iv

constantly cautioned me not indulge in lengthy descriptions of the MSS and earnestly pressed upon me: in de beperking onderscheidt zich de meester (the master knows when to limit himself). It was a great loss to me when, because of his illness, Prof. Roolvink was no more able to continue his task of supervising the catalogue project. That is why I requested Prof. G.W.J. Drewes to take over, a task which he accepted. I continued co-operating with this great scholar as I had done previously with Prof. Roolvink. Xerox-copies of the description which had been typed out and provided with additional bibliography was taken to his home in Noordwijk. Because the description of the MSS took a longer than was planned as mentioned earlier, the budget for the catalogue project was stopped in 1980, when the description of the LUB MSS was not yet ready. In 1981 the project Indonesian- Dutch dictionary was created. I was appointed to undertake this project, while in my spare time I continued finishing the catalogue. To speed up the work of describing Malay MSS, for a period of time I was also permitted by the Library to work at the Legatum Warnerianum at night. This I did a few nights a week, and this was the case until I had finished describing the whole collection of Malay MSS at the LUB in 1984. My obligation to describe the Malay MSS at the LUB on which I had been working since July 1976 had been accomplished. But the typing of this part was not yet completed when I left for Brunei in 1986. Before the description of the LUB was ready, the late Dr P. Voorhoeve advised me to include descriptions of South Sumatran MSS in this catalogue. After all these MSS are written in rencong and Lampung scripts, many of them contain texts in Malay dialects or in the South Sumatran literary language which is basically Malay. He handed over to me a list of transliterations of rencong and Lampung MSS he and his family had made. The transliterations themselves would be kept at the LUB after his death. This list is contained in Cod.Or. 8447 and is included in this work without any alterations as was his wish. To have the work of this great scholar incorporated in this catalogue is a great honour to me. In the meantime the typing up of the draft-catalogue, at that time, still with the type writer was performed by an assistant, depending on the funds available. At intervals this work was stopped because of lack of funds. As the typing progressed, the use of a computer was introduced. For this purpose a module for diacritical signs for the computer, created with the aid of Drs R.S. Karni of KITLV, was used. For his co-operation I hereby express my gratitude. Lack of funds caused the dictionary project to be stopped in 1985 and I started describing KITLV MSS. At the Colloquium for Indonesian and Malaysian Studies at Sintra (Portugal, 1985), I met Dr Russell Jones who on my proposal accepted the task of polishing my English in the draft-catalogue. For this purpose I contacted Prof. A. Teeuw, chairman of the BIS, for his approval. But Dr Jones could only start this work after I had left for Brunei in October 1986. He did this work and more, as is evident from his handwritten notes on the print-out of the draft-catalogue in my possession, he also checked the watermarks on the paper of the MSS. I am very much indebted to him for this.