Historical Sketch fi 
fire, dampness, and disturbance. The ordinances (ordenanzas) drawn by 
Revilla Gigedo in 1793 for the regulation of the archive, together with the 
plans executed by Miguel Costanso for remodelling the Alcazar, show what 
the archive was intended to be and what a large number of collections were 
in prospect. According to the second paragraph of these ordenanzas, as soon 
as the building should be ready all completed expedientes antedating 1760 and 
not needed for the transaction of current business were to be sent to the 
Archivo General from more than a score of specified repositories, of which 
the Secretariat of the Viceroyalty (Secretaria del Virreinato) headed the 
list. At the end of each decade a remittance was to be made of all papers 
thirty years old or more, unless needed for the despatch of current business. 
It was also suggested that Puebla and other provincial cities might, if they 
chose, remit their older records to the common centre.’ 
The viceroy proceeded with the plan even so far as to issue in October, 
1793, to the various offices named and to others, orders to prepare for the 
first delivery as soon as the ordenanzas should be approved and the building 
ready.. At the close of Revilla Gigedo’s administration, however, the matter 
was still awaiting the final royal approval, which, it seems, it never received. 
In consequence, the project of an archivo general, as conceived by Revilla 
Gigedo, was postponed until the era of Independence. This, however, did not 
prevent Revilla Gigedo from forming of the papers of his own office a collec- 
tion which he called the Archivo General, and which later became the nucleus 
of the present Archivo General y Publico de la Nacion. At the beginning of 
his term most of the papers of the Secretariat of the Viceroyalty had been in 
great disorder. Before he retired, systematic series of bound volumes had 
been formed of royal cédulas and orders (reales cédulas y érdenes) and of 
communications of the viceroys to the court of Spain (correspondencia de 
los Virreyes), while a large part of the expedientes from the various tables 
(mesas) of the Secretariat had been classified under subject headings and 
arranged in the form which they now retain in the Archivo General y Publico. 
Besides this general collection, a small secret archive was formed. The 
remains of this “ archivo secreto”’, it appears, found their way into Seccion 
de Historia, in 1872 or 1873. (See p. 20.) The chief agent in performing 
these important labors was the intelligent and industrious secretary, Antonio 
Bonilla, otherwise known for his valuable historical sketches. 
As an incident to the formation of the “ Memorias de Nueva Espajfia’’, in 
1790-1792, a thirty-two volume collection of historical documents,’ Revilla 
Gigedo also gathered into the Archivo General of the Secretariat valuable 
* The following is the list of archives enumerated. It is given here because it is 
instructive upon the subject of the archives existing at the time: 
Secretaria del Virreinato; Oficio de Gobierno; Escribania de Camara de la Real 
Audiencia y Sala del Crimen ; Cancelleria ; Juzgados de Bienes de Difuntos y de Yndios ; 
Oficios de Provincia; Contaduria Mayor de Cuentas; Real Casa de Moneda; Tesoreria 
y Contaduria de Exército y Real Hacienda; Contaduria de Media Anata y Azogues; 
Alcabalas; Tabaco; Polvora; Naipes; Loteria; Juzgados de la Nobilisima Ciudad; Con- 
sulado; Mineria: Estado y ‘Marquesado del Valle; Temporalidades; Proto- medicato ; 
Real y Pontificia Universidad. (Ordenanzas, Sept. 18, 1793, in Seccién de Historia, 
A. G., vol. 267a.) 
® [bid. 
* Correspondencia, ibid. 
5 The arrangement of these series had been begun by Peramas, secretary to Viceroy 
Bucareli. 
* See references to his writings in the index. 
™ See p. 21. 
