240

HAHR

NAY

tion from Spain. Alegre's account lacks the subjective, einotiollal

overtones of an articulate creole's search for an American historical
past that lends a note of pathos to Clavigero's history. But Alegre,
on the other hand, composed a monumental primary source that must
be consulted for any activity in which the Jesuits prominently participated. The editors deserve congratulations for makiilg this iniportant text available in a definitive edition.
University of Wisconsin-Aiilwa~lkee

JOHN
LEDDPPHELAN

L o s nzonumentos arqzcitecto'nicos d e l a Espafiola. 2 vols. By ERTVIX

WALTERPALM. Ciudad Trujillo, 1955. Printed ill Spain. Publicaciones de la Universidad de Santo Domingo. 237 illustrations,
13 plans. 31 pages bibliography. Index. P p . xxxii, 363.
Some monographs on Latin Ainerican colonial architecture succeed
in making even a rich epoch dull; Dr. Palm has presented the colonial
architecture of Santo Domingo against such a tapestry of cultural and
historical details as to enliven that meager and shrunken heritage.
His first two chapters, 150 pages long, are devoted to the general
history and sociology of the colonization of Spanish America. Even
the third chapter, with 30 pages, which takes u p the specific character
of Espafiola architecture, contains general esthetic evaluations. The
second ~rolumepresents the various religious and civil monumeilts in
detail, covering the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries consecutively in
the first three chapters. The cathedral, which stands unique ailloilg
ecclesiastical buildings of Spanish America, receives about 30 pages
and 50 photographs.
Aluch of the architecture discussed is now in ruins or demolished.
Besides the precise descriptions, pleasant sidelights enliven the text.
Early plans and drawings, paired with recent photographs, give threedimensionality. The author's profound familiarity with the material
produces a relaxed tone which in no way detracts from the exacting
scholarship of the morli. Wide art-historical knowledge and a wellfunctioning visual memory are manifest in the presentation of the
San Bernardino church in Perugia, Italy, as the precursor of the
Santo Domingo cathedral f a ~ a d e .
In the final chapter, of 19 pages, Dr. Palm delves into the cosmotheological representation on the ceiling of the Rosary Chapel of the
Dominican monastery. This is a line which few art historians have
followed and constitutes a considerable study in itself, revealing a
little-linown aspect of the intellectual climate of the Post-Renaissance.
I n spite of this unusual contribution, one misses whatever renlains of

the sculpture and painting of Espafiola-which

perhaps could have
been included in a few pages, to round out the survey. The iconography surely \vould have revealed as interesting links with the Old
TVorld and the mainland of the Americas as the book brings out in
the field of architecture.
About 250 illustrations accompany the two volumes, inally of then1
excellent photographs taken by the author's wife. A syiioptic table
showing the vicissitudes of the monuments-caused
by earthquakes,
hurricanes, wars, deterioration and demolition-furnishes
a sad explanation why the colonial architecture of Santo Domingo, ail area
of unparalleled importance in the Conquest and after, is so doleful
today.
Norfolk, Coi~necticut

PLL KELEMEN

Gz1er.f-a del Pacifico. By OONZALO

BULKES. Introduction by FRANCISCO A. EXCIKA. Santiago, Chile, 1955. Editorial del Pacifico.
Map. 3 Vols. P p . 408, 365, 330. Paper.
This reprint of a \vork that first appeared ill 1911-1919 is very
~vellproduced, though more maps and an index would have been worth
adding, and it is to be warmly \velcomed. Hitherto its author has
been best kno\vn abroad through the English version of his work oil
the causes of the War of the Pacific. This work on the war itself is
not nilfairly described by Encina as the masterpiece of South American historiography. I t is also a monument to the ideals and aspirations of ail epoch; Bulnes belonged to one of Chile's great political
families. H e produced a massive and comprehelisive work of scholarship, clear in arrangement, lucid in style, precise in ilarratioil; fnlly
docnrnented from books and official sources, and also from the private
papers of most of the leading Chileans, to which Bulnes, a i friend or
relative of most of them, had access. He was writing a ilatiollal epic.
and he left comparatively little to be added from the standpoii~tof
Chile; from that of Peru no equally thorough study has appeared,
while later historians abroad have been concerned chiefly with the
interests and diplomatic activities in the war of governments outside
South America. Bulnes rose above the more vulgar patriotic prejudices, achieving a n impartiality that may be seen particularly in Vol.
I1 in his treatment of the Peruvian dictator PiBrola, the battle of
Tacna, the capture of Arica, and the breach of the armistice of Miraflores. I n Vol. I11 his picture of his friend Admiral Lynch building