Chapter 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.