The "Iter Italicum" serves as a useful reference work for scholars in the history of philosophy, the sciences, classical learning, grammar and rhetoric, Neolatin literature, historiography of the theory of the arts and of music and related subjects. By scanning the volume or through this index, scholars will be able to find source material for individual writers as well as for certain subjects, problems or themes. By indicating for each manuscript its location and shelf-mark, scholars will find it easier to order microfilms or to pursue more detailed studies of some of the manuscripts listed. The volumes should also prove useful for librarians as a reference for the holdings of their own or other libraries.

This is the first comprehensive listing of all books published in Spain, Portugal, Mexico and Peru or in Spanish or Portuguese before 1601. Iberian Books offers an analytical short title-catalogue of over 19,000 bibliographically distinct items, with reference to around 100,000 surviving copies in over 1,200 libraries worldwide. By drawing together information from many previously disparate published and online resources, it seeks to provide a single, powerful research resource. Fully-indexed, Iberian Books is an indispensible work of reference for all students and specialists interested in the literature, history and culture of the Iberian Peninsula in the early modern age, as well as historians of the European book world. For the period 1601-1650, see Iberian Books Volumes II & III.