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Malay MSS in this collection were captured in August 1784 by Kapitein Commandeur J.P. van Braam at the house of a religious leader during the attack on Selangor (Malaysia). They were initially kept at the library of the Academie at Harderwijk. After the closing of this Academie (1812), the collection was bought by the Athenaeum. It was first catalogued by Everhard Scheidius, in the Catalogus Bibliothecae Secundum Ordineum Pluteorum (in MS, 1792), later on by M.J. de Goeje in Catalogus Codicum Orientalium bibliothecae Academiae Lugduno Batavae (1851-1877), then again by J.C. van Slee in Catalogus der handschriften berustende op de Athenaeum-Bïbliotheek te Deventer (1892).

Material used for MSS This catalogue contains Malay, Minangkabau, and South Sumatran MSS in rencong and Lampung scripts. Many MSS in rencong and Lampung scripts contain texts in Malay dialects or in the South Sumatran literary language, which is basically Malay. Generally speaking, the material used for writing these MSS is European handmade paper. This kind of paper is made of old linen rags; the laid and chain lines are fine and clearly visible, moreover it is usually watermarked. Only at the end of the nineteenth century machine-made European paper is used. A small number of the MSS are written on Oriental, in particular Chinese, handmade paper. Material for this kind of paper is wood, mulberry or bamboo. The laid lines are coarse and it bears no watermark. Besides handmade paper, the MSS described here are written on tree-bark paper (deluang). This kind of paper is made of strips of the inner part of the paper- mulberry bark which is pounded flat with a mallet. The better quality deluang resembles parchment. For the preparation of this material please read H. Voorn’s book: Papier in voormalig Nederlands-Oost-Indië (1978). All the materials mentioned above are bound as books. There are also a number of MSS written on scrolls, usually pieces of paper pasted together. Works on scrolls are mostly genealogical trees, only sporadically literary texts. One exception of literature written on a scroll is Kl. 191, titled Syair Tabut. In general these scrolls are contained in bamboo-tubes. In collections in the Netherlands there are no South Sumatran MSS written on lontar, but there are copies by hand on paper and photocopies of lontar MSS from Kerinci, KITLV Or. 415 C (Sanggaran Agung), K (Tanjung Tanah), L (Dusun Balai). Another material used for writing, especially for rencong script, is tree bark. This material is made of long strips of the inner bark of special kinds of trees (kapua, ipuh, kundang, karak). MSS of this kind of material are not bound but folded zigzag like a harmonica. When old they become stiff and brittle. The better MSS of this material have a front and back cover made of wood. As example is KITLV Or. 208.