Rare finds at library exhibit

[voltairemad]

archive.inquirer.net/view.php?db=1&story_id=275298

Rare finds at library exhibit

First posted 22:38:39 (Mla time) June 12, 2010
Tina Santos
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—A rich and colorful exhibit that showcases the heritage and priceless treasures of Asia’s oldest existing university, part of its quadricentennial celebration highlights next year, will be open to the public on June 17.

Called “Lumina Pandit,” a Latin phrase that means “spreading the light,” the exhibit traces the history of the university through rare books, important historical documents and other memorabilia from the vast collection of the University of Santo Tomas’ (UST) Miguel de Benavides Library.

Continuing saga

“The UST spreads the light of knowledge and wisdom,” Fr. Angel Aparicio, O.P., UST’s prefect of libraries, said, referring to the exhibit’s title.

According to Marian Pastor-Roces, the project’s curator, Lumina Pandit emphasizes the role of UST and its library “in the continuing saga of nation-building.”

“The exhibit makes the claim that the institution, the library, was an active participant in the creation of what we now know to be the Philippines,” Roces said during a press briefing earlier.

Personal collection

The university library started with the personal collection of books of Miguel de Benavides—UST founder and the third Archbishop of Manila from whom the library takes its name—which he donated 400 years ago for the foundation of a seminary-college that later became the UST.

“The very idea that a nation was assisted by an institution that is 400 years old—we don’t think that it’s too grand a claim. It’s a claim that can be substantiated by the exhibition,” she added.

Dream project
Roces admitted that in many ways, her latest assignment was “a curator’s dream project.”

Lumina Pandit, according to her, gathers together a unique collection of rare books, including the first edition of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus’ “De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres)” which contains his famous heliocentric theory, published in 1543; and the “Biblia Sacra,” the version of the Bible translated into four languages.

The multi-million exhibit is divided into six parts, each of which highlights important themes and ideas that shaped the Philippines.

Authentic copies

“Threshold 400,” the first stop in the exhibit, narrates the arrival of the Dominican fathers in the Philippines. It will also display rare books and authentic copies of the Act of Foundation of the University, the royal decree given to UST, and the papal bulls declaring the institution a university.

“Realm of Print,” the second part of the exhibit, focuses on the arrival of the printing press in the Philippines for the production of books to be used for missionary efforts.

Printing press replica

This section displays an exact replica of the first movable block printing press, together with such rarities as the “Librong Pag-aaralan nang Manga Tagalog nang Uicang Castila,” the first printed book written in Filipino and printed by a local printer, Tomas Pinpin.

On the other hand, the third part of the exhibit, “Spheres of Change,” is about the Filipinos’ exposure to new ideas in the fields of law, medicine, agriculture, architecture, engineering and theology, among others.

It presents the master works of Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Aristotle, Strabon, Thomas Aquinas and Ceferino Gonzalez, to name a few.

Early voyages

The fourth part, under the heading “Routes of Globalization,” tells about the first circumnavigation voyage led by Magellan, whose death on Philippine soil awakened the Filipino’s sense of nationalism.

Rare books

Some rare books that tell this story, like “Relazione del primo Viaggio,” “De Molucis Insulis,” “Ataque de Limahon,” and “Historia Mundi,” among others, will also be on display.

Viewers of the fifth part of the exhibit titled “Nascent Nation” will gain an insight about how issues like catechism, nationalism, freedom, equality, commerce and trade, economics, human rights were discussed then and how these have affected the people as a nation.

Parallel progress
“Curve of Nationalism” caps the six-part exhibit and focuses on how the Philippines and the UST have progressed together in the past 400 years.

It will also give the public a once-in-a-life time opportunity to view the academic records of national heroes and founders of the nation, such as Jose Rizal and Apolinario Mabini, and many other outstanding Thomasians.

Tri-lingual display

Roces said the exhibit, which will also display incunabulae, or books printed before 1501, will be presented in three different languages—
Filipino, English and Spanish.

“But some sections will also be translated in major Filipino dialects like Ilocano, Waray, Kapampangan and Bicolano,” she added.

Perspective

“When you tell a story, what you leave out is just as important as what you put in it,” she said.

Added the curator: “The choices, sequence and highlights were determined from the perspective of sheer antiquarian rarity on one hand, and from the value of the book or document in looking afresh at the interpretation of Philippine history, on the other.”
She added that 95 percent of the artifacts are genuine, while the rest are replicas, reconstructions and artists’ representations.

Interactive

For an interactive feel, the exhibit will employ new media technology like computers and visual presentations.
“A brief description of the contents and relevance of the older books will be on display in computer monitors beside the items on exhibit,” Roces said, adding that preparations for Lumina Pandit started as early as July 2008.

“At the end of the day, we hope that those who were able to view the exhibit would be proud to be a Filipino,” she said.

The exhibit will be open for public viewing from June 17 to January 2011, at the ground floor of the Miguel de Benavides Library. For inquiries, call 731-3034.

[voltairemad]

UST Library holds international exhibit of historical treasures

lifestyle.inquirer.net/artsandbooks/artsandbooks/view/20100614-275437/gtUST-Library-holds-international-exhibit-of-historical-treasures

>UST Library holds international exhibit of historical treasures
By Lito B. Zulueta
Philippine Daily Inquirer
DateFirst Posted 22:05:00 06/14/2010


>UST Library holds international exhibit of historical treasures
On show are Copernicus’ 1543 book on the heliocentric theory; the Spanish missionaries’ ‘vocabularios’; the Polyglot Bible; papal bulls granting UST certain powers; and the academic grades of Rizal, Mabini and other founders of the Filipino nation
A UNIVERSITY IS ONLY AS GOOD AS its library. In the case of the 399-year-old University of Santo Tomas, its library and colorful history are fundamentally linked. This can be gleaned from the name of the library itself, UST Miguel de Benavides Central Library: The name pays tribute to the third archbishop of Manila (born 1550) who, before he died in 1605, bequeathed his library and his personal fortune of P1,500 for the establishment of a school for the priesthood. His Dominican confreres were only able to fulfill his will six years later: In 1611, the Colegio de Santissimo Rosario was born, which later became the Colegio de Santo Tomas and the Universidad de Manila, an academia for both ecclesiastical and civil disciplines. Next year, Benavides’ baby will turn 400, the oldest university and the only pontifical university in Asia.

To properly launch the UST Quadricentennial, UST Rector Magnificus Fr. Rolando V. de la Rosa, OP, will open this week the international exhibit, “Lumina Pandit: An Exhibit of Historical Treasures,” at the lobby of its Benavides library.

The exhibit will showcase the rich holdings primarily of the UST Library (especially its rare books section, the Antonio V. del Rosario Heritage Library), as well as of the UST Archives and the UST Museum of Arts and Sciences. Not counting the priceless books, artifacts and memorabilia and their insurance, the cost of mounting the exhibit alone is, according to sources, at least P15 million.

On exhibit will be the first book printed in the Philippines, the “Doctrina Christiana,” printed by the Dominicans in 1593 through a wooden-block press they constructed out of whatever knowledge they had of printing, which was still in its relative infancy in Europe. The printing press has been reconstructed for the exhibit, and the audience will get a first-hand view of the operations of the machine that ushered the Philippine islands into the age of Gutenberg, full literacy, and western civilization.

The “Doctrina Christiana” is a catechism in Spanish that contains, however, the baybayin syllabary of the native Filipinos, proof that the Spanish missionaries did not destroy pre-Hispanic culture but conserved it, if only for practical evangelical reasons. Their missionary interest would extend to learning the native languages themselves, and the UST exhibit would show the various native grammars and dictionaries published through the centuries by the intrepid missionaries, including the respective “Arte de la Lengua” of the Dominican Francisco Blancas de San Jose and the Franciscan Juan de Plasencia.

Also on exhibit is “Librong Pag-aaralan nang Manga Tagalog nang Uicang Castila,” the first printed book written in Tagalog and printed by a native from Bataan, Tomas Pinpin, the “Prince of Tagalog Printers” and the first Filipino author.

Proud possession

Also on exhibit is what is probably the only copy in this part of the world of Nicolaus Copernicus’s “On the Evolution of the Celestial Spheres,” published in 1543. The epochal book was the first to formulate with mathematical precision the heliocentric theory, which supplanted earth from the center of the universe and overturned humanity’s cosmological conceptions.

The book’s presence in the library is notable. According to Leila Maynard and Robert Strong’s Second World War catalogue of rare books from the UST collection: “A book of this kind is extremely interesting and rare for several reasons. In the first place, the great proportion of books printed in the first century after 1450 were reproductions of manuscripts, works by the Church Fathers, or commentaries on theological, philosophical, and legal writings of the ages past. Original and contemporaneous works were printed comparatively rarely. Here we have a first edition of one of the most revolutionary scientific treatises of all time... Such a book would be a proud possession of any library.”

The copy was part of the personal collection of the Spanish soldier and navigator Hernando de los Rios, who later became a secular clergyman and who apparently bequeathed his library to the Dominicans. Several books from his personal library can be found in UST, and there’s likelihood that Jose Rizal, who cites passages from Copernicus’ book in his novel “El Filibusterismo,” had read the same copy back when he was studying in UST in the late 19th century.

Speaking about Rizal, original copies of his firebrand novels will also be exhibited, perhaps a rebuff to the late senator and uber-nationalist Blas Ople’s astounding claim some years back that he had heard it on good authority that UST did not keep the “Noli Me Tangere” and the “Fili” in its shelves. He had heard wrongly, of course. Also on exhibit will be a favorite work of Rizal, Antonio de la Morga’s “Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas.”

Incredibly enough, the exhibit will display the famous Plantin Polyglot Bible, which appeared between 1569 and 1573, published under the auspices of King Philip II of Spain. The Bible is in Hebrew, Syrian, Aramaic, Greek and Latin, and its typographical quality (it was printed in Antwerp) is of the highest quality. When Maynard and Strong found the volumes in the collection of UST during their stay in the UST internment camp, they were astounded: “We believe these to be by far the most valuable books in the possession of the various libraries of the University of Santo Tomas,” they wrote.” We suggest that when communications are again restored, some important library such as that of the Vatican, the British Museum, or the Huntington Library of America be notified that Santo Tomas possesses a set of this Bible so that it may be listed among the copies now known to be extant.”

But the oldest book in the UST library—and presumably the most priceless—is an incunabula (that is, a book printed before 1500). It is Josefo Flavio’s “La Guerra Judaica,” printed in 1492 in Seville and dedicated to Queen Isabella on the year when Columbus discovered America. The book is a Spanish translation of the Jewish historian’s account of the Jewish wars with the Romans where he was a participant.

Also on exhibit are rare archival materials such as the academic grades of Rizal, Apolinario Mabini and other notable alumni of UST, copies of the Act of Foundation of the University, the royal decree that granted UST its royal title in the 18th century, and the papal bulls declaring UST a university and a pontifical institution.

Spreading the light

Curated by Marian Pastor-Roces, the international exhibit will be presented in three different languages—Filipino, English and Spanish. Some sections will also be translated in Ilocano, Waray, Kapampangan and Bicolano. It will employ new media technology for an interactive feel. Overall, it will show the growth of the University and the evolution of the Filipino nation, whose founders were alumni of UST such as Rizal, Mabini and Felipe Agoncillo, amid the challenges of globalization across the centuries.

“Lumina Pandit” means “spreading the light.” “The University spreads the light of knowledge and wisdom,” Fr. Angel Aparicio, OP, UST prefect of libraries, explained.

“It (exhibit) makes a claim that (UST) was an active participant in the creation of the thing we now know as the Philippines,” said Pastor-Roces.

The exhibit is a “journey to look backward,” a way of telling UST’s history through books, said Aparicio. “A sense of history is vital to the nation, and books are the primary medium for a credible past,” he added.

The exhibit is expected to further consolidate UST’s reputation as a national treasure. Earlier this year, the National Museum declared four UST sites—the UST Main Building, the Arch of the Centuries, the UST Ecclesiastical Faculties-Central Seminary-Fathers Residence building, and the UST open grounds—as “National Cultural Treasures.”

Perhaps the UST Library collection should likewise be declared a treasure. After all, for UST to have retained such rich bibliographic and typographical holdings amid the harsh tropical climate (which is unkind to printed materials) and the vicissitudes of history (the Dominicans were able to transfer the UST collection to the new campus in Sampaloc before Intramuros was destroyed during the Second World War), is one for the books. At the least, it’s providential.

If one considers that the Archbishop Benavides’ personal library was the seed that later germinated into UST, one can say that the UST Library is older than the university itself. And the library is a firm foundation on which learning and civilization have been built. UST is a house built on rock, not sand.

“Lumina Pandit: An Exhibit of Historical Treasures” formally opens June 17 at the UST Miguel de Benavides Central Library Building. It runs until January 2011. The exhibit is free for UST students. For non-UST students, fee is P50; for a group of 10 non-UST students, P25 each; and for students from the Dominican Network of Schools, P25. Call 731-3034 and 406-1611 loc. 8234.

[Tom A. Saiyan]

Smartest hero? Fr. Burgos tops Rizal
By Rainier Allan Ronda (The Philippine Star)
Updated June 13, 2010 12:00 AM


MANILA, Philippines - The yellowed report cards of the country’s national heroes who attended and earned their degrees from the 399-year old University of Santo Tomas (UST) would provide an interesting revelation to many grade-conscious Filipinos who regard our national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal, as the most brilliant of them all.

Fr. Florentino Bolo Jr., O.P., secretary-general of the UST, said that contrary to the popular prevailing notion that Rizal was the most academically superior of the country’s heroes, many of whom studied at the “royal pontifical” university, it was one of the three martyred priests of the famed Gomburza, Fr. Jose A. Burgos, who was “primus inter pares,” or first among equals, if their grades were made the basis of comparison.

“Contrary to the prevailing perception, it was not Rizal who performed most brilliantly based on grades but Fr. Burgos,” Bolo told The STAR Friday night during the soft launch of their “Lumina Pandit” exhibit at the UST’s Miguel Benavides Library.

“Yes, Rizal had all those sobresaliente grades but if you’ll look at the report cards of our other heroes, they all had those sobresalientes. Our scholars here had looked into the report cards of our heroes and, after a comparison of their report cards, we found that the most brilliant among them is Fr. Burgos,” Bolo said.

He added that the martyrdom of Burgos along with the two other priests that made up the Gomburza, Fr. Mariano Gomez and Fr. Jacinto Zamora, was also vital in stirring up patriotism and nationalism among Filipinos against Spanish colonial rule in the years leading to independence.

Bolo said that the yellowed report cards of Philippine heroes and other historical figures were just several of many interesting historical treasures on display at the “Lumina Pandit: An Exhibit of Historical Treasures” that will formally open on June 17.

Founded in 1611, UST boasts of producing the “fathers” of the Philippine nation like Rizal, Gomburza, four Philippine presidents including Manuel Luis Quezon, six Supreme Court justices, and many other public service, legal and medical luminaries.

Associate Professor Giovanna Fontanilla, UST public affairs director, said that aside from the report cards of the UST alumni-heroes the exhibit will also display priceless gems of legacy and learning gathered by the university in its four hundred years of spreading learning among Filipinos.

Fontanilla said rare books and other important historical documents from the sprawling collection of the UST Miguel de Benavides Library will be displayed for those who are interested to learn the country’s rich history.