First edition of 'Noli Me Tangere,' Rizal's plan for a school building up for auction

A rare first edition of Jose Rizal’s “Noli Me Tangere,” as well as his draft for a school building, are among treasured items to be put up for auction at the Leon Gallery Magnificent September Auction.

The auction will take place on September 13 at the auction house’s sale rooms at Eurovilla I, Legazpi Village, Makati.

The public is invited to preview the first edition of “Noli” beginning September 6, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Leon Gallery curator Lisa Guerrero Nakpil said of the newly discovered copy, “Rizal was the Philippines’ first whistle-blower. And it’s as if he was sending a message to us across time.”

Nakpil added that Rizal’s "Noli Me Tangere" is not just the Phiilippines’ most famous book, but also its most important one, written by the country’s most beloved and foremost hero. It is a piece of investigative writing, Nakpil said, and the country’s first exposé on the ills of the country.

Written in Madrid and Paris, and completed in the tiny farming village of Wilhemsfeld, Germany outside Heidelberg, the novel is a searing political commentary of what it meant to be a Filipino at the time. The creation of the book ultimately led to the Philippine Revolution and the First Philippine Republic, the first of its kind in all of Asia.

School building draft

The Philippine National Hero was also trained and skilled in numbers.

Proof of this lies in a newly-discovered drawing of his plan for a dream academy. 

During Rizal's stay in Hong Kong in 1891 through 1892, he had envisioned a school to be established in the Crown Colony. He drafted a plan for the academy, complete with numerical measurements.

Nakpil highlighted how Rizal, in his Letter to the Women of Malolos, encouraged women to love learning and to stand firm for their right to education.

This “elevation of a facade” of Rizal's proposed school building is also up for auction at the Leon Gallery Magnificent September Auction. 

Public viewing likewise begins on September 6. —Nika Roque/JCB, GMA Integrated News