PHILIPPINE ANTIQUE CARTOGRAPHY ON VIEW AT THE MET

The Metropolitan Museum of Manila presents “Mapping the Philippine Seas,” an exhibition of antique maps and charts of the Philippine archipelago dated from the early 16th century to the late 19th century. It is made possible through the partnership with the Philippine Map Collectors Society (Phimcos).

The exhibition consists of 165 original maps and sea charts from the private collections of Phimcos members and from the collection of the GSIS Museum. Occupying the Met Tall Galleries, the maps are arranged chronologically beginning from the era when European navigators were actively exploring lands. The collection includes significant maps like a reproduction of the Selden Map courtesy of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the maps where the names “Filipina” and “Las Philippinas” first appeared, and the Treaty of Paris map. Some were made by wellknown cartographers such as Robert Dudley, Alexander Dalrymple and Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, and others are from the Spanish, British and French admiralties.

Another important highlight of the exhibition is the Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica delas Yslas Filipinas, a map produced in 1734 by Padre Pedro Murillo Velarde. The map was engraved by a Filipino artist named Nicolas de la Cruz Bagay, together with Francisco Suarez for some other images. There are stylized images of Filipinos, Chinese, Christians, Spaniards, mesti

zos and other natives from different ethnic groups.

The exhibition aims to edu- cate people about the role the Philippines played in the history of trade with its neighboring countries and European colonizers, explorations of faster sea passages, and navigation of safer routes through the archipelago.

The exhibit will be on view at the Met from March 15 to April 29.

The exhibition is complemented by a series of public lectures with experts who will discuss different aspects of the history of Philippine maritime cartography.

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The Met is at Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Complex, Roxas Blvd., Manila. Museum hours are from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday-Saturday.