Noli Me Tangere

Published in Berlin
First Homecoming (1887)
Bleak Winter of 1886
1. Hungry, sick and despondent in a strange city
2. Great joy because Noli Me Tangere was
published
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe – inspiration
of Rizal in writing a novel on the Philippines which portrays
the brutalities of American slave-owners and the pathetic
conditions of the Negro slaves.
January 2, 1884
➢ In a reunion of Filipinos in the Paterno residence in Madrid,
Rizal proposed the writing of a novel about the Philippines.
➢ It was approved by:
➢ Paternos (Pedro, Maximo and Antonio)
➢ Graciano Lopez Jaena
➢ Evaristo Aguirre
➢ Eduardo de Lete
➢ Julio Llorente
➢ Melecio Figueroa
➢ Valentin Ventura
➢ Unfortunately, Rizal’s project did not materialize. Those
compatriots who were expected to collaborate on the novel did
not write anything.

➢ Undaunted by his friends’ indifference, he determined to write

the novel alone.
 Date Event
1884 (Madrid) Finished about ½ of the
novel.
1885 (Paris) After completing his
studies in Central University
Madrid, he finished ½ of the 2nd
half.
April – June 1886 (Wilhemsfeld) wrote the last few
chapters
Before Christmas Day of 1886 - Maximo Viola arrived in Berlin
- Hopeless (sick and penniless)
February 21, 1887 - Noli me Tangere was finished
- Ready for printing
 Maximo Viola, “Savior of Noli”
➢Friend of Rizal and a scion of a
rich family of San Miguel, Bulacan

➢Viola being loaded with ample

funds, gladly agreed to finance
the printing cost of the novel. He
also loaned Rizal some cash
money for living expenses.
Rizal Suspected as Spy
➢A police officer of Berlin visited Rizal’s boarding house
and requested to see his passport.
➢Rizal and Viola went to Spanish Embassy to seek help.
➢At the expiration of the four day ultimatum, Rizal went at
the office and apologized for his failure to have a passport.
➢The police chief informed him that he had received
intelligence reports that Rizal had made frequent visits to
the villages and little towns in the rural areas.
➢Rizal fluently explained to the police chief that he was
not a French spy.
Printing of the Novel
➢ March 21, 1887 – Noli Me Tangere came off
➢ P300.00 cost of printing for 2000 copies
➢ Printing shop – Berliner Buchdruckrei-Action-Gesselschaft
➢ Rizal sent copies to:
• Blumentritt
• Dr. Antonio Ma. Regidor
• Graciano Lopez Jaena
• Mariano Ponce
• Felix Hidalgo

➢ March 29, 1887 – Rizal gave Viola the galley proofs of the Noli
rolled around the pen that he used in writing
Title of the Novel - Noli Me Tangere
• Latin phrase which means “Touch Me Not”
• Taken from the Gospel of Saint Luke (Gospel of
Saint John) (Chapter 20, Verses 13 to 17)
“Touch me not; I am not yet ascended to my
Father, but go to my brethren, and say unto them,
I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to
my God and your God.”
Rizal’s
Blumentritt
Friends Praise the Noli
“First of all, accept my cordial congratulations for your beautiful novel
about customs which interests me extraordinarily. Your work, as we Germans
say, has been written with the blood of the heart, and so the heart also speaks.
I continue reading it with much interest, and I shall be to ask you now and
then for an explanation when I find words unknown to me; for instance, the
word filibuster must have certain meaning in the Philippines that I do not find
in the Spanish of the Peninsulars nor in that of the Spanish people of America.
I knew already that you are a man of extraordinary talent; but in spite of this,
your work has exceeded my hopes and I consider myself happy to have been
honored with your friendship. Not only I but also your people can also be
called lucky for having in you a son and a loyal patriot. If you will continue
thus, you can become one of those great men who will exert definite influence
on the spiritual development of your people”.
Rizal’s Friends Praise the Noli
• Dr. Antonio Ma. Regidor - very
much impressed by Jose Rizal

• More copies were crated and sent to:

- Barcelona
- Madrid
- Hongkong

 CHARACTERS OF NOLI
1. Crisostomo Ibarra 11. The School Master
2. Elias 12. Tandang Pablo
3. Maria Clara 13. Basilio
4. Padre Damaso 14. Crispin
5. Sisa 15. Padre Sibyla
6. Kapitan Tiago 16. Padre Salvi
7. Pilosopong Tasyo 17. The Alferez
8. Doña Victorina 18. Don Tiburcio
9. Pedro 19. Doña Consolacion
10. Don Rafael Ibarra 20. Captain-General
 FIRST HOMECOMING
Rizal decided to Calamba for three reasons:

1. To operate on his mother’s eye

2. To help his family & the Filipino people; to find out for
himself how the Noli Me Tangere & his other writings were
affecting the Filipino & Spaniards in the Philippines.
3. He wanted to find out why Leonor Rivera remained silent
while he was in Rome.
 FIRST HOMECOMING
July 3, 1887 - boarded the steamer Djemnah
July 30, 1887 – at Saigon, Vietnam, he transferred to another
steamer, Haiphong, that brought him to Manila.
August 2, 1887- the steamer left Saigon for Manila.
August 6, 1887 - reached Manila
August 8, 1887 – he returned to Calamba.
TROUBLE IN NOLI ME TANGERE
As Rizal was peacefully living in Calamba, his enemies plotted
his doom.

Governor General Emilio Terrero

– wrote to Rizal requesting to come to Malacañang Palace.
- liberal minded Spaniard who knew that Rizal’s life was in
jeopardy because the friars were powerful.
TROUBLE IN NOLI ME TANGERE

Don Jose Taviel de Andrade

- Rizal’s bodyguard
- A young Spanish lieutenant who
came from a noble family
ATTACKERS OF NOLI ME TANGERE

Archbishop Pedro Payo

- a Dominican
- Archbishop of Manila
- Sent a copy of the Noli to Fr.
Gregorio Echevarria, Rector of
the University of Santo Tomas to
examine the novel.
ATTACKERS OF NOLI ME TANGERE
UST & RIZAL
- The committee that
examined the Noli Me Heretical, impious and scandalous in
the religious orders, and anti-patriotic,
Tangere were composed of
subversive of public order, injurious to
Dominican professors. the government of Spain and its
- The report of the faculty function in the Philippine Islands in
members from UST about the political order.
the Noli states that the novel
was:
ATTACKERS OF NOLI ME TANGERE
Fr. Salvador Font
– Augustinian friar curate of Tondo - The newspaper published
was the head of the commission.
Font’s written report
- The banning of the Noli Me
– The group found that the novel
contain subversive ideas against the Tangere served to make it
Church and Spain and popular
recommended that the importation, - The masses supported the
reproduction and circulation of the book.
pernicious book in the islands be
absolutely prohibited.
ATTACKERS OF NOLI ME TANGERE
Fr. Jose Rodriguez
- Augustinian Prior of Guadalupe
- Published a series of eight
pamphlets under the heading
Questions of Supreme Interest to
blast the Noli and other anti-
Spanish writing.
- Copies of anti-Rizal pamphlets
were sold after mass
- Many Filipinos were forced to buy
them in order not to displease the
friars.
- The novel was fiercely attacked in the
session hall of the Senate of the
Spanish Cortes.
Senators: General Jose de Salamanca,
General Luis de Pando, Sr. Fernando Vida
- Vicente Barrantes – Spanish
academician of Madrid who formerly
occupied high government position in
the Philippines bitterly criticized the
novel in an article published in the
Madrid newspaper, La España
Moderna.
 DEFFENDERS OF NOLI ME TANGERE
- Propagandists such as Marcelo H. del Pilar, Graciano Lopez-
Jaena, Dr. Antonio Ma. Regidor, Mariano Ponce, Prof. Ferdinand
Blumentritt, Dr. Miguel Morayta, and Don Segismundo Moret
rushed to uphold the truths of the Noli.

- Father Francisco de Paula Sanchez – Rizal’s favorite teacher in

Ateneo defended and praised the novel in public.
 DEFFENDERS OF NOLI ME TANGERE
- Rev. Fr. Vicente Garcia – a Filipino Catholic priest-scholar, a
theologian of the Manila Cathedral and a Tagalog translator of
the famous Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis.

- Under the pen name Justo Desiderio Magalan, he wrote a

defense of the novel published in Singapore.

- He blasted the attacks & arguments of Fr. Rodriguez.

 DEFFENDERS OF NOLI ME TANGERE
- Rizal cried because of his gratitude to his defenders especially to
Fr. Garcia who defended him unexpectedly.

- He attacked Barantes by exposing his ignorance of Philippine

affairs and mental dishonesty which is unworthy of an
academician.

- Because of the interest of both enemies and protectors of the Noli

the price of the book increased.
 Agrarian Problem in Calamba
Influenced by the novel, Governor-General Emilio Terrero
ordered a government investigation of the friar estates to
remedy whatever inequities might have been present in
connection with land taxes and with tenant relations.

One of the friar estates affected was the Calamba hacienda by

the Dominican order since 1883.
 Agrarian Problem in Calamba
Findings submitted by Rizal
1. The hacienda of the Dominican Order comprised not only the lands around
Calamba, but the whole town of Calamba.
2. The profits of the Dominican Order continually increased because of the arbitrary
increase of the rentals paid by the tenants.
3. The hacienda owner never contributed a single centavo for the celebration of the
town fiesta, for the education of the children, and for the improvement of
agriculture.
4. Tenants who spent much labor in clearing the lands were dispossessed of the said
lands for flimsy reasons
5. High rates of interest were arbitrarily charged the tenants for delayed payment of
rentals, and when the rentals could not be paid, the hacienda management
confiscated the work animals, tools, and farm implements of the tenants.
 Rizal’s Reason’s for leaving the
Philippines
1. His presence in Calamba was jeopardizing the safety and happiness of
his family and friends.

2. He could fight better his enemies and serve his country’s cause with
greater efficacy by writing in foreign countries.
 Himno Al Trabajo

A poem for Lipa – shortly before Rizal left in 1888, he was

asked by a friend to write a poem in commemoration of the
town’s cityhood by virtue of the Becerra Law of 1888.

– title of the poem dedicated to the industrious people of Lipa.

 Farewell Philippines

February 3, 1888

– Rizal left his country with a heavy heart but this is for his
own good and the safety of his family and friends.