Introduction
The Spanish introduced printing in the Philippines in 1593, modeled after Chinese xylography, or woodblock printing, and transitioning soon after to typography. Printing was spearheaded by the Catholic religious orders (Augustinian, Franciscan, Jesuit, and Dominican), who each owned and operated a printing press in the Philippines. Colonial policy dictated that before being printed and sold, books had to receive approval from the Bishop and Audencia, the highest tribunal justice. Thus, books were heavily censored, monopolized, and regulated by the Spanish.
The period between 1593 and1648 was the most prolific in early colonial Philippines, witnessing eighty one publications of religious texts, language books, and historical accounts. These books served the purpose of the dissemination of the Catholic religion.
Religious texts, such as catechisms and confessionals, served as manual guides for preaching and performing sacraments. Doctrina Christiana, the first book printed in the Philippines in 1593, was considered a vital handbook for the Spanish friar. Not surprisingly, a similar Doctrina Christiana was also the first book published by the Spanish in the New World, 1539 in Mexico and 1584 in Peru.
Instrumental to Spanish missionary work was the study of the indigenous language. Of the eighty one books printed between 1593 and1648, thirty five were grammar books and dictionaries, the majority of which were on Tagalog. The Spanish chose to learn the native language for two reasons. First, it was more practical for dozens of missionaries to learn the native language than for thousands of Filipinos to learn Spanish. Missionaries were few in number and resources for teaching the natives Spanish were limited. Second, the Spanish withheld from giving the Filipinos a common national language that could potentially give rise to a sense of nationalism, effectively succeeding to “divide and conquer” the archipelago.
The Spanish also published books on the history of the Philippines. Most notable are Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, perhaps the most influential historical text on the Philippines written by a Spaniard, and an impressive undertaking by Concepcion in his fourteen volume work, Historia General de Philipinas. Knowledge of native history and geography was also critical to the success of missionary work. For example, to overcome the language barrier that arises with the Philippines’ numerous dialects, the Spanish orders divided the archipelago among themselves into three or four major ethnolinguistic geographical parts.
Though early books was dominated by the Spanish and the writing of Filipino history from the Filipino perspective was not to occur until much later, Filipino native Tomas Pinpin was a remarkable exception. Often called the patriarch of Filipino printing, Pinpin printed 10 books during the early seventeenth century. All were written by the Spanish, with the exception of Pinpin’s Librong Pagaaralan nang manga Tagalog nang Uicang Castila (“A Book from which Tagalogs can Learn the Castilian Language). Pinpin was the first and only native Filipino to write a book in the Philippines or elsewhere for the next two hundred years.
Rice paper was the main paper in the Philippines until 1830. It was used for everything, from books and letters to cigarettes. Rice paper is extremely brittle, exacerbated by the fact that it was often coated with alum which served to whiten and smooth the paper, but made it susceptible to moisture and discoloration.
