Solor.

Title

Solor.

Description

View shows the Philippine island of Jolo (Solor) with upstream Dutch sailing ships. The island of Jolo is located near the southern Philippines island of Mindanao.

ca. 1620

Artist

Bry, de (1528-1598)

Theodorus de Bry (1528-1598) Frankfurt a.M. Around 1570, Theodorus de Bry, a Protestant, fled religious persecution south to Strasbourg, along the west bank of the Rhine. In 1577, he moved to Antwerp in the Duchy of Brabant, which was part of the Spanish Netherlands or Southern Netherlands and Low Countries of that time (16th Century), where he further developed and used his skills as a copper engraver. Between 1585 and 1588 he lived in London, where he met the geographer Richard Hakluyt and began to collect stories and illustrations of various European explorations, most notably from Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues. Depiction of Spanish atrocities in the New World, as recounted by Bartolome de las Casas in Narratio Regionum indicarum per Hispanos Quosdam devastatarum verissima. In 1588, Theodorus and his family moved permanently to Frankfurt-am-Main, where he became citizen and began to plan his first publications. The most famous one is known as Les Grands Voyages, i.e., The Great Travels, or The Discovery of America. He also published the largely identical India Orientalis-series, as well as many other illustrated works on a wide range of subjects. His books were published in Latin, and were also translated into German, English and French to reach a wider reading public. The two collections of travelogues published by Theodor de Bry in Frankfurt are among the most important of the early modern period and established his reputation for posterity: He created The Arrival of Columbus in the New World in 1594. The West Indian Voyages (ed. 1590-1618) chronicled the discovery and conquest of the Americas by Europeans, while the East Indian Voyages followed the rise of Holland as a trading power in Asia around 1600. Both series appeared in German and Latin, were intended for a European audience, and were richly illustrated with copper engravings. Theodor de Bry was only able to publish six parts of his complete works. After his death, his sons Johann Theodor and Johann Israel and then Johann Theodor's son-in-law Matthäus Merian continued the work until 1634. In the end, it contained 25 parts and over 1500 copper engravings. The brothers were succeeded as engravers and publishers by Sebastian Furck.

Historical Description

From the 7th to the 13th centuries, the thalassocracies of Srivijaya and later Majapahit influenced parts of the Philippines. The smallest unit to be managed in a settlement was the Barangay, originally a related group that was headed by a Datu. However, the social structure of the Philippines varied from region to region. The box-like system of the Tagalog knew the aristocratic Maginoo, from which Datus, Rajas and Lakans were recruited. When the Spaniards claimed the Philippines as their colony in 1565 and thus incorporated it into New Spain, Islam was not yet deeply rooted, so it was not difficult for them to convert the Muslim population to Christianity. In addition, the Christianization of the Philippines was largely carried out peacefully, among other things, animistic practices were largely tolerated, some of which have survived to this day. Buddhism, which was probably the predominant religion in the Philippines alongside Islam in the 16th century, soon became practiced only by the Chinese minority. Given their defeat against the Spaniards in 1571, the Rajahs of Manila, Rajah Sulayman, Rajah Lakandula and Rajah Matanda converted to Catholicism. For this they were allowed to keep some privileges and were integrated into the colonial system of rule. Through the extensive integration of the native chiefs into the colonial system of rule, the social strata of the principalía came into being, which, as intermediaries and beneficiaries of the colonial system, consolidated it over centuries.