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”),[5] one should read Abucay, capital of the province of Bataan, a far likelier place for the establishment of a printing-office.[6]
So much, then, for the still more ancient work than Bugarín’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[7] 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 Martínez-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[8] 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 Japón, Japanese ancestor of the old Bugarín dictionary elsewhere referred to (in this paper) as having been published at Manila in 1630.[9] 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 Martínez-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 palæontologist, 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 órden de San Agustín el P. Fr. Juan de Villanueva, algunos tratadillos; mas del órden de Sto. Domingo el P. Fr. Francisco de San Joseph cosas mayores y de mas tomo el primero que escribió en lengua araya fué de la Compañia.”