Liberal thinker, intellectual, rebel, and future patriarch of the illustrious Zóbel de Ayala clan
This feature story was originally titled as The Great Jacobo Zóbel, and was published in the September 2008 issue of Tatler Philippines
In poor health and spirit, the proudly liberal Jacobo Zóbel y Zangróniz died on 6 October 1896, two weeks short of his 54th birthday. It was a most turbulent epoch. The Philippine national revolution had just broken out more than a month before. Filipino revolutionaries led by Andrés Bonifacio besieged Spanish troops in San Juan del Monte, Mandaluyong, Pandacan and Santa Mesa, all barely a few miles from the seat of government in Intramuros, while the Spanish secret police rounded up reform-minded liberal criollos (Creoles, or Spaniards born in the colonies) and indios (ethnic natives) as well as prominent Filipinos, for interrogation. Three weeks earlier Zóbel’s cousins-in-law, Francisco L Roxas (1851-97) and Pedro Pablo Roxas (1847-1912), were detained and interrogated. The three were among the most prominent businessmen and civic persons of the era. Under a cloud of suspicion for complicity with the rebels, Zóbel died worrying about the survival of his family and business enterprises. Little did this broken-hearted man know that he would become the great patriarch of future generations of the Zóbel de Ayala family, who would later distinguish themselves in business, philanthropy, the arts and even in war.
THE FIRST IN LINE
Born on 12 October 1842 in Manila, Zóbel’s father was Jacobo Zóbel y Hinsch (1815-66), a German pharmacist of Danish origin who would make Manila his primary home. His mother was Ana Zangróniz y Arrieta (1818-48), the daughter of a Real Audiencia judge from Navarra, Spain. Jacobo Sr was born in Hamburg and was baptised in the Lutheran church of St Katherine. In 1849 he became a Spanish citizen. The older Zóbel cultivated not only business interests but also philanthropic activities by being an administrative member of the Hospicio de San José and the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to Philippine economic development. Jacobo Sr’s own German-born father, Johann Andreas Zóbel, established the family’s first pharmacy and chemical laboratory on Calle Real 23, Intramuros, in 1834.
At the age of 6, the young Zóbel suffered the tragedy of his mother’s early death. In 1848 he and his father went back to Germany, where he studied for four years at Dr Brandmann’s school. Later he attended the Johanneum public school until 1858. The father, desirous of having the young Zóbel supplement his German education with a Hispanic upbringing, took him that year to Madrid, where he was enrolled at the Universidad Central, José Rizal’s future alma mater. There Zóbel studied to become a pharmacist, obtaining, at the age of 22, a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy and natural sciences. It is said that an insatiable appetite for learning characterised his student days. Besides his major, he studied archaeology, palaeology, numismatics and history. He intensively pursued his love for languages, both living (Spanish, German, Arabic, French, English, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Russian) and dead (Chaldean and Etruscan). While in his junior year, he published numismatic and palaeographic monographs in German and Spanish. In Madrid he met the fairytale author Hans Christian Andersen, who became his correspondent. Zóbel wrote the author’s Spanish biography and, preceding Rizal by 22 years, translated Andersen’s fairytales from Danish into Spanish in 1864. The world-famous author would describe the young student in his book Viaje por España, calling him “mi nuevo y joven amigo [my new and young friend], Jacobo Zóbel Zangróniz de Manila.” Andersen was grateful to the student for his hospitality and wrote of Jacobo’s dedication to scholarly studies.
An encounter with the German classical scholar and epigraphist Emil Hübner (1834-1901) would make a lifelong impression on the young student by encouraging his love for antiquities and esotericism. Inspired, Zóbel developed a love for numismatics, scouring Europe, from Paris to London and Berlin, to study ancient coinage and palaeography. He was advised by the eminent numismatist and archaeologist, Antonio Delgado y Hernández (1805-79) of Madrid. During this time, Zóbel initiated his historical research on ancient Spanish coins from its origins until the emergence of the Roman Empire, a period which spanned more than 400 years. The two-volume research, titled Estudios Históricos de la Moneda Antigua Española desde su Origen hasta el Imperio Romano (Historical Studies on Old Spanish Coins from their Beginnings up to the Roman Empire), would only be published 17 years later and would become his magnum opus, a classic work that is still used as reference material in Spanish libraries and universities.