The UP Asian Center will be hosting the online book talk of Historia Obscura: The Philippines in 16th and 17th Century Portuguese Sources" on 10 November 2026, 3:00 PM, PHT, Online via Zoom. The event is free and open to the public, but signing up for a (free) Zoom account is required.
ABOUT THE FORUM
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. (…) (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 Portugal Philippines: Connected Histories Working Group. The work is now in open access for free downloading at NOVA institutional repository.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
MIGUEL RODRIGUES LOURENÇO
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Miguel Rodrigues Lourenço is a researcher at the CHAM – Center for Humanities (Universidade Nova de Lisboa); at the CEHR-Universidade Católica Portuguesa, and at the Cátedra de Estudos Sefarditas Alberto Benveniste (Universidade de Lisboa). His area of expertise is the history of Macao and the Philippines in the 16th and 17th centuries, with special focus on the presence and activities of the Inquisition in these territories. He is the author of the book A Articulação da Periferia. Macau e a Inquisição de Goa publicado pelo Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau e pela Fundação Macau (Lisbon – Macau, 2016).
PAULO JORGE DE SOUSA PINTO, Ph.D.
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Paulo Jorge de Sousa Pinto holds a MA on History of the Portuguese Expansion (1994) and a PhD. in Historical Sciences (2011). His post-doctoral project focused on “Conflict and Collaboration - Presences and Representations of the Overseas Chinese in the Ibero-Asian Societies (16th-19th centuries)” (2012-2017). He is currently an Assistant Professor at Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa – NOVA FCSH, and a researcher at CHAM – Centro de Humanidades. He is the coordinator of a set of collaborative projects involving several Filipino institutions, named “Portugal-Philippines: Connected Histories” aimed at promoting contacts and enhancing mutual knowledge between Portugal and the Philippines (https://portugalphilippines.fcsh.unl.pt/). His fields of work include Early Modern Southeast Asia, European presence in Asia (16-18th centuries) and the Iberian overseas empires. He has published and coordinated several works on these subjects, namely The Portuguese and the Straits of Melaka, 1575-1619: Power, Trade and Diplomacy (Singapore University Press, 2012), Tinan 500 Portugal-Timor (Dili, 2015), The Islands Beyond the Empire - Portuguese Essays on Early Modern Philippine History (16th-18th Centuries) (org.) (Manila, Foreign Service Institute, 2023), Historia Obscura: The Philippines in 16th and 17th Century Portuguese Sources (org.) (Manila, NHCP, 2025) and Documenta Filipina (org.) (Manila, Department of Foreign Affairs, 2025).
ABOUT THE REACTORS
KRISTYL OBISPADO, Ph.D.
Department of History, University of the Philippines Diliman
Kristyl Obispado, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. She holds a Ph.D. and MA in History from El Colegio de México. Her current research focuses on the period from the 16th to the 19th centuries and includes topics such as Philippine labor history, transpacific trade, mobility, and migration.
MARK ALEXANDER C. DIZON, Ph.D.
Department of History, Ateneo de Manila University
Dr. Mark Dizon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Ateneo de Manila University, where he specializes in early modern cross-cultural encounters, empires, borderlands, and historical mobilities. Drawing on extensive archival research, his work explores how people, ideas, and maps shaped colonial encounters and identities in the Spanish Philippines and beyond, with publications in peer-reviewed journals such as Colonial Latin American Review and Itinerario. His scholarship contributes to a deeper understanding of historical interconnectedness and the dynamics of imperial frontiers, advancing both academic knowledge and broader discussions on peace, justice, and strong institutions in line with global development goals. Outside of teaching and research, Dr. Dizon actively engages in scholarly discourse through conference presentations and collaborative projects that bridge local and global historical
ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS
This symposium is organized by the UP Asian Center. For inquiries, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 891-8500 loc. 3586.