Doctrina Christiana

Doctrina Christiana, en lengua española y tagala published in 1593 in Manila is now available in digital form on the Library of Congress website.  This book is part of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection at the Library of Congress. Just follow this link to view and download high resolution pictures. The Doctrina Christiana was written by the first Franciscan priest of Pila, Laguna, Fray Juan de Plasencia and is considered the first book printed in the Philippines.  Interested individuals may also download text or HTML format of the book from the Gutenberg website.  The Gutenberg online book includes the introductory essay of Edwin Wolf 2nd. The Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection stands out among the distinguished resources of the Rare book and Special Collections Division of the United States Library of Congress.

The Philippine National Historical Institute published a facsimile copy of the book with a foreword by Carlos Quirino. Copies may be purchased at NHI, T.M. Kalaw St., Ermita, Manila.

Huerta's Villa de Pila

R. P. Félix de Huerta, OFM (de su libro, “Estado geográfico, topográfico, estadístico histórico-religioso de la santa y apostólica provincia de S. Gregorio Magno, de los religiosos menores descalzos de la regular y más estricta observancia de N.S.P.S. Francisco, en las islas filipinas, comprende el número de religiosos, conventos, pueblos, situación de estos, años de su fundación, tributos, almas, producciones, industrias, cosas y casos especiales de su administración espiritual, en el Archipiélago Filipino, desde su fundación, en el año 1877 hasta el de 1863, Binondo, 1865”)

Translation: Fr. Emmanuel C. Marfori, 2005

VILLA DE PILA

The foundation of this Villa dates back to the year 1578, in which time our apostolic men Fr. Juan de Plasencia and Fray Diego de Oropesa announced the name of the Lord, being this town the principal residence of the latter, without ceasing to evangelize through all the coasts and mountains of the great Laguna de Bay, until their apostolic zeal penetrated into the province of Tayabas. Long ago, it used to be joined to the Laguna de Bay, in a place called Pagalangan, and because of heavy flooding in the rising waters of the said Laguna, it was transferred in the year 1800 to the site it occupies today.    

Its situation is at 14º13´latitude, in an wide plain, to the right of an average river which originates from the mountain of San Cristobal, and, running from S to N, it flows into the lagoon which gives the name to the province. Bordered in the north with the said lagoon, it is half a league away. It is bordered on the NE with the town of Sta. Cruz, five fourths of a league; on the E with the town of Magdalena, a bit less than the same distance; on the SSE with the town of Nagcarlang, two leagues away; on the SSW with that of Calauang, a bit less than the same distance; and on the WSW with that of Bay, same as before.

It enjoys a mild, healthy and very well ventilated climate. The most common sickness are the fevers (tercianas), which usually come from May to September. It provides itself with waters from springs which come from N. of the town, and from wells, all of the very big. It has two main roads towards the towns of Santa Cruz and Bay, with two bridle paths for the towns of Nagcarlang and Magdalena. Mails are received weekly from the headquarters of the province.

The Church, under the advocacy of the marvelous S. Anthony of Padua, was originally made of wood. In the year 1599, permission was given by the Superior Gobierno to make it out of stone, which should have been verified in the following years, because in 1617, the said Church and rectory of stone were already finished. In 1800, the Church and rectory were demolished because of the aforementioned transfer, and the existing edifice was constructed under the direction of the Rev. Frs. Fray Antonio de Argobejo and Fray Domingo de Valencia, the town contributing for it. The said Church is of good material and very spacious (capaz), and in it is venerated, aside from the titular Saint, the other to whom the faithful have a very particular devotion, the glorious S. Roche, of whose image many miracles are found in our files (registros), some of them juridically proven.

The rectory (casa parroquial) is also made of stone, constructed under the direction of the Rev. Fr. Fray Benito del Quintanar, around 1840 until 1849. This villa has six straight streets from N. to S., and five cross streets, all of them wide, with excellent roads covered with a good mixture. There is a court (tribunal), a school of primary education, offered by the banks (cajas) of the Community, with some eight hundred houses, all of them of wood and nipa. It is administered by the Rev. Fr. Fray Antonio Santiago, confessor, 54 years of age, with a Fr. coadjutor.

STATUS OF THE PARISH
Tributos      …      4715
Souls           …     5551

The boundary extends league and a half from N. to S., and the same from E. to W. Through it, four medium–sized rivers, all coming from San Cristobal mountain, and whose waters are used in irrigation. The terrain cultivated produces much rice, sugar cane, for whose benefits there are six sugar mills (ingenios), many coconuts from which they extract oil, some indigo, cocoa, coffee, bonga (Tag., bunga?), and many fruit trees and some legumes. The natives dedicate themselves to agriculture, to the benefit of the abovementioned articles, and to fishing, which is produced by the Laguna, the products of which are exported for the market of Santa Cruz and for the Capitol.

The hospital (enfermería) of the male religious was in this villa from the year 1618 until 1673, when it was transferred to the town of Santa Cruz.

Franciscan Printing Press History

(Translated by Jaime F. Tiongson from Historia de la imprenta en los antiguos dominios españoles de América y Oceanía by Jose Toribio Medina.)

The Franciscan printing press was first established in Villa de Pila. Tomas Pinpin and Domingo Loag, printers. It is not known that it had nor exist traces of the printing press prior to 1655. It appears in Tayabas in 1702. It was transferred to Manila in 1705. It is taken to Dilao (Paco, Manila). The brother Franciscan de los Santos and Capitan Lucas Francisco Rodriguez, printers. Fray Julian de San Diego and Fray Pedro de la Concepcion. Fray Francisco de Paula Castilla and Juan Eugenio. Fray Jacinto de Jesus Lavajos.

In Villa de Pila, founded in 1578 along the shores of the Laguna de Bay, by the year 1606 the Franciscans established Philippines' second printing press. On 20th of May that year, Tomas Pinpin and Domingo Loag, Tagalos, began the printing of the Vocabulario de Lengua Tagala of Fray Pedro de San Buenaventura, which was completed only seven years later. It is probable that Pinpin began the printing and Loag continued the work once tutored, at least during the year 1610 in which Pinpin was in Bataan working on the publication of the Arte Tagalo of Fray Francisco de San Jose.

Neither the name of Loag nor the printing press of the town of Pila is registered in books that we know later. What became of that press whose first production yielded so much hope,in view of the elements in which it has been arranged to make it?. She might have been placed in a corner in some of the Franciscan convents, or the Franciscans gave it to other religious orders at that time and counted already as one of the printing shops in the Islands?

None of the typographic works of the printing press of the Franciscans appeared before 1655, the year B. Lampao (we do not know his first name) gives light in Manila the Constituciones de la provincial de San Gregorio and soon lost its tracks again, until by the beginning of the 18th century it was established in Tayabas by Fray Antonio de Santo Domingo. According to Father Huerta "In 1699 the elected maestro provincial left, whose position was carried with much fervor…, sending five monks to the missions of these Islands, and two to Cochinchina; it established the press in Tayabas and it gave to the press the Diccionario Tagalog, composed by Fray Domingo de los Santos…"

It is not easy to resolve if the one in Tayabas is the same press that the Franciscan Order had a century ago or that the press had just been mounted, although the last one seems more probable. It is certain though, that the printing of the book started in Colegio de Santo Tomas in Manila, and was completed in muy noble villa de Tayabas in 1702, it is not known who was the one who ran the press, although it is to be conceited that he was under the care of brother Franciscan de los Santos.

The Tayabas press was transferred to the Faculty of San Francisco in Manila, which was placed under their custody from 1705 to 1708, and from there to the convent of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria of the town of Dilao, thus called, although in fact it is just a suburb of Manila. It is located there only during the years of 1713 and 1714, under the care of brother Franciscan de los Santos, who was associated later with Capitan Don Lucas Francisco Rodriguez. In 1718, it appeared again in the Manila convent, run by Julian de San Diego, and ten years later in the same convent of Nuestra Señora de los Angeles de Manila under the immediate direction of brother Pedro de la Concepcion who manage to credit himself as the maestro en el arte tipografico with the printing of the Ceremonial romano reformado of Father Torrubia.

The printing press was situated here for eight years before it was transferred to the convent of Nuestra Señora de Loreto de Sampaloc, located again, like the one of Dilao, in one of the suburbs of Manila.

In this Sampaloc convent, according to Father Huerta, there was a community of monks and it was the Casa de Noviciado from 1614 to 1619. In 1692, the printing press of the Province of San Gregorio was established in the same convent, that by long time was of great use to these islands, until through the years of 1808 it was passed on to the venerable Orden Tercera de Penitencia, who lately alienated it to be deteriorated enough and not able to compete with the modern ones established in Manila during this period.

We see that the Franciscan chronicler made a mistake in writing that the printing press in Sampaloc was established in 1692 since in that date not even the print shop founded first in Tayabas worked. We note though, still in 1809, it continued with the same primitive designation, although under the property of the Ordern Tercera.

We said then, that the transfer of the press in the convent of Loreto de Sampaloc happened in 1736; the year in which the reprinting of the Arte de la lengua pampanga of Fray Diego Bergaño, although without the indication of who the printer was, probably Fray Juan de Sotillo, whose name is seen for the first time, and was honored in books printed there in 1738, the Cronica de la Provincia de San Gregorio of Fray Juan de San Antonio, the third volume was finished in 1744, making the typographic work the most voluminous in the Philippines during that time. He was then succeeded by brother Lucas de San Francisco, whose works had to be the books printed in that convent from 1749 and probably until 1768. Perhaps by modesty, the printer did not sign the books printed during that period.

In 1770, he was replaced by Tomas Adriano, who very shortly before or until then in charge of the printing press of the Colegio de Santo Tomas. Until 1788, no printed works of the Imprenta de Sampaloc carry the name of the printer. From that year, the name of brother Baltasar Mariano appeared, who in 1794 was replaced by another one, fray Pedro Arguelles de la Concepcion, who carried the load and signed his works only after being ordained as a priest, from 1798 to 1803, without interval except in 1797 in which, perhaps he was burdened by studies needed for priesthood, replaced by Juan Eugenio and Fray Francisco de Paula Castilla. In 1805, the print shop seems to have a manager named Vicente Atlas, and finally, in 1809, the responsibility (cargo de taller) was passed to Fray Jacinto de Jesus Lavajos, who arrived in Manila four years before.

How much was How much was the SB Vocabulario in 1613?the SB Vocabulario in 1613?

How much was the Vocabulario de Lengua Tagala by Pedro de San Buenaventura in 1613? Antoon Postma gave us a microfilm copy of the tasado(appraised) and it cost 30 reales! It is worthwhile to note that the cost was edited out in the 1994 reprint of the vocabulario.

The first printed book in the Philippines, the Doctrina Christiana, the tasado was only 2 reales.

Download pdf of both 1994 reprint and microfilm copy of the tasado and compare! Please note that the British Museum seal is also absent in the 1994 reprint.

Pila's Rio Nuevo

One of the oral traditions in Pila is the story of the travel of Pila residents to nearby towns by banca and that the residents board the banca at the back of the Old Pila Market (now a gym). One may conclude that the water of the lake might have reached the town in olden times, but gradually receded to its present position. Recent discovery of the intelligence report of 1st Lt. Leon L. Roach written in February 12, 1902 could shed light to one of the oral traditions of Pila.

The report of 1st Lt. Leon L. Roach was published in Report No. 17, PILA, MAGDALENA, MAJAYJAY AND LOS BAÑOS, LAGUNA PROVINCE, Headquarters Division of the Philippines, Adjutant Generals Office, Military Information Division, Manila, P.I., 1902. The file below was annotated by Jaime F.Tiongson.

Please download this file and read the report. The report is a good complement to Huerta's description of Villa de Pila.

1703 Letter of Juan de Jesus OFM

Dr. Luciano P.R. Santiago provided us a copy of the 1703 Carta of Juan de Jesus OFM describing Pila Choir in 1686.

The Carta de Juán de Jesús, OFM (1703) was cited by Cayetano Sánchez, OFM in La Provincia Franciscana de San Gregorio Magno de Castilla: memoria histórica minima de sus cuatrocientos años de vida. A typewritten copy of the carta was sent to Dr Santiago by the late William Henry Scott. Document found in Archivo Franciscano Ibero Oriental, Madrid. Download copy of the carta.

Tagalog Vocabularios

Antoon Postma gave us a copy of an article he wrote in 2001 describing the seven Tagalog vocabularios written during the Spanish period. Of the seven vocabularios, only four were printed while the remaining three are currently being edited by Antoon Postma.

Antoon Postma is the editor of the Ruiz Dictionary and San Antonio Dictionary, both were published by the Ateneo de Manila University. He is now busy editing the Blancas de San Joseph dictionary and will be published by the same university soon. Download Tagalog Vocabularios article.

San Antonio Dictionary is the second dictionary written in Pila, Laguna.