endous,
collective history of the Philippines, did not include a list of
Philippine imprints in their bibliography, [54] but referred readers
to Medina and Retana with whom they agreed. To celebrate the three
hundredth anniversary of typographical printing in the Philippines
Artigas y Cuerva [55] wrote a study which emphasized the part played
by Blancas de San Jose, but did not deny the existence of the 1593
Doctrina. Retana [56] in 1911 brought his work on the subject up to
date, but retained all his major conclusions. In Palau's standard
bibliography of Spanish books we find the Doctrinas called "the two
earliest books known to have been printed in Manila." [57] Finally, the
most thorough recent work on the subject is to be found in Schilling's
[58] survey of the early history of the Philippine press published in
1937. There is little that can be added to the evidence uncovered by
these modern writers, but the appearance of the book itself enables
us to say with certainty some things which they were able only to
surmise. However, as regards the authorship and the circumstances and
place of printing we are able, from the information given on the title,
to carry the investigation somewhat further.

THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE TEXT

The title tells us that the book was "corrected" by the priests of
more than one order, and since it was printed by the Dominicans,
we can assume that the ultimate responsibility for the preparation
of the text in consultation with friars of other orders also lay
in their hands. Our problem then is to discover what texts were
available to them in 1593 and who were the priests who formed the
editorial board. We have included in this study also the origins of
the Chinese text, for the two Doctrinas appeared at the same time,
and as we shall see the same Dominicans were probably responsible for
the production and preparation of both the Tagalog and the Chinese
texts. During the period under discussion there were priests of four
orders active in the islands, and so we shall speak in turn of the
Augustinian, Franciscan, Jesuit and Dominican fathers who might have
written or worked on the Doctrinas printed in 1593.

THE AUGUSTINIANS

The first priests to come to the Philippines were six Augustinians
who accompanied Legazpi on the expedition which in 1565 established
the first permanent European settlement in the islands. Among them
was Martin de Rada, who was one of the most important