The aim of the article is to examine the usefulness of etiquette books or manuals as sources for reconstructing the pragmatic history of Spanish. Etiquette books recorded the codes of behaviour, both verbal and non verbal, of bourgeois society and so served to perpetuate the established linguistic norms. They also testified to certain changes that appeared in the period being studied, that is to say, the second half of the 19th century. I evaluate this kind of source by contrasting data pertaining to the speech act of requesting recorded in etiquette books with that taken from other text types from the period, accessible via CORDE. I conclude that the usage suggested in etiquette books is adhered to but only by certain social groups. Such books provide valuable data about courtesy and speech acts from previous times, but need to be combined with other research methods.