PROPERTY FROM THE ORTIGAS LIBRARY COLLECTION
Ninay
Imprenta de Fortanet Calle de la Libertad, Num. 29
Madrid 1885
7” x 5” x 1” (18.2 cm x 11.6 cm x 2.5 cm)


CONDITION REPORT: Original covers and cloth boundGood condition



A romantic novel, the first by the Filipino author Pedro A. Paterno and the first for Philippine literature. The original is in Spanish and has Ninay, a wealthy young lady in love with Carlos, charged as a rebel by a Portuguese businessman. Carlos leaves the country and when he returns finds out Nina had entered the convent. He would die of cholera and Ninay would later die of the same. The novel has no complex storyline but what impresses the reader is that Paterno, erudite and an ilustrado wraps himself in the new Filipino identity of the time. He dedicates the novel to his father in the native Baybayin script a signal to his Spanish readers that Filipinos had ancient writings. Throughout the book, every italicized Filipino word that appears - names, places, plants - are given explanations at the bottom of the page. It’s somewhat unusual to do so in a novel but Paterno in this slim book wants the reader to know exactly what the words stood for to understand the full indigenous flavor of the novel. There are four appendices at the end of the book, each explaining a religious rite, native dances, customs, and the native population when the Spanish arrived in the archipelago. The book may be listed as a novel but it is also a breast beating story on Filipino pride and instructive for an audience who knew little about their Asian relations.