As regards the introduction of printing itself into that archipelago,
wherein (as writers agree) the first press was set to work in the
opening years of the seventeenth century, yet there is dispute as to
two points,--the precise date, namely, when the printing-press was
first established there, and the country whence it was carried to
those islands.
Though in his Biblioteca Retana inferentially states that the
Spanish-Japanese Dictionary of 1630 was the earliest Philippine
imprint, yet in another work of a few years ahead, one of his
numerous valuable appendices to Zuniga's Travels, [20] the same
author has maintained, rightly and soundly enough it would seem,
a wholly different opinion. There he reproduces the title-page of a
work printed twenty years earlier, in 1610, which he himself saw in
the Museo Biblioteca de Ultramar, whereof the title (he declares)
is as follows:
Arte y Reglas | de la Lengua | Tagala. | Por el Padre. F. Fray
Francisco de. S. Joseph de la | Orde de. S. Domingo Predicador General
en la Prouincia | de. N. Senora del Rosario de las Islas Filipinas. |
[Here the Grand Seal of the Dominican Order (in wood) with this
legend:]
| Mihi avtem ab | sit glorianisi incruce Dni Nri IESVXPIAD--| GAL. 6. |
| En el Partido de Bataan | galo, Ano de 1610. |
Substantially the aforesaid title means that the book--a Tagal
grammar--was composed by Father Francisco de S. Joseph (whose
family-name (as otherwise known) was Blancas), of the Dominican Order,
preacher-general of his province of Our Lady of the Rosary in the
Philippines, and printed at Bataan, A.D. 1610. [21]
In one of his Appendices to Zuniga, [22] Retana affirms that the
printer of this Arte was the Tagal Tomas Pinpin.
Why, then, with this sample of early Philippine typography before his
eyes, presumably yet extant on the shelves of the Museo de Ultramar,
Retana (whose interesting description of Blancas' Arte of 1610 will
shortly follow) should have deemed it right to omit all mention
of it in his latest bibliography, wherein, so far as I can read,
there is not the slightest reference to it, seems truly a literary
conundrum--one that, for me at least, baffles all power of solution.
However, accepting facts in the world of letters, as in the objective
universe of God's creation, as they stand, as we see them and know
them, with the guidance of Retana himself, we now proceed (as promised)
to a description of this Tagal grammar, the earliest specimen of
Philippine typography known at least to be extant.
Blancas' Arte is a book printed on rice paper--papel de arroz--with
a preface of sixteen unnumbered pages and three hundred and eleven
(of text) numbered, that is, three hundred and twenty-seven in all,
yet in one instance wrongly paged, since the observant eye of our
bibliographer has detected that what really is page 157 in the Arte
has been printed "156," the body of the grammar thus comprising,
not 311 pages, as the printer has made it, but in reality 312.
On the verso of the title (that is, page 2) are given various licenses
to print, issued among other officials by Miguel Ruiz of Binondoc
(an old form apparently for the town now known as Binondo), this
permit being dated February 6, 1609. Then follow the licenses of
Father Blancas' own provincial superior, dated Manila, June 3, and
another official's, whose name (Retana says) is missing by reason of
the page having been torn, dated from Quiapo, on (month too wanting)
24, of the same year--1609--with the former.
On the third page, with the date July 28, 1609, we read the names of
several Manila church-officers, eight in all, licensing Father Blancas'
Arte, among them the dean of the cathedral-chapter of Manila, the
archdeacon Arellano, and Pedro de Rojas, who, as secretary apparently
of that body, adds his attestation to the chapter-action above.
From pages 4 to part of 7 is a Tagal Hymn to the Holy Virgin, Mother
of Our Lord; then following the finale of this hymn, a prayer to God,
Almighty Giver of all intellectual light, for power to be granted His
servants to learn of His wisdom and ability to tell it to the Tagals.
Then, following some ancient Tagal characters, comes the grammar in
chief, which has been printed (as is obvious) [23] from type, bearing
distinct marks of use. Wherefore, since we have now concluded Retana's
description of this Arte, we, in turn, may observe--the inference seems
lawful--that our Bataan press of 1610 had been at work before that
year, and Father Blancas' Arte is not the earliest Philippine imprint.
A point made by Retana with reference to Bataan, place of imprint on
the title thereof, is to this effect that instead of Bataan, name (he
says) of a province, and in olden time of a very unimportant pueblo
(known, however, more correctly as "Batan"), [24] one should read
Abucay, capital of the province of Bataan, a far likelier place for
the establishment of a printing-office. [25]
So much, then, for the still more ancient work than Bugarin's
dictionary of 1630.
But how much earlier than 1610, date of the Tagal Arte, or in what part
of the Philippine archipelago, the press was at work, is a puzzle,
that relying on the only authorities bearing in any manner on the
priority of the press, we shall now seek to unravel.
When referring to this question of early typography [26] Retana
declares that there are only two authors that treat of the introduction
of the press into the Philippines,--one the history of his province
(of the Holy Rosary), which with the Philippines embraced also China
and Japan, by the Dominican traveler and missionary, Father Diego
Aduarte, whose work, published at Manila, in 1640, is the second
title in our Biblioteca, bearing the name of that city as place
of imprint, and the only old-time authority (in print) treating of
ancient Malaysian typography.
The other is a history (published a few years ago) entitled La Orden
de Predicadores, of the Dominicans (Madrid, 1884), by a member of that
brotherhood, Father Martinez-Vigil, at one time resident at Manila,
where he held a chair in the university of that city, and now (1900)
bishop of Oviedo in Spain.
We shall, therefore, summon these two witnesses in the question in
point of primeval Philippina.
Aduarte's reference to early typography [27] contains substantially
the following statements: that living with the Fathers of his Order
(at Binondo) was a Christian Chinese, named Juan de Vera, a most
worthy man, printer by trade, who had learned his art at home, and
"the first printer" in the Philippines; that moreover he was employed
by Father Blancas in getting out divers hand-books of devotion for
the Indians, as well as for the missionaries themselves; and that
as the said Juan was a good worker, always busy at his trade, he
printed very many books, among them a Memorial of the Christian life;
book on the postrimerias--that is, the Four Great Last Truths--Death,
Judgment, Heaven, Hell; Preparation for Communion; Confession-Book;
the Mysteries of the Rosary; an Arte for the Tagals, or Aid to learn
Spanish, and the like. Such are the titles of some of the books
printed at Binondo by Juan de Vera.
Commenting on the above statements of Aduarte, our bibliographer,
however, makes this very sensible observation,--the omission, namely,
of any positive information on two points of utmost importance to
the antiquary and historian,--at what time, that is, was de Vera's
press set up in the Philippines; and whence was it brought to those
islands? Anent the first press it is noteworthy (according to the
unanimous opinion of critics) that it certainly was not carried thither
from Spain, though maybe sent over from Mexico, where printing was
established in the early years of the sixteenth century, Retana,
however, maintaining as likelier that the first printing-outfit
introduced into the Philippines was brought thither from Japan, where
(as we otherwise know) a book, the Sanctos no Gosagueo, or Compendium
of the Lives of the Saints, was printed at the Jesuit College at
Katsusa, in 1591. In the same kingdom I find printed (at another
Jesuit College) at "Nangasaki," in 1603, the Vocabulario de Japon,
Japanese ancestor of the old Bugarin dictionary elsewhere referred to
(in this paper) as having been published at Manila in 1630. [28] In
Japan,--the fact is worth noting,--ten different works were printed
in Roman characters prior to the year 1599.
But let us return to Luzon. If Aduarte is right in his assertion
that Juan de Vera was "the first printer in the Philippines," then
the press was at work prior to the year 1610, and the Tagal Arte
(just described) is not the forerunner of Philippine imprints.
So much for one of Retana's oracles. Now pass we on to consider the
second and only other writer that, with original sources at hand,
has treated of this bibliographical problem, Father Martinez-Vigil,
who, in the story of his order (named ahead) mentions this fact, that
when resident at Manila he was shown a very rich codex--a MS.--of over
six hundred folios, on Chinese paper, in perfect condition, for many
reasons (all duly set forth) of unassailable authenticity, and albeit
(he remarks) somewhat hard to decipher, except to a palaeontologist, yet
written with marvelous clearness and neatness of penmanship. In this
MS., which (the Father says) was written during the years 1609-1610,
besides an account of all notable occurrences in the islands from 1581
to 1606, with which latter year the story ends, four years earlier, you
should observe, than Pinpin's Arte of 1610, are also to be read these
words: "Los que primero imprimieron fueron del orden de San Agustin
el P. Fr. Juan de Villanueva, algunos tratadillos; mas del orden de
Sto. Domingo el P. Fr. Francisco de San Joseph cosas mayores y de
mas tomo el primero que escribio en lengua araya fue de la Compania."
Whereof, the meaning substantially is, that "the first printers (in
the Philippines) were of the Order of St. Augustine, among them Father
Juan de Villanueva, publisher of some small treatises--tratadillos;
then others of the Order of St. Dominic, of whom Father Francisco
de San Joseph printed works of larger bulk, and was the first of his
brethren to write in araya (Tagal?)."
Here then, in these quotations from two Dominican monuments--Aduarte's
history and the MS. (quoted by Martinez-Vigil), the latter ending
with events of the year 1606--you have all that antiquity tells of
the introduction of the printing-press into the Philippines.
To the assertion (in the MS.), relative to the Augustinian press,
may be appended an item or so in regard to the art-establishment of
that order at Lubao, in Pampanga province in Luzon, which I have
picked up from one of their chroniclers, Gaspar de San Agustin,
a Tagal and Visaya linguist, who died, some say at Tondo, others
at Manila, in 1724, after nearly fifty years' mission-service in
the islands. In his history (Madrid, 1698), are the following words
in reference to Lubao convent: "Se han celebrado en este Convento
algunos Capitulos intermedios y mucho tiempo huvo Estudios menores de
Gramatica y Retorica; y teniamos tambien en el una muy buena Imprenta,
traida del Japon, en que se imprimian muchos libros, assi en la lengua
Espanola como Pampanga y Tagala." [29]
In brief, that is, Father Gaspar says that "in Lubao convent, where the
order maintained a school of grammar and rhetoric, there was a press
(brought from Japan), whereon many books were printed in Spanish,
Pampanga, and Tagal." May we not, then, be justified in surmising
that this Lubao press was the one referred to in the MS. adduced by
Martinez-Vigil, that attributes to Augustinians the introduction
of typography into the Philippines? And, moreover, since the said
ancient MS. ends with the year 1606, that this Lubao press was at
work at a still earlier date?
But, enough. With no originals at hand, we feel disinclined to pursue
this topic further as to the priority of printing in the islands,
nor do we care to press the question, whether, namely, the first book
of Philippine manufacture was Bugarin's dictionary of 1630, Blancas'
Arte of 1610, or the Lubao tratadillos of 1606.
In our own colonies (we may observe) printing was introduced, first at
Cambridge in Massachusetts, in 1638; while in Pennsylvania the first
book printed--an almanac--by William Bradford, of Philadelphia, is
dated 1685, a full half century later, that is, than the introduction
of this "art preservative of arts" into Malaysia.