Another piece of rare jewel is Pedro Chirino, S. J. Relacion de las Islas Filipinas, Rome l604. Although the library does not have the first edition of Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, Mexico, 1609—a primary source of great value for the proper understanding pre-Spanish indigenous culture, resources, economy, and institutions, it has, however, Jose Rizal's l890 edition, Blair and Robertson's l904 edition and W. E. Retana's l909 edition.

F. Magalhães, the Portuguese circumnavigator of the world and the first European to set his foot on the Philippine archipelago, was a subject in himself. The library has the 3rd edition of Maximilianus Transylvanus De Moluccis Insulis, Rome l524 which was based on the survivors' accounts of the Magellan expedition. This is another rare gem. Magellan has been also the subject of biographers, foremost among them are Jean Denuce, Jean Paul Alaux, James F. Leys, Gines de Mapra, Charles M. Parr, E. F. Benson, F. H. Guillemard, and Stephan Zweig.

Quite a few Spanish missionaries wrote several outstanding histories of merits on the Philippines, of which are Juan de la Concepcion's Historia general de Philipinas… Manila, En La Impr. del Seminar Conciliar y Real de S. Carlos l788-l792, l4 vols.; Joaquin Martinez de Zuñiga's Historia de las Islas Philipinas, Impreso en Sampaloc, Año de l803; Juan Ferrando's Historia de los pp. Dominicos en las Islas Filipinas, Madrid, M. Rivadeneyra, l870-l872, 6 vols.; and Francisco Combes, Historia de las Islas Mindanao, Iolo y sus adjacentas…, Madrid 1667, have long held the field as standard sources.

Among the other items worthy of note include dictionaries, grammars, sermons, devotional literature (novenas), lives of saints and other religious works which were used as tools in the propagation of Roman Catholicism. The devotional literature and other religious tracts are of immense value for researchers and exhibit purposes because they mirror the religiosity of our ethnic peoples and form the religious heritage of the Spanish period.

Anyone who knows the Jesuits and quite familiar with their works both as scholars and missionaries has been conditioned to expect thoroughness and authoritativeness. The same qualities characterized the work of Domingo Esguerra, S. J. entitled Arte de la Lengua Bisaya de la Provincia de Leyte, Manila l663. The methods and tactics employed by the Spanish missionaries were sometimes similar to the adaptations their counterparts practiced in the Americas, China and India. Many adaptations were made to suit the early Filipino beliefs, customs and practices. And in so doing, Catholicism was presented in a form suitable to the psychic needs of the Filipinos.***

The most obvious of these adaptations was resorted to by the publications of dictionaries, grammars, and numerous religious tracts in the vernacular languages such as those of

Diego Bergano's Vocabulario de la lengua Pampanga…, Manila l729; Sebastian de Totanes' Arte de la lengua Tagalo y manual Tagalog…, Sampaloc l745; Andres San Agustin's Arte dela lengua bicol…, Sampaloc l795; Alonso Mentrida's Arte dela lengua bisaya hiligaynon de las islas de Panay…, Manila l8l8; Mariano Pellicer's Arte de la lengua pangasinan o caboloan…, Manila l840; and Andres Carro's Vocabulario iloco-español…, Manila l888.