While there are a few good source collections containing Spanish document that have been translated into English, most of these deal either entirely or in large part with the Spanish experience in the New World.  By comparison, for doing the history of the Spanish peninsula, the number of documents available in English are far fewer.  Furthermore, what is available tends to be terribly overweighted toward the period of the Spanish Civil War, concerning which there are several quite good English-language documentary collections.

 The following list has been compiled in an attempt to let students know as much as possible about what Spanish documentary material is available in English.  I make no claim that it is a definitive list.  What is more, it is a list that will continue to expand as more items come to the attention of this professor.

In choosing a paper topic, unless you are fairly fluent in Spanish, I would strongly recommend that you try to find one for which at least some primary documentary material is available.  This list is a good place to start.


Ancient Iberia and Hispania

Roman Civilization, volume 1:  The Republic; volume 2:  The Empire, selected and edited by Naphtali Lew and Meyer Reinhold.  (See Spain in the index to each volume.)

Titus Livy, A History of Rome.

Plutarch, Lives.

Polybius, The Histories.

Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars.

Roman Laws And Charters: Three Spanish Charters And Other Documents, edited by Ernest George Hardy.

[In the case of Roman authors, such as Livy and Suetonius, who deal with Spain during the Roman Period, it is best to go to the full editions of their works in the Loeb Classical Library.  These volumes contain not only English translations, but also extensive indices.  They also reproduce the interesting information about places and peoples that are often cut out of abbreviation versions.]


Medieval Spain:  Visigoths, Islam, Reconquista, and Unification

Medieval Iberia:  Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, edited by Olivia Remie Constable.

Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain 2nd ed. (Liverpool University Press - Translated Texts for Historians) prepared by Kenneth Baxter Wolf.

Julianus, The Story Of Wamba: Julian Of Toledo's Historia Wambae Regis, edited by Joaquin Martinez Pizarro.

Christians and Moors in Spain: Arabic Sources (711-1501), Vol. 3, edited by Charles P. Melville.

Literature of Al-Andalus, edited by Maria Rosa Menocal (2000).

The Poem of the Cid: Dual Language Edition (Penguin Classics).

The Code of Cuenca: Municipal Law on the Twelfth-Century Castilian Frontier (Middle Ages Series).

Las Siete Partidas, translated by Samuel Parsons Scott and edited by Robert I. Burns, S.J.

The Medieval Church, Volume 1: The World of Clerics and Laymen (Partida I)

Medieval Government, Volume 2: The World of Kings and Warriors (Partida II)

The Medieval World of Law, Volume 3: Lawyers and Their Work (Partida III)

Family, Commerce, and the Sea, Volume 4: The Worlds of Women and Merchants (Partidas IV and V)

Underworlds, Volume 5: The Dead, the Criminal, and the Marginalized (Partidas VI and VII)

The Usatges of Barcelona:  the Fundamental Law of Catalonia, trans. Donald J. Kagay.

The Customs of Catalonia between Lords and Vassals, trans. by Donald J. Kagay.

The Chronicle of San Juan de la Peña:  A Fourteenth-Century Official History of the Crown of Aragon, trans. by Lynn H. Nelson.

The English in Portugal:  Extracts from the Chronicles of Dom Fernando and Dom João, translated by Derek W. Lomax and R. J. Oakley.

[Note that for the medieval Spain quite a few of the translated sources are Spanish lawcodes from the period.  Using such sources, historians (and history students) can investigate contemporary views on any number of subjects.]


Spanish Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition, 1478-1614: An Anthology of Sources, edited by Lu Ann Homza.

J. A. Llorente, A Critical History of the Inquisition of Spain.


Imperial Spain

Documents in The Renaissance Reader.

Pursuit of Power, Venetian Ambassadors’ Reports on Turkey, France, and Spain in the Age of Philip II, 1560-1600, ed. by James C. Davis.

The Great Enterprise: The History of the Spanish Armada as revealed in contemporary documents, selected and edited by Stephen Usherwood.

State Papers Relating to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada Anno, 1588, Vol. 1 (1987).

Albert J. Loomie, Guy Fawkes in Spain: The 'Spanish Treason' in Spanish Documents.

Italian and Spanish Art, 1600-1750: Sources and Documents, prepared by Robert Enggass and Jonathan Brown.  
 
The organization of the Spanish army, by J Roure-Torent.


Iberian (both Spanish and Portuguese) Colonization

The Spanish Tradition in America, edited by Charles Gibson.

1492:  Discovery, Invasion, Encounter, edited by Marvin Lunenfeld

The European Reconnaissance:  Selected Documents, edited by J.H. Parry.

Luis de Camoes, The Lusiads.

A Spaniard in the Portuguese Indies:  The Narrative of Martín Fernández de Figueroa, translated by James B. McKenna.

Christopher Columbus, The Four Voyages: Being His Own Log-Book, Letters and Dispatches with Connecting Narrative, translated by J. M. Cohen.

Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief History with Documents in The Bedford Series in History and Culture, prepared by Geoffrey Symcox and Blair Sullivan (2005).

Christopher Columbus, The Journal of Christopher Columbus (during His First Voyage, 1492-93) and Documents Relating to the Voyages of John Cabot and Gaspar Corte Real.

The Life of Christopher Columbus: From Authentic Spanish and Italian Documents, prepared by J. J. Barry.

Christopher Columbus, First Voyage to America: From the Log of the Santa Maria (1991).

The Last Voyage of Columbus: Being the Epic Tale of the Great Captain's Fourth Expedition, Including Accounts of Swordfight, Mutiny, Shipwreck, Gold, War, Hurricane, and Discovery, edited by Martin Dugard (2005).

Hernando Cortés, 5 Letters of Cortés to the Emperor, translated by J. Bayard Morris.

André Thevet, Portraits from the Age of Exploration, translated by Edward Benson.

Bartolome de Las Casas, Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, introduction by Anthony Pagden, translated by Nigel Griffin.

First Encounters: Spanish Explorations in the Caribbean and the United States, 1492-1570, Vol. 9, edited by Jerald T. Milanich (1989).

Letters and People of the Spanish Indies: Sixteenth Century, edited by James Lockhart (1976).

Further English Voyages to Spanish America 1583-1594: Documents from the Archives of the Indies at Seville, edited and translated by Irene A. Wright.

English Privateering Voyages to the West Indies 1588-1595 : Documents Relating to English Voyages to the West Indies from the Defeat of the Armada to the Last Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, Including Spanish Documents Contributed By Irene A. Wright, edited by Kenneth R. Andrews, 1959.

Documents of West Indian History: From the Spanish Discovery to the British Conquest of Jamaica (Ethno-Conscious Series), prepared by Eric Williams.

John Esquemeling, The Buccaneers of America.

Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America, translated by Cyclone Covey (1983).

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca: His Account, His Life, and the Expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez (1999).

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition, edited by Harold Augenbraum and Fanny Bandelier.

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca (2003).

Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca, Castaways: The Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Vol. 10 (1993).
 
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, The Journey and Ordeal of Cabeza de Vaca: His Account of the Disastrous First European Exploration of the American Southwest (2004).

De Soto Chronicles: The Expedition of Hernando de Soto to North America in 1539-1543, edited by
Lawrence A. Clayton (1995).

Colonial Lives: Documents on Latin American History, 1550-1850, edited by Richard Boyer and Geoffrey Spurling.

Presidio and Militia on the Northern Frontier of New Spain: A Documentary History - 1570-1700, Vol. 1, edited by Thomas H. Naylor (1986).

The Coming of Justice to California: Three Documents, translated by Adelaide Smithers Galvin.

Spanish documents relating to the siege of Havana, prepared by Francis Russell Hart.

By Force of Arms: The Journal of Don Diego de Vargas, New Mexico, 1691-93, edited by John L. Kessell (1992).

Blood on the Boulders: The Journals of Don Diego de Vargas, New Mexico, 1694-1697, edited by John L. Kessell (1998)

Remote Beyond Compare: Letters of don Diego de Vargas to His Family from New Spain and New Mexico, 1675-1706, edited by John L. Kessell (2002).

The Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1696 and the Franciscan Missions in New Mexico: Letters of the Missionaries and Related Documents, prepared by J. Manuel Espinosa.

After Coronado.  Spanish Exploration Northeast of New Mexico, 1696 - 1727. Documents from the Archives of Spain, Mexico and New Mexico, by translated, edited and with a historical introduction by Alfred Barnaby Thomas.

Athanase de Méziéres and the Louisiana-Texas frontier, 1768-1780: Documents published for the first time, from the original Spanish and French manuscripts, translated by Herbert Eugene Bolton (1914).

Jose Narvaez the Forgotten Explorer: Including His Narrative of a Voyage on the Northwest Coast in 1788, edited by Jim McDowell (1998).

San Saba Papers: A Documentary Account of the Founding and Destruction of the San Saba Mission, edited by Lesley Byrd Simpson (1999).

Documents:  Reply of Mission San Antonio to the questionnaire of the Spanish government in 1812 concerning the native culture of the California mission Indians, by Pedro Cabot.


Spain in the 18th and 19th Centuries

Spain Under the Bourbons, 1700-1833:  A Collection of Documents, edited and translated by W. N. Hargreaves-Mawdsley.

Modern Spain: A Documentary History edited by John Cowans.

Bismark and the Hohenzollern Candidature for the Spanish Throne: The Documents in the German Diplomatic Archives, edited by Georges Bonnin (1957).

Reminiscences of the [Spanish-American] War by Returned Heroes (1899).

Making Peace with Spain:  The Diary of Whitelaw Reid (September-December, 1898), edited by Wayne Morgan.

Presidents from Hayes through McKinley, 1877-1901: Debating the Issues in Pro and Con Primary Document, selected by Amy H. Sturgis.

The Spanish-American War: A Collection of Documents relative to the Squadron Operations in the West Indies, prepared by Rear Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete.

Father Jose Burgos : a documentary history with Spanish documents and their translation, translated by John N. Schumacher.


20th Century:  Republic, Civil War and Modern Spain

Modern Spain: A Documentary History edited by John Cowans.

The Civil War in Spain:  History in the Making 1936-1939, gathered and annotated by Robert Payne.

Ronald Fraser, Blood of Spain:  An Oral History of the Spanish Civil War.

The Spanish Civil War (Documents and Debates Extended Series), by Patricia Knight.

Communist intervention in the Spanish War, 1936-1939 (Historical documents, no. 4), prepared by José Manuel Martínez Bande.
 
The Church and the Spanish War. Historical Documents, Volume 1, prepared by Luis Aguirre Prado.

Madrid 1937: Letters of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade From the Spanish Civil War, by Cary Nelson and Jefferson Hendricks.

City in War: American Views on Barcelona and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39, edited by James W. Cortada.

Jose Antonio de Aguirre, Escape via Berlin.

Luis Bolin, Spain:  The Vital Years.

Franz Borkenau, The Spanish Cockpit.

Andre Malraux, Man’s Hope.

Herbert L. Matthews, Half of Spain Died:  A Reappraisal of the Spanish Civil War.

George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia.

Elliot Paul, The Life and Death of a Spanish Town.

Julio Alvarez del Vayo, Give Me Combat, The Memoirs of Julio Alvarez del Vayo, translated by Donald D. Walsh.

The Wound and Dream: Sixty Years of American Poems about the Spanish Civil War (American Poetry Recovery Series), edited by Cary Nelson.

Disremembering the Dictatorship: The Politics of Memory in the Spanish Transition to Democracy, edited by Joan Ramon Resina (2000).

The Spanish Government and the Axis: Documents, by Department of State.

Carlton J. H. Hayes, Wartime Mission in Spain.


Spain and America

List of documents in Spanish archives relating to the history of the United States, Which have been printed or of which transcripts are preserved in American ... Papers of the Dept. of historical research by James Alexander Robertson (1910).