The Boxer Codex is a late-16th-century Spanish manuscript produced in the Philippines. It contains 75 colored illustrations of the peoples of China, the Philippines, Japan, Java, the Moluccas, the Ladrones, and Siam. About 270 pages of Spanish text describe these places, their inhabitants and customs. An additional 88 smaller drawings show mythological deities and demons, and both real and mythological birds and animals copied from popular Chinese texts and books in circulation at the time. Boxer recognized the importance of what he called the “Manila Manuscript” and published a paper in 1950 with a detailed description of the codex. The English historian Charles Ralph Boxer purchased the manuscript in 1947 from the collection of Lord Ilchester in London. Boxer eventually sold it to Indiana University, where it is held by the Lilly Library. Early Modern Spanish with some labels in Early Manila Hokkien written in Spanish orthography and Classical Chinese (Hokkien Chinese: 漢文; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Hàn-bûn) 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. He made the manuscript freely available to other researchers for study, and it became known as the Boxer Codex. 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. Most of the drawings appear to have been copied or adapted from materials brought to the Philippines from China by Martín de Rada: the Shānhǎi Jīng (山海经, The Classic of Mountains and Seas), and books from the shenmo (神魔) genre, which depict deities and demons. 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). 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. 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. At least 15 illustrations deal with the inhabitants of the Philippine Archipelago. 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, qipao dress red 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. 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. Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines. 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. Luis succeeded his father in office as governor-general. 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. A couple belonging to the Zambal warrior-hunter class. Tagalog royalty in red (the distinctive color of his class) with his wife. This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. Tagalog royal couple in red, the distinctive color of their class. Tagalog maginoo (noble class) wearing blue (the distinctive color of his class) with his wife. Visayan kadatuan (royal) with his wife wearing red, the distinctive color of their class. Native Visayan uripon (slaves) adorned with gold. Mạc dynasty or Lê dynasty at that time. Vietnamese Warrior with Wife from Hải Phòng, Tonkin, Đại Việt (Vietnam). Vietnamese Noble with Wife from Quảng Nam, Đại Việt (Vietnam) under the Nguyễn lords at the time. Donoso 2016, p. xlviii. Warrior with Japanese swords and armor, Possibly a Mercenary from other southeast Asian territories. Boxer, summer hanfu C. R. (1950). “A Late Sixteenth Century Manila MS”. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Crossley, John N. (2014). “The Early History of the Boxer Codex”. Donoso, Isaac (2016). Boxer Codex / El Códice Boxer: A Modern Spanish Transcription and English Translation of 16th-Century Exploration Accounts of East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific, transcription and edition by Isaac Donoso, translation and annotations by María Luisa García, Carlos Quirino and Mauro García. Roces, Alfredo R., ed. Souza, George Bryan; Turley, Jeffrey Scott (2015). The Boxer Codex: Transcription and Translation of an Illustrated Late Sixteenth-Century Spanish Manuscript. The Lilly Library Digital Collections, Indiana University. 1977), “Boxer Codex”, Filipino Heritage: the Making of a Nation, vol. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Boxer Codex. This page was last edited on 2 December 2024, at 23:32 (UTC). By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms may apply. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.