
Before the Jesuit Francisco de Florencia was able to publish the History of the Province (1694) he was forced to remove several chapters from the second book of the first volume. The section that was cut out of his manuscript reviews the errors of ancient theories on the environment of the New World, the greatness of Mexico City before the Spanish conquest, and the natural abundance of New Spain. This document is extremely valuable because it demonstrates how colonial historians were restricted by state censorship in what they were able to publish on America. The transcription of this censored section is preceded by an introduction that provides a brief historical sketch of Florencia's travels in the Old World, the general context in which the History of the Province was penned, and two possible reasons why his chronicle was censored
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jason-dyck/3/
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8157-0125
Original article published at http://doi.org/10.22201/iih.24486922e.2011.044.24005