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 Posted on: 25 December 2010

A page from Luso-Tamil Catechism (Cartilha or Primer) printed in Lisbon in 1554 CE. It is a bilingual work with Tamil and Portuguese phrases - both printed in Roman script. This is the earliest known printed work of Tamil (though in roman script). The books is 38 pages long with Tamil phrases in Red followed immediately by Portuguese translations printed in black (in smaller font). Authors of the book were Tamil Christians living in Lisbon - Vincente de Nazareth, Thome da Cruz and Jorge Carvalho(?). They were supervised by Father Joao Villa de Conde. The single surviving copy of the book is at the Ethnological Museum at Belem,
The title of the book reads Cartilho che conte brevemente ho q todo christavo deve aprender pera sua saluacum, a qual el rey dom joham terceiro deste nome nosso senhor mandou imprimir e lingua Tamul e Portugues co ha declaracum do Tamul por Cima de vermelho (Primer which contains in brief all that a Christian should know for his salvation and for which our lord, the king Dom John III, had ordered to be printed in the Tamil language and in Portuguese with the Tamil meaning printed above in red.)

This book was rediscovered by Fr. Xavier Thaninayagam in the 1950s.

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Caste, Catholic Christianity, and the language of conversion: social change ... By S. Jeyaseela Stephen : http://books.google.com/books?id=fxeK0JLjnsgC&pg=PA230&lpg=PA230&dq=Luso-Tamil+1556&source=bl&ots=HA_Mjhtpee&sig=uiGTIiqxvma_obQuIwFpgXwFB7I&hl=en&ei=KZkTTOnDD43w0gS7v4z4CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

The roving Ambassador of Tamil By Amudhan Adigal http://www.hindu.com/2003/08/27/stories/2003082704130600.htm

More on this book and in general about early Tamil printing...http://karkanirka.wordpress.com/2010/04/14/first_tamil_book/

RBSI.. "Tamil Christians living in Lisbon.." indeed ! It's 'fortunate' for them that they lived when they did . Had it been in recent times , they might never have 'made the cut ' for the Schengen visa. Coming as this did , a bare 56 years after Vasco's bridgehead , the Portuguese must have been in an unholy hurry to get projects like this off the ground ! So it would seem that many a 'native' must have been shanghaied and packed off to the other 'mother country ' , to beaver away .. 'Fascinating' prospect..

An extract from Paliappan Vairam Sarathy's fascinating Blog : ....It would be a surprising for many to know that Tamil was the first non European Language to be printed in a modern press. The First Tamil book was printed in Lisbon on 11.2.1554 in Lisbon with Romanized Tamil script. The name of the Tamil catechism was ‘Carthila e lingoa Tamul e Portugues’, by Vincente de Nazareth, Jorge Carvalho and Thoma da Cruz. This was the first time European language was translated in Tamil. This was also the first continuous text in Indian Language to be transliterated into a western script. First printing press was introduced in India in 1556 by Jesuits in Goa. Initial printing was done in Latin and Portuguese. The first known Tamil types were cast in 1577 in Goa by a Spanish Jesuit, Juan Gonsalves. But since they were not satisfactory, new casts were made in Quilon(Kollam) in 1578 by Father Joao da Faria. Impressions of these Tamil letters exist in a book by Henrique Henriques called ‘Tambiran Vankkam’. This book probably the earliest available book in a Indian font. The whole title of the book is ‘Doctrina Christam en Lingua Malauar Tamul – Tampiran Vanakam’.This 16 book of prayers and catechetical instructions were printed in Quilon on 20th October 1578. Tamil Christians in Malabar contributed graciously and set up a press in Cochin and printed ‘Doctrina Christam’ alias ‘Kiricittiyani vanakkam’ authored Henriques in Cochin on 14.11.1579. Around 1586, another book of Henriques, ‘Flos Sanctorum’ (Punitar varalaru of 669 pages) was printed in Punnaikayil (Tuticorin). It would be very interesting to compare introduction modern printing in other Countries with respect to Tamil : Language/Country Year the first book was printed Tamil 1554 China 1584 Japan 1590 Peru 1584 Mexico (in Spanish) 1539 Africa 1624 Russia 1563 Constantinople 1727 Greece 1821 http://karkanirka.wordpress.com/2010/04/14/first_tamil_book/ Thank you Palaniappan !

Very cool. Thanks for passing this along!

Your postings intrigue and satisfy me no end! If they would have had the internet when I was a schoolgirl, I would have had to have been physically dragged away from the computer to go to school or to bed, because I would have been reading your commentaries and the text links you post. Thank you!

Thank you Lalita...for such endearing words !