07 a. Intl Aspect of Archives %28R. Jose UST%29


07 a. Intl Aspect of Archives %28R. Jose UST%29

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EAO Regional Conference on the State of Salesian Historiography
Day 3 | Wednesday | 6 Nov 2013
“The State of Salesian Historiography and of the Conservation and Development of the
Salesian Historical Patrimony in the East Asia-Oceania Region”
Don Bosco Retreat House, November 4-8, 2013
Problems and Perspectives in the Conservation of Documents for the Writing of History: The
Case of the Archives of the University of Santo Tomas
By Regalado Trota Jose
Archivist of the University of Santo Tomas
When I was a student at the University of the Philippines, the impression I got in my
history classes was that the friars were the bad guys. At the very least, they made life for the
Filipinos very difficult. Among the most conservative (read: backward) were the Dominicans
who were entrenched in their University of Santo Tomas. Another impression I got, not in UP
but somewhere along the way, was that archives are mysterious, color-less and boring. What’s
more, the documents here are mostly in Spanish, which made a visit to an archive even more
unthinkable or forgettable.
In the case of the Archives of the University of Santo Tomas, however, the opposite
impressions are slowly evolving. In the course of the University’s celebration of its 400th year in
2011, the UST Archives was almost overnight “discovered” to contain original information
about the institution’s past. One by one, the UST’s departments and colleges began to
approach the Archives for assistance in writing their own histories or locating vintage
photographs. Students, alumni, priests and fellow archivists wanted to take a peek at the age-
old documents which included the Foundation Act of 1611, the 17th century baybayin scripts,
and Rizal’s grades. University guests and the media followed suit; the latest celebrity to visit the
UST Archives was the Queen of Spain. With its embarrassment of riches, the UST Archives has
shyly become one of the University’s top tourist attractions.
This development has turned up certain challenges to the maintenance of the UST’s
archives and to their accessibility for scholarly use. This paper will thus tackle this development
in three parts. First, a brief history of the repositories of the UST Archives. Second, a brief run-
through of some of the UST Archives’ treasures. And third, the challenges posed to this
reluctant tourist spot.
I. A brief history of the repositories of the UST Archives
The University of Santo Tomas or UST had its beginnings when Miguel de Benavides,
Dominican and archbishop of Manila, willed his small library and some seed money for a school
for boys in Manila in 1605. His confreres formally enacted his bequest on April 28, 1611. As
such it is the oldest university in the Philippines, and is believed to be the oldest in Asia. For
three hundred years the campus was in Intramuros, the walled city of Manila.

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The building at Intramuros seems to have been constructed in the last third of the
seventeenth century. A plan of the 1680s represents much of the edifice that stood for more
than 250 years. The historic documents of the University including royal decrees, papal bulls,
and student grades were guarded in a room next to the principal stairway. The precious
collection left the Walled City when it was transferred to the ground floor of the Central
Seminary in the new campus in Sampaloc in 19331. By this time, the collection had grown to
reflect not just the history of the UST but that of the Philippines and the surrounding region as
well. Its location in the ground floor, like that of the Library in the Main Building, did not prove
to be a felicitous one. Sampaloc, then as now, was prone to floods, and the precious documents
and books bear ample evidence of water stress such as stains, worm-holes, brittle pages, and
the like. In 1941, Japanese bombs over the Dominican church in Intramuros forced the
evacuation of the rest of archives and other valuables to the Sampaloc site. This was just in the
nick of time, because the ancient Intramuros campus was destroyed when the Japanese
military put Intramuros to the torch on the 7th and 8th of February, 1945.
After the War, the Archives were raised to the third floor of the Seminary building in
1966. In 1993, appropriately marking 400 years of the printing press in the Philippines, the
Archives were relocated to the fourth floor of the newly built Miguel de Benavides Library.
Finally, the Archives made another momentous move just in July of this year to the fifth floor of
the same building. The UST Archives are now on the same floor as the Rare Book Section, which
makes the entire space an incomparable haven for researchers.
II. A peek into the contents of the UST Archives
The UST Archives or “AUST” (after its original Spanish name: Archivo de la Universidad
de Santo Tomás) is the official repository of the original documents and records relevant to the
University of Santo Tomas since its foundation in 1611. Though the records were assembled by
the University they remain relevant to places and cultures way beyond the the streets of
España and Dapitan. Student records for example include transcripts from late 19th century
secondary schools all over the country. Manuscript accounts take us to battles in Vietnam,
while parchment scrolls make tangible the concerns of Rome and Madrid.
The AUST resources have been central in the various projects of the UST
Quadricentennial, such as the writing of the UST history, the Lumina Pandit exhibit of book
treasures; the 150th birth anniversary of Jose Rizal, and the exhibit at the UNESCO headquarters
in Paris. But beyond this, the AUST has an untold wealth of material that can enrich the study of
the histories of the Philippines, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. It is truly the silent yet potent
link of the University with the world. For today, I would like to introduce you to the Archives by
1 The Central Seminary came to house the University Church and the Fathers’ Residence. The Seminary and the
gym formerly across it were designed by Architect Fernando Ocampo, a graduate of Civil Engineering at UST and
one of the founders of the University’s School of Architecture and Fine Arts. Although his designs had to be
approved by Fr. Ruaño, Ocampo was able to imbue his creations with original interpretations of the Art Deco style
then in vogue. On the 12th of October, 1933, as the climax of that year’s University Day, the Archbishop of Manila,
Monsignor Michael O’ Dogherty, solemnly blessed and dedicated the new Central Seminary building.

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presenting certain documents and photographs kept in the UST Archives that give identity to
the University of Santo Tomas.
Foundation Act (1611). On April 28, 1611, Fray Bernardo de Santa Catalina led a group of
Dominicans in putting into effect what their confrere Miguel de Benavides had willed just
before his death in 1605. Archbishop Benavides bequeathed the amount of 1,500 pesos and his
personal library for the foundation of what would become the University of Santo Tomas. The
original foundation act has survived almost miraculously for four hundred years and is still
readable.
Libros de Piques. Examinations for degrees in Philosophy, Theology and Canon Law were
rigorously stipulated in the earliest statutes, which were based on those of the University of
Mexico and which in turn were derived from the University of Salamanca. In principle, the
candidate was given two sessions in each of which he had to expound on a topic chosen from
one of three selected at random in the designated examination book, as follows:
Philosophy: Works by Aristotle (manuscript dated 1636)
Theology: Sentences of Peter Lombard (printed in Paris, 1564)
Canon Law: Institutiones Iustiniani (printed in Madrid, 1791)
These books were collectively known as the Libros de Piques, from the manner a page was
“picked”. The books for Philosophy and Theology are wonderfully garnished in silver.
Baybayin texts. The AUST keeps the only known manuscripts written fully in the old Tagalog
script called baybayin. A pair of documents dated 1613 and 1625 respectively deal with the sale
of land by matrons in Manila. Signatures in baybayin, ranging from the years 1603 to about
1660,2 appear in a handful of carefully compiled testimonies of acquisition of lands from native
Manila residents for the support of the University.
Fr. Juan de Paz’s Consultas. The University professors acquired a reputation for the solution of
tricky moral and spiritual questions, such as the legitimacy of certain marriages or the
orthodoxy of certain rites of the sangleyes in the Parian. The Archives is replete with the
Consultas that were minutely prepared to answer the questions that reached the UST from
different places such as Lubang Island, Vigan, or Mindanao. Fr. Juan de Paz’s thoughts were so
sought after in the 17th century that they were passed on in notebooks and even published in
Seville.
Petition of Francisco Borja de los Santos, mestizo sangley, to take the exam for the licentiate in
philosophy in 1773. We are always curious about those native Filipinos who were admitted
into the University in its first two centuries of existence, but our archival record is not complete.
Thanks to a litigation that took the better part of the 1770s, we have a series of documents that
2 Fr. Alberto Santamaria made a minute study of the AUST baybayin examples, commenting on earlier studies
especially that presented by Ignacio Villamor at the University of the Philippines in 1918. His article in turn has
been revisited by recent scholars like Damon Woods and Christopher Miller.

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provides a rare glimpse of the names and racial classification of students of that time. In 1773
Francisco Borja de los Santos, a mestizo sangley or son of a Chinese father and a Filipina,
applied for a licentiate in philosophy. The university council or claustro was split in its decision.
His Dominican professors were in favor of granting it. However the graduados, mostly Spanish
secular priests who were based in the Manila cathedral and who ironically were trained by the
Dominicans, were against it. Borja filed a suit against the graduados with the Audiencia and
won his case two years later. Borja earned another bachelor’s degree in Canon Law in 1775,
and belatedly received his licentiate in Philosophy in 1776. He and another mestizo sangley,
Dionisio Vicente de los Reyes, earned their master’s degree in 1777. In the words of church
historian Luciano Santiago, “…in 1778 [the two] became not only the first Chinese mestizo
doctors but also the first Filipinos to receive Ph.D. degrees. Touched by the continued support
they received from their Dominican professors, they entered the Order of Preachers the same
year, becoming as well the first two Filipino Dominican priests.” 3
Royal cedula signed by the King, granting the title “Loyal” and “Royal” to the University of Santo
Tomas, 1785. In order to prepare for a second threat of British invasion, the University of Santo
Tomas clothed and fed 200 student soldiers (not 500, as some later histories put down) and
trained them in special 15-day sessions from 1781 until 1783. Thankfully, British artillery never
again bombarded our shores and all the soldiers were made to go home without seeing military
action. The Dominicans in Manila prevailed upon their procurator in Madrid to put in a good
word about the University’s remaining loyal to the Crown and its contribution to the war effort.
The King obliged with the bestowal of the title “Royal” to his “loyal” University in a cedula dated
March 7, 1785, Feast of the death of St. Thomas Aquinas.
New text books. A Royal Decree in 1865 entrusted the supervision of secondary education in
the country to the University of Santo Tomas.4 A new impulse was given to the printing of
textbooks for all sorts of courses. This granted “the studentry of the Islands an advantage vis á
vis the books imported from Europe.”5 There were textbooks for, among others, drawing,
arithmetic (in Tagalog and Spanish), algebra, geometry, trigonometry, geography and history
(with emphasis on Spain and the Philippines), natural history, physics, chemistry, pharmacy,
literature, Latin, Greek, French, rhetoric, and canon law.
Libros de Matriculas. From 1866 to the end of the Spanish period all secondary schools in the
country had to submit transcripts of the grades they had given to their students to be
confirmed by the UST. Thus this section of the Archives is of particular relevance to almost all
parts of the country. One can trace the rise of secondary schools in the Philippines, as well as of
the Ateneo Municipal, the Real Colegio de San Jose, and the Real Colegio de San Juan de Letran.
The UST also classified its students according to province, and so these lists are invaluable
sources for local history as well.
3 Santiago also quotes the Jesuit historian John Schumacher who thought that they were “the first Filipinos to receive
a doctorate from the U.S.T.” Luciano P.R. Santiago, “The First Filipino Doctors of Ecclesiastical Sciences (1772-
1796)”, Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society 12 (1984), pp. 260-262, 269.
4 Villarroel 1988, p.93.
5 Miller 1908, p. 268. Fray Jose Miller, was then the Press’ director.

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Matronas. The School of Midwifery (Escuela de Matronas) was opened in 1879, in which
women were accepted for the first time within the institution. It was closed after the
schoolyear of 1914-1915.
Rizal’s grades. Most biographers of Rizal paint a bleak picture of his stay at UST. An examination
of the records at the Archives however presents a more balanced view. All of this has been
presented by Fr. Fidel Villarroel, O.P., in his book, Jose Rizal and the University of Santo Tomas.
In the grades of the 3rd Year of Medicine, 1880-1881, for the subjects of General Pathology and
Its Clinic, and Pathologic Histology, Jose Rizal appears in the fifth line as “Jose Rizal M. y
Alonso”, listed alphabetically by first name. Rizal obtained the grade Aprobado (Passed),
equivalent to 3.0. This was his lowest grade; however all his other classmates received the
same grade, with the notable exception of Juan Luna’s brother who obtained a Sobresaliente
(Excellent, 1.0), and another who received a Notable (Very Good, 1.5). In the grades of the 3rd
Year of Medicine 1880-1881, for the class of Therapeutics, Medical Matter, and Art of
Prescribing, Rizal is on the 7th line. Here he obtained one of his six Sobresalientes (Excellent,
1.0). Summing up, in the twenty-one subjects taken in the University, Rizal obtained six
Sobresaliente or “Excellent”, six Notable or Aprovechado or “Very Good”, eight Bueno or
“Good”, and only one Aprobado or “Passing Grade”. He also finished second in his class.
Letters of the Internees. At the beginning of 1942 a number of university buildings in the
Sampaloc campus was converted into an internment camp for Allied civilians. From 3,000 to
3,800 Americans, British, Dutch, Canadian, French and internees of other nationalities were
detained in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp. In the Archives are sheaves of letters written by
these internees pleading with the Japanese authorities to let their Filipino families into the
camp, because living conditions had drastically deteriorated elsewhere in the city.
Student unrest. A special box contains news clippings that detail the student unrest of the late
1960s.
First Filipino Rector. Fr. Leonardo Legaspi, O.P., became the first Filipino rector of the University
of Santo Tomas in 1971. He served until 1977.
Papal Visits. Paul VI was the first pope ever to visit the Pontifical University in 1970. Blessed
Pope John Paul II visited the UST twice, on February 18, 1981 and then on January 13, 1995.
The UST Archives is also the proud possessor of the following items of interest, which may be
classified according to country of origin or relevance:
The Holy See:
Papel bulls, documents
Spain:
Royal decrees

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Book of Hours. The University is the proud possessor of an extremely rare book known
as a Book of Hours. A book such as this was used by laymen of the Middle Ages who read
prayers according to the hours followed in monasteries. By the style of the writing it may have
been produced in the early sixteenth century Netherlands. The illuminations and intricate
miniatures are truly amazing. We do not know if there are any books of this type in the region,
or how it reached UST, but this book and the three others that follow have been introduced in a
recent article in Philippiniana Sacra.6
La Solidaridad. Some 30-plus issues of this iconic publication of the Propaganda
Movement lie on the shelves of the UST Archives. They date from 15 July 1891 to 30 April 1895
(Vols. III:59 to VII:150), and were printed in Madrid.
Martyrs’ memorabilia
The Order of Preachers
Correspondence
Mexico
Japan
Fr. Juan de los Angeles’ Luzonni voite arufito…, printed in 1623 for the Japanese
community in Manila by the “Prince of Filipino Printers” Tomas Pinpin. The book is testimony to
the early development of printing in the Philippines and is in fact the oldest Philippine-printed
book in the UST. The only other known copy was in the Franciscan convent in Intramuros, but
that was before the bombing of 1945. The book also contains the earliest known copperplate
prints engraved in the Philippines.
China
Taiwan
Vietnam
El Correo Sino-Anamita. This periodical was established to publicize and chronicle
Dominican missionary efforts in Asia. Many articles are written in a proto-anthropological bent,
and there are many photographs, so that the series is an excellent source of historical,
ethnographic, and religious aspects of the peoples of the Philippine Cordillera and Batanes,
Vietnam, Formosa, and Japan. The AUST has a complete set of the Correo, which ran from 1852
to 1916.
Other Cultures
6 John N. Crossley and Regalado Trota Jose, “The University of Santo Tomas Hours: Surprising Discovery of a
Treasure”, Philippiniana Sacra XLVI:138 (September-December 2011), pp. 731-758.

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Arabic-Chaldaic texts. There are three small books which appear to be have been
written for use by Christians in the Middle East. All are in the Arabic language, although two are
written in Syriac or Chaldaic letters (so-called Karshuni or Karšūnī, with the style of the letters in
the Sert’ō script). Inside evidence may place their dating to the 18th century, but how they
ended up in UST is a tantalizing question.7
III. Challenges and perspectives
Tourism and Identity
Despite all these treasures, a mystery still shrouds the Archives, such that very few know
of its existence. Those who know—even the younger Dominicans—are hesitant to visit it.
Ironically, it is possible that the Archives are almost better known abroad than by the very
constituents of UST.
In 2010, the Archives collaborated with the Library8 on an important exhibit timed for
the Quadricentennial celebrations. Its title, Lumina Pandit, was taken from the Latin inscription
on the Library cornice: Has tenebrae cingunt mentis caligine terras. Hoc Sancti Thomae
Universitatis opus: lumina pandit (“Darkness covers this land in a mental mist. This is the task of
the University of Santo Tomas: to spread the light”). Precious books were exhibited along with
documents from the Archives and artifacts from the Museum, many of them seen for the first
time. These were written about, presented in conferences, or featured in publications. The
exhibit was an eye-opener to the richness and complexity of the past. In a particular way, it
contributed to a better appreciation of the art and history of the Spanish colonial period of the
UST, so much overlooked despite the University’s background.
The UST community at large began to take notice. Material from the Archives was used
for the UST’s audio-visual presentations. The Archives were featured in TV shows like Travel
Time, airline magazines such as Mabuhay Magazine, and dailies such as Philippine Daily
Inquirer. University guests were taken by the Office of Public Affairs to the Archives. The latest
visitor was Her Majesty the Queen of Spain. Youthful student groups, with nary an idea of what
archives were, curiously poked around. (Unfortunately they could not be entertained because
the Archives are only open to graduate students and professionals). A bit painfully, the Archives
staff have to gently turn down interviews and screen visitors because all this attention is
impinging on the silent work that has to go on.
Enough interest from the Lumina Pandit exhibition generated a second version. Through
Lumina Pandit II, the Union Bank is now sponsoring a conservation, cataloguing, and digitization
7 Ibid., pp. 750-753.
8 The care and cataloguing of the rare book collection received a big boost with the installation of the Antonio
Vivencio del Rosario Heritage Library in 2000. At present, the collection of rare books numbers about 10,000
volumes, with over 400 dating before 1600.

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program of documents and other rare material at the UST Archives and of rare books at the UST
Library. Help from certain foreign embassies is now being proffered.
The dormant voices of the Archives, gently provoked by cultural tourism, are slowly
helping to evolve the University’s identity. It is hoped that this case study may serve as another
way to drum up serious interest in archives in other institutions.
Accessibility:
Spanish
Many uncatalogued
Fragile material
Cataloguing and annotation: help of Union Bank
Digitization and the Internet
Conservation
Conclusion
I would like to point out the near-miraculous survival of the UST Archives, Museum,
Library, and. Had these not been transferred to the Sampaloc campus, they would have
disappeared in the conflagration that destroyed Intramuros during the Battle for Manila in
February 1945. There is yet another threat to their survival, an insidious one. That is the loss of
the understanding of the Spanish language, a development that began with the cession of the
Philippines by Spain to the United States of America in 1898. The great majority of Filipinos
cannot relate to the original Spanish textual sources of their history because of this. More than
300 years of Philippine history still remain to be written, and written well. The UST Archives,
along with the Museum and Library therefore have the double responsibility of not just
conserving their heritage but also making it accessible to a wider, younger audience. Hopefully,
through the union of a tourist drive and an academic foundation, the University of Santo Tomás
may continue to configure its identity along the reasons for its foundation. May the people at
UST ever be inspired by the Dominican motto Orare, Benedicere, Praedicare—To Pray, To Bless,
To Preach.