Note 9 — V. Introduction of Printing into the Philippines.

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.