PROLOGUE

JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

SPRING 1986 VOL . 18 NO . 1

" No history ... can be written without precise knowledge of the vast resources of its archives . ... To prospect and catalogue ... these mines of the purest historical gold , would take not one lifetime but at least twenty . ... Need I confess that I have not been able to examine all the documents available to me in the archives , no matter how hard I tried . I know in advance that [ my ] conclusions will be examined , discussed , and replaced by others and I am glad of it . That is how history progresses and must progress . "

Fernand Braudel , La Méditerranée et le Monde Méditerranéen à l'Époque de Philippe II

UNIV . of MICH .

JUN 2 4 1986

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