[De thesauris, Doce dudas, Casas' last memorial to the Consejo de Indias, and Selections of Casas' last will and testament]
Contributors: Philip II, King of Spain, 1527-1598; Alonso de la Vera Cruz, fray, approximately 1507-1584; León, Nicolás, 1859-1929; Spain. Sovereign (1556-1598 : Philip II)
Published: 1566
Place of publication: Valladolid
Language: lat
Number of pages: 230
Subjects: Indians of South America; Wills; Administration; Antiquities; Consejo de Indias (Spain); Spanish; Colonies; Manuscripts; Treatment of Indians
Other titles: Esto libro compuso el reverendissimo don frai Bartholome de las Casas obispo de Chiapa.; Doce dudas.
Work titles: De thesauris
Notes: Ms. codex.

Title supplied by cataloguer.

Three manuscript copies, according to Wagner, were made either by or for fray Alonso de la Veracruz, Casas' colleague, though the handwriting in this copy has now been determined not to be his.

Caption title on leaf 1 recto reads: Esto libro conpuso [sic] el reverendissimo don frai Bartholome de las Casas obispo de Chiapa.

Place and date of production of "after July 1566" suggested by correspondence of Dietrich Batz in 1992, which is housed in the JCB bibliographical file, in which he suggests that this manuscript is a later copy of the one authorized by Bartolomé de las Casas and read aloud in May 1566 to the Consejo de Indias. A detailed comparison of the copy in his possession (originally acquired by Sir Thomas Phillipps in 1869) notes the differences from the May, 1566 copy and this one, and he notes that the watermark denotes that the paper derives from Valladolid, after July, 1566.

The text of the manuscript and most marginal notes seem to be written in one hand.

"De thesauris", leaf 1 recto-leaf 133 verso, one of Casas' last treatises, addressed the question of who owned the treasures which were found by the Spanish colonists in the temples of the Incas, and according to a note in a different hand than the the body of the manuscript is written (leaf 1 recto) "año 1563". This treatise remained unpublished until it was printed from the manuscript in the Biblioteca del Palacio de Madrid, Madrid, 1958.

"Doce dudas", leaf 135 recto-leaf 226 verso, another of Casas' last treatises, is dated December, 1563 (leaf 157 verso) and addressed the conditions of the Indians in Peru gathered from missionary reports. The "Doce dudas" begins with a dedication to King Philip II on leaf 135 recto-leaf 137 verso. This treatise remained unpublished until it was printed from the manuscript in the Biblioteca del Palacio de Madrid, Madrid, 1958.

Casas' last memoral to the Consejo de Indias, leaf 227 recto-leaf 228 verso, begins: "Muy p[odero]sos soberanos s[eñore]s;. El ob[is]po q[ue] fue de Chiapa beso las manos de V[uestras] Al[tezas] y suplicio tengan por bien con atencion oyr lo q[ue] dixere ...". This letter, addressed to King Philip II, referred to the De thesauris and the Doce dudas and urged the King to form a junta to reform the Consejo de Indias.

Selections from Casas' last will and testament, leaf 229 recto-leaf 230 verso, begins: "El obispo de Chiapa don fray Bartholome de las Casas auctor de los sobre dichos tractados que al uno dize testamento que es el de Thesaurus y al otro llama codicilo que es de las Doze dudas despues que dio a Su Magestad los dos dichos libros y la peticion sobre dicha ...". His will was authorized on March 17, 1564, and here lacks notarial certitication. Apparently, no compete copy of his last will and testament is known to exist.

Signatures: a-q⁸ r⁶ A⁸ ²b-²m⁸

Hanke, L. Bartolomé de las Casas, 1474-1566, p. 190-192.

Wagner, H.R. Life and writings of Bartolomé de las Casas, p. 296-297 (De thesauris and Doce dudas)

Wagner, H.R. Life and writings of Bartolomé de las Casas, p. 297 (Last memorial and Last will and testament)

Bibliotheca Americana: catalogue of the John Carter Brown Library in Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, I: p. 220.

John Carter Brown Library has a manuscript copy of Doce dudas bound in a quarto sammelband with call number B552 .C334b [R]

John Carter Brown Library copy bound in contemporary full blind-tooled calf.

Provenance of the John Carter Brown Library copy: Nicolas León: bookplate on front pastedown and book stamp on leaf 1 recto.