known. From what has been recorded it would seem that there were two
Augustinians of the same name who were in the Philippines before
1600. The first of these was a secular priest who came to Cebú
about 1566, may have taken the Augustinian habit some time after his
arrival, and died not long after 1569. The other Juan de Villanueva,
the date of whose arrival is unknown, was in Lubao in 1590, in Hagonoy
in 1593, and prior of Batangas from 1596 until his death in 1599. Of
the two there can be no doubt but that Chirino referred to the second
one. But, apart from Chirino's note, there is no record anywhere that
works by him existed, nor do the Augustinian chroniclers themselves,
except for the modern Santiago Vela who knew of Chirino's citation,
mention him as a linguist or a writer. The only possibility is that
between 1593 and 1599 Villanueva had printed some small xylographic
books no copies and no further record of which have appeared.

As for Francisco de San Joseph, or Blancas de San José as he is more
frequently called, there are other references to his part in the
establishment of printing in the islands. From information doubtless
obtained from Diego Aduarte, then in Spain, Alonso Fernandez wrote
in his ecclesiastical history, printed at Toledo in 1611:


"Father Fr. Francisco Blancas printed in the Tagalog language
and characters a book of Our Lady of the Rosary in the year
1602, which was the first book that was printed there of
that or any other material. After this he printed another of
the sacraments in the language of the Philippines, in both
characters, theirs and ours, from which the greatest results
have been achieved." [17]