Manuscript Borg.tonch.16, “Sách Gương Truyện: Quyển thứ nhất” (The Book of Exemplary Tales: Book One), is a Catholic devotional work compiled by Father Philiphê do Rosario Nguyễn Văn Bỉnh, CO. It is the first part of the “Gương Truyện”, or “Alma Instruida”, translated from Portuguese into Vietnamese, and its contents are entirely in Vietnamese. It was completed in 1815 in Lisbon, Portugal, and runs to 512 pages in three parts. The first presents miracles bearing on a range of articles of the Catholic faith: the Trinity, the Nativity, the Passion, the miracle of the Cross, temptation by the devil, the angels, the fourteen works of mercy, and the apostles. The second concerns miracles associated with the Ave Maria and expounds that prayer; the third expounds the Salve Regina. This manuscript appears to be the translation of Borg.tonch.13. This manuscript offers scholars of Vietnamese studies further material on the Catholic devotional works and saints' lives current in Vietnam and Portugal at the end of the eighteenth century.
The original is held by the Vatican Library (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana). The images are copyright the Library and are loaded directly from the Vatican Digital Library (DigiVatLib); Digitizing Việt Nam presents this manuscript by permission of the Vatican Digital Library.