60 4 Reviews of Books

the Arab and Muslim civilization of the Middle East from the eighth century to
the twentieth, and in the main he has observed that Jews shared society more fully,
more equally, and more justly with the Muslims than they did at the same times
with the Christians of Europe. Here, and in particular in the medieval period,
Professor Goitein is at home with the sources and gives a fine picture of the
economic and cultural unity of the two peoples. He considers the high point of
Jewish-Arab symbiosis to have been the Hebrew poetry of Muslim lands, especially
of Spain, and asserts that the influence of Arabic poetry gave rise to the rich
medieval Hebrew poetry.
In conclusion, the author rightly notes that the present State of Israel and
the Jewish society established therein are products of nineteenth-century Western
thought and development. Likewise, he notes that Arab nations and peoples are
today experiencing a similar Western impact, and he optimistically believes that
as Westernization proceeds among the Arabs the possibilities of peace between
the Arab states and Israel are enhanced. Of the present tensions he does not admit
of any fault or responsibility on the part of Israel and sees the only chance of ulti-
mate peace in a long exercise of a stabilizing influence by a Great Power. Since
the book is addressed to the American public, the implication is apparent.

Ohio State University SYDNEY NETTLETON FISHER

ALBUM DE PALEOGRAFfA HISPANOAMERICANA DE LOS SIGLOS

XVI Y XVII. Volume I, INTRODUCCI6N. Volume 11, II, LAMINAS. Vol-
ume III,
Ill, TRANSCRIPCIONES. By Agustfn Millares Carlo and lose Jose Ignacio
Mantec6n. [Instituto Panamericano de Geograffa e Historia, Comision de
Historia, 46. Manuales de Tecnica de la Investigacion de la Historia y Ciencias
III.] (Mexico, D. F.: Instituto Panamericano de GeograHa e Historia.
Afines, Ill.]
18 7; xv, 93 plates; xvi, 13 2 .)
1955. Pp. x, 187;
AMONG contemporary specialists in Spanish and Spanish American paleography
none outranks Agustfn
Agustin Millares Carlo, who has now produced, along with Sr.
Mantecon, what is unquestionably the best general introduction to the study of
Spanish American paleography of the colonial period. In order to acquaint the
student with the historical origins and evolutionary problems of the successive
Spanish hands, the first volume surveys-concisely, authoritatively, and with
much recent bibliographical data-the general development of Spanish writing
styles from Roman times on. Major attention is naturally given the later Middle
Ages and the Siglo de Oro, the periods that established in Spain and the Indies the
intricate, sophisticated escribano hands, which with their peculiar letter forms,
symbols, and contractions demand special preparation on the part of the historian
using sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Hispanic archival materials. The two
dominant styles, the escritura cortesana and the escritura procesal, receive careful
analysis; and abundant illustrations of letter and numeral forms, and extensive
 Perkins: The First Rapprochement 60 5
tables of ligatures, signs, and abbreviations, are provided. Pre-Hispanic Indian
paleography is briefly treated; and a valuable chapter discusses the norms of
transcribing and publishing documents, a matter of prime significance given the
wide variations in orthography, punctuation, and textual license modern editors
display.
As in all sound paleographical manuals, the aim here is not merely historical
or theoretical but didactic and practical. Hence the splendid collection of ninety-
three plates forming the second volume, which are excellently reproduced in quite
large format and removable for close study. These plates have been selected to
illustrate not only different hands but also various types of documents, ranging
from royal cedulas and governmental and municipal texts (including cabildo
aetas) to ecclesiastical and private items of various types. In the third volume each
of these examples is carefully transcribed, and subjected to detailed diplomatic and
paleographical analysis as regards its documentary form and the specific peculiari-
ties of its script, abbreviations, and ligatures.
Of the high scientific caliber and utility of this work there can be no question,
and it will be warmly welcomed by all students of the period. Two minor criti-
cisms may be submitted. First, more attention might have been given the abundant
narrative or literary materials encountered by the working historian in the form
of chronicles, relaciones, letters, ordenanzas, and the like. Secondly, even allowing
for the identity (as stressed by the authors) of peninsular and colonial styles, the
selection of almost all examples from sources of American origin creates a some-
what unbalanced impression of what one encounters in Spanish and colonial
archives. A few notarial texts from such metropolitan agencies as the Consejo de
Indias, the Casa de Contratacion, the Inquisition, and others, might well have
been included.
University of Virginia C. J. BISHKO

THE FIRST RAPPROCHEMENT: ENGLAND AND THE UNITED

STATES, 1795-1805. By Bradford Perkins. (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press for American Historical Association. 1955. Pp. xii, 257.
$5.00.)
THIS superlative monograph, based principally on American and British
archives, is an irenic study of Anglo-American relations from the signature of
Jay's Treaty in 1794 until the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803 following
the short-lived Peace of Amiens. The author rightly points out that the full sig-
nificance of the Jay Treaty is not to be realized so much by a close study of the
actual negotiations as it is in a measurement of its long-range results as a piece
of statecraft advantageous to both countries. For its effects were delayed and
cumulative, evidenced in a hopeful drawing together in feeling and interests by
Great Britain and the United States. Manifestations of this better understanding,