The Philippine islands, 1493–1898 (Vol. 34, 1519–1522; 1280–1605)

This volume forms part of a monumental fifty-five-volume series that served as a foundational source for English-language scholarship on the history of the Philippines. The compilation and translation of primary source documents, originally written in Spanish and other languages, was undertaken by editors Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson in the early twentieth century. The project's timing, beginning shortly after the United States acquired the Philippines from Spain in 1898, suggests it was intended to provide a comprehensive historical record for the new American administration and scholars engaged in the study of the new U.S. territory. Volume XXXIV covers the pivotal early colonial period, spanning documents from the Chinese account of Chao Ju-kua around 1280 to the early Spanish governance letters up to 1605. A major highlight of the volume is the conclusion of Antonio Pigafetta's "Primo viaggio intorno al mondo," which provides a firsthand narrative of the Ferdinand Magellan expedition's arrival and the initial European contact with the archipelago (1519–1522), a defining moment in the nation's history. The overall series, by translating thousands of colonial-era records, became an indispensable—though occasionally controversial—reference work detailing the political, economic, commercial, and religious conditions of the islands under Spanish rule.

The book is considered valuable. It is advised that researchers use digital copy rather than physical books for preservation purposes.

APA Citation:

Blair, E. H., & Robertson, J. A. (Eds.).(1906). The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898: Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century (Vol. 34). The Arthur H. Clark Company.