The Book Trade in the Colonial Philippines

To date, no one has attempted to systematically document the movement of books across the Pacific between Mexico and the Philippines (and later between Spain and the Philippines) and the impact that European writing and books had on the creation of a Western-style intellectual and academic tradition in the archipelago. To rectify this notable gap in scholarship and provide a point of comparison for the larger Spanish American colonies, this study will investigate the movement of books into Manila from 1571–1821, coinciding with the foundation of Spanish Manila on the one hand and the consummation of Mexican independence on the other.