University of Santo Tomas Baybayin Documents

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University of Santo Tomas
Baybayin Documents
UST Baybayin Document.png
Created1613 (Document A) and 1625 (Document B)
Location Archives of the University of Santo Tomas
PurposeTransfer of land ownership

The University of Santo Tomas Baybayin Documents or UST Baybayin Documents are two 17th century land deeds written in Baybayin script.

Contents

Due to their historical significance, the documents were declared as a National Cultural Treasure by the National Archives of the Philippines Director Victorino Manalo during the Second Baybayin Conference at the Museum of the Filipino People, Manila on 22 August 2014. It was the first declaration made the Philippines' national archives and the first paper document declared as a National Cultural Treasure. [1]

It is the fifth declared National Cultural Treasure for the University of Santo Tomas (UST) after the declarations on the UST Main building, UST Central Seminary building, Arch of the Centuries, and UST Open Ground. [2]

Baybayin

Baybayin historically refers to a Brahmic syllabic script used for the Tagalog language and was used in the Philippines before and early into the Spanish conquest. It uses three characters for standalone vowels and fourteen for consonants. [3] As an alpha syllabic script, its character can either stand as a single consonant or vowel, or an entire syllable. [4] Related syllabic scripts are still being used by the Palaw'an and Tagbanua peoples in the Palawan island as well as the Hanunuo and Buhid Mangyan peoples in the Mindoro island. [1]

Description

The UST Baybayin documents cover two legal real estate transactions in 1613 (labelled as Document A dated February 15, 1613) [5] and 1625 (labelled as Document B dated December 4, 1625) [6] which are the "longest and most complete documents completely handwritten in baybayin". [1] The two documents are part of a book compilation of baybayin documents dubbed as the "biggest collection of extant ancient baybayin scripts in the world". [7] They are also the oldest known deeds of sale for land in the Philippines during the Spanish colonization. [1]

The 1613 documents established Don Andres Capiit as the land owner after buying irrigated land in Tondo from Doña Catalina Baycan as described in Document A. He was married to Doña Francisca Longar who bought the land in Mayhaligue (now Santa Cruz, Manila) from Doña Maria Silang as described in the 1625 document (Document B). [8] When Capiit died sometime between 1613 and 1625, Longar was remarried to Don Luis Castilla, who sold some lands to the University of Santo Tomas in 1629. When the ownership of Castilla was contested in court, he showed Documents A and B as proof of ownership. Since the university already acquired the land, the deeds of sale were later transferred into the university's custody. [1]

The baybayin documents were first shown in the public during the tercentenary of the university in 1911. [1] That same year, the documents were first published in Libertas, a daily newspaper published by the university. [1]

Management

The Archives of the University of Santo Tomas (Archivo de la Universidad de Santo Tomas, or simply UST Archives) at the Miguel de Benavides Library take care of the documents. [9] The original baybayin documents are not available to the public and only replicas of the documents are made available through the university archives' bulletin board on the fifth floor of the Central Library. [1]

Related Research Articles

Baybayin is a Philippine script. The script is an abugida belonging to the family of the Brahmic scripts. Geographically, it was widely used in Luzon and other parts of the Philippines prior to and during the 16th and 17th centuries before being replaced by the Latin alphabet during the period of Spanish colonization. It was used in the Tagalog language and, to a lesser extent, Kapampangan-speaking areas; its use spread to the Ilocanos in the early 17th century. In the 19th and 20th centuries, baybayin survived and evolved into multiple forms—the Tagbanwa script of Palawan, and the Hanuno'o and Buhid scripts of Mindoro—and was used to create the constructed modern Kulitan script of the Kapampangan and the Ibalnan script of the Palawan people. Under the Unicode Standard and ISO 15924, the script is encoded as the Tagalog block.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Santo Tomas</span> Private pontifical university in Manila

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arch of the Centuries</span> Triumphal arch in Manila

The Arch of the Centuries is a triumphal arch at the Plaza Intramuros of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila, in the Philippines that stands meters away from the university's Millennium Gate along España Boulevard. Half of the current structure, the side facing the UST Main Building is the ruins of the original Intramuros arch while the side that faces España Boulevard is a replica. The arch was formerly the original entrance to the university when the campus was still in Intramuros during the years from 1680 to 1941. It was declared by the National Museum as a National Cultural Treasure on 25 January 2010.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miguel de Benavides Library</span>

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The Archives of the University of Santo Tomas (AUST), also known in Spanish as the Archivo de la Universidad de Santo Tomas, is located at the Miguel de Benavides Library in Manila. The AUST is the central repository of historical and rare documents pertaining to, but not exclusively, to the history of the University of Santo Tomas, one of the oldest existing universities in Asia, and the oldest institution of higher learning in the Philippines. The collections consist of historical documents such as Papal bulls, royal decrees, rare Filipiniana prints, historical treatises, addresses, sermons, novenas, catechisms in many Philippine languages, national periodicals, and academic records of all educational institutions in the Philippines during the Spanish period. The archives is also home to the only incunabula, or books printed before 1500, in the country.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Sembrano, Edgar Allan M. (August 25, 2014). "UST documents in ancient 'baybayin' script declared a National Cultural Treasure". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on August 25, 2014. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  2. Zulueta, Lito (June 14, 2010). "UST Library holds international exhibit of historical treasures". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on September 4, 2014. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  3. Alip, Eufronio Melo (1904). "Title: Tagalog literature; a historico-critical study". Archived from the original on September 3, 2014. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  4. Tan, Nigel (August 22, 2014). "Evolution of the Filipino alphabet". Rappler. Archived from the original on August 26, 2014. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  5. Morrow, Paul (May 5, 2010). "Document A". Archived from the original on January 30, 2015. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  6. Morrow, Paul (May 4, 2010). "Document B". Archived from the original on July 29, 2015. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  7. Lao, Levine (January 6, 2012). "UST collection of ancient scripts in 'baybayin' syllabary shown to public". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on October 8, 2014. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  8. Batchelor, Kristine Anne; Siat, Ethan James (29 September 2014). "Baybayin is UST's 5th nat'l cultural treasure". The Varsitarian. Archived from the original on 21 December 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  9. "University of Santo Tomas Archives". University of Santo Tomas Website. Archived from the original on May 24, 2013. Retrieved September 1, 2014.