Indonesian Manuscripts at Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin: A Codicological Review

: Old manuscripts are cultural products of the ancestors of modern Indonesians and contain highly valuable cultural information. As such, they were sought after by other nations, who have managed to acquire them in various ways, including by taking them, bartering them with other items or buying them. It is thus no wonder that a lot of Indonesian manuscripts are now housed in various institutions in other countries, including the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (STABI) in Germany. This article aims to describe the Indonesian manuscripts that are now housed in STABI and to trace how they ended up there, with a particular focus on the physical condition of the manuscripts using the codicological approach. As the research shows, the Indonesian manuscripts housed in STABI are from various regions, including Java, the Batak lands, Aceh, Bima, Lampung and Makassar, and in the Malay language used all over Southeast Asia. The manuscripts date from the 15th century onwards, and they were acquired as a result of purchase or as gifts from certain institutions or individuals .


Introduction
One of the cultural products from the past that was produced by the ancestors of the Indonesian people is manuscripts.Hereafter, the word "manuscripts" refers to old manuscripts, produced up to the early 20th century.In the study of ancient cultures, manuscripts are the objects of philological and codicological studies.They become the objects of philology when the focus of the studies is on actualising the texts' content so that they can be read and understood by contemporary readers.
In this case, philology works as a bridge of knowledge that transfers the ideas and thoughts of the ancestors to contemporary society.On the other hand, they become the objects of codicology when the physical manuscripts themselves are the focus of the study aimed at revealing the history of the manuscripts with regard to their origins, periods of existence and reason for their making.
Manuscript catalogues can be considered as a gateway, offering a way to study old manuscripts, allowing researchers to determine which manuscripts are needed for their research, and informing us of the condition of the manuscripts, where they are kept, and other important information such as: 1.The contents of the texts, which may be related to history, law, literature and so on, 2. The languages of the manuscripts, such as Malay, Javanese, Balinese, Bugis, Makasar and so on, and 3.The scripts used, such as Jawi, Hanacaraka, Lontara, Mbojo, Kaganga, and so on.
It is little wonder that foreign nations that understood the significance and value of these Indonesian manuscripts tried to obtain them.From the notes found in the manuscripts or in the catalogues, or through accounts by the manuscripts' owners, it was discovered that those Indonesian manuscripts were obtained through purchase, barter or seizure, or were given as gifts.Therefore, a lot of Indonesian manuscripts are now housed in other countries, in places such as libraries, museums, or in the private houses of researchers and art collectors.
From various catalogues of manuscripts and results of research conducted by scholars of ancient cultures who focus on the area of manuscript studies, we can trace the existence of Indonesian manuscripts now housed in other countries.Wieringa (1998;2007), in his manuscript catalogue titled Catalogue of Malay and Minangkabau Manuscripts Vols. 1 and 2, described 16 collections of manuscripts in Malay and Minangkabau held in the library of the University of Leiden.This catalogue also contained many illustrations of the manuscripts and indexes.Chambert-Loir (1980, 45-69) in his article "Catalogue des Catalogues de Manuscrits Malais" noted that 4,000 Malay manuscripts are held in public libraries.
Based on journal articles and Malay manuscript catalogues, he said that Malay manuscripts could be found in libraries in 25 countries.Chambert-Loir's work on Malay manuscripts inspired van der Molen to carry out a similar study of Javanese manuscripts all over the world.In his article called "A Catalogue of Catalogues of Javanese Manuscripts" (1984), similarly based on journal articles and manuscript catalogues, van der Molen documented Javanese manuscripts held in institutions in 20 countries.
Other information about Indonesian manuscripts being kept in foreign countries is also found in Naerssen, Pigeaud and Voorhoeve (1977) in the catalogue called Catalogue of Indonesian Manuscripts Part 2, which gives detailed descriptions of the collection of oriental manuscripts in the Royal Library in Copenhagen.The main source of reference is the Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts, Xylographs etc in Danish Collections compiled by Grønbech (n.d.).This catalogue does not only give information on Indonesian manuscripts but also includes some inscriptions but does not give remarks or comments for all the manuscripts.
Indonesian manuscripts in Great Britain were described by Ricklefs and Voorhoeve (1977) in their catalogue called Indonesian Manuscripts in Great Britain, which was recently reissued as A Catalogue of Manuscripts in Indonesian Languages in British Public Collections.New Edition with Addenda et Corrigenda by Ricklefs, Voorhoeve and Gallop (2014).This catalogue also mentions the names of the manuscripts collector, including Charles Otto Blagden, Willam Bragge, Crawford (Lord Lindsay), John Crawfurd, etc.This catalogue also gives the full names and addresses of libraries which hold Indonesian manuscripts in Great Britain.and Vol. 4 (1980) titled Supplement.The Pigeaud catalogue became an important reference source for codicologists, and especially for subsequent cataloguers (see the catalogues of Ricklefs and Voorhoeve 1977;Wieringa 1998;2007, etc.).
The manuscript catalogue edited by Brandes (1901;1903;1915)  In fact, a number of catalogues of Indonesian manuscripts are already held in Germany, such as the catalogue of Malay manuscripts by Snouck Hurgronje (1989), the catalogue of the Batak manuscripts by Manik (1973) and the catalogue of the Javanese and Balinese manuscripts by Piegaud (1975).However, there was no comprehensive catalogue of all the Indonesian manuscripts in STABI.This article is therefore based on the recently published catalogue edited by Titik Pudjiastuti and Hanstein (2016).It outlines the Indonesian manuscripts that are kept in STABI and their histories and aims to open the door for researchers who want to know about and hope to carry out philological and codicological research on the Indonesian manuscripts in STABI.In particular, it aims to stimulate and support codicological research, because many aspects that never previously attracted the attention of scholars, such as the material of the manuscripts, the form of the scripts, colophons, illustrations, and other paratextual aspects, are presented in this article.
Most studies of manuscripts fall within the category of philological research, based on texts, with the results in the form of edited texts and analyses of their contents.In this study, the focus is on the physical form of the manuscripts themselves, with the final objective of understanding their history.By doing so, the origins of the manuscripts, the historical periods in which they were written, and the purpose of their writing can be understood better.
In the study of manuscripts, the study of physical aspects of manuscripts is called codicology.In the book titled Les Manuscripts, Dain (1975, 76) states that codicology is the study of manuscripts themselves and not the study of what is written in the manuscripts.The objective and scope of the study are related to, among others, the history of manuscripts, the history of the manuscripts collection, the making of catalogues, the trade in manuscripts, and the use of manuscripts.In the work of studying manuscripts, the codicology applies various approaches in accordance with aspects of the study.
Since the study of codicology has become more widespread, this science is getting more developed.Many aspects of the manuscripts have become the focus of the study and more and more research is being published on aspects such as bindings (Plomp 1993), illumination (Mu'jizah 2009), and the materials of manuscripts (Pudjiastuti 2006), and others.In the last 10 years, the study of codicology has greatly benefitted from technical developments aimed at conservation and preservation using photographic technology, namely the digitalisation of manuscripts.Manuscripts are digitised by being photographed neatly and in order, starting from the front cover to the back cover, with precision in lighting and colour, so that the result of the photo will be almost the same as the original manuscripts.
In other words, digitalisation will ensure the preservation of information on the content and form of the manuscript.

Indonesian Manuscripts at STABI
This article is not a deep codicological analysis of the Indonesian manuscripts in the STABI collection but rather a general outline of the number and origin of the manuscripts, the languages and scripts used, genres and forms of the texts, the materials from which the manuscripts were made and their condition, illumination, colophons, the numbering system, and the history of the collection.

Their origins, language and number
Based on the list of the shelf marks or code numbers of the manuscripts as described by Dr Thoralf Hanstein, the Indonesian manuscripts housed in STABI are as follows: 1. 184 manuscripts in Javanese.
4. 3 manuscripts in Sundanese from West Java.

29 manuscripts in Malay.
From the provided data, we know that there are 618 Indonesian manuscripts written in 8 languages housed in STABI.They come from 15 regions.From a closer observation of the texts' description, it was found that there are actually 668 Indonesian manuscripts in STABI.This number derives from 618 manuscripts plus 50 other manuscripts that come from 5 manuscript numbers, each of which consists of 2 manuscripts to 29 manuscripts.During the checking of the shelf marks or codes, a number of manuscripts were discovered to be missing, some were found to be modern reproductions rather than original manuscripts, and some had been wrongly classified.The following are the details: 1 3. Manuscripts that are wrongly classified.It was discovered that Javanese, Balinese, Bugis, Sundanese, Arabic, Chinese, and Turkish manuscripts are listed within the category of manuscripts written in Malay, while Indian manuscripts are classified as Balinese texts.
In addition to manuscripts, at STABI there is also one afklat (copy) of prasasti Kawali (Kawali epigraph) written in Old Sundanese and one inscribed plate made of metal (iron) that is from Palembang and written in Malay.

The scripts in the manuscripts
Various scripts are used in the Indonesian manuscripts, which can be separated into five groups, such as: 1. Arabic scripts a. Arabic script: This letter entered Indonesia at the same time as the coming of Islam.Arabic script is an alphabetical script, with 29 letters from alif to ya.In Arabic, harakat is used for the vowels "a", "i", "u", "an", "in", "un" and doubled letters (tasydid), and for punctuation.
b. Jawi: This script was adopted and adapted from Arabic script.It is also called Arab Melayu (Arabic Malay) because the shape of the letters is the same as those of Arabic, but they are pronounced using Malay phonemes.There are 34 Jawi letters, consisting of 29 Arabic letters (alif to ya) and 5 modified Jawi letters, i.e., ‫چ‬ "ca", ‫ڤ‬ "pa", ‫ڬ‬ "ka", ‫ڠ‬ "nga" dan ‫ڽ‬ "nya" (Lewis 1958).Jawi script is also known as Arab gundul (bare Arabic) because the harakat (vocal signs) of fathah (a), kasrah (i) and damma (u) are not used with the letters.Instead of harakat, huruf saksi (testimony letters) are used: alif for "a", ya for "i", wau for "u", and the diphthong "ai" and "au" (Pudjiastuti 2016, 3).
c. Pegon: As in Jawi, the Pegon script was also adopted and adapted from Arabic, which means that the letters are shaped like Arabic, but the pronunciation follows the Javanese, Sundanese, or Madurese phonemes.In this article, the meaning of the word Pegon is limited to the Arabic letters used in the writing of Javanese texts.Pigeaud (1967, 26) defines Pegon as "a term which suggests wryness or obliquity".The reason may be that Pegon letters, which have the shape of Arabic letters, are paralleled with Javanese letters, which are derived from India.The number of Pegon letters is the same as those of Hanacaraka, i.e., 20 letters.Of these 20 letters, only 13 came from Arabic, i.e., ha, nun (na), ra, kaf (ka), dal (da), ta, sin (sa), wau (wa), lam (la), jim (ja), ya, mim (ma) and ba.There are 5 modified Jawi letters: ca, pa, nya, ga and nga, as well as two Pegon modified letters, i.e., dha and tha, formed from the letter dal and with one or more dots underneath them.
Pegon script is usually written with harakat (vocal signs).There are 6 vocal signs in Pegon, i.e., fathah for "a", kasra for "i", wau for "u", a combination of alif and ya for "è" and "é", a combination of alif and wau for "o", and a wave sign above the letter for the sound "ê".Pegon script without harakat is referred to as pegon gundhil (without hair).
2. Java-Bali scripts a. Hanacaraka: This script, also called Javanese, is derived from the Indic Nagari script.There are 20 basic letters in Hanacaraka, which are ha, na, ca, ra, ka, da, ta, sa, wa, la, pa, dha, ja, ya, nya, ma, ga, ba, tha and nga.In the Hanacaraka script, there are certain terms such as pasangan (pairs), aksara murda (for capital letters), aksara swara (for vowels) and aksara rekan (to write loan words, such as kha [van], etc.) b. Cacarakan: Basically, the Cacarakan script is the same as Hanacaraka, but it is used to write texts in Sundanese.The shape and pronunciation are the same Hanacaraka, but there are no sounds of da and tha.Thus, there are only 18 letters, i.e., ha, na, ca, ra, ka, ta, sa, wa, la, pa, dha, ja, ya, nya, ma, ga, ba and nga. c.Balinese: This script is also known as Hanacaraka in Bali, but it has only 19 letters because there is no sound of ta, and the shape of the letters is more rounded than those of the Javanese.The people of Bali call their writing system purwa dresta (Simpen and Wayan 1979).
d. Jejawan: This is a term for the script used in the manuscripts from Lombok written in the Sasak language.Based on the shape of the letters, Pigeaud (1967, 25) states that jejawan is a variant of Balinese letters.
4. Other scripts a. Kanji: The Chinese came to Indonesia around the 16th century, and monks, merchants and travellers from Southern China brought Kanji, especially the Hokkian, Hokchia, Henghoa, Hakka and Canton dialects, with them.The oldest Kanji writings found in Indonesia were written on Chinese coins that were widely used in Indonesia in the 14th to 15th centuries (Susanti, Trigangga and Pudjiastuti 2015, 63).
b. Latin script was brought and introduced by the Portuguese, who came to Indonesia in the 16th century, but it was spread to various regions in Indonesia by the Dutch and the British.The Latin script started to be used by Indonesians practically in the early 20th century.
From a closer reading, it was discovered that not all texts in the Indonesian manuscripts in the STABI's collection were written using a single script since a number of manuscripts were written using two or more scripts.For example, the manuscript Schoem.VI.18 was written in two scripts, Lontara and Jawi.On the other hand, Ms. or.fol.5476 was written using four scripts, i.e., Jawi, Latin, Kanji and Hanacaraka.

The genre of the texts
The Indonesian manuscripts in the STABI collection contain various genres of texts, including Islamic stories, Islamic teachings, the holy books (the Quran, the Torah, and the Bible), Hindu teachings, Hindu stories, Chinese stories, primbon (Javanese horoscopes), usada (medicine knowledge), mantra (spells), wayang (puppet performances) stories, pakem wayang (common rules in conducting puppet performances), panji stories (stories of love and heroic deeds from the classical Java period), menak stories, stories of origin, travel stories, historical stories (babad), fairy tales, myths, legends, talisman stories, astrology, geography, pawukon (Javanese and Balinese horoscopes), gerongan (songs sung by sinden, i.e., singers in a Javanese performance), cangkriman (riddles), wangsalan (utterances that contain riddles whose hints of the answers are already provided in the statements), regulations, kanun laws, tika/kutika (Balinese and Bataknese calendars), population census, knowledge of land cultivation, kriya (the making of kris and umbrellas for the palace), exhibition catalogues and dictionaries.

The types and thickness of the manuscripts
The Indonesian manuscripts at STABI are of various types, i.e., syair (verses), hikayat (sagas), pantun (quatrains), macapat (Javanese poetry traditionally recited in song form), geguritan (Javanese free verse), prose, kakawin (old Javanese epic poem), kidung (old Javanese poetry using Javanese meters), silsilah (family trees), tables, lists, calendars, reports, agreement letters and personal letters.Not all the manuscripts in the STABI collection contain single texts, for one manuscript can consist of more than one text, such as Ms. or.oct.3999, Serat Suluk Panaraga, which has 19 texts.
The thickness of the manuscripts also varies.There are manuscripts that consist of only one page, such as Ms. or.fol.547b Peraturan Gubernur Jenderal atas Kampung Welandi (General Governor's Regulations for Welandi Village) 1696, while others are quite thick, such as Ms. or.quart.349 Babad Pacina, which has 1,304 pages.

The materials of the manuscripts
The materials used for the Indonesian manuscripts in STABI also vary, and include the following: 1. European paper: It is so-called because the paper had been imported from Europe.The European paper can usually be identified from its watermark, countermark, and/or chain lines and laid lines.The watermark can give information on where the paper was from and how old it is and may be identified by referring to lists of watermarks, for example, those by Churchill (1935) and Heawood (1950).
2. Dluwang: In Javanese it means "paper".Dluwang is also called Javanese paper and is made from the bark of the sepukau tree (Latin: Broussonetia papyrifera Vent).The process of making dluwang from tree bark into paper takes two weeks.For more information, the process of making dluwang can be read in the writings of Ekadjati and Mc Glyn (1996, 116-117) and Pudjiastuti (2006, 39).

5.
Lontar: This traditional material for manuscripts is made from the leaves of the siwalan tree (palm tree).The term lontar is a metathesis of the Javanese words ron tal, which means tal leaves (siwalan leaves).The process of making lontar into material for manuscripts takes 3 months to 12 months (Pudjiastuti 2006, 36-37).
6. Wooden slats: The traditional material for wooden slats is usually the trunk of the sandalwood tree.

Embat-embatan:
The material for embat-embatan is the same as that of lontar, i.e., siwalan leaves, but its shape is different.One lempir of lontar consists of one single leaf (a single leaf = two pages), while one lempir of embat-embatan consists of two leaves that are still attached to the spine of the leaves (double leaves) 8. Pustaha: It is also known as "a folding book made from tree bark" and is shaped like an accordion.According to Teygeler (1993, 595) and Kozok (2009, 31-36), the material for the Batak pustaha is the bark of the alim tree (a species of Aquilaria).
9. Gelumpai: The people of Lampung call manuscripts which are made from a set of bamboo slats gelumpai.The number of bamboo slats in one gelumpai depends on the length of the text.The slats can either be short or long.
10. Bamboo: Manuscripts made from bamboo have been found quite a lot in Sumatra.The bamboo manuscript in the STABI collection came from Batak and Lampung regions.
11. Metal plates are actually not material for manuscripts.However, if inscribed metal plates have been classified as manuscripts, they can be considered as manuscripts.

Illumination
Illumination basically means decoration in manuscripts.According to Behrend (1996, 188), illumination refers to the illustrations or the enhancement of the pages of a manuscript by means of writing techniques, colouring patterns, decorative ornaments, or other ornaments, such as punctuation decorations, text framing, rubrication and calligraphic pictures.Originally, the term "illumination" was related to the gilding of gold found on a number of manuscript pages to create a beautiful effect (Mu'jizah 2009, 11).However, the term illumination can also be understood not simply as decoration in the form of pictures on the frontispiece, but in a broader sense, and can relate also to the text (Folsom 1990, 40).
With regard to the Javanese manuscripts, Saktimulya (2016, 8) calls the ornamental decorations that frame texts as wedana and the illustrations or pictures that help illustrate the content of the texts as rerenggan.
There are only 54 Indonesian manuscripts at STABI that are illuminated.Illumination in the form of decorative frames for texts can be found in 28 manuscripts, while illustrations can be found in 26 manuscripts.

Colophon
According to Dain (1975, 35), colophon is the last part of a manuscript, while Chamber-Loir (2010) defines it as the last paragraph that is added on purpose by the copyist.In the colophon, historical information is often found that is related to (1) the work (text) that has been copied, including information on the author, the location and date of the writing of the text, the condition of the text, and the purpose of the text's writing, and (2) the copy itself (the manuscript), such as the date of copying, the copyist's name, the place of the copying, the details of the manuscript, the manuscript's owner, and the source manuscript.
There are 43 Indonesian manuscripts at STABI that contain a colophon, or about 6.4% of the entire collection.The contents of these colophons vary; some of them are complete and detailed, but there are others that mention only the years or dates when they were made.Based on the colophon, it was found that the Schoeman I.21 manuscript titled Darmma Pātanjala is the oldest manuscript.In the colophon, which takes the form of a chronogram, it is written: Lawang nadah guna wwang (= 1329 Śaka, conventionally AD 1407).The most recent text, on the other hand, is Ms. or.oct.4004, Serat Jitabsara, in whose colophon is written: "Blora, November 14, 1901".

The classification and numbering system of the manuscripts
The Indonesian manuscripts at STABI are classified as eastern or oriental manuscripts, abbreviated "or.", with the numbering system based on: 1.The folding of the paper.Three terms are applied for this numbering system, i.e.: a. Folio: Folded once, means that the paper/material of the manuscript is folded once and given the code "fol.", for example, Hs. or.fol.405.
b. Quarto: Folded twice, means that the paper/material of the manuscript is folded twice times and given the code "quart.",for example, Ms. or.quart.2112.
c. Octavo: Folded three times, means that the paper/material of the manuscript is folded three times and given the code "oct.", for example, Ms. or.oct.173.
2. The names of the manuscripts' owners or the institutions from which the manuscripts were obtained, e.g., Phillips 1988, or Schoem V. 2.
a. Museum fur Indische Kunst, given the code MIK, for example, MIK 14847.
3. Apart from the two categories mentioned earlier, a code Hs. or, is given, for example, Hs. or.4378.

The condition of the manuscripts
The Indonesian manuscripts at STABI are generally well taken care of.There are only 55 manuscripts that are marked as damaged or around 8.5% of the total number of the manuscripts (668 manuscripts).After being identified, there are mainly two types of damage, which are: 1. Light damage, which means that the texts are readable, such as; a.The edges of the lontar are jagged.
b.The edges of the paper are torn.
c.The scratching of the letters on the lontar has not been inked in.
2. Heavy damage, which means the texts are no longer readable, because; a.The lontar is broken or has turned into fragments.
b.There are holes on the lontar or paper, so letters are missing.
c.The long lontar (more than 70 cm) is curved, folded into two, and can no longer be straightened out.
d.The ink has spread or splayed, covering the letters, so that the text can no longer be read.

The history of the manuscript collection
The following information is regarding the early history of the coming together of Indonesian manuscripts at STABI according to Dr Thoralf Hanstein (in Pudjiastuti and Hanstein 2016).One person who can be named is John Crawfurd (1783-1868).He worked for the East Indian Company and served in Jogjakarta (1811-1816) and Singapore (1823-1826).As a local commander, it was easy for him to obtain Indonesian manuscripts.There is only one manuscript of Crawfurd in STABI, his other manuscripts are now in The British Library.
The next person to be given credit is Phillip Wilhem Adof Bastian (1826-1905).
In the past, he was considered as the person that invented the name "Indonesia".Bastian was one of the founders and the first director of the Royal Museum of Tribal Science in Berlin, which is now known as the Museum for Ethnology in Berlin-Dahlem.His Indonesian manuscripts, before becoming part of the STABI's collection, were housed in and owned by the Museum of Indian Art (Museum fur Indische Kunst or MIK).
In 1846, August Wilhelm von Schlegel (1767-1845) handed over three of his manuscripts to STABI.The three manuscripts are Ms. or. quart. 313,Ms. or. fol. 386,and Ms. or. fol. 387.Von Schegel was a famous philologist, Indianist, and translator who translated the works of Shakespeare.The next person to contribute manuscripts was Sir Thomas Phillips (1792-1872).Two of his Indonesian manuscripts are now in STABI (Phillips 1988, Phillips 1989).On the other hand, the manuscript Ms. or.fol.568, before becoming part of STABI's collection, belonged to Karl Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1792-1862), a prince and upper-class German nobleman.For three years, he was the commander in the Hindia Belanda's (Dutch East Indies') armed forces in Java.
In 1909, Nicholaas Dirk Schuurmans (1838-1908) handed over 14 of his manuscripts to STABI.Schuurmans (spelt by the Dutch as "Schoemann") used to be a pastor in the Dutch Calvinist Protestant Church in Surakarta.Now, there are many more Malay manuscripts from the Schurmans collection in STABI.In addition to receiving the manuscripts as gifts, STABI also managed to purchase 60 manuscripts that had been part of the collection of Indische Instelling Delft and Mrs Brill, in Leiden, the Netherlands.These 60 manuscripts used to belong to R.B. Paardekooper.STABI also managed to purchase 25 Indonesian manuscripts that belonged to Dr Friedrich Seltmann (Hs.or.10533-10557), who was an expert on India and collector of wayang golek (Sundanese puppets used for show) and masks.

Conclusions
From the explanation, there are a few important points to be noted.First, the number of Indonesian manuscripts at STABI is not 800 but 668.The difference may be due to the fact that some manuscripts are missing, and some foreign manuscripts that were registered as Indonesian manuscripts have already been returned to the category that corresponds to the country to which they belong.Second, looking at the watermarks on the paper, the Indonesian manuscripts at STABI were mostly made from Dutch and British paper.Third, based on their colophons, the Indonesian manuscripts at STABI turn out to be quite old, with the oldest coming from the early 15th century, and the youngest from the early 20th century.Fourth, from the information regarding the history of their collection, it was found that the Indonesian manuscripts at STABI started to be collected in the middle of the 19th century.Those manuscripts were obtained through purchase or as donations from well-known institutions and persons in Germany.Fifth, from all the discussion, the author hope that this study will be useful for Indonesian researchers, to be a tool for further research for the philological and codicological study of all Indonesian manuscripts that are kept in STABI.And sixth, this study aims to add to the information available about the presence of Indonesian manuscripts in foreign countries.