía patriótica de España (Patriotic Guide to Spain). It includes an introduction narrating the difficulties encountered in producing it and will consist of two parts. The first part will give an account of the legitimate government, its courts and military state, and the second of the corps and officers of the armies resident in Cadiz, as well as the list of deputies of the Cortes, accompanied by an article. Those of 1812 and 1813 were entitled Guía política de las España, and were also printed in Cádiz, the first in the office of the widow of Comes, and the second in the Imprenta Nacional. In this case it is written by a single editor, and includes patriotic ephemeris of the main events that have been taking place during the war against the French armies, and introductory articles to the list of the legislative body, list of deputies and of the court and secretariat of State of Cortes, executive power, supreme council of Regency, Council of State, ambassadors and commanders of the armies. The 1813 edition will include an addendum entitled Exércitos nacionales. On the return of Ferdinand VII, it returned to its previous title and to practically the same contents as it had published during the old regime, until during the liberal triennium, when it again changed its title and some of its contents, once again including the list of deputies to the Cortes and the new administrative institutions that the incipient liberal State was beginning to create. In 1821 it was entitled Guía de forasteros en Madrid, and in 1822 and 1823 Guía política y militar, printed at the Imprenta Nacional, formerly the Imprenta Real. For its part, the Estado militar de España, which had been published together with the kalendario, in 1821, 1822 and 1823 was entitled Estado de los ejércitos de la monarquía española (State of the Armies of the Spanish Monarchy). The calendar for 1825 is also interesting because the “purified” did not appear in the lists. This publication would continue to be published until 1837, when it was replaced by the Guía de forasteros en Madrid, which included engravings of the queen governor Maria Cristina and her daughter, Isabel II, and gave an account of the new organisation that the liberal state was creating to replace that of the old regime, the kalendario is therefore a basic source of information for understanding both the evolution of the state structure and the holders of its numerous organs and institutions, from the absolutist and enlightened monarchy of the eighteenth century to the first decades of the construction of the liberal state, with its two most influential episodes, the constituent Cortes of Cadiz and its epigone of the triennium.

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Map of the ecclesiastical division of Spain at the end of the 18th century

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:59 +0000

During the Modern Age, Spain acquired numerous regional and provincial divisions. The different eras and reigns, especially in the 18th century, modified the jurisdictional divisions of the civil administration. The Enlightenment sought a more rationalised structure of Spain with criteria of convergence of interests. However, there was another division, parallel to the civil division, and equally important. This was the ecclesiastical division into archbishoprics. The Spanish ecclesiastical structure took shape during the Reconquest, with the archbishopric of Toledo being the greatest beneficiary on a territorial level due to its central location. Like the civil structure, it underwent changes, arriving at the end of the 18th century with the structures shown on the map. The archbishopric of Toledo was still the most important in the Peninsula and one of the largest, along with the archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela. These large areas were subdivided into dioceses and bishoprics and these, in turn, into vicariates, archpriestships and parishes. The complicated interweaving of civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions meant that they did not coincide with each other until well into the contemporary period. Even some provinces, such as Albacete, did not have civil-religious concordance until the creation of its diocese in 1949.

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Neighbours, families and secular inhabitants according to the Cadastre of Ensenada (1752)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:40 +0000

The Cadastre of the Marquis de la Ensenada, carried out in the middle of the 18th century in the Crown of Castile, is one of the main historical sources for the study of demography, economy and territory. It consisted of several books dealing with numerous aspects; the resource shown here corresponds to the Neighbourhood and Census books. By regions, the territories of Andalusia had 1,462,449 inhabitants, Old Castile and León had 1,988,698, New Castile, including Madrid, had 1,040,972, Extremadura had 373,022 inhabitants, while Galicia and Murcia had 1,299312 and 272,057 respectively. A total of approximately 6,436,510 inhabitants for the Crown, where the most populated provinces were Seville (694,771), León (563,689) and Granada (545,285); those with the fewest inhabitants were Zamora (62,304), Toro (79,212) and Ávila (98,873).

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Neighbourhood of 1683, original data and reconstruction

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:40 +0000

In 1683, by order of Charles II, the Vecindario was published, which counted the inhabitants of the Crown of Castile in order to establish a more up-to-date tax system that would allow for more efficient revenue for the Royal Treasury. Who were considered to be inhabitants? Family units were counted as neighbours, so the data does not reflect the number of inhabitants. In order to obtain the total population, the author applies an average coefficient based on the size of the family. The resource shows this demographic data in column “F”, giving a total population of 4,786,882. By region, the North Atlantic coast, Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria had 1,416,200 inhabitants, the largest population, followed by Andalusia (1,117,880) and Castile and Leon (1,087,202). At the provincial level, Seville, Granada and Toledo were the most inhabited areas with 316,800, 304,100 and 241,240 inhabitants respectively. Of all the regions and provinces, Galicia stands out with 950,000 inhabitants, a significant number in relation to the size and type of population. In contrast, the most depopulated territories were Zamora (39,120), Toro (47,576) and Córdoba (65,480). From 1683 to 1753, the years of the Ensenada Cadastre, the general trend continued; although the population increased in all areas, the imbalances were similar.

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