Comparative Diplomatics: “The growth of the mestizo sangley in early 17th century Manila as seen in two 1630s documents”

This paper seeks to contribute to the growing number of studies on early modern period intercultural relations, focusing on Chinese-Filipino-Spanish interactions in the early 1600s and the resulting rise of the mestizo sangley, children of Filipino and Chinese unions. The paper is based on two 1630s documents in the Archivo de la Universidad de Santo Tomás (AUST) in Manila.

Comparative Diplomatics is an exploratory workshop on documents in late antiquity and the middle ages with occasional forays into the modern era, as distinct from narrative and normative long-form texts. Its goal is twofold: to stimulate the production of new translations of late antique and medieval documentary sources that can be used in the classroom, and/or harvest some of the translations already being made; and to bring languages, subfields and approaches into contact in order to clarify methodological questions.

Each presenter will translate an unpublished document or retranslate a previously published document that needs fresh examination, and roughly one week ahead of time, provide the group with an edition, a translation and an image of the original.

To receive the image(s), edition(s), and translation(s) of the document(s) to be discussed, sign up here.

Conveners: Thomas Conlan (East Asian Studies/History), Helmut Reimitz (History), Marina Rustow (Near Eastern Studies/History)

Coordinators: Stephanie Luescher (Near Eastern Studies) and Lucia Waldschuetz (History)

Comparative Diplomatics is sponsored by the Center for Collaborative History with support from the Program in Medieval Studies.