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During the period of intellectual enlightenment that produced the ilustrado movement in the nineteenth century, the press was a vital medium that enabled Filipinos to discuss the state of the country and bring about political action. Pivotal to this era was the publishing firm Imprenta de Ramírez y Giraudier, founded by noted typographer Don Manuel Ramírez y Carvajal and lithographer-artist Baltasar Giraudier y Ortega. The themes and perspectives covered in the books, pamphlets, and other publications produced over nearly three decades of operation—including the influential periodicals Ilustración Filipina, the Revista de Filipinas, and the Diario de Manila—laid the groundwork for what would be the modern field of Philippine studies.

Dr. Lino L. Dizon establishes the foundational influence of the Imprenta de Ramírez y Giraudier on Philippine intellectual history. He further enriches his narrative by including a comprehensive overview of the history of printing and publishing in the Philippines and an authoritative listing of the firm’s many publications. The visionary editor and writer José Felipe Del-Pan stands out among the many eminent figures who worked for the Imprenta, paving the way for the rise of journalism as an engine of social transformation that eventually led to the emergence of the Propaganda Movement and, ultimately, the Philippine Revolution of 1896.

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“This is a much-needed contemporary study of Imprenta de Ramírez y Giraudier, one of the drivers of Hispanic culture and intellectuality in the Philippines before the end of the nineteenth century. The study of printing presses and newspapers in the Philippines is crucial to understanding the country’s literary history. Lino Dizon compiles an important body of materials that updates previous studies. Among other reasons, this account is very timely due to the special relevance given to the figure of José Felipe Del-Pan upon the commemoration of the second centennial of his birth and the remembrance of his role in Philippine letters by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines in 2021. The great number of biographical details and curiosities about now forgotten authors, books, journals, newspapers, and magazines makes this book a wonderful resource for scholars of Philippine studies.”

—María del Rocío Ortuño Casanova, University of Antwerp

“This book provides context and substance for an examination of modernity in the nineteenth century Philippines. It shows the role of publishing in the so-called Philippine Renaissance and, in turn, how the latter served as a stimulus to the development of the Filipino conception of nation. Lino Dizon has filled in a gap in our knowledge of cultural life in the Spanish colonial Philippines, made even more accessible by excerpted translations from key periodicals and books.”

—Marya Svetlana T. Camacho, Department of History, University of Asia and the Pacific

“The history of the Imprenta de Ramírez y Giraudier (hereon IRG) allows a better understanding of Philippine society and culture through the crucial roles of reading and print. The success of this risky venture by a landowner and an artist was due to the growing readership and the economic progress in the country. Professor Lino Dizon masterfully presents the start of a modern printing press in Manila and its significant historical and literary impact on Philippine studies with its diverse publications and more, reflecting not only the vibrancy of Philippine cultural life but also its evolution over a lengthy stretch of time. With excellent prose, Dizon lays out the historical context of the production of knowledge and the press in the Philippines, allowing us to better understand this aspect of Philippine life prior to the fight for independence from Spain.”

—From the foreword by Florentino Rodao, Universidad de Complutense, Madrid

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lino L. Dizon, PhD, is presently a commissioner of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (2020–2023), an EXECON member of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts National Committee for Historical Research (2020–2022, representing Luzon), and a member of the Technical Panel for History of the Commission on Higher Education. Until his retirement on 1 March 2021, he had been the Dr. Lee Yelick Alex Professor in Social Sciences and a Professor VI (full professor) of Tarlac State University, as well as the head of its Center for Tarlaqueño Studies. He holds a PhD in Philippine studies from the University of the Philippines Diliman.

He edits ALAYA, the Kapampangan research journal of the Center for Kapampangan Studies, Holy Angel University, where he is its history consultant. From 2012 until early 2017, he was the writer-in-residence of Cavite Studies Center, De La Salle University Dasmariñas.

Prof. Dizon has written more than a score of books on Philippine local history and culture, including Mr. White: A ‘Thomasite’ History of Tarlac Province, 1901–1913; Nascent Philippine Studies on the Life and Labor of José Felipe Del-Pan, 1821–1891; and Photographing Revolutionary Cavite: The Colonial Representation, 1896–1899. He is the co-author of a number of publications, including Cruceiro: Spanish Galicia at Some Crossroads in Philippine History & Culture (1521–1898) and Gloria: Roman Leoncio’s Kapampangan Translation of Huseng Batute’s Verse Novel, Lost and Found, which won the 2004 Philippine National Book Awards for Translation.

He was the recipient of the 2011 UPAA Distinguished Alumni Award in Educational Innovation (for Regional Culture) of the University of the Philippines and a regional finalist of the 2012 Metrobank Search for Outstanding Teachers, Higher Education category.

In 2000, he was recognized by his home province of Tarlac as an Outstanding Tarlaqueño in Arts, Letters and Culture. His hometown of Concepcion in 2007, through the Ding Masibucan Club and the municipal government, recognized him as an outstanding citizen in the fields of education and culture in 2017. As a historical consultant for the Department of Education on the Baguio Teachers’ Camp (BTC) centenary, he was responsible for the BTC Museum and centennial book. A University Scholar of UP Diliman from 2005 to 2007, Prof. Dizon was formerly a vice president of KABANSA, Inc., the Association of Local Studies Centers in the Philippines, and a board member of the Asosasyon ng mga Dalubhasa at May Hilig sa Kasaysayan ng Pilipinas (ADHIKA ng Pilipinas, Inc.).

Apart from being a recipient of many national and international scholarship and research grants, such as those from the Spanish Program for Cultural Cooperation, the American Association of the Philippines, the Japan Foundation, Nihon University– Mishima, and the Research Forum on Philippine-Japan Relations, he was also a Fulbright Research Fellow for 2010–2011 at the Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley

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