Part 3

From Manila, as centre of intellectual enlightenment for all eastern Asiatic and Polynesian lands in the sixteenth century, were transplanted the germs of philanthropy--of wisdom and charity--to Borneo, the Carolines, Moluccas, as well as the mainland of Asia, to China and Japan, while in India the Portuguese, with headquarters at Goa, fulfilled the same destiny as their Iberian brothers.

Speaking of the heroism of these self-exiled churchmen and worshipers of the Christian Minerva in Asiatic tropics, I quote the words of the famed French savant, Elisee Reclus, a witness, by the way, in no measure partial to cloister life. In his Universal Geography [14] he declares that "Los Filipinos son de los pueblos mas civilizados del Extremo Oriente. Los han civilizado los frailes"--that is, "The Philippines are one of the most civilized people of the Far East. The friars have civilized them."

III.

SOME LITERARY CURIOS AMONG PHILIPPINA.

Among the curios of artistic and literary cast, your bright-minded reader, if on the alert to spy anything deserving of notice, will find here and there in Retana's pages enshrined many a bit of out-of-the-way information. The following half dozen or so of oddities will probably be acknowledged, not unworthy of mention among these Philippina:

They are La Razon: A Plea Against Certain Vexatious Encroachments of the Crown on Mexican and Manila Trade, by Jose Nuno de Villavicencio (Sampaloc, 1737), which bears on its cover the most tasty design by Philippine burin--a plate illustrative of the contents of the Plea, engraved by Francisco Suarez, a Tagal artist.

El Cosmopolita--The Cosmopolitan--(Manila, 1895-1896), the first periodical (p. 458), with phototypes, published in the islands.

The first Almanac and Guide-Book for strangers and travelers, with a Map of the Archipelago, was issued at Manila for the year 1834.

The newspaper--El Ilocano--a bi-weekly, published in Spanish and Ilocano at Manila (p. 464), from 1889 to 1896 (?) was the first periodical written in Indian dialect.

Again, another periodical--El Hogar (p. 464), The Fireside--a weekly, of 16 pages, started at Manila in 1892, under the direction of Madam Amparo Gomez de la Serna, was the first paper devoted to science, letters, beaux-arts, and useful information published almost exclusively in the interests of women, while the Revista de Filipinas (p. 132), a bi-weekly, that, starting at Manila in 1875, lived only two years, is the worthiest of Philippine periodicals, noticeable chiefly for the deeply scientific cast of its papers.

The Romancero Filipino, a work of fancy (Manila, 1892), by Manuel Romero Aquino, is styled (p. 554) by Retana the neatest and best piece of work by Philippine pen.

While The American Soldier, a four-page daily newspaper, whereof the opening number is dated Manila, September 10, 1898, is the first periodical, maybe print of any sort, in the English language, published in the islands.

With the foregoing extravaganzas of literature we note that the series of Philippine periodicals, which in Retana's own collection number (he says) one hundred and twelve, in their entirety do not surpass one hundred and sixty. Of his own he gives the titles (Biblioteca, xxiii-xxviii) from Del Superior Gobierno, the first newspaper issued in the islands, with the imprint of Manila, August 8, 1811, down to the latest--The Kon Leche (Tea and Milk)--a four-page weekly satirical periodical, with illustrations (in two colors), published at Manila in 1898.

The oldest piece of what we may style distinctively Philippine literature, whereof, moreover, only one copy is believed to be extant, albeit printed abroad in Europe, is an Account of Legazpi's Expedition from Mexico to Cebu in 1565, sent from Seville to one Miguel Salvador, of Valencia, and printed one year later at Barcelona. This Copia--thus entitled in Retana--heads his list of Philippina, a study of which, with the supplement (p. 505 et seq.), discloses the fact that of the books that head his Biblioteca, the first nineteen were printed abroad--eighteen in Europe; that is, nine in Spain, at Barcelona, Madrid, Burgos, Valencia and Seville; seven in Italy, at Rome, Genoa and Venice; one each in France, at Paris, and in Flanders, at Antwerp ("Amberes" in the Spanish), where a Mendoza's History of China was printed in 1596, by Bellero; and the nineteenth in Mexico.

The first fruit itself of the Philippine press--thus styled by Retana, though mistakenly, we judge--was the Spanish-Japanese Dictionary of 1630, on which I will make some remarks when treating of the early Philippine press.

Moreover, it is noticeable that of these earliest Philippina not one of them treats distinctively of religious matters, but--with the exception of two, Fragoso's and Acosta's Botanies, or works on Eastern flora--are wholly historical in character, embracing, as they do, along with the Copia of 1566, eleven editions of the still estimable history of China and other Asiatic lands, by the Augustinian traveler, Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza, whereof the Roman edition (by Vincenzo Acolti in 1585) gives plates illustrative of Chinese typographical symbols--the first shown to Europeans. Of this history, it may be observed, thirty-eight editions have appeared in all--in Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Dutch, and English. Among these early Philippina--to continue our analysis--is a history of that archipelago, by the Franciscan chronicler, Marcelo de Ribadeneyra; a report on the same islands, by the Jesuit scholar, Pedro Chirino--the first work of its kind published in Europe (Rome, 1604), with diagrams of Philippine characters--signs, namely, employed by the natives in writing, whereof, says Retana, "a miserable edition" was printed at Manila in 1890. Then follow other works, among them a story of the conquest of the Moluccas, one of the sixteenth century names of the Philippines, a work of utmost value to the historical writer, composed by the presbyter, Bartolome Leonardo de Argensola (Madrid, 1609); then a trustworthy account of the triumph of Spanish arms in the Philippines, by Antonio de Morga, auditor-general of the crown in those colonies, printed in Mexico in 1609; and lastly the report of Governor Francisco Guzman de Tello, eleventh captain-general of those islands (Seville, 1598?).

The two merely scientific works, alluded to ahead, are "Discourses on Aromatic Things--Plants, Fruit, and the like simple Medicines employed in the East Indies," composed by Juan Fragoso, a rare and curious work (Madrid, 1572); and a Treatise on the Drugs and Medicines used in the East Indies, with plates representing various plants, by Cristobal Acosta, published first in Spanish at Burgos in 1578; in Latin (in two editions) in 1582 and 1593; in French (also in two editions) in 1602 and 1619; lastly in English in 1604.

IV.

PHILIPPINE PRESSES.

Now for a description of the different printing-presses--or, rather, places--in the Philippines, from the earliest named by Retana in his Biblioteca, in all fourteen distinct localities, where printing was carried on in the three islands of Luzon, Panay and Cebu.

1.--From an analysis of the titles I find that Manila ranks earliest, where (with limitations to be set later) a printing-press was established in 1630, in which year, at the Dominican College of St. Thomas, a Spanish-Japanese dictionary, the work of Portuguese Jesuit missionaries and scholars, now translated into Spanish, was printed by Tomas Pinpin, a native Tagal, and Jacinto Magaurlua. This dictionary (now extremely rare), even though not the first book printed in the islands, as stated by Retana, must yet be ranked among the earliest specimens of Philippine literature.

In his Bibliography three different titles (we may observe) bear the imprint of Manila, with the name of this city spelled according to the ancient aboriginal form, albeit but slightly varied from the present--"Maynila"--otherwise, as I have read it, "Mainilla," a variant in orthography one encounters in old chronicles--a Tagal word (it seems) signifying a species of shrub or bush, in the Spanish rendered arbusto, that in 1571 was found to cover the site of the new city projected by the conquistadores, under the leadership of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi.

In this same year, it may be added, the site of the future metropolis of Malaysia was taken possession of by Spanish arms, with due observance of ceremonial, sealed with the three local chieftains, [15] Lacandola, Matanda and Soliman, by blood-bargain--pacto de sangre. [16] Here, too, at Manila, the second church in Malaysia devoted to the Supreme Being, the first having been founded at Cebu, was dedicated the same year (1571) to God, under the most fitting title of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, first great missionary to heathendom. At Cebu, by agreement with Chief Tupas, the standard of Christian comity--the Cross--had been reared in 1565, and its church dedicated in honor of St. Michael Archangel, name-saint of Legazpi, though shortly after rechristened El Santo Nino--the Holy Child--its title to-day.

The three works then printed at "Maynila," or Bush Town, in Luzon, are a Manual of Devotions to St. Roch, translated into Tagal by the Augustinian missionary, Esteban Diez, a skilled Tagalist, in 1820; a periodical--the Revista Catolica--whereof the first and only number (p. 309) was issued in 1890; and lastly, a weekly paper (the same as the former) in Tagal, published in 1896.

2.--The second place to witness the establishment of a press was Sampaloc, in Zambales province, in Luzon, where, in 1736, at the Franciscan convent of Our Lady of Loreto, was printed the Augustinian Diego Bergano's Arte, in Pampanga--first fruit, it seems, of typographical genius in that pueblo. While the last imprint with the name of Sampaloc is an almanac, or church calendar, for the year 1838 (more probably, however, printed the year ahead), when the old press, founded by Franciscan friars a hundred years before, disappears.

3.--At Tayabas, in the province of the same name, in Luzon (p. 31), was printed a Tagal dictionary, by the Franciscan, Totanes, now supplanted, however, by Noceda's far superior work on philological score, especially with the additions made thereto by the Augustinians in the Manila edition of 1860. This Tayabas imprint is the only work I have encountered with the name of that pueblo.

4.--The first Cavite imprint (p. 38) dates (it seems) from 1815--a church calendar for the following year; while the last, with the name of this Manila suburb written, however, with a K--"Kavite"--is an appeal of the revolutionary party in 1898 (p. 451), under the official seal of the Gobierno Dictatorial de Filipinas.

5.--Binondo is the fifth place, whereof the first work--statistical reports of Franciscan missionaries--was printed in 1865; the last, Jose Patricio Clemente's Moral Lectures for Youth (p. 540), in 1872. In regard, however, to this town, it should be observed that in his earlier bibliography (ed. 1893) Retana names a work printed by Pinpin in the Hospital of St. Gabriel, at Binondo, in 1623.

6.--At Vigan, the old Villa Fernandina of the Ilocos, known also to Spaniards as Nueva Segovia, a city founded in the sixteenth century by Juan Salcedo, one of the captains under Legazpi, and so christened by him in memory of his native place in Spain, but now known as Lalo, or Lal-lo,--here was started a Sunday newspaper, El Eco de Vigan, published in Ilocano in 1883, that died, however, a year after birth.

7.--In Iloilo (on the island of Panay) was printed, in 1885, the pastoral letter of Alejandro Arrue, Recoleto bishop of St. Isabel, or Elizabeth, of Jaro.

8.--Then comes Guadalupe, eighth place on our list, a sanctuary village on the left bank of the river Tasig, a couple of leagues from Manila, a shrine founded by Augustinians in 1601, in honor of St. Nicholas, the wonder-worker of Tolentino, a place visited yearly by great numbers of Chinese Confucians, as well as Christians, who hold that saint in highest and most singular veneration. At Guadalupe, in 1886, issued two works from the orphanage press--An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine of Pouguet and Fleuri, drawn up in Bisaya by Father Mateo Perez, Augustinian cure of Argao; and Lozano's Novena to St. Thomas of Villanova. The last imprint of Guadalupe--a Tagal Catechism, by Luis de Amezquita, a brother missionary of Perez--bears the date 1890.

9.--The earliest sample of Cebu print--the island where, under Legazpi, three centuries earlier, civilization first found a footing in Malaysia--is a work that elicits from Retana remarkable praise, in view of the difficulties that attended its printing; the paper--such was the dearth in the Visayas of proper material for good press-work--being of five or six different qualities in body, make, color. This work, that I think we may style a triumph of adaptive art, is the Ensayo para una Galeria de Asturianos ilustres, a genealogical monument (in three volumes), by the Augustinian antiquary, Fabiano Rodriguez, begun in 1888 and completed in 1893. While the last Cebu imprint, a government statistical report on crime and the like, is dated 1892.

10.--Tambobong, a pueblo near the coast, in Tondo province, about three miles from Manila, comes tenth in our list, where, at the orphan asylum of Our Lady of Consolation, in 1889, was printed a weekly newspaper--the Revista Catolica de Filipinas--discontinued in 1896. While the last imprint from this press--An Abridgment of the History of Spain (of only eight pages)--was issued, presumably, in 1897.

11.--At Nueva Caceres, or Camarines, in Luzon, a town founded in the sixteenth century by Governor Francisco Sande, in memory of his birthplace in Estremadura, but now known even officially as Naga, the first work bearing the name of that pueblo--a hand-book of devotions--issued from the press of the Sagrada Familia, in 1893; and two years later (in 1895) the last--A Life of St. Monica and her son, St. Augustine--written, the same as the former, in Bicol dialect.

12.--In 1895, we read the earliest printed samples of Malabon art--a poetical tribute of gratitude to Our Lady of Welcome--Bien-Venida, one of the many titles of the Mother of God, so dear to Philippine soul, by Fructuoso Arias Camison, from the orphan-press of Our Lady of Consolation (in care of Augustinians). Only once, it may be noted, is the name of this pueblo--encountered quite frequently in Retana, the same (he says) as Tambobong, written "Malabong," a somewhat unusual form of spelling--employed by Manuel Sastron, in his description of Batangas, printed in 1895.

From several specimens of Malabon press-work, now before me, I may observe that, for accuracy in composition, neatness--in brief, of general excellence in workmanship--these samples of the orphanage establishment at Malabon would not fail to honor even a Philadelphia craftsman.

Two years ago (in 1898), just prior to the siege of Manila, under the care of two Fathers and four lay-brothers of the Augustinians, resident at this orphan asylum, one hundred and one lads were being taught the following trades: 13 compositors, 12 press-workers, 30 bookbinders, 3 gilders, 43 candlemakers, while 44 other youngsters, too small for hard work, were, the same as their seniors, given food, clothing, and shelter; [17] while similarly, at Mandaloya orphan asylum for girls, conducted by twenty-two sisters (of the same order), a hundred and twenty-two lassies were taught music (piano), painting, drawing, embroidery, flower-, lace- and dress-making, hair-dressing, laundry-work, and sewing. [18]

But alas! it is feared that through the grim fate of war a like disaster, as has wrecked many another fair shrine of learning and art in countries even nearer our own, has befallen our studios and laboratories at Malabon and Mandaloya, that therefrom their inmates--orphans, instructors and care-takers are now wanderers, with their treasures ravished, their homes destroyed.

13.--Then we meet with a work printed in 1896, at the revolutionary press at Imus, in Cavite province, in Luzon,--a proclamation (in Tagal)--the only imprint bearing the name of this pueblo.

14.--Finally, in 1898, at Mandaloyon, or Mandaloya (named ahead), an old hacienda of the Augustinians in Tondo province, in Luzon, the morning-paper--La Republica Filipina--began publication with the flag of the new-born republic in colors for heading,--the first journal of the Tagal insurgents, that had so much to do in bringing about the downfall of Spanish rule in the Philippines.

Before concluding this section on early presses, we may add the references made by Retana to other Philippine prints than the ones given in his Biblioteca. In a former work [19] he states that by certain writers, whom he names, presses were said to have been established on the isle of Luzon, viz: at Bacolor in 1619; Macabebe in 1621; and Tayabas in 1703. Similarly, he cites two works, named by the Franciscan antiquarian Huerta as having been printed at Manila earlier than the Bugarin dictionary--the Devocion Tagalog in 1610; and a Diccionario in 1613, both (according to Huerta) from the press of Tomas Pinpin, the Tagal printer. Moreover, under the heading of "Manila" and "Pinpin," Retana gives the dates of several still older imprints than the Japanese dictionary of 1630, which in his Biblioteca has been accorded the honor of senior of the Philippine press.

The reason for the omission of these titles in Retana's later bibliography, that otherwise would seem unaccountable, is perhaps a doubt as to their genuinity. But why he should fail to mention this flaw in their line of ancestral title, is like many another perplexing problem that the scholar is apt to encounter in his wanderings through the shadowy, albeit delightful and fascinating realm of letters.

We now pass on to the question of the introduction of the press into the Philippines.

V.

INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING INTO THE PHILIPPINES.

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.