FIRST TRIP TO

EUROPE
Jose Rizal left Manila on May 3,
1882
1. He left for Spain with the blessings of
his brother Paciano and his uncle,
Antonio Rivera.
2.He decided not to seek his parents
blessing knowing they would never
approve of his plan.
3. He secured endorsements from
Pedro Paterno.
4. His first stop was in Singapore;
Colombo in Sri Lanka; Aden in Yemen;
and crossed the entire length of the
Suez Canal. They landed at Port Said,
Egypt; Naples in Italy; and
disembarked in Marseilles, France.
 Activities in Marseilles

1. Jose Rizal went to Château d’If, the

venue of Alexandre Dumas’s novel,
The Count of Monte Cristo.
2.He boarded in Potbou. He noticed the
indifference of the Spanish
immigration officers compared to the
courteous French counterparts.
Arrival in Spain
1. He first stopped in Barcelona , the
capital of the Spanish province,
Cataluña. According to him, the people
were indifferent and he arrived during
the summer vacation of the students.
a. In this city, he found out that the people
of the city enjoyed freedom and
liberalism.
b. He wrote essays for Diariong
Tagalog.
 “Amor Patrio” (Love of Country)
 “Los Viajes” (Travels)
 “Revista de Madrid” (Review of
Madrid)
c. He met his classmates from Ateneo
at the Plaza de Cataluña.
2. Madrid
a. He enrolled at the Universidad Central
de Madrid on November 3, 1882. He
enrolled in the following courses::
 Medicine
 Philosophy and Letters
b. He took courses at the Academy of San
Carlos
 Painting and Sculpture
 Languages: French, German, and English
c. He took private lessons at the Hall of Sanz
and Carbonell
 Shooting
 Fencing
d. Important people he met:
 Dr. Miguel Morayta, an advocate of freedom
and self-determination. Students from South
America hailed Dr. Morayta as their champion.
He joined his students and other supporters to
this end.
 Don Pablo Ortega y Rey, a Spanish liberal who
used to live in the Philippines.
e. Jose Rizal joined the Circulo Hispano
Filipino.
 It was a social organization where the
members talked on the reforms
needed in the Phillipines.
 This group was mostly made up of
elder Filipinos who were the exiles of
1872.
 It held informal programs which
included poetry reading and debates.
f. Jose Rizal joined freemasonry.
 He became a member and his
masonic name was “Dimasalang”.
 Freemasonry was an organization
outlawed by the Catholic Church
because its beliefs are contrary to the
doctrines of the Church.
 A mason’s view is that knowledge
should be achieved by the light of
reason and universal brotherhood of
men. Rizal adopted the masonic view.
 Masonry attacked the Church
because they believed it promoted
religious superstition and
obscurantism, hiding truth behind the
veil of religion.
g. He was an avid book collector. He scrimped on
food and clothes, and lived in modest
accommodations but he bought books. Important
books he collected:
 Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher
Stowe
 Works of Alexandre Dumas
 The Wandering Jew written by Eugene Sue
 Lives of the Presidents of the United States from
George Washington to Andrew Johnson
 The Complete Works of Horace (3 Volumes)
h. Events on June 25, 1884
 Juan Luna was awarded the top prize
for his painting Spoliarium while Felix
Resurreccion Hidalgo took the second
place for his painting Virgines
Christianas Expuestas al Populacho
(Christian Virgins Exposed to the
Population).
 Spoliarium  Virgines Christianas
of Juan Luna Expuestas al Populacho
(Christian Virgins Exposed to
the Population).
 The filipino painters joined the National
Exposition of Fine Arts.
 Jose Rizal gave a speech in a public
audience saying that Luna and Hidalgo
were the pride of the Filipino people; that
genius is not a monopoly of any race and
their prizes were products of both the
Philippines and Spain . He voiced the
hope that, someday, Spain will grant the
reforms needed by Filipinos.
This speech was published in the
newspaper El liberal. This
reached the Philippines and
there were elements in the
Philippines who were not
pleased with this development.
i. Completion of His Studies
 He completed his Licenciado en
Medicina on June 21, 1884. he did not
have his Doctorate in Medicine
beacause he did not present the thesis
required for graduation. He can
practice medicine with the acquisition
of this degree but he cannot teach
medicine.
He finished his studies in
Philosophy and Letters and
obtained the degree
Licenciado en Filosofia y
Letras with the rating of
sobresaliente.
j. He started writing the novel
Noli Me Tangere when he was
still a student at the Central
Universidad of Madrid.
He was inspired to write after
reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin by
Harriet Beecher Stowe. This book
is about the trial and hardship of
the black slaves and awakened in
him his inherit love and concern for
the afflicted.
 On January 2, 1884, the Filipino
expatriates had a meeting at the
house of the Paterno brothers. It was
during this meeting that the Fillipinos
who attended agreed to write a
novel about the Philippines . These
were Pedro Paterno, Maximo
Paterno , Antonio Paterno, Graciano
Lopez Jaena, Evaristo Aguirre, and
Eduardo de Lete.
The plan did not materialize and
Jose Rizal was left to write the
novel. He started writing in
Madrid and he continued to write
while he was in France and
Germany. Final revisions were
made in Berlin.
He could not afford the
printing cost but was saved
by his friend , Maximo Viola.
He lent Jose Ᵽ5300, the
needed amount for the first
2,000 copies of the novel.
On March 29, 1887, the novel was
printed in Berlin. The first
recipients of the novel were Dr.
Ferdinand Blumeritt, Dr.
Antonio Ma. Regidor, Graciano
Lopez Jaena, Mariano Ponce ,
and Felix Resurrection Hidalgo.
As a way of showing his
appreciation , he gave the
original manuscript of the Noli
Me Tangere and a
complimentary copy to
Maximo Viola.
Jose Rizal explained the title
“Noli Me Tangere” means
“Touch Me Not”. This was from
the Bible, from the Gospel of St.
John.
The book was dedicated to the
Philippines, his fatherland.
Paris, France
1. He arrived in Paris on November 1885.
2.He worked as an assistant to Dr. Louis
de Weckert.
3.He found time to be with his friends,
Pardo de Taveras, Juan Luna, and
Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo.
4.He posed for Juan Luna’s paintings.
5.Composed songs: “Alin Mang Lahi” and
“La Deportacion”
Germany
1. On February 1886, he arrived in
Heidelberg, an old university town.
a.He worked as an assistant to Dr.
Otto Becker at the University Eye
Hospital.
b.He listened to the lectures of Dr.
Becker and Prof. Wilhelm Kuehne.
c.He wrote the poem, “To the
Flowers of Heidelberg”.
d. He spent his summer vacation in1886
in Wilhelmsfeld where he lived with
Protestants pastor Karl Ulmer to
perfect his ability to speak German.
e. He started his correspondence with
Prof. Ferdinand Bumenritt, the
Director of Ateneo of Leitmeritz,
Austria. He sent a book to Prof.
Blumenritt, Aritmetica by Rufino
Baltazar.
2. On August 1886, he arrived in Leipzig.
a.He met Prof. Friedrich Ratzel and Dr. Hans
Meyer who wrote a book on the
Philippines.
b.He translated Schiller’s William Tell to
Tagalog. The book narrates how the Swiss
attained their independence in a peaceful
manner.
c. He translated Hans Christian Andersen’s
Fairy Tales to Tagalog for his nephews
and nieces.
3. On October 29, 1886, he arrived
in Dresden.
a.He saw the painting of
Raphael, the Sistine Madonna.
b.At the Zoological,
Anthropological and
Ethnographic Museum, he saw
the collection on the Philippines.
4. Berlin
a.He met Dr. Feodor Jagor who
wrote Travels in the Philippines.
b.He met Dr. Rudolf and his son,
Hans Virchow, two known
German anthropologist; Dr. W.
Joest; and Dr. Ernest Schweigger,
a known opthalmologist.
c. He became a member of the
Anthropological Society, the
Ethnographic Society, and the
Geographic Society.
His paper entitled “Tagaliche
Verkunst” was delivered before the
members.
He was accepted and became a
very respected member.
d. He made the final revisions on
the novel Noli Me Tangere. On
March 29,1887, the novel was
finally printed.
5. He went to Prague to visit the
tomb of Nicolaus Copernicus.
Departure from Europe
1. In Geneva, Switzerland, Maximo
Viola and Jose Rizal parted ways.
Viola returned to Spain.
2.Rizal continued to Rome, Italy.
3. In Marseilles, France, he boarded
Djemnah to Saigon, Vietnam and
finally, Manila.
4. He arrived in Manila.
Jose Rizal Returned to Calamba
1. He established a clinic and his first
patient was his mother.
2.He treated his mother’s eyes.
3.He worked as a town physian.
4.He was called to malacañang by Gov.
Emilio Terrero due to the controversy
raised by Noli Me Tangere. The first
copies had arrived in Manila.
5. Lt. Jose Taviel de Andrade was
assigned to watch over Jose Rizal.
6. After a review of the Noli Me Tangere,
it was found out that the book was
heretic, impious, unpatriotic, subversive,
and injurious to the government of Spain
in the Philippines. It was recommended
that the importation, reproduction, and
distribution of the book should be
prohibited.
7.Gov. Gen. Terrero requested
Jose Rizal to leave the
country.
8.Investigation on the
Calamba problem.