page_title: Tomás Pinpin
section_title: Work as a printer
hierarchical_section_title: Tomás Pinpin / Biography / Work as a printer
caption_attribution_description: The Franciscans were already in Pila by 1606 when they put up a printing press that was supervised by Tomas Pinpin and Domingo Loeg. The first church was built in 1618. To avoid the frequent floods, the town was relocated to its present site in 1800 where a new church was built. The present church was built in 1849. Olympus Camedia (February 2006, Los Banos MDG Forum). Slightly improved with Picasa.
context_page_description: Tomás Pinpin was a printer, writer and publisher from Abucay, a municipality in the province of Bataan, Philippines, who was the first Philippine printer and is sometimes referred as the "Prince of the Filipino Printers."
  Pinpin is remembered for being the first Philippine personage to publish and print a book, "Librong Pagaaralan nang mga Tagalog nang Uicang Castilla" in 1610, entirely written by himself in the old Tagalog orthography.
context_section_description: In 1610 he printed the book "Arte y Reglas de la Lengua Tagala", by his mentor Father Francisco Blancas de San Jose, and in the same year his famous "Librong Pagaaralan nang manga Tagalog nang Uicang Castilla" was printed by his assistant, Diego Talaghay. The book contained 119 pages divided into five parts and was meant to help Filipinos learn the Spanish language. The prologue read: 
  "Let us therefore study, my country men, for although the art of learning is somewhat difficult, yet if we are persevering, we shall soon improve our knowledge.
  Other Tagalogs like us did not take a year to learn the Spanish language when using my book. This good result has given me satisfaction and encouraged me to print my work, so that all may derive some profit from it."
  Although the Librong Pagaaralan was the first printed book written by a Filipino in the local Tagalog language, it was not the first one in history, as it had been preceded by Doctrina Christiana en Lengua Espanola y Tagala, that had been printed in Tagalog, in both Latin script and the commonly used Baybayin script of the natives of the time, in the year 1593.
  In 1612 Pinpin supervised the set up of a printing press owned by the Franciscans in Pila, Laguna, where he printed "Vocabulario de Lengua Tagala", by Fray Pedro de San Buenaventura, which was the first dictionary of a language of the Philippine islands ever printed. He is also known to have printed at Binondo, Manila, between 1623 and 1627, as the early printing press was being transported to several places to bring the art of printing.
  In 1637 he published and printed what is thought to be the first newspaper in the Philippines, the 14-page "Sucesos Felices", that reported mainly on Spanish military victories.
  It is estimated that all throughout his career, from 1609 to 1639, Tomas Pinpin printed at least fourteen different publications.
caption: Building in Pila where the Franciscans put up the printing press that was supervised by Tomas Pinpin
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