P21 million: Rizal’s ‘Fili’ is Philippine’s most expensive book

MANILA, Philippines — A first edition of “El Filibusterismo” signed by Jose Rizal has become the most expensive book in the Philippines, selling for P21 million at the recent Leon Gallery Asian Cultural Council Auction on Feb. 14.

Including buyer’s premium, the actual cost of the book is P25.3 million.

The “Filibusterismo” broke the previous Philippine record for the priciest book, set by an autographed copy of the “Noli Me Tangere” at P19 million, at another auction last year, also at Leon Gallery.

Dated Sept. 16, 1891, Rizal’s inscription was dedicated to his close friend and fellow scholar Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, making this Fili a singular “Holy Grail” for Filipino book collectors. (Two are in the National Library of the Philippines – but neither is signed by Rizal).

To begin with, very few copies of the “Fili” were ever printed and are therefore extremely hard to find. Rizal endured both financial and personal hardships during the period in which it was produced. He had received word that his longtime love, Leonor Rivera, was engaged to someone else, and he had reached the end of his financial resources, all by the time the novel was ready to go to press.

His family had felt bitter defeat after losing a court battle over the friar lands they had cultivated for decades. As a result, Rizal’s family was thrown out of their home, his father and brother sent into exile, and his living allowance indefinitely suspended.

Thus, Rizal had to drastically cut down on his expenses to get the Fili printed, living on tea and biscuits and relying on a “pay-as-you-print” or installment arrangement with the press in Ghent, Belgium, which had been chosen because it was cheaper than other printers in France or Germany.

By the time the book was finally ready and sent to the Philippines, the Spanish regime and its friars had escalated penalties for the distribution and even mere possession of the book, including arrest and torture. Many were thus confiscated, burned, and destroyed.

Dedicated to the priests Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora (known collectively as ‘GomBurZa’), who were considered enemies of the state by the Spanish colonial government, it sealed Rizal’s fate and martyrdom at the Luneta.  (A copy was used as evidence against him at the trial that sentenced him to death.)

Along with the “Noli Me Tangere,” the novel inspired a generation of patriots who fought in the Philippine Revolution and built the First Philippine Republic, the first of its kind in Asia.