Belles — Lettres

Abstract

The late professor Poerbatjaraka’s Javanese book on Javanese literature (“Ka-“pustakan Djawi”, in the Bahasa Indonesia edition called “Kepustakaan Djawa”, Djam-batan, Amsterdam 1952) contains an admirable summary of the most important products of Javanese authors, both pre-Islamic and Muslim. Trying to establish a chronological order in the mass of Javanese writings, Poerbatjaraka did not make a distinction between heterogeneous texts. As a matter of fact the learned Javanese scholar was more interested in belletristic and historical works than in any other genre. In the present Synopsis, however, chronological order is relegated to the second plan. The present author has tried to cover the whole of Javanese literary production, and with that end in view he has divided the mass of Javanese writings into the four specifically distinct Parts which have been mentioned before (see 00010).