The Boxer Codex is a manuscript written circa 1595 which contains illustrations of Filipinos

Filipino people

The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....

 at the time of their initial contact with the Spanish. Aside from a description of and historical allusions to the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 and various other Far Eastern countries, it also contains seventy-five colored drawings of the inhabitants of these regions and their distinctive costumes. Fifteen illustrations deal with Filipinos.

It is believed that the original owner of the manuscript was Luis Pérez das Mariñas, son of Governor General Gómez Pérez das Mariñas

Gómez Pérez das Mariñas

Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas y Ribadeneira was a Spanish politician, diplomat, military officer and colonial official. He was the seventh governor-general of the Philippines from May or June 1, 1590 to October 25, 1593. The city of Dasmariñas, located 24 km south of Manila, was named after him...

, who was killed in 1593 by Sangley

Sangley

Sangley , is an archaic term used in the Philippines to describe and classify a person of pure Chinese ancestry, while mestizo de sangley was used to refer to a person of mixed Chinese and indigenous ancestry Sangley (Sangleye, Sangley Mestizo, Mestisong Sangley, Mestizo de Sangley or Chinese...

s (Chinese

Overseas Chinese

Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....

 living in the Philippines). Luis succeeded his father in office as Governor General of the Philippines. Since Spanish colonial governors were required to supply written reports on the territories they governed, it is likely that the manuscript was written under the orders of the governor.

The manuscript's earliest known owner was Lord Ilchester

Giles Fox-Strangways, 6th Earl of Ilchester

Giles Stephen Holland Fox-Strangways, 6th Earl of Ilchester GBE, FSA, DL , styled Lord Stavordale until 1905, was a British peer and philanthropist.-Background and education:...

. The codex was among what remained in his collection when his estate, Holland House in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, suffered a direct hit during an air raid in 1942. The manuscript was auctioned in 1947 and came into the possession of Prof. Charles Ralph Boxer, an authority on the Far East. It is now owned by the Lilly Library

Lilly Library

The Lilly Library, located on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, is a large rare book and manuscript library in the United States.-History:...

 at Indiana University

Indiana University Bloomington

Indiana University Bloomington is a public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. IU Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. Being the flagship campus, IU Bloomington is often referred to simply as IU or Indiana...

.

The Boxer Codex depicts the Tagalogs

Tagalog people

The Tagalog people are an ethnic group in the Philippines. The name Tagalog comes from either the native term tagá-ilog, meaning 'people living along the river', or another native term, tagá-alog, meaning 'people living along the ford', a ford being a shallow part of a river or stream where people,...

, Visayans, Zambals

Sambal people

The Sambal are a Filipino ethnolinguistic group living primarily in the province of Zambales, the city of Olongapo, and the Pangasinense municipalities of Bolinao and Anda...

, Cagayanes or possibly Ibanags and Negritos of the Philippines in vivid colors. The technique of the paintings suggests that the artist may have been Chinese, as does the use of Chinese paper, ink and paints.

External links

• Record and manuscript of the Boxer Codex at Indiana University
  Indiana University
  Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...