Bagay, Nicolás de la Cruz (sold)
Nicolás de la Cruz Bagay (1701 - c. 1771) was a Philippine Tagalog engraver and printer active in Manila during the first half of the 18th century. He was born in Tambobong, now Malabon in southern Luzon, the Philippines. Bagay was the official printer of the Jesuit Press. He engraved the two most important maps of the Philippines, the 1734 Carta Hydrographica y Corographica de las Islas Filipinas, and its reduction, the 1744 Mapa de la Yslas Philipinas. He also printed numerous other works for the Jesuit order, ranging from commemorative pieces, to catechisms, to portraits, religious texts, and histories. It is not clear when he died, but he disappears form the public record around 1771.
The most important map of the Philippines, in the reduced 'B' variant. Engraved by a Philippine and printed in the Manila.
Mapa de Las Yslas Philipinas Hecho Por el Pe. Pedro Murillo Velarde de Compa. de Jesus.
sold
The first edition of Pedro Murillo Velarde's seminal 1749 history of the Philippines, complete with the desirable 1744 Bagay reduction of the 1734 Murillo-Bagay wall map of the Philippines. As a whole, the work is considered one of the most important productions in the history of Philippine printing and a unique Spanish-Philippine collaboration. The map is of particular significance, being the second major map of the Philippines published in the Philippines, engraved by the same hand that engraved the 1734 wall map, but with updates and revisions reflecting 10 years of discovery and development. (more details)