From:

William Henry Scott. A Critical Study of thePreHispanic

Source Materials for the Study
of Philippine History.
1: origin, source
2: the history of ownership of a valued object or work of art or
literature
3: the origin or source of something

Origin or etymology of the word:

French, from provenir to come forth, originate, from
Latin provenire, from pro- forth + venire to come — more

First Known Use: 1785(1)

1. "Provenance", Merriam-Webster, accessed May 10, 2017

Garraghan divides criticism into six inquiries (2):
1. When was the source, written or unwritten, produced
(date)?
2. Where was it produced (localization)?
3. By whom was it produced (authorship)?
4. From what pre-existing material was it produced
(analysis)?
5. In what original form was it produced (integrity)?
6. What is the evidential value of its contents
(credibility)?

2. A Guide to Historical Method

 MARAGTAS PAVON POVEDANO
MANUSCRIPT MANUSCRIPT
• Unknown • Unknown • Translation was
• Manuscript was an • As for Marco, he got published in 1572 but
orgininal work based the manuscripts from the real document was
on various data an old convent cook undated
Monteclaro has who stole the
collected manuscripts in 1899. Las Isla de Negros y
• Collection of many • Two leather bound
different passages volumes were
published in 1838 and
Which regards1839.
to the provenance of the manuscripts which
concern to its pre-Hispanic origins—it is virtually unknown.
 MARAGTAS PAVON
MANUSCRIPT
• Panay • Negros
History of Panay from the Las Antiguas Leyendas de
First Inhabitants and the las Isla de Negros (The
Bornean Immigrants from Old Legends of the Islands
which the Bisayans of Negros)* and
Descended to the Arrival Los Cuentos de los Indios
of the Spaniards (1907) de esta Isla (The Stories of
the Natives of the
• Book was published Islands)*
during the American
Period • Books were published
during the 19th Century
POVEDANO
MANUSCRIPT
• Negros
La Isla de Negros y las
Custombres de los
Visayas y Negritos (The
Island of Negros and the
Customs of Visayas and
Negritos)
* Translation mine
 MARAGTAS PAVON POVEDANO
MANUSCRIPT MANUSCRIPT
• Pedro Alcantara • Rev. Jose Maria Pavon • Diego Lope Povedano
Monteclaro

Which regards to the two documents (Pavon and

Povedano) it were only distributed to the National
Library of the Philippines by Jose E. Marco
 MARAGTAS PAVON POVEDANO
MANUSCRIPT MANUSCRIPT
• None • Unclear and unknown • Straight ethnography
• Compilation of but however, the (17 pages of legends
ethnographic, author Jose Maria about the origin of the
linguistic and historic Pavon was first world and local place
detail. mentioned in the Guia names, 14 marriage
de Forasteros (Guide to customs, religions and
“… is of great importance Strangers) for 1839 as calendars, and a ten-
as a collection of many Catedratico de Sintasis page description of the
different passages which y Retorica ( Professor Visayan language)
hereto before have been of Syntax and
scattered.”- Introduction Rhetoric) in conciliary
to The Maragtas as cited seminary in Cebu.
by William Henry Scott • Nevertheless, he was
the parish priest of
Himamaylan in Negros
 MARAGTAS PAVON POVEDANO
MANUSCRIPT MANUSCRIPT
• First chapter: • 25 chapters of legends • Povedano Map of
compilation of and myths, 11 Negros 1572
customs, clothes, superstitions, and 26 of • The Povedano
straight forward
dialect, organizations Manuscript
ethnography: list of
of the Aetas in Panay weapons, musical • (17 pages of
• Second chapter: The Manuscripts
The Pavon in preHispanic
instruments, a native legends about the
sources: 1137
coming of the Ten of old calendar,
account forts; the10 translated
1239 narrative of King origin of the
Bornean Datus documents
Maranhig; the 1372 between
list of extinct 1137
animals; world and local
1433 Code
• Third Chapter: and 1661.
of Calantiao; and 1489 Formulary for making place names, 14
Sumakweland• charms
Romance oftalismans 25 different informants marriage customs,
• Fourth chapter: on 22 different dates religions and
between 1830 and 1840.
Concludes the tale of calendars, and a
• Among the documents
the Ten Datus translated were 6 ten-page
prehispanic dates description of the
Visayan language)
 MARAGTAS POVEDANO and PAVON MANUSCRIPT

The Maragtas is an Both the Povedano and Pavon Manuscripts have an

original work of Pedro A. issue to its ortography (in which the words and
Monteclaro in 1907 which language are spelled), ex.: the use of k instead of c and
was based in written and q employed in other Spanish accounts (I will explain
oral sources—containing later) which is unlikely to the Bisayan alphabet.
folk customs, description
of ideal political The Bisayan alphabet in Marco’s manuscripts is crude.
confederation (which Like Povedano, the Pavon has no c, o, or, r and used
proves no evidence), and the letter k instead of c.
the migration of Bornean
settlers. There are even more confusing issues regarding to the
two manuscript—its anachronisms
Good memories of an
actual event but
impossible to date the
events.
Jose Marco’s next significance in Philippine Historiography came after the 2nd
World War through a young History student—Ms. Rebecca P. Ignacio.

Other versions of the Povedano Manuscripts were produced:

 1578 which was different to the 1572 Povedano which stated that Povedano
was an officer along side Christopher Columbus at the Siege of Granada in
1491 making Povedano over a 100 years old at the time of appointment as an
encomendero. It is still ethno-graphic.
 123 leaves of 21 x 32 cm.
 Povedano Manuscripts of 1577 and 1579
 The former is measured as 299 leaves of 21 x 32 cm and the latter is measured 83 leaves
28 X 41 cm
The contribution of Marco’s contribution to Philippine Historiography is
absurd. To W.H. Scott, he stated some points in regards to its absurdity in the
validity and reliability of the pre-Hispanic Manuscript
 The provenance of Datu Kalantiaw was not established;
 The 1572 map of Povedano does not look like 16th century Spanish
document;
 Some of Marco’s works were fraudulent;
 Diego Lope Povedano and Jose Maria Pavon and their contributions to the
manuscripts were not validated as well.
 The Kalantiaw Code of 16 laws was promulgated in 1433 (which is no
reference to Panay) were written by the Datu of the same name and
built a fort in Gagalangin, Negros which was destroyed by an
earthquake in 1435 but the Pavon text turned over to Dr. Robertson in
1914 calls the owner of the calendar was an 81 year old man by the name
of Kalantiaw and gave Panagbiloan as his birthplace which was
identified as a mountain in Cebu and no written account of the fortress
being built and destroyed
  It was initially mentioned the Kalantiaw has 16 laws as 18 but Marco
calls them 17.
 The use of the letters k instead of c as claimed by Marco to which
the Bisayan language does not contain the letter k. Nonetheless,
according to Scott, Marco weren’t able to produce reliable evidences
toward his claim.
 The use of the letter k in the Bisayan language was validated by
Scott in his later work Barangay and quote Fr. Francisco Ignacio
Alcina’s Arte de la Lengua Visaya (3), to quote:
Their letters, then, are these: a. e. b. c. d. g. h. l. m. n. p. r. s. t. nga. All these
characters or letters without any dot are pronounced with a– eg. ba, da, ga,
etc…

3. Barangay, p.96
Based on the claim of Scott that the: Maragtas, Povedano, and
Pavon Manuscripts, all of which were hoax documents in
Philippine history would be attributed to the main central idea of
authenticity of historical documents.

The inconsistencies common among the documents were which as

to determine its validy based from the methods of Gottschalk(4):
 Anachronistic reference of events (too early or too remote)
 Because of different copies of the Povedano (1572, 1577, and 1578),
then it becomes a product of garbled documents which led to
deliberate intention to modify (which was done by Marco)
 In the restoration of the documents, changes in hand writing,
anachronism in style, grammar, ortography, or factual detail reveals
additions
 There was no attempt to integrate “Sciences auxiliary to History,”
to which both Monteclaro and Marco blatantly committed as a
primal error—both of them did not refer the validity of the
sources to experts– orthographer for the letters, a critical
assessment of an expert ethnographer.
 Further, both Monteclaro and Marco were not trained in the
practice of historical method or perhaps related methods in the
field of Social Science—they were only collectors of historical
artifacts and sources.
 Lastly, the provenance of the documents were not established as
it is evident to its anachronism. Further, there is no
approximation of date of the documents and credible
identification of its authors.
Provenance", Merriam-Webster, accessed May 10, 2017,
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/provenance

Gilbert J. Garraghan, A Guide to Historical Method. Princeton: Princeton

University Press

Louis Gottscalk. Chapter VI: The Problem of Authenticity or External

Criticism. Understanding History: A Primer of Historical Method.
(New York: A. A. Knopf, 1969), pp. 122-128.

William Henry Scott. A Critical Study of the PreHispanic Source Materials

for the Study of Philippine History. (Manila: University of Santo
Tomas Press, 1968), pp. 135.

William Henry Scott. Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and

Society. (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila Press, 1994), p. 96
THANK YOU!