Primary Source: "Recopilación de leyes de los reinos de las Indias, Libro 1, título 24: De los libros, que se imprimen y pasan a las Indias," 1681
1943 reprint, Benson Latin American Collection, LAC-ZZ Rare Books, -Q-GZZ 349.46 SP1R 1681
http://catalog.lib.utexas.edu/record=b6162603~S10
The Laws of the Indies are the entire body of laws issued by the Spanish Crown for its colonies in the Americas and Philippines. It consists of a series of collections of decrees compiled and published by royal authorization, culminating in the Recopilación de las leyes de los reinos de Indias (1680). It contains 6,377 laws in nine books that are subdivided into 218 chapters that regulated social, political and economic life in these colonies. The contents of the nine books are as follows: (1) church government and education; (2) the Council of the Indies and the audiencias; (3) political and military administration—viceroys and captains general; (4) discoveries, colonization, and municipal government; (5) provincial government and lower courts; (6) Indians; (7) penal law; (8) public finance; and (9) navigation and commerce.
Book 1, Chapter 24 outlines fifteen laws governing the printing and circulation of books in the Americas. These laws include regulations of the transatlantic book trade, restrictions on the printing of books whose subject matter relates to the the Indies and the banning of Amerindian art or languages from being printed without examination and approval by the Royal Council of the Indies. There is also a law calling on governors, justices, and bishops in the Indies to confiscate and report the circulation of heretical books against Church doctrine.
In order to create a framework of the colonial space in which books were printed and disseminated in the Americas, it is crucial to understand the legal frameworks created by the metropole to regulate the book trade and print culture. These laws provide insight into how control over the dissemination of ideas, knowledge, and Church doctrine were central concerns of the Spanish empire in the Americas.
