Relevant old maps

Our dispute in the South China/West Philippine Sea caused me to return to an old love—Philippine cartography. Three decades since I stopped actively collecting antique maps of the Philippines, demand and prices for such have risen beyond my reach. But maps are so readily available online and in Manila that it is still possible to study these and trace the way the archipelago of over 7,000 islands became the nation we imagine ourselves to be.

Anyone interested in Philippine cartography starts with Carlos Quirino’s pioneering work of the same title, first published in a limited edition of 100 copies in 1959, because the author presumed 100 was the potential readership for a bibliographic listing. However, the book took on a life of its own when it caught the attention of the eminent antiquarian book dealer, Nico Israel, who printed a limited second edition as a reference tool in Amsterdam in 1963.

Then, to the pleasant surprise of both author and publisher, demand for the first one-volume book on Philippine cartography in English needed a third printing in 1969. Half a century since, Vibal Publishing in Manila has issued a fifth edition, updated by outgoing Instituto Cervantes director Carlos Madrid.

When I was collecting maps in the 1980s, Quirino’s book was an indispensable guide. Its only flaw was that not all entries carried an illustration, not even a thumbnail photo. With some effort, it was possible to seek out all the missing images on Quirino’s list, first in the Lopez Museum and Library map collection, then in the Ayala Museum Iconographic Archives. Few people knew that preserved in the Ayala Museum library were index cards that came with a small black-and-white photo of a physical map from the fabled Quirino collection, together with typewritten measurements, notes and other bibliographic information.

To supplement “Philippine Cartography,” I photocopied all the map cards at the Ayala Museum, arranged these chronologically, and had a pictorial reference I shared with no one, least of all competitors for coveted maps.

“Philippine Cartography” makes us feel bad that the now legendary Quirino map collection did not survive intact into our times. The collection was acquired and presented to Ferdinand Marcos as a gift and promptly forgotten. Perhaps there were not enough walls in Malacañang to hang all the maps together, or nobody was interested in them after these joined the Marcos collection. A major part of it

was relegated to storage outside Malacañang, where they deteriorated due to neglect.

By the time the remainder of this once impressive collection was located—in a storeroom in the Malacañang Clinic, after the 1986 Edsa People Power revolt—many of the maps had faded due to exposure to sunlight, and some had suffered irreversible damage due to water, humidity and mold. Some of the framed maps appeared intact on the shelves, until closer inspection revealed these had been consumed from the back by termites. The list in “Philippine Cartography” and the cards in the Ayala Museum are but a reminder or a pale shadow of what this collection once was.

Originals of the rarest and most important Philippine maps from the 16th to the 19th centuries are currently displayed in the Ayala Museum till the 28th, to accompany the International Map Collectors Society Conference this week. Not to be missed are three Murillo Velarde maps, considered the Queen of Philippine maps, engraved by a Nicolas de la Cruz Bagay in 1734. These maps were the earliest to show the Spratlys and Scarborough Shoal as part of Philippine territory. As Justice Antonio T. Carpio has proven from exhaustive research, the Chinese cannot produce an older map to push their historical claim.

Early maps of the Philippines are fascinating, especially those that show the Philippines still incomplete, or those that depict the islands horizontally rather than vertically, because these reflect the development of geographical knowledge. Those ornamented with saints, sirens and sea monsters reflect the fear of the unknown.

While these old maps may be more artistic and charming, they are now obsolete in the face of Waze, Google Maps and Google Earth. But the fact that they can still be relevant in our time underscores the importance of history.

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