Books by Helen Nader

From the moment King Fernando and Queen Isabel sponsored Christopher Columbus's voyage, they began issuing contracts, decrees, and privileges implementing the project. Previous editions of these collected documents, known as the Book of Privileges, have been published. Yet because such editions have ordered the material as Columbus left it, use of these books has proven problematic. The Repertorium Columbianum edition presents these documents in chronological order, providing a continuous historical narrative of the monarchs' and Columbus's enterprise. (The documents also appear, separately, in Columbus's arrangement.) Superbly translated, with historical and philological commentary, this edition of the Book of Privileges is a valuable historical resource.

This text examines how the monarchs of Habsburg Spain extended seizures of church property to municipal property and used the revenue to maintain their empire. They sold charters of autonomy to hundreds of villages, thus converting them into towns, and sold towns to private buyers.