History from the Archives Episode 1 : Early Philippine History in the European Archives

0:00 welcome to the history from the archives in this first episode we will revisit the most important repository of historical information the archives the eminent president and one of the founding fathers of the united states of america thomas jefferson once said let us say what remains not by balls and locks which defends them to the waste of time but by such a multiplication of copies i shall place them beyond the rich of accident archives are classified into two state and religious and our first destination will be those archives in spain among them the most on one of the most

0:48 important of these archives will be the archibald general the india's located in seville the archibald indias contained one of the most one of the largest sources of information in the early spanish empire and of course a number and substantial number actually are those on the philippines and in fact among the major important major uh sources of information on the magellan expedition are found in the archibu hinal the indias but other informations such as that of the incomienda system the reports of the early conquistadores the early missions the

1:34 creation of the first four dioceses in the philippines until the early part of the 19th century are found in the archbineraldi india my first visit in this archives go back to about the early years of the of 2000 and among the documents i consulted at those written by the various religious orders and of course those that pertain to the magellan expedition the other important source of information in spain would be the bibliotheca national di spagna in madrid although it is actually a biblioteca a library yet there are lots of documents in manuscript forms

2:20 that are found in this biblioteca which pertain to the early period of the philippines the other archive would be the museo naval although it is called museo to some it might be misleading that it's actually a museum but actually an important portion of this mosaic nabal is the archives of the spanish navy and substantial documents on the philippines are found in this particular archive in fact even in those which pertain to the early expeditions in the philippines particularly magellan's expedition could also be found in this particular um archive the author of the

3:07 collection those that pertain to the documents on the magellan expedition the luay side is including the 1565 expedition of the miguel lopez de legaspi are found in these archives because of the copies written and made by martin fernandez de neberete who wrote this vast collections of documents on the philippines so a very important source of information for anybody interested in doing research in the early colonial philippines of course there is another important archive but little known to a number of filipino scholars the real academia de la historia

3:53 is not actually simply an office of stories on on the history of spain but it's also a repository of early documents on the philippines and the real academia de la historia contains substantial materials on this early 17th century philippines including for example the eruptions of the various volcanoes in the philippines uh the reports of certain religious orders and i would say it's a very very useful source of materials for anybody who would be writing on the early period of the philippines the other source of information but of course this would be pertaining to the later part but then substantial materials also are found the early period would be the archivo historical military

4:39 which of course focuses on the military history in the philippines also that because not only in the spain but also in the philippines and substantial materials on the katipunan which of course pertain to the 19th century are found in this archives including those of rizal but there are also materials about the military history of spain and therefore materials would be available on the early period of the spanish presence in the pilgrims could be found in this archibo historical military now when you go to the religious archives two of these archives i found very very useful but especially

5:24 in my research for my dissertation would be the afio the archibo franciscano ibero oriental which is located in madrid and of course in as much as southern luzon is a franciscan mission substantial materials could be found by any researcher in this archives dealing with the early period of the franciscan mission the persistence came to the philippines in 1578 and of course uh and since then uh spanish missionaries franciscan missionaries had started writing about their experiences in the mission and very very interesting documents interesting narratives would surface out of these out of these

6:10 documents that are kept in the afio the other important source of religious information would be the archivo de los padres agostinos the filipinas in valladolid the athap we know that the first missionaries in the philippines were the augustinians and a lot of documents in the early period of their stay in cebu and the beginning of the evangelization uh in visayas and in the southern part of luzon are kept in this archivo of the augustinians in valladolid spain the other country for which astorian of the philippines

6:57 could visit and profit from their research in this archive would be the achievable in the tori de tombo archive in lisbon of course the tori de tombo archives uh possess materials on the magellan expedition and of course in the expeditions undertaken by the portuguese in southeast asia but a few numbers because of my initial uh investigation in these archives would yield uh some of them are very very meaning very very useful for a scholar doing research on the early years of the spanish presence in the philippines

7:42 based on the perspective of the portuguese who wrote about them so it's also an important place to visit for any historian dealing with the early period of spanish colonial presence in the pillars although from the perspective of the portuguese i was told by the archbibero in this story the tombow that they have not yet actually a catalog substantial number of documents in fact he was telling me that there would be about 10 kilometers or so or even more uh materials which have not been adequately a catalog or historians to see and examine and probably find

8:28 materials pertinent to early period of philippine history the other important archive would be in italy at the biblioteca ambrosiana in milan i did my work in this archive in connection with the my research on antonio pegapeta because the the available the only available original manuscript apparently in italian is kept in the biblioteca ambrosiana and therefore there are still probably a lot of documents which i have not examined but i could find very very meaning useful in my research on the early period of the spanish regime particularly in the early years

9:16 of the expeditions in various parts of the philippines undertaken by by the spaniards from the perspective from the italian explorers particularly antonio picapeta could be found in this particular biblioteca or archive in ambrosiana in milan italy thank you for watching this episode i hope this provides you basic information about doing research on the early colonial period in the philippines from the european archives for your questions you may write it down on the comments section which will be answered in our next episode as we journey in our history from the

10:02 archives you