Arte de la lengva tagala, y Manval tagalog, para la administracion de los Santos Sacramentos, que de orden de sus superiores compuso Sebastián de Totanes, … …

A$37,500 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Limited edition

Manila : Imprenta . . . sita en el Convento de Nra. Señora de Loreto en el Pueblo de Sampaloc Extra-muros de la Ciudad , 1745. First edition. Quarto, later marbled calf with borders decorated in gilt, spine in compartments with gilt ornament and red morocco title pieces lettered in gilt,; marbled endpapers; printed on rice paper, pp [28], 135, [5], [2], 218, [3]; title with some worming at fore-edge margin, a few leaves with worming to lower margin, repaired tear to pp. 57-58, paper infill to pp. 115-116 (no loss of text), otherwise a very fine copy. Rare first edition, printed on delicate rice paper, of one of the earliest works on the Tagalog language, used by Spanish missionaries as an aid to the acquisition of Tagalog. The first part of the book is a Tagalog grammar; this is followed by a work on the Holy Sacraments printed in two columns as a parallel text in Spanish and Tagalog. The author, Sebastián de Totanes (1687-1748), was a Spanish Franciscan missionary who arrived in the Philippines from Mexico in 1717. He spent most of his religious service in the Philippines, mainly in and around Manila, and was eventually appointed Prior of the Convent of Manila. This Arte by Father Totanes is considered the best of all the writings by whose help the Spaniards learnt the Tagala language. Taking it is a whole it is based on the work of father San José, whose first edition was published in 1610; but as it was published so many years later it also combines the various improvement

• Binding: Hardcover

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