 |
| Doctrina Christiana is the first published book in the Philippines in 1593 at the Imprenta de los Dominicanos de Manila. |
Doctrina Christiana was written by Fray Juan de Plasencia, and is believed to be one of the earliest books printed in the Philippines, in the year 1593.
The Doctrina Christiana is remarkable not only for having been printed at such an early age in a elaborated Gothic font of the Spanish language, but also for having copies made in Tagalog versions, both in Latin script and the commonly used Baybayin script of the natives at the time, plus another translation made in traditional Chinese language.
There is some controversy about which of the versions is the first book of the Spanish Philippines, with some scholars believing that the Chinese language version titled Doctrina Christiana en letra y lengua China (Wuchi t’ien-chu cheng-chiao chen-chuan shih-lu) was printed in 1590 to 1592 by the Chinese printer Keng Yong in Manila before the Spanish and Tagalog versions.
One of the earliest references to both versions come from Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, the seventh governor-general of the Philippines, who wrote a letter to Philip II of Spain on June 20, 1593, that read:
| “ | “Sire, in the name of Your Majesty, I have for this once, because of the existing great need, granted a license for the printing of the Doctrinas Christianas, herewith enclosed—one in the Tagalog language, which is the native and best of these islands, and the other in Chinese—from which I hope great benefits will result in the conversion and instruction of the peoples of both nations; and because the lands of the Indies are on a larger scale in everything and things more expensive, I have set the price of them at four reales a piece, until Your Majesty is pleased to decree in full what is to be done.” Reference |
No comments:
Post a Comment