Tala ng Italyanong geographer na si Antonio Pigafetta sa ekspedisyon ni Ferdinand Magellan sa Pilipinas, tampok sa libro ukol sa relasyon ng Italya at Pilipinas
Bahagi ng selebrasyon sa ika-75 anibersaryo ng diplomatic relations ng Pilipinas at Italya ay inilunsad ng Italian Embassy ang 300-pahinang libro na may pamagat na “Philippines – Italy: Rising Together.”
Isinasaysay sa 80 artikulo sa libro ang lahat ng aspeto ng ugnayan at pagkakaibigan ng Pilipinas at Italya mula 1947 gaya sa kultura, ekonomiya at mutual understanding.
Ayon kay Italian Ambassador to the Philippines Marco Clemente, dalawang taon ang inabot para mabuo at matapos ang libro na dumaan sa intensibo na pananaliksik.
“By reading these 80 articles on different sections on different the most exciting and most challenging part of our job was trying to find all possible facets of these bilateral relations art performing art visual art movies theater sport religious activity economy u named it we try to cover all aspects” pahayani ni Ambassador to the Philippines H.E Marco Clemente
Mababasa naman sa huling bahagi ng libro ang English translation ng ilan sa mga isinulat ukol sa Pilipinas ng Italian chronicler na si Antonio Pigafetta na kasama ng Portuguese explorer si Ferdinand Magellan.
Partikular na tampok sa libro ang tala ni Pigafetta nang dumating sila sa bansa noong Marso 1521 at maging ang pagpatay ni Lapu- Lapu kay Magellan.
“The first time I visited Cebu i was told the actually the first person who wrote Las islas filipinas was not a spanish conqueror but actually an italian wrter and geographer who didnt want to colonize anything he just was accompanying magellan to write the memoir of this important historical. The description of killing of magellann by Lapu-Lapu you can read in Pigafetta report very short suprisingly short for such a momentous event” patuloy pang pahayag ng Ambassador
Hindi for sale ang libro pero ito ay maaaring mabasa ng publiko sa website ng Embahada ng Italya.
Hinimok naman ng diplomat ang publiko lalo na ang mga kabataan na maging mapagbasa ng mga libro na pinangangambahan nito na isang gawain na unti-unti nang nawawala sa panahon ngayon.
“Our people our children our friends unfortunately Little by little are getting less and less familiar on this object called book who reads book in this country or in our countries any more this is a big question we should ask ourselves.. read books in general you can take this opportunity to start a debate about the important of reading in a society who doesn’t read anymore.” pagtatapos ng pahayag ng Ambassador.
Moira Encina
