The Trial of Rizal: W.E. Retana's Transcription of the Official Spanish Documents

Wenceslao Emilio Retana is well known to Philippine readers as the author of the biography of Rizal which has best stood the test of time. In 1905 he obtained permission to transcribe the official documents of Rizal’s trial. The file was sent for from the Segovia Archives and the Undersecretary of War, Don Julio Domingo Bazán, allowed Retana to copy it out long-hand at the Ministry. The transcript had been requested of Retana by the Filipino scholar, at one time Director of the National Library, Don Epifanio de los Santos. Don Epifanio published it, together with related documents, in 1913; this edition has long been out of print. In 1931 Don Epifanio’s son, José P. Santos, presented Retana’s manuscript to Professor Gabriel A. Bernardo; Professor Bernardo, in turn, presented it to the Ateneo de Manila Archives early this year. In its present state the manuscript is a volume bound in boards consisting of 190 leaves irregularly paginated. The first three and the last three leaves are blank. The leaves measure 15 by 22 cm. Retana wrote in a large, flowing, legible hand, in black ink, on one side of the leaf only. This edition reproduces Retana’s transcription as it stands, with a few minor modifications. We have, for instance, spelled out certain abbreviations with which the reader may be unfamiliar; thus, we have printed Regimiento in place of Rgto. Retana indicated the foliation of the original documents in his transcript; we have retained this in the folio numbers enclosed in round brackets. The numbers enclosed in square brackets are the page numbers of the transcript itself. The Spanish text is followed by an English translation. It is not a word-for-word translation. Retana’s summaries of the less important documents, for instance, are embodied in the running commentary which is printed in italics. We have also tried to transpose Spanish legal and military terminology into the corresponding terminology more familiar to English readers.

Imprint: Ateneo de Manila University Press
Edition: 1
Language: Spanish & English
Number of Pages: 0
Subject: Asia/Southeast Asia
Copyright Year: 1997

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