La visita pastoral como fuente privilegiada para la historia local: un ejemplo de la Nueva España en los siglos XVII y XVIII

In this article, the richness of the bishop's pastoral visit to his diocese is presented as a source of knowledge about the life and society of both specific towns and whole regions. Since the Council of Trent, the pastoral visit has been an annual obligation of every bishop. In the Indies, very few prelates were able to make a complete visit to their territories due to the large expanse of these bishoprics, but information on several visits in the New Spain area are available, so that they allow us to know local elements of their social, or territorial organization, as well as their agricultural or industrial activity, always depending on the interests of the bishop as reflected in the content of each visit diary. This documentation can be contrasted with other ecclesiastical sources that complete it such as “Cordilleras’s” books, or the processes of the ecclesiastical courts.