Boxer Codex

Description and contents

The manuscript was written around 1590 in primarily Early Modern Spanish with some labels in Early Manila Hokkien written in Spanish orthography and Classical Chinese and contains illustrations of ethnic groups in the Philippines, across Southeast Asia, and in East Asia and Micronesia at the time of early Spanish contact. It also contains Taoist mythological deities and demons, and both real and mythological birds and land animals copied from popular Chinese texts and books in circulation at the time. Aside from a description of and historical allusions to what are now the Philippines and various other Far Eastern countries, the codex also contains 97 hand-drawn color paintings and illustrations depicting peoples and animals of the Philippines, the Indonesian Archipelago, Japan, Taiwan, China, and Mainland Southeast Asia. The first illustration is an oblong fold-out, 74 are full-page colored illustrations, and the remaining are arranged four to a page on 22 pages (with some of the quarters remaining blank). Most of the drawings appear to have been copied or adapted from materials brought to the Philippines from China by Martín de Rada: the Classic of Mountains and Seas and books from the shenmo genre, which depict deities and demons. The remaining drawings represent individuals, often a male and female pair, as inhabitants from tributaries of China and Taiwan with their distinctive costume; some of these have been refashioned as warriors. The depictions of inhabitants from Chinese tributaries may have been copied from a pre-existing source, drawn from memory, or perhaps even drawn according to instruction given by Rada or one of the other Europeans who visited China. At least 15 illustrations deal with the inhabitants of the Philippine Archipelago.

History and provenance

The Boxer Codex does not bear any direct statement of authorship or dates of production and there is no dedication that might indicate who was the patron of the work or for whom the work was intended. Its contents indicate that it was written in Manila in the early 1590s. The manuscript was likely compiled at the direction of Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines, or his son, Luis Pérez Dasmariñas.

The Boxer Codex depicts the Tagalogs, Visayans, Zambals, Cagayanes or possibly Ibanags, and Negritos of the Philippines in vivid color. The paintings' technique and the use of Chinese paper, ink, and paints suggests that the artist may have been Chinese.

It is believed that the original owner of the manuscript was Luis Pérez Dasmariñas, son of Governor General Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines. Luis succeeded his father in office as governor-general. Since Spanish colonial governors kept extensive written reports of the territories they governed, it is likely that the manuscript was written on the governor's orders.

The manuscript's earliest known modern owner was Lord Ilchester. The codex was among what remained in his collection when his estate, Holland House in London, was bombed on September 27, 1940, during the Blitz. It was auctioned in 1947 and came into the possession of Charles Ralph Boxer, an authority on the Far East, and whom it is named. It is now owned by the Lilly Library at Indiana University.

Illustrations in the Boxer Codex

Natives of the Philippines

(All captions below based on source) File:Cagayan Woman.png|A Lady from the Cagayan Valley (Possibly Ibanag) File:Cagayan Warrior.png| Warrior from Cagayan Valley (Possibly Ibanag) File:玳瑁 Taipue - Unknown couple - Boxer Codex (1590).jpg|Couple with tied long hair and Kampilan hilt from Taimei Anchorage, Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, Philippines (Possibly Pangasinense) File:Zambals 1.png|Zambal hunters from Zambales File:Zambals 2.png|Zambal hunters hunting File:Zambals 3.png|A couple belonging to the Zambal warrior-hunter class. The image shows a culture of falconry File:Negritos.png|Aeta or Negrito hunters File:Naturales 4.png|Tagalog royalty in red (the distinctive color of his class) with his wife. File:Naturales 3.png|Tagalog royal couple in red, the distinctive color of their class. File:Naturales 5.png|Tagalog maginoo (noble class) wearing blue (the distinctive color of his class) with his wife. File:Naturales 2.png|Tagalog common women wearing simple clothes and headscarves (likely Muslims from Maynila in the 1500s) File:Visayans 4.png|Visayan kadatuan (royal) couple File:Visayans 3.png|Visayan kadatuan (royal) holding a Khanda sword, alongside his wife wearing red, the distinctive color of their class. File:Visayans 2.png|A Pintado (Possibly Cebuano or Waray) couple of the timawa or tumao (martial-feudal class; later demoted to freedman status) File:Visayans 1.png|Pintados (Possibly Cebuano or Waray) from Bohol, showing their patok or tattoos File:Naturales 1.png|Native Visayan uripon (slaves) adorned with gold.

Foreigners

(All captions below based on source) File:Unknown couple in the Philippines.jpg|"Tatar" (Mongol) noble with wife from Tartary (Mongolia) File:皇帝 Rey - Emperor & Empress of China - Boxer Codex (1590).jpg|Emperor and empress of Ming dynasty China File:太子 Príncipe - Prince and Princess from China - Boxer Codex (1590).jpg|Noble prince and consort from Ming dynasty China|alt=Noble prince and consort from Ming dynasty China: 556 File:文官 Mandarín Letrado - Mandarin Official from China - Boxer Codex (1590).jpg|Mandarin bureaucrat with wife from Ming dynasty File:Chinese General in Philippines.jpg|Ming dynasty Chinese general with attendant File:Chinese migrants in the Philippines.png|Han Chinese "Sangley" couple living in Manila, Philippines wearing hanfu from Ming dynasty File:Ming2.jpg|Another Sangley couple|alt=Another Sangley couple: 552 File:畲客 Xaque Couple in the Philippines - Boxer Codex (1590).jpg|She Chinese merchant with wife from Ming dynasty China File:Japanese inhabitants in the Philippines.png|alt=Japanese samurai couple wearing yukata with the woman's hair styled in Chinese fashion: 32|Japanese samurai couple wearing yukata with the woman's hair styled in Chinese fashion File:Vietnamese in pre-colonial Philippines.jpg|Vietnamese noble with wife from Tonkin, Đại Việt (Vietnam) under either the Mạc dynasty or Lê dynasty at that time File:Viet2.jpg|alt=Labelled as a Vietnamese warrior with woman from Tonkin, Đại Việt (Vietnam), but the man is instead depicted as a wokou: 32|Labelled as a Vietnamese warrior with woman from Tonkin, Đại Việt (Vietnam), but the man is instead depicted as a wokou File:Viet3.jpg|Vietnamese noble with wife from Quảng Nam, Đại Việt (Vietnam) under the Nguyễn lords at the time. File:尖城 Chamcia - Couple from Champa - Boxer Codex (1590).jpg|Cham couple from Champa (in modern-day Ninh Thuận, Southern Vietnam) File:Pre-colonial Native 3.jpg|Siamese (Thai) warrior with wife from Siam (Thailand) File:柬埔寨 Tampochia - Couple from Cambodia - Boxer Codex (1590).jpg|Khmer couple from Kampuchea (Cambodia) File:雞籠 Cheylam - Couple from Keelung, Taiwan - Boxer Codex (1590).jpg|Taiwanese aboriginal headhunter couple from Keelung, Spanish Formosa (in modern-day Taiwan) File:淡水 Tamchuy - Couple from Tamsui, Taiwan - Boxer Codex (1590).jpg|Taiwanese aboriginal headhunter couple from Tamsui, Spanish Formosa (in modern-day Taiwan) File:Ladrones - Hunter from Marianas -Boxer Codex (1590).jpg|Chamorro hunter from Marianas Islands (Guam/Northern Marianas) with spear File:Hunter from Marianas 2 - Boxer Codex (1590).jpg|Chamorro hunter from Marianas Islands (Guam/Northern Marianas) with bow File:Native Warrior.jpg|Javanese warrior with musket and swords|alt=Javanese warrior with musket and swords: 431 File:Native-Warrior.jpg|Javanese warrior with a spear and shield from "Iaua" (modern-day Java, Indonesia)|alt=Javanese warrior with a spear and shield from "Iaua" (modern-day Java, Indonesia): 432 File:丁磯嶷 Temquigui - Couple from Terangganu, Malaysia - Boxer Codex (1590).jpg|Malay couple from the Terangganu Sultanate (in modern-day Malaysia) File:大連 Tohany - Manchu couple from Dalian, China - Boxer Codex (1590).jpg|Patani couple|alt=Patani couple: 550 File:Pre-colonial Native.jpg|Bruneian warrior with wife File:Siaus - Warriors from Siau, North Sulawesi, Indonesia - Boxer Codex (1590).jpg|Sangirese warriors from Siau Island, Sangir Archipelago (in modern-day North Sulawesi, Indonesia) File:Native Soldier.jpg|Moluccan warrior from the Moluccas (in modern-day Maluku Islands, Indonesia) File:Native of Visayan origin.jpg|Moluccan noble woman|alt=Moluccan noble woman: 427

Notes

References

References

1. [http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/omeka/lilly/items/show/93 Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana (U.S.A.), Catalogue Record of the Boxer Codex]
2. Souza & Turley, 2015
3. {{Harvnb. Roces. 1977
4. {{Harvnb. Donoso. 2016
5. {{Harvnb. Roces. 1977