The Philippines’ Boxer Codex history book has landed the top spot on Amazon’s Hot New Releases list.
Vibal Foundation’s “Boxer Codex: A Modern Spanish Transcription and English Translation of 16th-Century Exploration Accounts of East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific” is currently No. 1 on the online marketplace’s list of best-selling new books under the Historical Study Reference category, as of August 12, 2021.
Aside from being the highest-ranked book in the new releases of its category, Boxer Codex also hit number 19 in the Southeast Asia History top list and number 38 under the History Encyclopedias category on August 2.
In an interview shared by Vibal Foundation’s official Facebook page, Vibal Executive Director Gaspar Vibal expressed his surprise at how an academic book managed to climb to the top of the Amazon list, noting that the feat bolsters the hopes of local publishers in the country.
“This goes to show that it is possible after all for a Philippine publisher to be seen worldwide and to ride to the top of the Amazon lists,” Vibal said in a statement.
Vibal said that the book’s popularity should also be attributed to the pan-Asian appeal of a late sixteenth-century Spanish text “that not only concerned itself with early modern Philippines but also China, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia.”
Boxer Codex, named after its last owner British scholar Charles R. Boxer, is written in both modern Spanish and English and transcribed and edited by Isaac Donoso. It was translated and annotated by Philippine National Artist Carlos Quirino, together with Ma. Luisa Garcia and Mauro Garcia.
The manuscript, discovered in 1947, depicts the lives of early Filipinos as well as the culture and politics of early modern Asia. In addition to presenting the Spanish text and English translation side by side for comparison, Vibal’s edition contains an insightful and synthesizing introduction by Donoso that situates the codex within the global and historical context at the time it was written.
“Boxer Codex: A Modern Spanish Transcription and English Translation of 16th-Century Exploration Accounts of East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific” is available on Amazon for international readers, as well as on Lazada and Shopee.
The Boxer Codex 2nd Edition is also available for preorder at the Vibal online shop here.
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SEND CHEERS in the comments below to Vibal Foundation’s “Boxer Codex: A Modern Spanish Transcription and English Translation of 16th-Century Exploration Accounts of East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific” for landing the top spot on Amazon’s Hot New Releases list for its category.
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