zar, 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grammar or vocabulary, and that if it were made it might not
be published before being examined and approved by the said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vocabulary be made it shall not be published or used unless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 years earlier? Furthermore,
San Antonio, recording the book on the customs and rites of the Indians
written by Plasencia at the request of the Governor Santiago de Vera,
and dated October 24, 1589, said that it was not printed "because
printing houses had not yet come to this country." [42]

We then conclude with regard to Beristain's entry, that although
there existed in manuscript an _Arte y Vocabuldrio Tagalo_ by Juan de
Quinones, there is no evidence of the existence of any book printed
for him from wood-bloc