Toledo and the New World in the Sixteenth Century

It is curious to observe how local historians generally lack historical perspective. The local historian or chronicler of a city is usually a man who in most cases has lived in the city itself, knows its little hidden corners, its narrow streets and small plazas, its characters, such as Don Francisco, Doña Agata, Jovita, etc., as Azorín would say, but, absorbed by the minutiae, the legacy of an era of leadership in government, he lives estranged from the outside world, as though the happenings in it did not affect his own city.