Murillo Velarde, Pedro (sold)
Pedro Murillo Velarde (1696 - 1753) was a Spanish Jesuit missionary, administrator, historian, and cartographer active in the Philippines in the first half of the 18th century. Murillo was born in southern Spain and arrived in the Philippines via Mexico in 1723. He initially taught cannon law and theology at the University of St. Ignatius, Manilla, before becoming the rector of San Pedro. He later served as Qualifier of the Holy Office, Visitor to the missions in Mindanao, and Vice Rector to the Novitiate of San Pedro de Macati, amongst other significant postings. While well respected, he was also staunchly critical of the Spanish colonial administration and their unfair and inhuman treatment of the indigenous population. Murillo produced many significant works, but his most important are his two maps of the Philippines, works of monumental and long-lasting significance: Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Islas Filipinas (1734) and his Mapa de Las Yslas Philipinas (1744).
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)