{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":58447,"auction_id":121,"set_id":155,"lot_number":"83","artist":"José Rizal (1861 - 1896)","title":null,"starting_price":6000000,"signed_dated":"a.) Noli Me Tangere
\nFirst Edition, Berlin 1887
\nBerliner Buchdruckerei-Actien-Gesselschaft
\nSetzerinnen-Schule des Lette Vereins
\nH: 9\" (23 cm)
\nW: 5 3/4\" (15 cm)
\nthickness: 1 1/4\" (3 cm)

","medium":"b.) El Filibusterismo
\nFirst Edition, Ghent, 1891
\nBoekdrukkerij F. Meyer-Van Loo,
\nViaanderenstraat, 66
\nH: 9\" (23 cm)
\nW: 6\" (15 cm)
\nthickness: 1\" (3 cm)","size":null,"property":"PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED LADY","coa":"Both bound in hand-painted speckled Moroccan leather\nwith six raised bands, stamped and ornamented, along\nthe spine. Title and author gilt-stamped on red band.\nWith marbled end papers. The initials “AGM” are\nengraved at the bottom of each spine.","provenance":"Private Collection, Madrid, Spain","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"No two books are more beloved, remembered, and honored due to their sheer importance by the Filipino nation —the very same nation that was birthed by this extraordinary pair of works — than these two novels produced by the Philippines’ National Hero Jose Rizal.

Each book has a stunning history of its own, reflecting not only the development of Rizal’s political eloquence but also the chain of events that the books would set off that would ultimately end in his martyrdom on the Luneta in that dark December in 1896, 129 years ago.

The Noli Me Tangere was first published in Berlin, Germany by the German women of the pioneering trade school called the Lette Verein (or Lette Society) in March 1877. It saw the light of day thanks to the generosity of Rizal’s fellow ilustrado, Dr. Maximo Viola, who lent Jose Rizal the P300 needed to print the book.

Anecdotal information has said that the print run was for 2,000 copies. The archives of Lette Verein, decimated during the various wars, no longer have the records that would have confirmed this. Amid the subsequent vagaries of war and revolution, the number that survived and are now in private collections or public institutions is estimated to be in the low double digits, many of which remain in fragile condition.

Rizal distributed the first few copies to his compatriots and friends in Europe. The rest of the books can be assumed to have made their way to Manila via Madrid, Hongkong and Yokohama, all three being the hotbeds of Filipino resistance and political discontent.

Soon after the publication of the Noli, Rizal would venture back to the Philippines, hoping to repair his mother’s failing eyesight. He would arrive in August 1887 and stay for just six short months, eventually persuaded by his family to quit the Philippines in the aftermath for the uproar the Noli caused.

Even in the months immediately after its publication, the Noli was a scarce commodity. Rizal himself observed that the Noli was difficult to be found during his stay in Manila. In a letter dated 5 September 1887, he informed Blumentritt that his book had caused a significant stir. People were asking about it everywhere, and some even wanted to condemn him. Governor-General Terrero summoned him to request a copy of the book, saying, “You wrote a novel that caused such turmoil. It’s been reported to contain offensive content and subversive ideas. I want to read it.” Rizal replied, “I plan to send copies to Your Excellency and the Archbishop of Manila once I receive them from Europe. I only have one, which I lent to a friend. If permitted, I will find another.” The general insisted, “Not only do I permit it, but I demand it.”

The next day, Rizal tried to retrieve a copy from the Jesuits, who refused to part with it, so he brought a stained copy to the general. The general welcomed him cordially and asked if he was returning home. Rizal noted that people accused him of being a German spy, a Bismarck agent, a Protestant, a freemason, a sorcerer, and morally compromised, which made him prefer staying at home in Calamba. Aware that Rizal’s life was at risk from formidable enemies like the friars, the governor took the unusual measure of assigning him a personal bodyguard.

Although Governor-General Terrero was not disturbed after reading the novel, Manila Archbishop Pedro Payo convened a committee from the University of Santo Tomás, which transmitted its condemnation of the book as “heretical, impious, and scandalous to the religious orders, and anti-patriotic, subversive of public order, injurious to the government of Spain and its function in the Philippine Islands in the political order.” Dissatisfied with this report, Terrero sent the book to the Permanent Commission of Censorship, a committee of laypeople and priests. Once again, the book was condemned as subversive, and it was strongly recommended that its importation and distribution be absolutely prohibited.

The fame of the book and the turmoil it left in its wake led Rizal’s mother to fear that he would be poisoned and she forbade him from eating anywhere else but at home. He would eventually leave the country in February 1888, taking up eventual residence in London.

By April 1889, La Solidaridad, the Filipino propaganda periodical in Madrid, expressed concern over the numerous police searches, arrests, and persecutions across the country related to the Noli. These actions were largely driven by government accusations and Fr. José Rodríguez’s anti-Rizal pamphlets.

The heated debate over the Noli caused its scarcity and price to surge dramatically, escalating from five pesetas (roughly a peso) to more than fifty pesos per copy, reaching an all-time high. On June 8th, 1888, Rizal would report to Pastor Ullmer that his “enemies burned copies of my book, while my friends were willing to pay any price for them, bidding up the price to as much as 50 dollars or 200 marks.” He bemoaned the fact that he alone did not profit from the book.

Possessing the Noli was nevertheless so risky that Laureano Viado, a friend of Rizal, was arrested and imprisoned when a few copies were found in his house.

From London, Rizal would next write Ullmer of the “monsters” he had encountered in Manila, the same horrible creatures of the deep that the hero of Friedrich Schiller’s dramatic poem “The Diver” would encounter in the quest to retrieve a golden cup from the bottom of the ocean. Rizal would write prophetically that despite all the obstacles, he would chance writing another book.

That book would be the powerful follow-up titled “El Filibusterismo” which would be even more provocative than the Noli, by presenting a more powerful character in the shape of the jeweler Simoun who had more explicit plans for his revenge against the colonial empire.

The Fili, in many ways, started as even rarer than the Noli, with a smaller print run than the first book, with its printing done piecemeal in installments. Rizal was in such dire straits that he had to pawn his jewelry to finance the first part of the run.

Due to financial difficulties, he reduced the number of chapters and sought additional funding from José María Basa in Hong Kong and the bookseller and photographer Manuel Arias y Rodríguez, who had previously sold Rizal’s Sucesos in Manila.

When this funding ran out, Rizal would be forced to stop the printing at F. Meyer-Van Loo's press in Ghent. In August 1891, he informed Basa, “I am now on page 112. Since no funds are coming in and I am in debt to everyone, I am broke and will suspend publication, leaving the work incomplete.”

Despairing, Rizal wrote to Basa, “...if the money which I expect does not arrive by the next mail, I will give up the book and all, and I will embark to live and work for myself [...] At times I feel like burning my manuscript.”

When all hope seemed to have disappeared, as with the Noli, it was another more prosperous compatriot and fellow ilustrado, Valentin Ventura, who would finance the Fili. Ventura had gotten wind of Rizal’s difficulties in Paris and came to the rescue.

After months of interruptions, Rizal finished the novel on 18 September 1891. He sent two copies to Hong Kong—one for Basa and one for Sixto López — in gratitude for their generosity. He also shipped the original manuscript, which is now in the National Library of the Philippines, along with an autographed printed copy to Ventura. Rizal intended the Fili to be read by Filipinos, so he placed most of the copies in wooden crates and shipped them to Hong Kong, a well-known center of Filipino dissidents. However, these were unfortunately lost or destroyed. It is believed that only a few genuine first-edition copies of El Filibusterismo still exist, making it far rarer than Noli Me Tangere.

Instead of depicting a single, unified heroic character, Rizal's Noli presents a variety of voices and perspectives. Ibarra hopes for legal change, Elías believes in revolutionary action, and Filosofo Tasio thinks both are futile. By the end of the story, none of these hopes are fully realized: Elías dies (sacrificing himself to save Ibarra), Ibarra goes into exile (where he transforms into Simoun), and FIlosofo Tasio dies and leaves behind unread manuscripts. These openended endings suggest that Rizal was exploring more than just political change—he was examining the challenges of hope, revolution, and the struggle to find oneself. This makes Noli Me Tangere not just a protest story but a deeply thought-out reflection on Filipino identity and nationalism.

Rizal’s first novel presents intricate ideas and conflicts, illustrating different perspectives through its characters. This turns Noli Me Tangere into more than just a political statement; it becomes a platform for debate, ethical dilemmas, and self-reflection. By highlighting these diverse voices, we gain insight into not only the fictional architecture of Rizal's art but also his internal struggles as an intellectual seeking a path to justice and national dignity.

In contrast, El Filibusterismo is a darker, more philosophical counterpart to Noli Me Tangere. While the earlier novel exuded reformist optimism, the Fili is characterized by intellectual austerity and political disillusionment. The work feels more like a political treatise than a traditional novel—a blunt, almost anarchic critique of Filipino colonial society. It’s clear that the second novel is stronger in ideas than in narrative structure, with its main character, Simoun, functioning less as a realistic individual and more as a symbolic tool for ideological argumentation.

Rizal's fractured self emerges clearly through this multiplicity. The novel's unresolved tensions—Simoun's failure, Basilio's hesitation, Fr. Florentino's passive religious convictions—point not to a clear endorsement of any one path but to Rizal's different and conflicting ideas across the political spectrum. These characters form what we might call Rizal’s composite self: a rainbow of convictions and doubts shaped by his own traumatic experience of injustice and his tentative hopes for the formation of a national consciousness. Rather than a repudiation of revolution or a celebration of reform, El Filibusterismo becomes a literary space where competing visions of the Filipino future are placed in dialogue. In this dialogic framework, Rizal critiques not only colonial power but also the shortcomings of the revolutionaries and reformists alike.

Amidst the hubbub of diverse voices and characters, both novels depict the dramatization and fragmentation of political agency, as well as the moral dilemmas faced by a colonized intellectual. Rizal's art lies precisely in his refusal to neatly resolve these contradictions. By allowing each ideological voice to be heard, he creates not a straightforward guide to reform or revolution, but two novels that explore existential and national inquiry and challenge. This polyphony is not a flaw but the core of both works, reflecting the uncertainty, anguish, and ethical integrity that characterized Rizal’s quest for justice in a very troubled colonial world.

As stated by Fr. John Schumacher, SJ, when viewed together, along with his third book (the annotation of Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de Filipinas), the Noli and the Fili \"form a unity, a carefully calibrated effort to point the way to the future independence of the Philippines.\"

It could be said that the Fili expressed Rizal’s own political maturation, having steeped himself amidst the intelligentsia of Germany — who had afforded him a glimpse of the “brotherhood of man and the equality of the races” — as well as the liberal atmosphere of France and England.

His political fate was sealed, however, with the dedication to the martyred priests of GomBurZa defiantly set on the title page of the El Filibusterismo.

The two books together would thus capture the imagination of a new generation of Filipinos intent on seeking freedom from the Spanish yoke — Andres Bonifacio, Emilio Jacinto, as well as Emilio Aguinaldo — lighting the fire that would unleash Asia’s first democratic revolution (and thus, its very first republic.)

Despite its slightly lesser fame, the El Filibusterismo is considered equally important and rare as the Noli Me Tangere; and rarer still is its appearance for the first time in auction history in tandem in a single lot.

This exceptional offering presents a rare opportunity to acquire both of these highly significant first editions: the Noli, which illustrates the contemporary and tumultuous dilemma of a colonial society, and the Fili, which points to the future of a liberated nation.","lot_group":"BOOKS","lot_details_html":"

José Rizal (1861 - 1896)
a.) Noli Me Tangere
First Edition, Berlin 1887
Berliner Buchdruckerei-Actien-Gesselschaft
Setzerinnen-Schule des Lette Vereins
H: 9\" (23 cm)
W: 5 3/4\" (15 cm)
thickness: 1 1/4\" (3 cm)

b.) El Filibusterismo
First Edition, Ghent, 1891
Boekdrukkerij F. Meyer-Van Loo,
Viaanderenstraat, 66
H: 9\" (23 cm)
W: 6\" (15 cm)
thickness: 1\" (3 cm)

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