The Altamira Collection and the history of the Dutch Revolt

The Altamira Collection, the name by which the exceptional archive accumulated for centuries by the Counts of Altamira is known among Early Modern historians, is one of the most important documentary collections for the study of the Hispanic Monarchy and especially the reign of Philip II. Since, 1868, the ruin of the Casa de Altamira caused the dispersion of the archive, whose papers were acquired by different buyers, including Archer Milton Huntington, founder of "The Hispanic Society of America". The magnate acquired the collection of books and manuscripts of the Marquis of Jerez de los Caballeros, unique of its kind, and whose papers were largely from Altamira. The Library of the Hispanic Society of America preserves today a significant part of the Altamira documentary collection that constitutes, together with the other collections distributed throughout Europe, a documentary collection of compulsory consultation for historians of the Dutch Revolt.