Le miroir de la tyrannie espagnole perpetrée aux Indes Occidentales

Bartolomé de las Casas
1620

The Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias is an account written by the dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas (1484–1566) at the end of his life, who condemned the mistreatment of the indigenous peoples of the Spanish Americas. Far from a bestseller, the Brevísima relación found a new life more than two decades later, when protestant factions in the Spanish Netherlands used the text as a way to connect the atrocities of the Spanish armies in the Low Countries to the atrocities of the Spanish in the Americas. From this moment on, the Brevísima relación became a go-to text for political enemies of Spain throughout the centuries, identifying the Spanish as cruel oppressors and themselves as the abused Indians. The JCB has many of these editions, such as this illustrated 1620 edition from Amsterdam.

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