Doctrina Christiana | Page 7

Germans published their notices of the 1593 Doctrina an entry appeared of a book printed at Manila in 1581. José Mariano Beristain y Sousa, a learned Mexican writer, issued in 1819-21 a bibliography of Spanish-American books, in which he listed alphabetically the authors, giving a short biography of each and adding a list of his works. Under Juan de Qui?ones we find:
"'Arte y Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala,' Imp. en Manila, 1581." [31]
No specific authority is given for this entry, but in his sketch of the life of Qui?ones Beristain cited as sources, Juan de Grijalva, Nicolás Antonio, Gaspar de San Agustin, and José Sicardo. It would seem logical that one of these must have mentioned such a work as printed in Manila in 1581, but in tracing down the sources no such precise notice is found.
Grijalva simply said that Qui?ones "concerned himself with Tagalog and made a vocabulary and grammar of it." [32] Antonio [33] referred to Grijalva, and carried the matter no further. San Agustin, describing the Franciscan chapter of 1578, wrote:
"It was determined moreover in this chapter that P. Fr. Juan de Qui?ones, prior of the Convent of Taal in Tagalos, and Fr. Diego de Ochoa, prior of Bacolor in Pampanga, should compose and fashion grammars, dictionaries, and confessionaries in the two languages [respectively Tagalog and Pampanga] in which they had ventured; which they executed very promptly and well, and these were of great use to those who came to these islands, for they had these by which they could study the languages." [34]
Later, San Agustin, again mentioning Qui?ones, referred to Grijalva, and added as an additional source for his information Tómas de Herrera. Sicardo [35] added nothing new. Herrera, not cited directly by Beristain, may however have been the source from which the "Imp." of his entry came. Herrera wrote:
"He [Qui?ones] was the first to have learned the Tagalog language of which he published a grammar and dictionary as an aid to the ministers of the gospel."
If Beristain read this, he may have been misled by the Latin of "published," [36] in lucem edidit, which may indeed mean printed and published, but also means quite properly published in the sense of written in manuscript and copied and circulated. We agree with Schilling [37] that this latter meaning was the one intended. One other statement that Qui?ones' works were printed may derive from the same misunderstanding. About the year 1801 Pedro Bello wrote an account, still in manuscript and unpublished, of the writings of the Augustinians. His remarks on Qui?ones, first printed by Santiago Vela [38], we believe are only an extension of Herrera's in lucem edidit.
This same confusion in terminology has been used [39] to support Beristain's claim by introducing as evidence the letter of Philip?II of May 8, 1584. Salazar, the Bishop of Manila, probably shortly after the Synod of 1582, had written the King a letter, now unfortunately lost, in which he spoke of a decision to standardize linguistic works. In answer to the Bishop, the following letter in the form of a royal cedula was sent:
"To the President and Judges of my Royal Audiencia situated in the city of Manila in the Philippine Islands.--It has been told me on behalf of Don Fray Domingo de Salazar, Bishop of that place, that it was agreed that no priest might make a grammar or vocabulary, and that if it were made it might not be published before being examined and approved by the said Bishop, because otherwise there would result great differences and disagreements in the doctrine; and this having been seen by my Council of the Indies, it was agreed that I should order this my cedula which decrees that when any grammar or vocabulary be made it shall not be published or used unless it has first been examined by the said Bishop and seen by this Audencia." [40]
Here again the word publicado is brought forth to prove that the letter referred to printed works, but here again the term is equally applicable to manuscript works in common use and generally available.
Further evidence that there was no printing as early as 1581 is to be found in a letter [41] from Juan de Plasencia, a Tagalist of great renown, to the King, dated from Manila, June 18, 1585, in which he reported on the state of missionary work in China and Japan, and added that he had written a grammar and a declaration of the whole Doctrina in the most common language of the Philippines, and that he was then making a dictionary, concluding by asking the King to send decrees ordering those works to be printed in Mexico at the expense of the Exchequer. Is it likely that Plasencia would have so written if an Arte y Vocabulario had been printed four