{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":48330,"auction_id":97,"set_id":128,"lot_number":"63","artist":"Fr. Juan de la Concepción","title":"Historia General de Philipinas","starting_price":100000,"signed_dated":"Manila: Imprenta del Seminario Conciliar, 1788. 14 vols.","medium":null,"size":"size: 7 3/4\" x 5 3/4\"\ndepth: 1 1/4\"","property":null,"coa":"CONDITION REPORT\nFAIR","provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Little do we know about the man who has written, so far, the longest history of the Philippines. Fr. Juan de la Concepción was born in Madrid in 1724, joined the Order of the Augustinian Recollects in 1740 and arrived in the Philippines in 1752. He was first assigned as a missionary in a parish in Iba, Zambales in order to learn the language of the region. The ecclesiastical positions he was assigned indicate he was clearly a man with strong inclination for study and reading. He taught theology in the convent of Manila and later, was named chronicler of the Recollect Province. He was also secretary of the Bishop of Nueva Segovia (Vigan), Fray Juan Ruiz de San Agustín, also a Recollect, to whom he dedicated his magnum opus. After his health deteriorated, he retired to the convent of Cavite\nin 1786 where he passed away a few months later. Apart from his Historia General de Philipinas (General History of the Philippines), he translated the whole Bible into Spanish and also wrote a very interesting account of the British siege of Manila in 1762 whose whereabouts I would like to know.\nHis Historia General de Philipinas, whose complete set is so appreciated by book collectors — and not only in the Philippines — was published posthumously in 1788 and 1792. The whole work consists of 14 volumes or 6,052 pages (I have discounted 740 pages of indexes). The first volumes were printed by a Filipino, Agustín de la Rosa y Balagtas, in the printing press of the seminary, which was inherited from the Jesuits after they were expelled from the country. Volumes 6 to 14 were printed in the Franciscan printing press of Our Lady of Loreto Parish in Sampaloc by another hardworking Filipino, Balthasar Mariano, a lay brother. These cover the history of the Philippines from the circumnavigation of Magellan-Elcano until 1759 during the government of Pedro Manuel de Arandía Santisteban. Fr. Concepción’s history is probably a product of encyclopedic knowledge and love of erudition that was in\n111 LEÓN GALLERY\nfashion in the 18th century. The subtitle of the work says it all: “Spiritual and territorial conquest of the Spaniards, their establishment, progress and decadence, including the empires, kingdoms and provinces of the islands and continents with which it has had communication and trade, with universal, geographic and hydrographic news of natural history, politics, manners and religions.” Simply told, Fr. Concepción spent most of his life compiling information and knowledge regarding the Philippines. One can imagine he was more interested in books and manuscripts than in actually carrying out the parish duties he was supposed to do.\nIn order to build his magnificent history, Fr. Concepción found resources in every single book of history available, especially the ones written by members of other religious orders. However, his chronicle is not a religious one: it is a civil history. It includes gossip, rebellions, descriptions of manners and rituals, travels, miracles, earthquakes and every single event worthy of being immortalized by the printing press. The agency of the Filipino people during those years of colonial rule do appear several times. The pages devoted to the rebellion of Dagohoy and the\nresistance of Igorots to Spanish attempts to penetrate their territory are absolutely delightful.\nRetana considers it “the most important historical work ever published in the Philippines; the most copious source of news of all those written by the ancient friars [...] It is highly appreciable, indispensable for the historian, who finds in those pages plenty of gold of true quality”. Pardo de Tavera commented that “it is truly useful and has served as a rich mine from which many modern authors have copied data and dates without citing the author from whom they were taken”.\nIt is a work equally appreciated by map collectors, as it contains several maps. Namely: map of the Moluccas Islands and reproduction of Murillo Velarde's map (volume I), two maps of islands near the Strait of San Bernardino and a map of Japan (volume II), map of the island of Formosa (volume III), map of Southeast Asia (volume VI), maps of Guam and Tinian, in the Mariana Islands (volume VII), and map of Palau and the Caroline Islands (volume IX).","lot_group":"BOOKS","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":3000000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":3000000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":3604800,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":48188,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/97/128/lot/63.jpg","isFeatured":1},{"id":48187,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/97/128/lot/63 e.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":48186,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/97/128/lot/63 d.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":48185,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/97/128/lot/63 c.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":48184,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/97/128/lot/63 a.jpg","isFeatured":0},{"id":48183,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/97/128/lot/63 b.jpg","isFeatured":0}]},"increment":[2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":62,"next":64,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}