KURENAI : Kyoto University Researc

The Japanese studies of Andreas MOller ( 1630-1694)
1. Muller's works on Japanese
1.1. Alphabetum J apanicum ( 1684)
A work going by the name Alphabetum Japanicum (The Japanese alphabet; henceforth
A.J) is known to us from the following two sources (cf. already Lewin 1999: 94).
The first is the introduction to a well-known collection of Muller's works published by
Sebastian Gottfried Starck under the title A xai Q . Alphabeta ac Notce Diversarum Linguarum
pene septuaginta tum & Versiones Orationis Dominicce prope centum (Alpha
and Omega: Alphabets and characters of various languages amounting to about seventy,
thereupon approximately one hundred versions of the Lord's Prayer; Berlin 1703; henceforth
A aN), which contains a "Catalogus Opusculorum q ure edidit Andreas Mullerus,
Greiffenhagius" (Catalogue of the smaller works published by Andreas Muller of Greifenhagen).
Herein we find as its second entry: "Alphabetum Japanicum Berl. 1684. 4to" (The
Japanese alphabet. Berlin, 1684, in quarto).
Numerous entries in Starck's catalogue lack any indication as to their date and place
of publication, so that "Berlin 1684" is unlikely to be without foundation and thus appears
to be trustworthy. Whether Starck actually saw a copy of this work himself or merely copied
the entry from an older list of Muller's works is unknown however.
Our second source is a rather recent one, namely the well-known opening speech of
August MUller held on 27.1X. l 880 in Szczecin on occasion of the 35thPhilologenversammlung.
The published version contains a bibliography of Andreas Muller's publications,
including both works found in libraries in Szczecin and elsewhere at the time of writing as
well as works that were merely known to the author from quotes in other sources. Towards
the end (1881: XV-XVI) we find the entry already quoted above, but in a section listing
works that are found in Starck's "Catalogus" or elsewhere in the earlier literature, the actual
publication of which was, however, deemed doubtful by August Muller. Its whereabouts
were thus already unknown.
Wherever else any mention of AJ is found, it is likewise Starck who clearly served as
the source, so that no additional infonnation can be gleaned from these references (cf. for
instance Moreri 1732: 434; Jocher 1751: 725 etc.). At present no copy of AJ is known to
be extant, thus leaving us without means to ascertain its actual content or its relation to
the same author's "Syllabarium Japanicum"-to which we will turn in the following.
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