Part 4

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.

NOTES

[1] See his Catalogo Abreviado de la Biblioteca Filipina (Madrid, 1898), pp. xxix-xxxi.

[2] These figures are given by Retana--a faulty enumeration, however, in that they fail to include all the titles in his work. Thus (p. 338), instead of a series-number we read four ciphers, to be met with elsewhere the same as his bis mark (pp. 59, 90, 118, 565). Again Mentrida's Arte and Diccionario of 1637, mentioned twice (Nos. 100, 173) have not been entered by Retana in his lists; neither has the first edition (Tayabas, 1703,) of Santos' Tagal dictionary, (pp. 31, 32.). In reality then, instead of only 2697 titles in his Biblioteca, one should count, I venture to guess, at least some twenty or thirty more than are given.

[3] Biblioteca, vii-xi.

[4] Singularly varied are the names given by writers to this dialect of Yap, as Bonabe, Bonibet, Bornabi, Funopet, Panapee, Ponape, Puynipet, while to the French the island itself is known as Ascension. (Art. "Caroline Islands," Encycl. Brit.)

[5] Read, however, his observations thereon in full in his Estadismo, i, 426-429. The same opinion as to Aeta being mother-tongue in the Philippines is pronounced also by Buzeta, ii, 49.

[6] Throughout this sketch, unless otherwise noted, I follow only Spanish authorities.

[7] See the Augustinian Zuniga's Estadismo ii, *395, to which further reference will be made.

[8] Estadismo, i, 426-429.

[9] For these usages, see Zuniga, Estadismo, i, 533-534.

[10] Various heathen rites, practised by these islanders, are described in Buzeta (i, 60, etc.), as well as names of deities, and other enormities of man's distortion of truth.

[11] Biblioteca, xxix-xxxi.

[12] Relative to this term bahaque, which I have met only once, in the Historia Franciscana, (parte I, lib. i, cap. 39,) is the following description of the black men, the Aetas, or negroes, of Negros, "andan totalmente desnudos," (the author says,) "y solo traen cubiertas las partes verendas con unos como Lienzos, tirantes de atras a adelante, que se llamen Bahaques, los quales hacen de cortesas de Arboles majadas con gran tiento, de modo que ay algunos, que parecen Lienzo fino; y rodeandose por la Cintura un Bejuco, en el amarran el Bahaque por sus dos extremos." See Zuniga, i, 423, wherefore, perhaps, the significance of bahaque in the proverb.

[13] Retana's Appendix G, in Zuniga's Estadismo, ii, *492.

[14] This quotation is from page 28 of Apostolado de la Prensa, No. 82 (Madrid, 1898), which locates it in tome xiv, p. 541, of Reclus.

[15] In old Spanish chronicles it is a common thing to meet such titles of these Indian rulers, as Ladia, Radia, Raxa, and Raja. Lacandola was rajah of Manila.

[16] The Augustinian chronicler, Grijalva, is one of the earliest writers to describe this rite, which, according to him, is performed as follows: "La cerimonia se haze, sacando delos pechos delos que contraen la amistad una poca de sangre, y mezelando la una, y la otra en un poco de vino, le veuen por iguales partes los contrayentes." (Cronaca del Orden, from 1533-1592, Mexico (in the Augustinian Convent), 1624.) Quotation from Zuniga, ii, 215. From Buzeta, i, 395, it appears that blood-bargain was first entered into by Legazpi (in 1565) at Bohol, with Chief Sicatuna.

[17] From the report of the Orphanage for 1897-1898, in Estado General, Malabon, 1898.

[18] From the report of the Orphanage at Mandaloya, in Estado (as ahead).

[19] See Appendix B, in Zuniga's Estadismo, ii, *105-*123, where Retana has given, with a list of the early presses in the Philippines, the names of the printers.

[20] Zuniga Estadismo, ii, 101.

[21] Provinces of the other friars in Malaysia (including the Philippines) are entitled as follows: Augustinians--Most Holy Name of Jesus; Franciscans--St. Gregory the Great; Hospitallers--St. Raphael Archangel; Recoletos--St. Nicholas of Tolentino.

[22] Zuniga Estadismo, Appendice B, ii, *103, *104, and *115.

[23] Thus Retana, ii, *103 (as above).

[24] Zuniga Estadismo, ii, *350.

[25] Id., ii, *104-*105.

[26] Id., ii, *95-*100.

[27] For the original in full (too long to quote here) see Retana in Estadismo (as above), ii, *95-*98, where it covers nearly three pages.

[28] The Jesuit Mission Press in Japan. 1591-1610. By Ernest Mason Satow. [Privately printed.] 1888, where you will find reproduced in photographic fac-simile the title-page of the above-named books.

[29] Zuniga, Estadismo, ii, *111-*112.