Arte de la lengva tacala, y Manval tagalog, para la administracion de los Santos Sacramentos,

que de orden de sus superiores compuso Sebastián de Totanes, … …  Sampaloc : Reimpresso en la Imprenta de Nra. Sra. de Loreto, por el herm. Pedro Argüelles de la Concepcion, 1796. Small quarto, contemporary limp vellum (minor repairs, remnants of leather ties), spine with manuscript title in ink; pp [xvi], 148, [6], [2], 247, [3]; Manval tagalog has individual title page; ornamental woodcut head- and tailpieces; some worming to lower corner of several leaves, repair to clean tear in one leaf (137-38 of Arte), occasional browning.

Scarce second edition of one of the earliest works on the Tagalog language, used by Spanish missionaries as an aid to the acquisition of Tagalog. The book is identical in content to the first edition of 1745, but was printed on European paper rather than the delicate paper of the first edition. 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. A prologue places the book in the context of earlier published and unpublished works on Tagalog, including grammars and dictionaries.

The author, Sebastián de Totanes (1687-1748), was a Franciscan missionary who spent most of his religious service in the Philippines, mainly in and around Manila.

Jose, Impreso, 905; Pardo de Tavera, Biblioteca Filipina 2718; Medina, Manila, 340; Retana 1906: 432; Palau, 338006

Provenance:

H. P. Kraus, New York, his description loosely enclosed.