Las Instituciones políticas del Barón de Bielfeld: itinerario y presencia en el Río de La Plata y Chile (ss. XVIII-XIX)

Abstract

Within the framework of the international circulation of ideas and the transmission networks between Spain and the New World, the reform of the mail system in the second half of the 18th century was transcendental, since it allowed numerous new publications to reach South America. Among those were the Political Institutions of Jakob Friedrich von Bielfeld, whose presence in this geographic area has not yet been studied. Based on unpublished documentation, inventories of libraries and the press, the channels through which the aforementioned book arrived in Spain and its fate will be thoroughly analysed. Moreover, the manner in which books arrived in the Southern cone between the mid-18thcentury and well into the 19th century will be also analysed. Finally, the impact and the presence that Bielfeld ́s work had on both jurisdictions shall be studied.

Keywords

• circulation of ideas
• book trade
• private libraries
• political science
• baron of bielfeld