Let us first examine the book as it appears before us. The title-page
reads:
Doctrina Christiana, en
lengua española ytagala, cor
regida por los Religiosos de las
ordenes Impressa con licencia, en
S. gabriel. de la orden de. S. Domigo
En Manila. 1593
The book, printed in Gothic letters and Tagalog [1] characters on
paper made from the paper mulberry, now browned and brittle with age,
consists of thirty-eight leaves, comprising a title-page as above,
under a woodcut [2] of St. Dominic, with the verso originally blank,
but in this copy bearing the contemporary manuscript inscription,
_Tassada en dos rreales_, signed _Juan de Cuellar_; and seventy-four
pages of text in Spanish, Tagalog transliterated into roman letters,
and Tagalog in Tagalog characters. The size of the volume, which
is unbound, is 9 1/8 by 7 inches, although individual leaves vary
somewhat due to chipping. Some of the leaves have become separated
from their complements, but enough remain in the original stitching
to indicate that the book was originally made up in four gatherings,
the first of twelve leaves, the second of ten, the third of ten, and
the fourth of six. Although the book is of the size called quarto,
the method of printing must have been page by page, so it is doubtful
that each sheet was folded twice in the usual quarto manner, but
more probable that it was printed four pages to a sheet of paper
approximately 9 1/8 by 14 inches, which was folded once.
The volume is printed throughout by the xylographic method, that is to
say, each page of text is printed from one wood-block which was carved
by hand. Along the inner margins of some pages are vertical lines which
were made by the inked edge of the block, and the grain of the wood has
caused striations to appear in the printed portions throughout. The
unevenness of the impression indicates that the pages were printed
in some primitive manner without the help of a conventional press.
The paper, which is one of the distinctive features of most old
Oriental books, has been discussed at length by Pardo de Tavera in
his study of early Philippine printing, and we can do no better than
translate the relevant passage in full:
"I have said before that the material composition of our
books is inferior. The imprints before 1830 were made on a
paper called by some rice paper, by others silk paper, and
by still others China paper, according to their taste. It
is detestable, brittle, without consistency or resistance,
and was called rice paper because it was supposed to be
made from that grain. It was the only kind then used in the
Philippines, not only for printing, but for all manner of
writing, letters, etc., and it is even recorded that in 1874
when tobacco was a state monopoly, cigarettes were made with
this paper, and that the Indians and Chinese preferred it
(and perhaps they still do) to rag paper or other kinds,
because of the horrible taste it gives the tobacco.
"In China they commonly made paper of bamboo, but more
principally from cotton and a plant which travellers have cited
only by its common name, which they transcribe in various ways,
calling it _kochu_, _kotsu_, or _kotzu_. Today it is known
that this plant is an ulmacea (_Broussonetia papyrifera_)
from a mash of which they still make cloth in Japan. Cotton
paper is superior to it, and naturally more expensive; but
the paper of inferior quality which was received in Manila,
where nothing was imported regularly but common articles of low
price, was of _kotsu._ As all Chinese-made paper it was coated
with alum, the finer [the paper] the thicker [the coating],
for the purpose of whitening it and making the surface smooth,
a deplorable business, for it made the paper very moisture
absorbent, a condition fatal in such a humid climate as
in these islands. Moreover, as the alum used is impure and
contains a large proportion of iron salts, the humidity and
weather oxidize it which finally darkens the paper, so that
Philippine books present a coloration which runs the gamut
of tones from the color of bone to that of dark cinnamon." [3]
Because the Doctrina Christiana, which may well be translated "The
Teachings of Christianity," contains the basic elements of the religion
which the missionaries were trying to spread among the unbaptized
in the remote regions of the world, it was the most useful handbook
they had. A summary of the contents of the present edition shows the
fundamental character of the work. After a syllabary comes the Pater
Noster, the primary and most popular prayer of Christianity. Then
follow the Ave Maria, Credo, Salve Regina, Articles of Faith, Ten
Commandments, Commandments of the Holy Church, Sacraments of the Holy
Church, Seven Mortal Sins, Fourteen Works of Charity, Confession
and Catechism. Here in a small compass is presented the simplest,
most easily learned and most essential tenets of the Catholic Church.
So useful was the Doctrina considered as a guide for those who had
just been, or were about to be, converted that the missionary fathers
placed it in most cases foremost among the books necessary to have
in print in a strange land. It is generally accepted today, although
no extant copy is known, that the first book printed in Mexico [4]
in 1539 was a Doctrina in Mexican and Spanish. Recent research has
shown that the second book printed by the pioneer Jesuit press at Goa,
in India, in 1557 was St. Francis Xavier's _Doutrina Christão_ [5]
in the Malay language, of which also no copy has yet been located. But
there are copies of the first book to come from a South American press,
another Doctrina [6] printed in the native and Spanish languages at
Lima in 1584. So the choice of this book as the first to be printed
at Manila follows a widespread precedent.
We have then a book, the Doctrina Christiana, in Spanish and Tagalog,
corrected by priests of more than one order--and this is important
in tracing the authorship of the work--and printed by the xylographic
method with license at Manila at the Dominican Church of San Gabriel
in 1593. So much we get from the title, and in itself it is a fairly
complete story, but from the date of its issue until the present time
that very fundamental information has not been completely recorded.