The Red Book of Gran Canaria

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Cultural spaces · Subcategory: Libraries and archives · Year: 1580

The Book of Privileges or Great Book of Provisions and Royal Decrees, also known as the Red Book of Gran Canaria , is a manuscript of vital importance for the history of the Canary Islands and Gran Canaria in particular. 

Since 1936 it has been kept in the library of the Museo Canario (Canary Museum), and it was one of the few documents preserved after the terrible fire that destroyed the Town Halls of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 1842. The volume owes its name to the original colour of the leather binding. 

The Red Book owes its importance and great historical and legal relevance for the history of the Canary Islands to containing a large part of the provisions and royal decrees granted to Gran Canaria by the Catholic Monarchs, Queen Joanna, Charles V and Philip II. This compilation, made up of copies of the original documents, was checked by the chief clerk Alonso de Balboa between 1580 and 1583.

This valuable document consists of 196 folios, to which must be added an initial page featuring a coat of arms, as well as an appendix composed of 14 sheets, whose foliation begins at number 202 and ends at 215.

The state of conservation of the original manuscript can generally be described as fairly regular, showing notable overall consistency in the support, although it presents specific deterioration due to the corrosive action of the inks and the fragility of such old paper.

Due to the great interest it presents for historians and in order to facilitate its consultation, the manuscript has been the subject of various critical editions and full or partial transcriptions.

We are therefore faced with one of the most prized jewels of the entire bibliographic treasure of the Canary Islands.

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