The State of Scientific Inquiry in Colonial Spanish America During the Enlightenment: A Preliminary Bibliography
HE scientific contributions of native scholars in the Americas have often been overlooked or neglected. The simultaneous discoveries of European scientists reached a wider audience because of the number of education centers in close proximity. The existence of several scholarly journals also facilitated the rapid dispensation of new scientific knowledge. Although Spanish American scholars lived far from the centers of European knowledge, there was no appreciable time lag between European discoveries and their circulation in Spain's colonies. On the other hand, Spanish American discoveries were unknown in Europe or North America except to a handful of prominent scholars. Although it is generally known at present that colonial Spanish Americans were familiar with European endeavors in science, the association of Europeans with the major discoveries in science in the Enlightenment has overshadowed colonial contributions. The purpose of this bibliographical sketch is to indicate the major works that delve into the state of scientific endeavors in colonial Spanish America and manifest a flourishing native scientific community. Arthur P. Whitaker's collection of articles in Latin America and the Enlightenment (Ithaca, 1961) is a sketchy and incomplete analysis of the Enlightenment and its effects in Spanish America. This work is more of a list of names and libraries than an in-depth scholarly work. The lists are useful though as an indication of the number of scientific activities and scholars present and active in the Spanish colonies in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Another work not devoted to a single country is Modesto Bargallo Ardevol's, La mineria y la metalurgia en la America espaniola durante la 6poca colonial (Mexico, 1955). This work, which contains an excellent bibliography, is the best work on the development of mining to independence. Although this work covers all of Spanish America, the stress is on Mexico. Bargallo stresses the changes in the Enlightenment and contributions of native Mexicans to the science of metallurgy. Several general works mention scientific developments in the Enlightenment. Richard E. Greenleaf's edition on The Roman Catholic Church in Colonial Latin America (New York, 1971) covers clergymen as naturalists in addition to references to Jos6 Celestino Mutis, Francisco Jos6 de