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western parts of the island, on the North Coast, maritime kingdoms were established, and at the Courts Islamic Javanese literature flourished. For a short time Kings of Demak, in Central Java, were recognized as suzer ains by most Muslim dynasts of towns along the North Coast and in the interior of the country. In the present Synopsis the litera ture of this period is named after the Pasisir, the Coast districts. Between East Javanese Islamic literature and East Pasisir literature scarcely any dis tinction is to be made. Some texts which evidently were written in the interior of the country, e.g. in the Tëtjgër highlands, are better called East Javanese than East Pasisir, though. The Central Pasisir literature was written by authors connected with the centre of the Dëmak kingdom, even after its dis integration, Their literary idiom seems to have developed on the pattern of older East Javanese works. In its turn Central Pasisir literature exercised a powerful influence on the authors who in the seventeenth and eigh teenth centuries worked at the Courts of the Central Javanese Kings of Mataram, in the interior of the country. Ad 4 (cf. 00020, era C). The West Pasisir literature was written mainly in the seven teenth and eighteenth centuries in Cërbon, the Sundanese districts and Bantën, areas where Javanese letters had been introduced not long before. The idiom of West Pasisir literature sometimes betrays the authors’ West Javanese and Sundanese background. In several cases the texts are not readily understood by Central Javanese readers. Ad 5 (cf. 00020, era D). Since the seven teenth century, Kings of Mataram, in South

Central Java, held sway over many outlying districts. At their Courts literary activity, beginning in the seventeenth century, pro duced in the eighteenth and nineteenth cen turies a renaissance of classical Old Javan ese letters. Many products of earlier periods of Javanese literature were re-edited in modern Javanese versions. Especially Sura karta authors made great names for them selves both by their adaptations of classical works and by their original narrative and historical books. In the eighteenth and nine teenth centuries the literary idiom of the Surakarta authors gained recognition from all cultered people in the country as the standard of written Javanese. In modern Government schools textbooks written in the Surakarta idiom were the rule. In conse quence of the attention paid to Surakarta and its renaissance classical literature the older idioms and books written in East Java and the Pasisir districts fell into the back ground. Very few printed Javanese books, except the editions of Old Javanese texts, contain prose or poetry written in another idiom than the Surakarta standard language. From the contents of the present Synopsis it will be apparent that Javanese literature is by far richer than one would suppose jud ging from the supply of printed books. In the nineteenth century at the Court of Yogyakarta a literary idiom comparable with the more generally accepted Surakarta type was developed. Though manuscripts containing texts in the Yogyakarta idiom are in evidence, they were seldom published. The differences between the idioms are largely a matter of predilection for certain expressions.