Bells of New Spain: the large bronze casting and the founders who already cast metal

A Franciscan chronicle records bell-founding as one of the first European trades indigenous craftsmen took over completely — the proportions of waist, crown and lip, the alloy, and bells "chicas y grandes, muy limpias y de buena voz y sonido". Archaeology has since shown they were not beginners at casting: copper bells were being made in Mesoamerica by remelting, open-mould and lost-wax work centuries before. What was new was the scale, the alloy and the tuning.