In the first 200 pages of his book, Juan Carlos de Guerra presents what can be seen as a database avant la lettre, built from two principal sources: Libro de las buenas andanças e fortunas by Lope García de Salazar and the medieval population censuses (padrones) of Bilbao.
We have created new, individualized records—one for each person mentioned in De Guerra’s original entries. As a result, the total number of onomastic records has increased by roughly 50%, now exceeding 3,000 entries.
Although we have preserved the presentation of the information, we have omitted a few entries referring not to individuals but to concepts or geographical locations. These omissions include the entry “Zaballa”, referring to the Butrón tower, and “Oñacinos y gamboínos”, which is reproduced in full on this page.
We have standardized personal names according to “traditional” Spanish spelling. For this purpose, we have followed Euskaltzaindia’s nomenclatures, the spellings in the latest edition of Libro de las buenas andanças e fortunas (ed. Consuelo Villacorta Macho, Bilbao: University of the Basque Country, 2015), and other reference works. Whenever a spelling differs from that given by De Guerra, it is noted in the Observations section, along with typographical corrections (including those acknowledged by De Guerra himself) and other editorial remarks.