Provenance: Private Collection, Madrid

ABOUT THE WORK

José Rizal was a student of medicine in the Universidad Central de Madrid when, after reading Harriet Beecher Stowe's ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin’, he conceived the idea of writing a novel that would expose the ills of Philippine society. He wrote ‘Noli Me Tangere’ (Latin for ‘Touch Me Not’), a novel that emphasized the positive qualities of Filipinos. At the same time, he exposed the inequities of the Spanish Catholic priests and the ruling colonial government that was backward, anti-progress, anti-intellectual and not conducive to the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment. The book lampooned, caricatured and exposed various elements in Philippine colonial society. Rizal finished the novel in December 1886, but was having financial difficulties at that time due to the delay of the arrival of his allowance from Manila. To reduce the cost of printing, he even decided to delete a chapter. There was even a time that he thought it would be hard to pursue printing the novel and, fearing that the novel might not be printed and that it would remain unread, he even contemplated burning the manuscript. Fortunately for him and for the Philippines, he had met Máximo Sison Viola, the only son of a rich hacendero of San Miguel, Bulacan. Viola was studying medicine in the University of Barcelona, when he met Jose Rizal and became his best friend in Europe. They both became involved in the Propaganda Movement and, when Viola learned that Rizal was having difficulty in publishing the ‘Noli Me Tangere’, Viola sought Rizal and offered to lend him the P300 (the price of 100 sacks of milled rice then) needed to print of the first 2,000 copies of the novel. The book was printed by the Berliner Buchdruckerei-Aktiengesellschaft in Berlin and was finished earlier than the estimated five months in December 1886. In acknowledgment of Viola’s help, Rizal gave him the galley proofs of the Noli, the first copy which came off the press as well as the pen he had used to write the manuscripts. Rizal’s dedication to Viola on one of the pages of the Book read, ‘To my dear friend, Maximo Viola, the first to read and appreciate my work.’ Rizal also sent a copy of the novel to his friend, Ferdinand Blumentritt in Leitmeritz, Bohemia. Because of its portrayal of corruption and abuse by the colonial government and the friars of the Catholic Church, the Noli was banned by Spanish authorities in the Philippines. Copies of the book were nevertheless smuggled in and hidden and when Rizal returned to the Philippines after completing his medical studies, he quickly ran afoul of the local government. A few days after his arrival, Rizal was summoned to Malacañang Palace by Governor-General Emilio Terrero, who told him of the charge that Noli Me Tangere contained subversive elements. After a discussion, Terrero was appeased but was powerless against the pressure from the Church against the book. Following the clandestine distribution of the Noli in the Philippines, Rizal wrote, “My book made a lot of noise; everywhere, I am asked about it. They wanted to anathematize me ['to excommunicate me'] because of it... I am considered a German spy, an agent of Bismarck, they say I am a Protestant, a freemason, a sorcerer, a damned soul and evil. It is whispered that I want to draw plans, that I have a foreign passport and that I wander through the streets by night...” Rizal was exiled to Dapitan in Mindanao, then later arrested for "inciting rebellion" based largely on his writings. Rizal was executed by firing squad at the Luneta outside Manila's walls on December 30, 1896 at the age of thirty-five, at the park that now bears his name. The Noli was instrumental in creating a unified Filipino national identity and consciousness, and indirectly influenced the Philippine Revolution of Independence from Spain, even if Rizal only advocated direct representation to the Spanish government and an overall larger role for the Philippines within Spain's political affairs. -Martin I. Tinio, Jr.