CONDITION REPORT
FAIR TO GOOD

ABOUT THE WORK

19th-Century Travel Guides Between 1834 and 1865 a curious book was printed in Manila with a certain periodicity. The title usually included the words “Guía de forasteros en las Islas Filipinas para el año...” (Guide for foreign visitors in the Philippines Islands in the year...). Despite the title, the contents little resemble what we can find today in famous guides such as Lonely Planet, Wikitravel or any travelog. It just contains an encyclopedic picture of the country by the indicated year — tons of data, statistics, calendars, etc., but not too much of the kind of information that could actually be useful to a prospective reader. I used to ignore these guides when doing my bibliographic research, obsessed as I was with finding literature, accounts, letters and chronicles. It was a big mistake as the generous reader will find out. It was a mistake that Dr. Legarda did not commit. If we take, for example, the guide for the year 1865, the book starts reminding the reader what are the festive days of the calendar — all of them related to Catholic celebrations — and, additionally, on which days the believer must go to the Manila Cathedral and pray in order to earn indulgences. Next, we get what it seemed to be by then a crucial piece of information: a list of the birthdays of Queen Isabel 2nd and the Royal Family. On some of those dates, it was actually mandatory to dress in a much more formal manner, so better not to forget them. Next there was a sanctorale, divided by moths: every day of the year was — and still is in most Catholic countries in Europe and Latin America — assigned to certain saints and virgins. For example, April 23 in San Jorge or Saint George, so since I was child, I get greetings like “Feliz día del santo” [Happy day of your saint] on that day, and the family even gives you presents. For example, San José is on March 19, San Juan is on June 29 and Santa Margarita is on January 18. Needless to say, if your name is something like Harry, Jennifer or Luzviminda, there is no right to get greetings or presents ever in your life. This tradition has been lost in the Philippines, where the people are so Catholic and very willing to give presents to their loved ones. The lunar calendar and the calendar of eclipses comes at the end of the first chapter. Second chapter is summary of the history of the Philippines from Magellan to Legazpi, and a brief explanation of the political administration of the country and how the leaders are chosen and two lists, apparently two important lists, that every traveler should keep in mind: the list of governors of the Philippines since Legazpi and the list of Archbishops of Manila since Domingo de Salazar, OP; and the list of bishops in Nueva Segovia (Northern Luzon), Nueva Cáceres (Bicol) and Cebú (Visayas and Mindanao). Also the names of all the important colonial officials in the Philippines. Other lists come later: governors and alcaldes in the provinces and main cities; judges, lawyers, attorneys, etc; also people in charge of collecting taxes and even in charge of the accountability of the tobacco for export, which indicates this was the main source of revenues for the territory. Those lists are actually never ending, but it provides an idea of how the whole archipelago was administered. Needless to say, most of the public servants were located in Luzon, but also many were in Cebu and Panay. The amount of people employed by the government was incredible, especially bin the administrative and the military sections. The name of all of them and their respective positions are provided. There are also information regarding the periodicity of post services within the Philippines and abroad, with the fees of stamps and other postal services. By 1865 there were 1579 students enrolled in the University of Santo Tomás, 281 in the Real Colegio de San José, and 396 in the Colegio de San Juan de Letrán, There was also a Nautical School, a Trade School, and an Academy for drawing and painting with 200 students. Public education was being implemented, since it was approved by law in 1863. There were several hospices for the poor and also hospitals. Most of them were actually run by friars and nuns, and located in convents and beaterios. There was, to my surprise, a Junta Central de Vacunas (Central Board for Vaccines), created in 1806, and also a list of pharmacists. The most important association for the learned people was the Sociedad Económica de Filipinas, running from 1781 and having sections devoted to natural history, arts, agriculture and trade. I wonder which were the requirements to become a member. The list of people assigned in the provinces included engineers and military personnel, but the longest list belonged to friars: there could be more, nearly one thousand of them, but by that time, many were Filipinos. The book finishes with a chapter with some tables explaining all the weapons the Spanish Army and the Spanish Marine had in the archipelago, a very useful information to potential enemies -and potential revolutionaries. All of these Philippine guides published during the 19th century are extremely rare for the simple reason that they were practical books that were discarded once the next updated volume was published. Very few libraries have these guides on their shelves, the usefulness of which, because of the incredible amount of practical and up-to-date information they contain, was not discarded by Dr. Legarda in his historical research. Normally the guides were published at the end of the previous year. For the collector interested in acquiring them all, the following is a list of all the guides that were published. In bold are those included in the library of Don Benito Legard