The

University of Santo Tomas The University of Santo Tomas (UST; ), officially the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines or colloquially as ''Ustê'' (), is a Private university, private Catholic school, Catholic researc ...

Baybayin Documents or UST Baybayin Documents are two 17th century land deeds written in

Baybayin Baybayin (,), also sometimes erroneously referred to as alibata, is a Suyat, Philippine script widely used primarily in Luzon during the 16th and 17th centuries and prior to write Tagalog language, Tagalog and to a lesser extent Visayan lang ...

script. Due to their historical significance, the documents were declared as a National Cultural Treasure by the

National Archives of the Philippines The National Archives of the Philippines (NAP; ) is an agency of the government of the Philippines mandated to collect, store, preserve and make available Archive, archival records of the government and other primary sources pertaining to the h ...

Director Victorino Manalo during the ''Second Baybayin Conference'' at the Museum of the Filipino People,

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

on 22 August 2014. It was the first declaration made the Philippines' national archives and the first paper document declared as a National Cultural Treasure. It is the fifth declared National Cultural Treasure for the

(UST) after the declarations on the UST Main building, UST Central Seminary building, Arch of the Centuries, and UST Open Ground.

Baybayin

historically refers to a Brahmic syllabic script used for the

Tagalog language Tagalog ( ,According to the ''OED'' anMerriam-Webster Online Dictionary ; ''Baybayin'': ) is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by the ethnic Tagalog people, who make up a quarter of the population of the Philippines, and as ...

and was used in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

before and early into the Spanish conquest. It uses three characters for standalone vowels and fourteen for consonants. As an alpha syllabic script, its character can either stand as a single consonant or vowel, or an entire syllable. Related syllabic scripts are still being used by the Palaw'an and Tagbanua peoples on Palawan Island as well as the Hanunuo and Buhid Mangyan peoples on Mindoro Island.

Description

The UST Baybayin documents cover two legal real estate transactions in 1613 (labelled as ''Document A ''dated February 15, 1613) and 1625 (labelled as Document B dated December 4, 1625) which are the "longest and most complete documents completely handwritten in

baybayin Baybayin (,), also sometimes erroneously referred to as alibata, is a Suyat, Philippine script widely used primarily in Luzon during the 16th and 17th centuries and prior to write Tagalog language, Tagalog and to a lesser extent Visayan lang ...

". The two documents are part of a book compilation of baybayin documents dubbed as the "biggest collection of extant ancient baybayin scripts in the world". They are also the oldest known deeds of sale for land in the Philippines during the Spanish colonization. The 1613 documents established Don Andres Capiit as the land owner after buying irrigated land in Tondo from Doña Catalina Baycan as described in ''Document A''. He was married to Doña Francisca Longar who bought the land in Mayhaligue (now

Santa Cruz, Manila Santa Cruz is a district in the northern part of the Manila, City of Manila, Philippines, located on the right bank of the Pasig River near its mouth. It is bordered by the districts of Tondo, Manila, Tondo, Binondo, Manila, Binondo, Quiapo, Ma ...

) from Doña Maria Silang as described in the 1625 document (''Document B''). When Capiit died sometime between 1613 and 1625, Longar was remarried to Don Luis Castilla, who sold some lands to the University of Santo Tomas in 1629. When the ownership of Castilla was contested in court, he showed ''Documents A ''and ''B'' as proof of ownership. Since the university already acquired the land, the deeds of sale were later transferred into the university's custody. The baybayin documents were first shown in the public during the tercentenary of the university in 1911. That same year, the documents were first published in ''Libertas'', a daily newspaper published by the university.

Management

The

Archives of the University of Santo Tomas The ''Archivo de la Universidad de Santo Tomas'' (AUST), also known as the ''Archives of the University of Santo Tomas'', is located at the Miguel de Benavides Library in Manila. The AUST is the central repository of historical and rare documents ...

(''Archivo de la Universidad de Santo Tomas'', or simply UST Archives) at the Miguel de Benavides Library take care of the documents. The original baybayin documents are not available to the public and only replicas of the documents are made available through the university archives' bulletin board on the fifth floor of the Central Library.

References

External links

Copy of Document A

{{UST National Cultural Treasures of the Philippines Baybayin Documents