Brother Joao De Bustamante (1536- August 23, 1588) also known as the Indian Gutenberg

Gutenberg

Gutenberg may refer to:People:* Johannes Gutenberg , inventor of movable type printing* Beno Gutenberg , a German-born seismologist* Erich Gutenberg , a German economistPlaces:...

, was a Spanish Coadjutor who was influential in pioneering the art of printing

Printing

Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....

 in India, specifically in Goa

Goa

Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...

.

Contribution to the beginning of Printing in India

Bustamante was born in Valencia, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. He joined the Society of Jesus

Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 in 1556 and was ordained in 1564. He was later rechristened Joao Rodrigues in 1563. He was an expert printer who accompanied the printing press that reached India en route from Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 to Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

 (then Abyssinia

Ethiopian Empire

The Ethiopian Empire also known as Abyssinia, covered a geographical area that the present-day northern half of Ethiopia and Eritrea covers, and included in its peripheries Zeila, Djibouti, Yemen and Western Saudi Arabia...

) with a batch of Jesuit missionaries. However, soon after, news reached Goa that the Abyssinian Emperor was not keen on receiving the missionaries. Around the same time, the clergy

Clergy

Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....

 in Goa felt the need for a printing press and requested the then Governor-General to make the press available to them. Since circumstances prevented the press from leaving India, Bustamante was required to set it up. He was aided by his unnamed assistant of Indian origin and thus, printing began in India. Bustamante was among the two most important Europeans to play major roles in the history of printing in India, the other being João Gonçalves, who is credited with casting and preparing the first printing types of an Indian script- Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

 - in Goa (perfected by Father Joao da Faria in Kollam), later used by Henrique Henriques

Henrique Henriques

Henrique Henriques , was Portuguese Jesuit priest and missionary who spent most of his life and missionary activities in South India. After initial years in Goa he moved to Tamil Nadu where he mastered Tamil and wrote several books including a dictionary...

  (see Printing in Tamil language

Printing in Tamil language

The introduction and early development of printing in South India is attributed to missionary propaganda and the endeavours of the British East India Company. Among the pioneers in this arena, maximum attention is claimed by the Jesuit missionaries,followed by the Protestant Fathers and Hindu pundits...

).

Works printed

Among others, four books are confirmed to have been printed by Bustamante: -

• Conclusões e outras coisas (Theses and other things) in 1556.
• Doutrina Christa by St. Francis Xavier in 1557.
• Confecionarios in 1557.
• Tratado contra os erros scismaticos dos Abexins (A Tract against the Schismatic Errors of the Abyssinians) by Gonçalo Rodrigues in 1560.