LIBRARY OF CONGRESS LECTURE ON TWO OLDEST BOOKS PRINTED IN THE PHILIPPINES DRAWS DIVERSE CROWD
09 JUNE 2009 WASHINGTON, DC - A diverse audience listens intently to Filipino Librarian and PhD candidate at the University of Toronto Von Totanes during his lecture on the Doctrina Christiana and the Shih-lu, the oldest books printed in the Philippines. In his lecture, Totanes posited that the Doctrina Christiana, printed in 1593 and usually referred to as THE first book printed in the Philippines, “is actually one of two published during that year in the archipelago.” Totanes argued that the importance of the imprints “lies in the fact that they are physical reminders of the plurality of the nature and culture of the Filipino and the Philippines, and that Filipino culture is what it is today because of contact with the Chinese, the Spanish and the Americans.” The lecture was co-sponsored by the Embassy of the Philippines, Library of Congress Asian Division Friends Society and the Library of Congress Asian American Association and is part of a month-long series of activities held to commemorate the 111th anniversary of Philippine Independence. END