THE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY


In tracing our clues down through the years, we find at the very
beginning the most valuable evidence which has been uncovered, short
of the book itself. From Manila on June 20, 1593, the Governor of the
Philippines, Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, wrote a letter to Philip II of
Spain in which he said:


"Sire, in the name of Your Majesty, I have for this once,
because of the existing great need, granted a license for the
printing of the Doctrinas Christianas, herewith enclosed--one
in the Tagalog language, which is the native and best of these
islands, and the other in Chinese--from which I hope great
benefits will result in the conversion and instruction of the
peoples of both nations; and because the lands of the Indies
are on a larger scale in everything and things more expensive,
I have set the price of them at four reales a piece, until Your
Majesty is pleased to decree in full what is to be done." [7]


This states unequivocally that two books were printed at Manila some
time before June 20, 1593, one of which was the Doctrina in Tagalog,
and the other the same work in Chinese. Although we are chiefly
concerned here with the former, the fact that they were produced at
about the same time and probably at the same place makes it necessary