Eight Dutch Books and Articles about the Islamic States in Java (period 1500-1700).

Essentially the following commentary on the contents of the Nägara-Kertägama has been made up from notes by former editors of the text together with remarks, criticisms and digressions by the present author. As Kern, Krom and their contemporaries were especially interested in dynastie history and archeology their notes on those subjects are legion, and as a result of their studies on many points a communis opinio has been reached. The argumentations which led up to this end are not reproduced in the present edition. The interested reader is referred to Krom's great books: Oud-Javaansche Kunst and Hindoe-Javaansche Geschiedenis. It is to be expected that before long the results of Krom's life-work will be made accessible for English readers by De Casparis. On the other hand cultural history, religion, economics and sociology have been rather neglected by the first editors of the Nägara-Kertä gama. The present author has done his best to remedy that omission. The reader will find that the greater part of the following commen taries is concerned with those subjects. The contemporaneous minor texts and the charters that are published, translated and annotated in the present book in the same manner as the Nägara-Kertägama have been chosen almost exc1usively for the valuable information on social, economic and religious conditions in the 14th century Majapahit realm that is afforded by them.

The present "Literature Qf Java, Catalogue Raisonne Qf Javanese Manuscripts" is a publicatiQn of the Library Qf the University Qf Leiden. It is no. IX Qf the series "CQdices Manuscripti" published by this Library, and it is made available tOo the public by the RQyal Institute Qf Linguistics and AnthropQoIDgy. Originally the wQrk was Qnly meant to be a sequel tOo Dr H.H. Juynboll's "Supplement Dp "den CatalQgus van de J avaansche en Madoereesche Handschriften der Leidsche "Universiteits-BibliQtheek" in two volumes. The second volume appeared in 1911. It soon became clear, hQwever, that this was the Dpportunity tOo publish an English Catalogue which could be used as an introductiDn to the study Qf Javanese literature mOore easily than the previQus Dutch catalQgues eQuId. It is a matter Qf fact that Dr Juynboll and his predecessors wrQte their catalogues with the intentiDn of prQviding infDrmatiDn on Javanese literature in general, and fDr several decades their books did render excellent services tOo students Qf Javanese civilizatiQn. The differences in structure between the older catalogues and the present bDOk will be explained in the introduction to the second vQlume. In two vDlumes the contents of the previDus catalQgues, increased by an equal quantity Qof new material, has been rearranged according tOo a new system. The third volume, cDntaining illustrations, facsimiles Df manuscripts, maps and a general index Df names and subjects, is entirely new.

Professor Krom's Nagara-Kert:a.gam.a edilllion of 1919 contained several lists and indexes to show the way through the maze of unfamiliar names of persons and places mentioned in the text. In con cordance with the broadened scope of the present book the old lists have been brought up to date and some new ones have been added. It i•s hoped that they will prove to be of some use to readers who, though not being expert in rebus Jooanicis, still would take cognizance of history and development of culture in one of the most interesting islands of ·the Indian Archipelago. The alphalbetical index of subjects treated in volumes II and IV of the present book is specially recom mended to their attention. The Javanese glossary is to and general index which aJn addition the present book not found in previous edition:s, covers in the first place aU Nagara-Kertagama words and names wha:tsoever, and further many words and n:ames of other texts. In combination with the English a!lphalbetical index of subjects the Javanese glossary is to be used as a general index of contents of volwnes I-V and, up to a certain point, as a substitute for the encyclopaedia of things Javanese that is lacking.

The third, concluding volume of "Literature of Java" contains Addenda and a General Index, preceded by Illustrations, Facsimiles of Manuscripts, Maps and some Minor Notes, additions which may be of U'se to students of Javanese literature. The older catalogues of collections of Indonesian manuscripts (Javanese, Malay, Sundanese, Madurese, Balinese), which were written in Dutch, did not offer such additional aids to interested readers. One of the reasons was. , that the authors (Vreede, Brandes, van Ronkel, Juynboll, Berg) presupposed a certain knowledge of the Indones,ian peoples, their countries and their culture with Dutch students. As often as not the latter, or their families, had lived for many years in Java, and they were destined, when they had completed their studies in The Netherlands, to pass one or more decades of 'their active life in the ,tropics in the service of Government, the Christian Missions or the Bible Society. The Archipelago was their second home country. Some familiarity with things Indonesian was found in several circles of society in The Netherlands before the second world war, and information (though not always scholarly and exact) was supplied by quite a number of books and periodicals. For this reason it was thought superfluoU's to encumber specialistic books like catalogues of manuscripts with maps and general information which could be found easily elsewhere, for instance in the Dutch "Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch-Indie". As circumstances have changed it is.