Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas served as the Chief Chronicler of the Indies (Cronista Mayor) for the Spanish Crown under Kings Philip II and Philip III. This multi-volume work, often simply called the Décadas (Decades), was an officially commissioned history intended to document the entirety of the Castilians’ achievements in the New World from the time of Christopher Columbus up to the late 16th century. It stands as the first comprehensive and authorized narrative of the Spanish conquest and colonization. The volume attached, which contains the Descripción de las Indias Occidentales, acts as a geographical and administrative prologue to the main historical narrative. Herrera largely synthesized the work from confidential state papers, official correspondence, and reports from various colonial governors and viceroys within the Royal archives, making it an essential primary source for the study of early Spanish American history, geography, and governance. The attached book is a later scholarly reprint, published by the Royal Academy of History in Madrid, ensuring the text remains available for historical research.
Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas y Tierrafirme del Mar Océano (Tomo I: Descripción de las Indias Occidentales)