Examples of Prints from Goa and Their Purpose (1556-1632)

Many of the early prints from Goa were created almost entirely for the purpose of converting native Indian groups like the coastal inhabiting Tamil people to Catholicism (Suarez, Woudhuysen 556). Thirteen books were printed between 1556 and 1588 (Kakar). The first-ever book published by the Goa printing press was titled Conclusões e outras coisas published in 1556. Like many of the first books printed by the Goa press, no copy remains today (Suarez, Woudhuysen 556). It was the first book printed in India.

To most effectively convert native regions, it was initially thought that prints had to be done in Indian languages: 

“The first Indian language rendered in the medium of print was Tamil. This might appear odd, given that the lingua franca in and around Goa was Konkani. But the Jesuits, led by Francis Xavier, who died in Goa in 1552, had established an extensive network of Jesuit missions along the Coromandel coast and had baptized more than 10,000 Tamil-speaking Parava fisher-people” (Suarez, Woudhuysen 555).

A direct example of a translated book printed in Goa is titled Doctrina, Christam, Tampiran Vanakkam. It was published in 1539 in Portugal, but it was printed in Goa in 1577. The significance of this print was that it was the first ever book in Indian Type (Suarez, Woudhuysen 556). It had huge cultural importance because it allowed Tamil-speaking people to experience an originally Portuguese text, bringing the two previously separate cultures into dialogue with one another for the first time.

Figure 3: Front page of an edition of Doctrina, Christam, Tampiran Vanakkam 

In 1568, “the first illustrated cover page was printed in Goa for the book Constituciones do Arcebispado” (Kakar). The image was created by using the ‘relief process’ with wood. In this process, the artist sketches out their illustration which is then cut around so it is raised compared to the rest of the wood block (Kakar).

The most extensive research I was able to find was on a book titled Colloquies written by Garcia de Orta in 1563. He lived in Goa while writing this book, not being a translation brought over from Portugal like some others. His target audience was initially expected to be quite local, but as time progressed his book became significant in the field of Medicine (Fontes da Costa). In his article, Fontes da Costa carefully points out the region Orta’s book impacted was greater than India, rather, it reached as far as the “Indies” (composed of northern parts of India along with parts of China, Pakistan, East Indies Islands, and of course, Portugal).

Figure 1: Photo of a later edition published in 1895. 

At the time, the Portuguese were set up in colonies all around southern Asia. The book was written as a dialogue between one character who was a fictional version of Orta, and another who by some is thought to be his “alter ego”. However, it is also argued that this character was meant to be a sort of “European humanist scholar” learning about Orta’s medicinal work (Fontes da Costa). 

Orta was from a Jewish family living in Portugal that converted to Catholicism. During this time, Jewish people were being persecuted, and even though his family had converted, they were still singled out. He grew up studying medicine and eventually became a professor at the University of Lisbon. Even though he was an important and highly respected doctor in Portugal, he ultimately had to depart for India in 1534 due to his Jewish heritage. He ended up in Goa which “was a trading zone in several respects and historians have shown that a combination of medical traditions was current practice in the territory” (Fontes da Costa). Even though Orta enjoyed a time of minimal persecution during his life, his family was “persecuted severely and his sister Catarina, who by now was also living in Goa, was condemned and burned alive on charges of Judaism” (Fontes da Costa).

Even though printing in Goa was monumental in spreading Catholicism to the wider region, the medical field was still tipped in favor of manuscripts. Again, Orta’s book was not expected to impact as broad of a region as it did and this favor in manuscripts the medical world held at the time likely contributed to that (Fontes da Costa). 

When printed, Colloquies had “ironically… suffered corruption but at the hands of the printer” (Fontes da Costa). It was thought by Orta that printing would be the superior method because of the error-filled history of manuscript production. Yet, Colloquies also serves to exemplify the multitude of mistakes printing presses made at the time. Of course, the production power of the printer offset the inconvenience of type errors.

A few decades after the printing of Collogquies in 1588, no records of any prints are available until 1615. 

In 1616, Discurso Sobre a Vinda de Jusu Christo Nosso Salvador ao Mundo (Discourse on the Coming of the Christ to the World) was printed for the first time in Goa. As can be understood from its title alone, the book's primary purpose was to evangelize the native people of Goa and other coastal regions nearby (Naik).

 

Figure 2: A 1654 edition of Discurso Sobre a Vinda de Jusu Christo Nosso Salvador ao Mundo

In 1632, Declaracan da Doutrina Christam (A Statement of the Christian Doctrine) by Diogo Ribeiro, was first printed. What makes the printing of this book special is that it was written in the native language of Goa, Brahmin (Naik). One copy still remains in the government library in Lisbon (Naik). More books were printed by the press in native languages because of their supposed effectiveness in evangelism. However, this belief becomes challenged soon after as other missionaries saw these multilingual prints being ineffective.