KURENAI : Kyoto University Researc

The Japanese studies of Andreas MOller ( 1630-1694)
(In the year 1680 Muller had already published [descriptions of] about seventy
writing systems engraved in copper on s ixteen partly whole, partly half sheets. 3
They carry neither the name of their author, nor the place or year [of publication],
and have therefore remained unknown, but as Bayer assures us, they were published
in this year at the author's expenses in quarto.)
He explicitly refers to Theophil Siegfried Bayer ( 1694-1738) for this piece of information,
but the latter's words are much less specific and lack a number of details extrapolated
only later by Adelung, who had a copy of both AU and A aN in front of him. 4 Bayer
(1730, I: 45) himself merely writes:
Eodem anno Mullerus etiam versiones precum sanctissimarum et alphabeta
omnium gentium Berolini sub personatis Thomae Ludekenii et Hagij Barnimi
nominibus dedit. Cuius exemplaria libri quaedam euulgata, alia diu neglecta
sunt, donee post aliquot annos Berolini cum vita Mulleri cura Sebastiani Godofredi
Starkii in lucem sunt protracta, abolita tamen dedicatione.
(Also in the same year [ 1680] Muller published in Berlin under the pseudonyms
Thomas Ludeken and Hagius Bamimus versions of the most holy prayer
and the alphabets of all peoples. Some copies of this book came out, but the others
were long neglected until some years later in Berlin when they were brought
to light together with [a description of] the life of Muller by the diligence of
Sebastian Gottfried Starck, the dedication 5 however done away with.)
The above first and foremost relates the publication of Muller's collection of Lord's
Prayers going by the somewhat lengthy name:
Oralio Orationum. SS. Orationis Dominicce Versiones prceter Authenticam
jere Centum eaq Ionge emendatius quam antehac et e probatissimis Auctoribus
potius quam prioribus Collectionibus, Jamq singulce genuinis Linguce suce
characteribus adeoque magnam partem ex cere ad editionem a Barnim6
Hagi6 traditce, editceq a Thoma Ludekenio, Solqv. March.
(The Prayer of Prayers: Versions of the most holy Lord's Prayer, almost
one hundred besides the authentic one, transmitted for publication - in fact
heavily improved over those hitherto [published] as well as from the most
credible authors rather than from prior collections, and! furthermore each in the
genuine characters of its language, and the greater part in copper - by Barnimus
Hagius and published by Thomas Ludeken of Mark Salzwedel.)
3
The short treatises on writing systems usually span either four pages {= half sheet) or eight {= whole
sheet), sometimes complemented by additional plates.
4
Details such as the number of treatises (i.e. 16), the approximate number of scripts treated therein
(cf. the full title of A aN), their length of usually either four or eight pages and their format (i.e. quarto).
5
"Dedication", not "Preface" as Lundba:k (1986: 68) translates it, cf. immediately below.
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