The historical ties between Portugal and the Philippines are not well known because of scanty publications on this subject. This circumstance led the National Quincentennial Committee (NQC) (…) to search for Filipiñiana materials in various archives and libraries in Portugal. (…) The documents gathered were from the 16th-17th centuries, considered the most obscure eras in Philippine history. These periods are often neglected because of the scarcity of sources in the country related to that time. (…)
The NHCP hopes that this publication will be helpful to scholars, researchers, and students of history and that it will be the start of producing new studies on this subject matter. (…) This two-volume Historia Obscura: The Philippines in 16th and 17th Century Portuguese Sources, is also a lasting contribution of the Commission to the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between the two countries in 2026.
(from the foreword by Dr. Regalado Trota Jose, Jr. – Chairman, NHCP)
Historia Obscura: The Philippines in 16th and 17th Century Portuguese Sources is a two-volume work published by the National Historical Comission of the Philippines in 2025. It is a compilation of 66 Portuguese documents from the 16th and 17th centuries containing information about the Philippines, including letters, excerpts from chronicles, and itineraries. It is the result of The Philippine History Retrieval Project – Portugal, a research project developed through a partnership between CHAM, NHCP, and the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The project and the resulting book were coordinated by Paulo Jorge de Sousa Pinto, Miguel Rodrigues Lourenço, Pedro Pinto and Jeremy Roe, from the Working Group.
More information about the project here.
Purchase orders on the NHCP website here.