Note 68 — Chapter III · THE JUDICIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE AUDIENCIA

Expedientes are defined in Blair and Robertson, LII, 72, note 28, as “all the papers belonging to any matter, judicial, legislative, or executive, consisting of orders, opinions, reports, and all other measures.” A testimonio is a duly attested and certified statement or number of statements submitted as proof or evidence concerning a given matter. Testimonios include transcripts of letters, cédulas, autos, and expedientes on a particular subject, usually bound together. They may extend over a period of a hundred years or more, showing step by step the factors leading up to the formulation of any auto, or cédula, or given as reasons for a particular action taken by an official or tribunal. Testimonios form a large part of the material in the Archive of the Indies. They are of the same value as originals, and they are certainly more available and legible because frequently more recently written.