A GREAT AND ENTHRALLING ADVENTURE

de vergetelheid te raken. Het is aan De Ridders [...] visie te danken dat de uit geverij dat gat in de markt ook zag en er direct insprong. Wat later de Janua minor geworden is, was de oorspronkelijke opzet. 7 [I had originally conceived of the Janua as a series of small monographs, each the size of a large article, that were too interesting to drown in a journal amid other contributions, and to be forgotten over time. Thanks to De Ridder’s [...] vision the publishing house also recognized the gap in the market and immediately seized the opportunity. What later became the Janua minor was the original intent.] A Series maiorwas added to Janua linguarum in 1959; the above-mentioned subseries Series minor began in 1963. From 1963 on, works in the field of descriptive, comparative, and applied linguistics were published in the sub- series Series practica. Textbooks appeared from 1973 in the Series didactica. In 1972 a reprint series was started for the classics in linguistics: Series anastatica. There were even plans for a ‘Prague’ subseries of the Janua lin guarum. In a letter dated September 21, 1971 to De Ridder and the copy editor Dick Coutinho, Van Schooneveld suggests the title: ‘Series Doctrinae Scholae Pragensis Dedicata’, for short the ‘Pragensis’. 8 This series, however, did not materialize. Janua linguarum did get a subseries in 1972, the Series critica under the editorship of Werner Winter (Kiel). This series, as described in a brochure, was meant as ‘a series of critical reports evaluating the history and state of research in the various subfields of linguistics.’ 9 A planned subseries ‘Series sovietica’, intended exclusively for linguistic work of Soviet scholars, like the Prague series never materialized. On May 23, 1979 the copy editor Judy Marcure shares with Van Schooneveld on behalf of Mouton that ‘it has only recently been made clear that the Series Sovietica will not be feasible at this time.’ 10 The series Janua linguarum acquired the subtitle: Studia memoriae Nicolai van Wijk dedicata. Roman Jakobson, who had suggested the title to Van Schooneveld, writes about this in the foreword (dated ‘Leiden, October 1955’) of his Fundamentals of language (1956), the first volume of Janua linguarum: The Gate of Languages (Janua linguarum) is indeed an appropriate title for a series of essays seeking the key to the laws that govern language and its relation ship with other social institutions. This name appeals to me, moreover, as a link that connects the modern search with the writings of Johann Amos Comenius, the great humanist thinker in the science of language. [... ] The title of the series

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