Content and Contextual Analysis of Selected Primary
Sources in Philippine History
Learning Objectives:
• To familiarize oneself with the primary documents in different historical periods of the Philippines.
• To learn history through primary sources.
• To properly interpret primary sources through examining the contact and context of the document.
• To understand the context behind each selected document.
The historian’s primary tool of understanding and interpreting the past is the historical sources.
Historical sources ascertain historical facts. Such facts are then analyzed and interpreted by the
historian to weave historical narrative. Using primary sources in historical research entails two kinds
of criticism. The first one is EXTERNAL CRITICISM and the second is INTERNAL CRITICISM.
EXTERNAL CRITICISM
examines the authenticity of the document or the evidence being used while
INTERNAL CRITICISM
examines the truthfulness of the content of the evidence.
A Brief Summary of the First Voyage Around the World by Magellan by Antonio Pigafetta
Who is Antonio Pigafetta?
– Famous Italian traveller born in Vicenza around 1490 and died in the
same city in 1534, who is also known by the name of Antonio Lombardo or Francisco Antonio
Pigafetta. Initially linked to the order of Rhodes, which was Knight, went to Spain in 1519,
accompanied by Monsignor Francisco Chiericato, and was made available from Carlos V to promote
the company initiated by the Catholic Monarchs in the Atlantic. Soon he became a great friendship
with Magallanes, who accompanied, together with Juan Sebastián Elcano, in the famous expedition to
the Moluccas begun in August of 1519 and finished in September 1522.
Who is Antonio Pigafetta? – He was wounded at the battle of the island of Cebu (Philippines) in which
Magellan found death. The output of Seville made it aboard of the Trinity; the return, along with a
handful of survivors (17 of the 239 who left this adventure), in victory, ship that entered in Sanlúcar
de Barrameda (Cádiz) on September 6, the designated year. In the last years of his life, he traveled
by land from France to finally return to Italy in 1523. He wrote the relation of that trip, which was the
first around the world, Italian and with the title of Relazioni in lathe to the primo viaggio di
circumnavigazione. Notizia del Mondo Nuovo with figure you dei paesi scoperti, which was published
posthumously, in 1536.
Who is Antonio Pigafetta? – The account of Pigafetta is the single most important source about the
voyage of circumnavigation, despite its tendency to include fabulous details. He took notes daily, as
he mentioned when he realizes his surprise at Spain and see that he had lost a day (due to its driving
direction). Includes descriptions of numerous animals, including sharks, the Storm petrel (Hydrobates
pelagicus), the pink spoonbill (Ajaja ajaja) and the Phyllium orthoptera, an insect similar to a sheet.
