First book on the Philippines

Title

Creator

Garcia, Mauro

Identifier

Pigafetta's logbook

Language

English

Source

Panorama Volume XIII (No.7) July 1961

Year

1961

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

Pigafetta's Logbook FIRST BOOK ON Mauro Garcia The first book printed in Europe which treats ex clusively of the Philip pines is Maximilianus Transylvanus’ De Moluccis Insulis. This is an account of the epochal voyage of Ferdinand Magellan in the years 1519 to 1522 which led to the redisco very of the Philippines by Eu ropeans in 1521. Maximilianus Transylvanus, Latin for Max Oberwald, his German name, was a German scholar who happened to be in Valladolid at the time of the arrival of Juan Sebastian del Cano and. his 18 compa nions to relate their adven tures to the King of Spain rho was then holding court i that city. Transylvanus’ tutor had him write an account of the voy age in the form of a letter to his guardian, Archbishop of Salzburg, Germany. Transyl vanus proved to be an able historian and wrote his ac count based on his interviews of the returned survivors of the expedition. The Archbishop of Salz burg, his guardian, was most pleased with his ward’s profi ciency in Latin, the classical language of the time in which the letter was written, and realizing the significance of the great voyage, he ordered the printing of the letter. Dated at Valladolid, Octo ber 24, 1522, shortly after the arrival of Del Cano and his 52 Panorama THE PHILIPPINES companions in Spain, Septem ber 8, 1522, the book appeared in no less than two editions the following year. These are the Rome edition, November, 1523, and the Cologne edition, January, 1523. Another edition is said to have been printed in Paris in the same year but its existence is disputed by bibliographers in the absence of known copies of it. As to which of the two edi tions is the first and the se cond has been a puzzle among bibliographers. Brunet (French), Medina (Chilean), Retana (Spanish), and Quaritch (English) believe that the Rome Edition, November, 1523, is the first, and the Co logne edition, January 1523, the second. Harrisse (American), Ro bertson (American), Leclerc (French), Pardo de Tavera (Filipino), and Lathrop C. Harper (American) on the other hand, think the Cologne edition is the first, and the Rome edition, the second. This bibliographic puzzle has once more been brought to public notice with the news of the recent acquisition of another edition — the third, Rome, February, 1524 — of this book. Acquired by Carlos Quirino, Filipino rare book collector of consequence and leading authority on Philip pine maps, the book was one July 1961 53 of the main attractions of his book exhibits he recently put up in his residence for the members of the Philippine Booklovers Society. The puzzle was also one of the main topics for lively dis cussion in the educational conference of the Ateneo cen tennial celebration held also recently when one of the; pa pers presented to the commit tee on history of the confer ence saw it fit to ventilate the subject. What seems to have caused the confusion regarding the priority of the two editions are their dates. If the Cologne edition was printed in Jan uary, 1523, it precedes the Rome edition printed in No vember, 1523, those favoring the former argue. Those fa voring the latter, particular ly Retana, think the Cologne edition was actually issued on 1524, although dated 1523. This point has been settled however by the fact that Johann Schoner in a letter to Reine von Streitberg in 1523 already cites Transylvanus’ book. One authority has attempt ed to resolve the issue with the aid of the calendar. In the olden days, as late as the 16th century, the sequence of the months was not as it is now. The calendar year began in April, so that our first three months in the present calendar were at the end of the year. This being the case, January 1523, the imprint date of the Cologne edition of Tran sylvanus actually follows No vember, 1523, the imprint date of the Rome edition. It may be mentioned in this connection that the copy pre sently owned by the Filipiniana division of the bureau of public libraries, which luckily was saved during the last war and which came from the Tabacalera collection pur chased by the Philippine go vernment in 1925, bears the Cologne imprint. From the foregoing, it can be deduced that the government copy is a second edition. Since the copy recently ob tained by Carlos Quirino, as mentioned above, is a third edition, Rome, February, 1524. the Philippines is lucky to have the second and third edi tions of Transylvanus. [ ocal collectors however have yet to find the first edition of this rare item. An idea of the rarity of Tran sylvanus may be obtained from the fact that a similar item, Fabre’s edition based on Pigafetta’s original account, has been reputedly sold re cently for $30,000. After the issuance of Tran sylvanus in the three editions 54 Panorama mentioned above, the Paris edition of 1523 being under discord and may be discount ed at present, the work has been published in such com pilations as John Huttich’s Novus Orbia Re gionum (1537); Joannes Boemus’ Om nium Gentium Mores (1524); G. B. Ramusio’s Delle Navigationi et Viaggi (1550), which has been reprinted a number of times; Martin Fernandez de Navarrete’s Coleccion de Viajes y Descubrimientos; and J. T. Medina’s Collection de Documentos Ineditos para la Historia de Chile. An Eng lish translation is found in volume 52 of the publications, first series, of the Hakluyt Society, and in volume 1 of Philippine Islands of Blair and Robertson. Transylvanus’ is not the on ly book published on the fa mous voyage of Magellan. Two other accounts describ ing the voyage are Antoine Fabre’s Le Voyage et Naviga tion faict par les Espaignol and Antonio Pigafetta’s Pri mo Viaggio intorno al Globo. Fabre’s work is often con fused with Pigafetta’s. A dis tinction between the two should be noted. Unlike Transylvanus’ De Moluccis Insulis, which was based from interviews he made of the returned crews of Magellan, Pigafetta’s ac count is a first-hand record derived from his diary kept by him of the expedition. His original diary is lost. Of the few copies he made of his ac count, he gave one to the queen regent of France from which Fabre derived his version already mention ed. At present four manuscripts of the Pigafetta original ac count are known to exist, three in French and one in Italian. Of the French .ver sions, two are found in the Bibliotheque National in Pa ris and one used to be in tjie famous Thomas Phillipps col lection in Cheltenham, Eng land. Sir Thomas’ collection has been undergoing a syste matic dispersion since his death in 1872, and the present whereabouts of his Pigafetta manuscript is unknown. * * * July 1961 55

pages

52+

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