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On the Possible Cham Origin of the Philippine Scripts*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Geoff Wade
Geoff Wade
Affiliation:
University of Hong Kong
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Extract

I. The Philippine Scripts

In 1593, there was printed in Manila a most remarkable xylographic (wood-block) book, comprising Juan de Plascenia's Doctrina Christiana in Spanish, romanized Tagalog and Tagalog script (see Fig. 1). While there is still some debate as to whether this was the first book to be published in the Philippines, there appears little doubt that it constitutes the earliest extant printed example of any Philippine script.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , March 1993 , pp. 44 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1993

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References

1 Scott, W.H., Prehispanic Source Materials for Philippine History (Quezon City, 1984), p. 53Google Scholar. A photolithographic edition of the sole known copy of the work was published in Washington D.C. in 1947. Scott, in Prehispanic Source Materials, p. 164Google Scholar notes another facsimile edition published by the National Historical Commission, Manila in 1973.

2 In his introductory essay to the 1947 facsimile edition, published as Doctrina Christiana — The First Book Printed in the Philippines, Manila 1593: A Facsimile of the Copy in the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress (Washington D.C., 1947)Google Scholar, Edwin Wolf 2nd indicated his belief that the work was the earliest verifiable book to have been published in the Philippines. However, der Loon, P. Van, in his “The Manila Incunabula and Early Hokkien Studies”, Asia Major XII (1966): 1–43Google Scholar, suggests that the Hsin-k'o seng-shih Kao-mu Hsien chuan Wu-chi t'ien-chu cheng-chiao chen-chuan shi-lu, a wood-block edition of a theological and cosmographical work written in Chinese by the Dominican Friar Juan Cobo, was published in Manila in March 1593 and thus may pre-date the Doctrina Christiana.

3 In Blair, E.H. and Robertson's, J.A.The Philippine Islands 1493–1803 (Original edition published Cleveland 1903–1909, reprinted Rizal, 1973), vol. XII, p. 10Google Scholar, his dates in the Philippines are incorrectly noted as 1595 to 1602. Wolf, Edwin 2nd, in his introduction to the facsimile Doctrina Christiana adds (p. 9)Google Scholar that Chirino returned to the islands in 1606 and remained there until his death in 1635.

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56 Song Hui-yao Ji-gao (Beijing Zhonghua Shuju, 1957), juan 197, p. 7761Google Scholar. A translation of the full passage, as well as the Chinese text, are to be found in Scott, W.H., Filipinos in China Before 1500 (Manila, 1989), pp. 27–28 and 45Google Scholar.

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