In this work a reconstruction of seasonal rainfall in Andalusia (southern Spain) from 1501 to 1997 is presented. This reconstruction is based on the analysis of a wide variety of documentary data. Qualitative data are translated into numerical indices to elaborate time series of rainfall for each season of the year. Because of the strong relationship between Andalusian rainfall and the North Atlantic Oscillation (40% of the winter rainfall variance is explained by the NAO index behavior), it is possible to use these rainfall series to reconstruct the seasonal NAO index back to 1501. The results are compared with other analyses reported in the literature. ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union