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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2014
The spread of Protestant Christianity to Indonesia and Sri Lanka in the early modern period involved large-scale translation projects and, from the beginning of the eighteenth century, the publication of metrical psalms in languages spoken by local communities: Portuguese, Malay, Tamil and Sinhala. Selected psalms from the Genevan Psalter, as well as complete versions, were translated and published in South and Southeast Asia on several occasions in the eighteenth century, representing the earliest printing of Western staff notation in Jakarta and Colombo. These psalters were issued in numerous editions, and some were prefaced with a short explanation of the musical scale. Christian communities in Indonesia and Sri Lanka appear to have used the psalters regularly in religious devotions and services. This article explores the processes involved in the translation, production and distribution of these psalters, considering musical and cultural aspects of their adoption into local communities.
1 Marot, Clément and de Bèze, Théodore, Les pseaumes mis en rime françoise, par Clément Marot, & Théodore de Bèze (Geneva: par Thomas Courteau, pour Antoine Vincent, 1562)Google Scholar. On the cultural contexts surrounding the role of the psalms in Calvinist worship and theology see Trocmé-Latter, Daniel, ‘The Psalms as a Mark of Protestantism: The Introduction of Liturgical Psalm-Singing in Geneva’, Plainsong and Medieval Music 20/2 (2011), 145–163CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 Slenk, Howard and Luth, Jan R., in Nicholas Temperley and others, ‘Psalms, Metrical’, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, ed. Sadie, Stanley and Tyrrell, John (London: Macmillan, 2001), volume 20, 490Google Scholar.
3 Slenk and Luth, in Temperley, ‘Psalms, Metrical’, 492.
4 For recent studies on the Genevan Psalter see Eckhard Grunewald, Jürgens, Henning P. and Luth, Jan R., eds, Der Genfer Psalter und seine Rezeption in Deutschland, der Schweiz und den Niederlanden: 16.–18. Jahrhundert (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2004)Google Scholar, and Haug, Judith I., Der Genfer Psalter in den Niederlanden, Deutschland, England und dem Osmanischen Reich (16.–18. Jahrhundert) (Tutzing: Schneider, 2010)Google Scholar. Haug discusses the fourteen psalms that were translated by Ali Ufkî (1610–c1675) in Der Genfer Psalter, 481–578; the melodies are written in Western staff notation from right to left, with the first verse of the Turkish text underlaid. The manuscript is held in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Suppl. Turc 472. Ali Ufkî was born in Lvov, Poland (his original name was Wojciech Bobowski, latinized as Albertus Bobovius) and was captured by Ottoman forces at an early age and taken to Istanbul, where he converted to Islam. Wright, Owen, ‘Ufkî, ‘Alī’, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, ed. Sadie, Stanley and Tyrrell, John (London: Macmillan, 2001), volume 26, 34Google Scholar. For a study and facsimile of Ali Ufkî's Turkish translations of the first fourteen psalms from the Genevan Psalter see Behar, Cem, Ali Ufkî ve Mezmurlar (Istanbul: Pan, 1990)Google Scholar.
5 For a biography of Diehl see Dempsey, Deon, ‘Diehl, Katharine Smith (1906–1989)’, Dictionary of American Library Biography: Second Supplement, ed. Davis, Donald G. Jr, volume 3 (Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2003), 76–79Google Scholar.
6 Two of her best-known publications are Diehl, Katharine Smith, Hymns and Tunes: An Index (New York: Scarecrow, 1966)Google Scholar, and Katharine Smith Diehl, assisted in the Oriental Languages by Sircar, Hemendra Kumar, Early Indian Imprints (New York: Scarecrow, 1964)Google Scholar.
7 Diehl states: ‘Unlike most studies based on manuscript or printed sources, no archives or libraries in Europe have been used. Except for one publication, every early Southeast Asian imprint [studied here] has been handled somewhere in Asia. A few of the very earliest do not exist in Asia; I found photocopies there. In some instances only a single copy remains anywhere.’ Diehl, Katharine Smith, Printers and Printing in the East Indies: Volume 1, Batavia (New Rochelle: Aristide D. Caratzas, 1990), viiiGoogle Scholar.
8 Diehl, Printers and Printing. The titles of all nine volumes are listed on the publisher's website (<http://caratzas.com/index.cfm?category=31>), and are as follows: 1. Batavia; 2. Europeans and Ceylon, from 1505; 3. Jesuits, Lutherans, and the Printing Press in South India; 4. Bombay Presidency and the Printing Press; 5. Persian, Arabic, and Urdu Printing in Bengal, from 1778; 6. The Press Beyond Calcutta – North and East; 7. Scholarship and Education in Bengal; 8. Four Studies: Madrasis, Armenians, Words, Music; 9. A Comprehensive and Systematic Bibliography. I have sent several enquiries about this work to the publisher, but have not yet received any further information. The Katharine Smith Diehl Papers, covering approximately the period 1965–1980, are held at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin; boxes 1–3, 5–7 and 10–14 contain drafts and typescripts of ‘Printers and Printing’.
9 In Diehl, Printers and Printing, music is frequently discussed in chapter 7 (‘The Church: The Things that Are God's’, 229–306) and chapter 10 (‘Recreation: Its Influences with the Cities and Presses’, 343–361); about half of the sources for chapter 7 and all of them for chapter 10 date from the nineteenth century. It is possible that the unpublished volumes of ‘Printers and Printing’ may yield seminal data for the history of musical transitions to European colonialism in the eastern Indian Ocean region. For a social and cultural history of Batavia see Taylor, Jean Gelman, The Social World of Batavia, second edition (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009)Google Scholar.
10 Diehl, Katharine Smith, ‘The Dutch Press in Ceylon, 1734–96’, The Library Quarterly 42/3 (1972), 329–342Google Scholar. For a recent study of this subject see Kularatne, Tilak, History of Printing and Publishing in Ceylon, 1736–1912 (Dehiwala: author, 2006)Google Scholar.
11 Diehl, ‘The Dutch Press in Ceylon’, 336. The first page of music (Psalm 1) from this publication is reproduced in Peiris, Edmund, ‘Sinhalese Christian Literature of the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries’, Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 35 (1943)Google Scholar, plate II between pages 170 and 171, and also in Kularatne, History of Printing and Publishing in Ceylon, plate VIII between pages 28 and 29.
12 Diehl, ‘The Dutch Press in Ceylon’, 336, 338. These three psalters appear to be listed in a nineteenth-century British colonial listing of publications made by the Dutch in Sri Lanka: Nos 20, 33 and 37 in Ondaatje, P. J., ‘A Tabular List of Original Works and Translations, Published by the Late Dutch Government of Ceylon at Their Printing Press at Colombo’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1/1–2 (1865), 142–143Google Scholar. The 1776 publication is listed by Ondaatje as 1773; this is perhaps because the approval on the verso of the title-page is dated 1773. Diehl, ‘The Dutch Press in Ceylon’, 338.
13 Dempsey, ‘Diehl, Katharine Smith (1906–1989)’, 78; Diehl, Printers and Printing, 361.
14 Diehl, ‘The Dutch Press in Ceylon’, 336. The work she quotes is François Valentyn (1666–1727), Oud en nieuw Oost-Indiën, vervattende een naaukeurige en uitvoerige verhandelinge van Nederlands mogentheyd in die gewesten, benevens eene wydluftige beschryvinge der Moluccos, Amboina, Banda, Timor, en Solor, Java, en alle de eylanden onder dezelve landbestieringen behoorende, het Nederlands comptoir op Suratte, en de levens der Groote Mogols, five volumes in eight (Te Dordrecht, Amsterdam: by Joannes van Braam, Gerard Onder de Linden, 1724–1726), volume 4, part 2 (entitled Zaaken van den Godsdienst op het Eyland Java … (1726)), 86–94.
15 Diehl, Printers and Printing, 16–17 (archival references), 269 (quotation).
16 Diehl, Printers and Printing, 269. The Malay language is traditionally written in Arabic script (known as Jawi script in Malay contexts), but since the late sixteenth century it has also been expressed in romanized form. See Collins, James T., Malay, World Language of the Ages: A Sketch of Its History (Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1996)Google Scholar. Roman script (known in Malay as rumi) is now used for everyday purposes in most Malay-speaking countries, although Jawi script remains a valuable cultural currency, especially in Islamic contexts.
17 See Coelho, Victor Anand, ‘Music in New Worlds’, in The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Music, ed. Butt, John and Carter, Tim (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 88–110CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Liturgical music within Catholic institutions in the early modern Philippines is discussed in Irving, D. R. M., Colonial Counterpoint: Music in Early Modern Manila (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 157–194CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The role of psalms in the Jesuit mission to Japan in the late sixteenth century is discussed in López-Gay, Jesús, La liturgia en la misión del Japón del siglo XVI (Rome: Libreria dell'Università Gregoriana, 1970), 54, 63, 68, 131–132, 174, 176, 290Google Scholar.
18 On the singing of psalms by English mariners see Woodfield, Ian, English Musicians in the Age of Exploration (Stuyvesant: Pendragon, 1995), 41–48Google Scholar. The English East India Company's first factory (trading post) was established in 1603 at Bantam (Banten), on the west coast of Java, and psalms were sung at daily services and at the setting of watches by the factors (the name given to the men who worked at the East India Company's trading posts). See Woodfield, English Musicians, 229 and 231. (The Genevan Psalter was not widely used in England, which had its own psalters (organized by Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins), although some melodies were borrowed from the Genevan tradition. See Temperley, ‘Psalms, Metrical’.) In the (in)famous execution of English factors by the Dutch at Ambon in 1623, an event that became known throughout Europe as the Ambon Massacre, the condemned men sang psalms on the eve of their execution, and one of the factors wrote a personal testimony in a psalter that was returned to London. See Woodfield, English Musicians, 232. Diehl notes that Dutch ships carried numerous psalters, such as the Trincomale, whose inventory of 1789 (held at the Ceylon National Archives (Department of National Archives, Sri Lanka)) included ‘32 Psalters with locks, and 133 Psalters leather bound’: ‘The Dutch Press in Ceylon’, 336. Christoph Schweitzer, who was in Sri Lanka between 1676 and 1682, noted the singing of psalms by Dutch residents. See Woodfield, English Musicians, 241, and Christoph Frick and Christoph Schweitzer, A Relation of Two Several Voyages Made into the East-Indies, by Christopher Fryke, Surg. and Christopher Schewitzer [sic]: The whole Containing an Exact Account of the Customs, Dispositions, Manners, Religion, &c. of the several Kingdoms and Dominions in Those Parts of the World in General: But in a More Particular Manner, Describing Those Countries Which are under the Power and Government of the Dutch. Done out of the Dutch by S. L. (London: for printed [sic] D. Brown, S. Crouch, J. Knapton, R. Knaplock, J. Wyate, B. Took and S. Buckley, 1700), 300.
19 For studies of Catholic evangelization in Southeast Asia see Alberts, Tara, Conflict and Conversion: Catholicism in Southeast Asia, 1500–1700 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Irving, Colonial Counterpoint.
20 Andaya, Barbara Watson, ‘Between Empires and Emporia: The Economics of Christianization in Early Modern Southeast Asia’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 53/1–2 (2010), 377Google Scholar.
21 End and Aritonang write that ‘at the beginning of the nineteenth century, indigenous Protestant Christians numbered about 40,000 (as compared to about 16,000 in 1605)’; together with Catholics, approximately 0.7 per cent of the people in the Indonesian Archipelago were Christian, whereas around eighty-five per cent were Muslim, from a population estimated at around seven million. See den End, Th. van and Aritonang, Jan S., ‘1800–2005: A National Overview’, in A History of Christianity in Indonesia, ed. Aritonang, Jan Sihar and Steenbrink, Karel (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 141Google Scholar. The foundation of many evangelistic societies in the nineteenth century would bring a new wave of missionaries to this region.
22 See Barbara Watson Andaya, ‘Between Empires and Emporia’, 378–380.
23 Andaya, Leonard Y., ‘The Portuguese Tribe in the Malay-Indonesian Archipelago in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’, in The Portuguese and the Pacific, ed. Dutra, Francis A. and dos Santos, João Camilo (Santa Barbara: Center for Portuguese Studies, University of California Santa Barbara, 1995), 129Google Scholar.
24 den Akker, Jacobo op, Os CL. Psalmos d'el rey e propheta David: como taõbem os Canticos espirituaes usados ’na Igreja Reformada Belgica, Compostos para uso d'a Igreja Portuguesa ’nesta cidade de BATAVIA em JAVA MAYOR, por Jacobo op den Akker, Ministro pregador d'o S. Euangelho ’na Igreja d'a mesma cidade (Batavia [Jakarta]: Andre Lamberto Lodero, 1703)Google Scholar. Extant copies are recorded in the British Library, Cambridge University Library, Württembergische Landesbibliothek (Stuttgart), Koninklijke Bibliotheek (The Hague) and Bibliotheek Universiteit Leiden.
25 According to Darlow, T. H. and Moule, H. F., the first published version of the psalter in Portuguese was included in O Livro da oraçaõ commum e administraçaõ dos sacramentos e outros ritos, & ceremonias da igreja, conforme o uso da Igreja da Inglaterra: juntamente com o Salterio ou Salmos de David (Oxford: Na Estampa do Teatro, 1695)Google Scholar; this was ‘intended, apparently, for use in Portuguese-speaking congregations in communion with the Church of England in the East Indies’. However, it contains no music. (Extant copies are held in the Cambridge University Library.) Darlow and Moule also note that ‘in 1703 there appeared at Batavia an octavo edition of a metrical version of the Psalter, with Canticles etc. and liturgical matter, prepared by J. op den Akker … with the music’, but do not give a separate entry for it. See Darlow, T. H. and Moule, H. F., Historical Catalogue of the Printed Editions of Holy Scripture in the Library of the British and Foreign Bible Society, two volumes (London: The Bible House, 1911), volume 2, 1233Google Scholar.
26 Niemeijer, Hendrik E., ‘The Free Asian Christian Community and Poverty in Pre-Modern Batavia’, in Jakarta–Batavia: Socio-Cultural Essays, ed. Grijns, Kees and Nas, Peter J. M. (Leiden: KITLV Press, 2000), 85Google Scholar.
27 Taylor writes that ‘Mardijkers … is an old Dutch rendering of the Portuguese version of Maharddhika (Sanskrit for “great man,” “high and mighty”) and which acquired in Indonesia the meaning of free(d) person’. Taylor, The Social World of Batavia, 47.
28 Taylor, The Social World of Batavia, 49.
29 Diehl, ‘The Dutch Press in Ceylon’, 336.
30 Diehl, Printers and Printing, 17. Original text: ‘Tot het drucken van 1000 p Portugeese Psalmboeken, 100 riemen druk Papier te schenken … 12 Mei 1702.’ van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, Bataviaasch Genootschap, Realia, Register op de generale resolutiën van het kasteel Batavia. 1632–1805 (Leiden: Gualth. Kolff, 1882), volume 1, 208Google Scholar. François Valentyn (1666–1727) also reported on the publication of this psalter in his Oud en nieuw Oost-Indiën, volume 4, part 2 (Zaaken van den Godsdienst op het Eyland Java … (1726)), 89, 92, 94.
31 Diehl, Printers and Printing, 18. I asked my former graduate student Jenny McCallum to search for it in April 2012 when she was undertaking archival research in Jakarta. However, while a card existed in the catalogue, the book could not be located by the staff.
32 She continues: ‘There was no inclination at the time to adapt local melodies to Christian ritual in the Dutch Reformed Church. It has required 250 more years to accomplish that.’ Diehl, Printers and Printing, 18. This attitude reflects strict Calvinist views about what kinds of music could be acceptable for worship; for Calvin, the monophonic singing of the Psalms, in vernacular languages, was the most ideal music for public worship. See Trocmé-Latter, ‘The Psalms as a Mark of Protestantism’, 151. By contrast, Catholic missionaries (especially the Jesuits) in the Philippines and Latin America accommodated many kinds of indigenous music within the devotional and liturgical practices of their mission communities. See Irving, Colonial Counterpoint, 121–127.
33 Old and New Testaments in Portuguese were printed at Batavia in 1748 and 1773 respectively. See Diehl, Printers and Printing, 257.
34 These three editions were: (1) den Akker, Jacobus op, Os CL Psalmos d'el rey e propheta David. Como taõbem outros canticos espirituaes uzadas ’na igreja reformada (Colombo: P. Bruwaart, 1763)Google Scholar. Copies are recorded at the British Library, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (The Hague) and the Bibliotheek Universiteit Leiden; (2) den Akker, Jacobus op, Os CL Psalmos d'el Rey y Profeta David: e outros canticos espirituaes: ’na Igreja Reformada Belgica usados: em a lingua Portuguesa compostos, A quarta impressaõ [fourth printing] (Colombo: Johann Fredrik Christoph Dornheim, 1768)Google Scholar. Copies are recorded at the Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht and the Oliveira Lima Library (Catholic University of America, Washington, D. C.); (3) den Akker, Jacobus op, Os CL psalmos d'el rey e propheta David, como taõbem outros canticos espirituaes uzadas ’na Igreja Reformada (Colombo: Johann Fredrik Christoph Dornheim, impressor de Illustra Companhia ’na cidade, 1778Google Scholar). Copies are recorded at the British Library, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (The Hague) and the Bibliotheek Universiteit Leiden. The 1768 print is already listed as the fourth edition; if the first edition was the Batavia print of 1703, then at least one more remains to be found.
35 He adds: ‘All these printed books in the Malay and Portugueze tongue, I presented to the Royal Academy at Upsal [Uppsala], in whose library they are kept, as also several other scarce and valuable books, printed in the Cingalese, Malay, and Tamullish [sic] languages.’ Thunberg, Carl Peter, Travels in Europe, Africa, and Asia: Performed between the Years 1770 and 1779, three volumes (London: W. Richardson[, 1793–1795]), volume 2, 230Google Scholar.
36 Kularatne, History of Printing and Publishing in Ceylon, 23. The reference to Rumpf comes from Peiris, ‘Sinhalese Christian Literature’, 171.
37 Kularatne, Tilak, ‘Introduction of Printing to Sri Lanka (Ceylon): The Dutch Press in Ceylon (1736–1796)’, Libri 45/2 (1995), 65–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
38 Perera, Anth, de Saram, Louis and Wermelskircher, Mathias, Singalees-gezangboekje, behelfende het Gebed des Heeren. De tien geboden. Psalm drie en-twintig. Psalm een en-vyftig, het eerste en tweede vers. Mitsgaders den Lofzang Simeons (Colombo: in ‘s Comps: gewoone-Drukkery … door Johann Bernhardt Arnhardt, 1755)Google Scholar. Held at Leiden University Library (shelfmarks 114 B 47, 877 G 10 and 1497 C 45).
39 For the original melody (Dorian) of 1539 see Leaver, Robin A., Luther's Liturgical Music: Principles and Implications (Grand Rapids, MI, and Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans, 2007), 132Google Scholar.
40 de Melho, Philippus, Eenige PSALMEN des Koninglyken Prophete DAVIDS, en andere LOFZANGEN, uyt den Nederduytschen in Tamulschen Digte overgeset door PHILIPPUS DE MELHO, Bedienaar des H. Evangeliums in d. Gemeente JESU CHRISTI Te Jaffanapatnam; en uitgegeven naar gewoone Kerkorder (Colombo: in 's Comps: gewoone Drukkery. Door Johann Bernhardt Arnhardt, 1755)Google Scholar; Bronsveld, Sigisbertus Abrahamsz, SINGALEESCHE PSALMEN en LOFZANGEN Op de gewoone Zangmaate onzer Kerke overgezet en bereimd, en Tot stigtinge der Singaleesche Christenen, Met volle Toestemminge Van de Hooge Overheid deeses Eilands, nu merkelyk vermeerderd en verbeterd, op nieuw in ‘t ligt gegeeven onder opzigt van Sigisbertus Abrahamsz Bronsveld Bedienaar des H. Evangeliums, en Rector in ‘t Colombo's Kweekschool (Colombo: in 's Comps: Boekdrukkery door Johann Frederik Christoph Dornheim, 1768)Google Scholar. These publications are discussed in Diehl, ‘The Dutch Press in Ceylon’, 336–338. Complete original copies are located in the Cambridge University Library, where the two works are bound together in Rare Books volume 7837.d.2. Extant copies are also held by other institutions. Diehl states that these two publications ‘are the earliest examples of music [that is, music in European staff notation] with words in the local languages to have issued from any press east of the Indus River – as far east as the Philippines and Japan’. Diehl, ‘The Dutch Press in Ceylon’, 339. Note that in my article ‘The Dissemination and Use of European Music Books in Early Modern Asia’, Early Music History 28 (2009), 39–59, I discussed examples of Western staff notation being printed in Japan (1605) and China (1723), but asserted that similar activity did not take place in other parts of Asia until the mid-nineteenth century (53). At that stage I had not encountered the psalters from Indonesia and Sri Lanka, or the work of Diehl.
41 These are listed (except for Psalm 24) in Diehl, ‘The Dutch Press in Ceylon’, 337; the copy in the Cambridge University Library (item no. 1 in 7837.d.2) contains contemporaneous handwritten Arabic numerals above each psalm, and Dutch titles for the other works.
42 The copy that Diehl examined in Colombo was incomplete, containing ‘approximately one-fourth of the text’; however, the copy in the Cambridge University Library (item no. 2 in 7837.d.2) appears to be complete.
43 Peiris, ‘Sinhalese Christian Literature’, 171.
44 European observation of and speculation on analogies between different Eurasian solmization systems in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were discussed in my Jerome Roche Prize Lecture ‘Global Gamut: Encounters of Scale Systems in the Early Modern World’, given at the Royal Musical Association Annual Research Students’ Conference at the University of Hull on 7 January 2012.
45 Thanks to Jim Sykes and Natasha Senanayake for transliterating these Tamil and Sinhala characters.
46 For a biography of Philip de Melho see Chitty, Simon Casie, The Tamil Plutarch: A Summary Account of the Lives of the Poets and Poetesses of Southern India and Ceylon: From the Earliest to the Present Times with Select Specimens of Their Compositions, second revised edition (originally published 1859; modern edition published 1946) (New Delhi: J. Jetley, 1982), 82–88Google Scholar.
47 See Hunt, Robert A., ‘The History of the Translation of the Bible into Bahasa Malaysia’, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 62/1 (1989), 35Google Scholar. See also Fenn, Eric, ‘The Bible and the Missionary’, in The Cambridge History of the Bible: The West from the Reformation to the Present Day, ed. Greenslade, S. L. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963), 385Google Scholar.
48 Hunt, ‘The History of the Translation of the Bible into Bahasa Malaysia’, 35–37.
49 For instance, a Malay translation of the Psalms was published at Amsterdam in 1652 (as discussed below), and the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles were printed at Oxford in 1677: Jang ampat evangelia derri Tuan Kita Jesu Christi, daan berboatan derri jang Apostoli Bersacti, bersalin dallam Bassa Malayo: That Is, the Four Gospels of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Acts of the Holy Apostles, Translated into the Malayan Tongue (Oxford: Printed by H. Hall, 1677) (Cambridge University Library, 1.40.49).
50 Commelin, Isaac, Begin ende voortgangh, van de Vereenighde Nederlantsche Geoctroyeerde Oost-Indische Compagnie (originally published in two volumes, Amsterdam: Jan Jansz, 1646)Google Scholar, facsimile edition, with an Introduction by C. R. Boxer, four volumes (Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1969), volume 4, part 4, 39 (April 1632). A French translation of this episode can be found in de Renneville, Constantin, Recueil des voiages qui ont servi a l'établissement et aux progrès de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales, formée dans les Provinces Unies des Païs-Bas (Amsterdam: Étienne Roger, 1726), volume 5, 33–34Google Scholar. (This volume, incidentally, ends with a catalogue of sheet music and books printed by Étienne Roger, for sale in Amsterdam, London and Cologne.) For a study of broader cultural contexts surrounding this theological exchange see Cummings, William, ‘Scripting Islamization: Arabic Texts in Early Modern Makassar’, Ethnohistory 48/4 (2001), 578CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
51 Den Psalter, ofte de hondert en vijftigh Psalmen des Konincklijcken Prophete Davids, gestelt in de Nederduytsche en Maleysche tale, na de Griecxsche waerheydt … de eerste vijftig Psalmen overgeset in de Maleysche tale door E. J. van Hasel … ende de hondert laetste … door E. Justum Heurnium (Amsterdam: Door ordre van de E. E. Heeren Bewinthebberen der Oost-Indische Compagnie, 1652) (British Library, Or.71.c.16). On the translation of the word ‘psalm’ from Hebrew see Sarna, Nahum M. and others, ‘Psalms, Book of’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, second edition, ed. Skolnik, Fred and Berenbaum, Michael (Detroit and London: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007), volume 16, 663Google Scholar.
52 Bowrey, Thomas, A Dictionary, English and Malayo, Malayo and English. To Which is Added Some Short Grammar Rules & Directions for the Better Observation of the Propriety and Elegancy of this Language. AND ALSO Several Miscellanies, Dialogues, and Letters, in English and Malayo for the Learners [sic] better understanding the Expressions of the Malayo Tongue (London: Printed by Sam. Bridge for the author, 1701)Google Scholar, no pagination.
53 The scriptures revealed to the Prophet Daud have been associated conceptually with the Biblical psalms; however, mainstream Islamic theology does not accept that the psalm texts preserved today in the Judaeo-Christian tradition are the same as the zabūr mentioned in the Qur'ān. Some medieval Muslim authors began to recompose psalms in the Davidic tradition, especially in the twelfth century, possibly in response to acts of Christian aggression; see Vishanoff, David R., ‘Islamic “Psalms of David”’, in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, edited by Thomas, David and Mallett, Alex, volume 3 (1050–1200) (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2011), 724–730Google Scholar. The divergent interpretations of the figure of King David / Prophet Daud within Judaeo-Christian and Islamic traditions also feed into different ontologies of music; see Poché, Christian, ‘David and the Ambiguity of the Mizmar According to Arab Sources’, World of Music 25/2 (1983), 58–73Google Scholar.
54 For instance, the missionary Nathaniel Ward used the term Zabūr in his translation of the Psalms at Padang (Sumatra) in 1827, which bore the title Bahawah inilah Kitab Zabur Nabi Daud (literally, This is the Book [or Scripture] Zabūr of the Prophet David) (British Library, 14620.e.19). The missionary Benjamin Keasberry printed a Malay psalter in Jawi script at Singapore in 1847, using lithography; its title contains both the terms Zabūr and mazmur, reading Zabur iaitu Surat Segala Mazmur (literally, Zabūr: namely, the Book of all the Psalms). A copy is held in the Cambridge University Library (BSS.680.E47.1). See Proudfoot, Ian, Early Malay Printed Books: A Provisional Account of Materials Published in the Singapore-Malaysia Area up to 1920, Noting Holdings in Major Public Collections (Kuala Lumpur: Academy of Malay Studies and The Library, University of Malaya, 1993), 147Google Scholar.
55 There have been numerous legal battles in Malaysia over the right of Malay-speaking Christians to use the word ‘Allah’; for instance, in October 2013 a Malaysian court ruled that the word ‘Allah’ could not be used by a Malay-language Christian newspaper. See ‘Malaysian Court Rules Use of “Allah” Exclusive to Muslims’, ABC News <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-14/god-allah-christian-muslim/5020962> (11 March 2014).
56 Marsden, William, A Dictionary of the Malayan Language, in Two Parts, Malayan and English and English and Malayan (London: Printed for the author by Cox and Baylis, 1812), 155, 323, 519Google Scholar.
57 Diehl writes that ‘when the Psalter was put into Malay rhyme by Ferreira [João Ferreira d'Almeida (1628–1691)] (dated 16 August 1675), it was done to conform as closely as possible to the Dutch meter of Petrus Dathenus which, by 1675, was already 125 years old but was approved at Dordrecht.’ Diehl, Printers and Printing, 268.
58 The British Library holds a manuscript volume which includes forty-one folios of versified psalms, hymns and canticles in Malay; it is dated to c1678, and is thought to have been produced in Maluku (shelfmark Sloane 3115); a description is given in Ricklefs, M. C. and Voorhoeve, Petrus, Indonesian Manuscripts in Great Britain: A Catalogue of Manuscripts in Indonesian Languages in British Public Collections (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), 107Google Scholar. Digitized images of the entire manuscript are available on the British Library website at <www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Sloane_MS_3115>.
59 See Werndly, George Henrik, Maleische Spraakkunst, uit de eige schriften der Maleiers opgemaakt (Amsterdam: Op kosten van de E. A. Heren Bewindhebberen der Oost-Indische Maatschappye; pr. R. en G. Wetstein, 1736), 266–275Google Scholar.
60 Werndly, George Henrik, Sji'r segala Mazmūr2-Da-ūd, dan pūdji2-an jang lâjin (Amsterdam: R. dan DJ. Wetyistejn, Pe
ara–Kompanija, 1735)Google Scholar. Extant copies are held in the Cambridge University Library (BSS.680.D31), the British Library (14620.e.27) and other institutions. This work is listed by Gallop, Annabel Teh in her article ‘Early Malay Printing: An Introduction to the British Library Collection’, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 63/1 (1990), 87, 116Google Scholar.
61 As Gallop points out, the system of romanization developed by Werndly used the Arabic letter ain in medial position. Gallop, ‘Early Malay Printing’, 87.
62 On the origins of the Malay syair see Braginsky, Vladimir, The Heritage of Traditional Malay Literature: A Historical Survey of Genres, Writings and Literary Views (Leiden: KITLV Press, 2004), 301–314Google Scholar; see also Laffan, Michael, The Makings of Indonesian Islam: Orientalism and the Narration of a Sufi Past (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011), 11Google Scholar.
63 Thunberg, Travels in Europe, Africa, and Asia, volume 2, 229.
64 The psalter is prefaced by a Malay New Testament (Amsterdam, 1731) and a Malay translation of the Heidelberg Catechism (Cambridge University Library, shelfmark BSS.680.D31).
65 These nineteenth-century publications are: (1) Werndly, Georg Henrik, Surat segala Mazmur-tersji‘r (Haarlem: [Jahhja ‘Ensjedej dan ‘anakh2nja], 1822)Google Scholar; (2) Werndly, George Henrik, Surat segala mazmur2 tersji‘r (Haarlem: Jahhja ‘Ensjedej dan ‘anakh2nja, 1824)Google Scholar; and (3) Werndly, George Henrik, Sjir segala Mazmûr Dâûd (Zaltbommel: Noman, 1864)Google Scholar. Interestingly, a few staves of Psalm 1 from the 1822 psalter are given as an example of void (‘white’) notation in Bent, Ian D. and others, ‘Notation’, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, ed. Sadie, Stanley and Tyrrell, John (London: Macmillan, 2001), volume 18, 141Google Scholar. This appears to be the only mention of the Malay psalters in musicological literature to date, although no comments are made about the contexts of the psalter's production.
66 The new version was composed by C. Ch. J. Schröder, a Protestant assistant minister. See End and Aritonang, ‘1800–2005: A National Overview’, 153.
67 Karel Steenbrink, ‘Protestantism in the Moluccas, 1605–1800’, in A History of Christianity in Indonesia, 123. This comment refers to Batavia, and other areas where schools were operated by the colonial government. Barbara Watson Andaya also says that the VOC Archives contain instructions about the use of psalters in West Timor (personal communication).
68 Taylor, The Social World of Batavia, 26.
69 A report of official visits to churches and schools in various eastern islands in 1757 mentions the presence of fourteen psalm books. Dutch National Archives (Algemeen Rijksarchief), VOC 7927, f. 217. The observation that a cupboard was needed for books on West Timor was made on 22 September 1754. Dutch National Archives (Algemeen Rijksarchief), VOC 2837, f. 71. Many thanks to Barbara Watson Andaya for pointing out these references and sharing this information.
70 Diehl, Printers and Printing, 269.
71 However, sometimes local congregants sang the psalms in Dutch: in 1819 the Baptist missionary William Robinson wrote from Batavia that ‘to this day the greater part of the people sing the Dutch psalms, when I preach in Malay; for there are very few of them capable of understanding the version in Malay, the style being too high for them’. ‘From Mr. Robinson, Batavia, to Mr. Lawson. Weltevreden, June 4, 1819’, in ‘Foreign Intelligence. Calcutta’, The Baptist Magazine 13 (1821), 39. Robinson's comment highlights the fact that there were many local styles of Malay, ranging from the types of ‘high’ language used in classical literature to pasar (market) Malay, a trade language prevalent in Batavia. For a historical overview of the Malay language see Collins, Malay, World Language of the Ages; he writes that by the late eighteenth century ‘Malay in Batavia [Jakarta] had already become the dominant language of daily multiethnic interaction in the very capital of the colonial government. Sydney Parkinson, a young British draughtsman who visited Batavia for 77 days in 1770 … left a record of the kind of vehicular Malay language that had developed there with its lively mix of Malay, Javanese and Chinese elements’ (55). See also George Miller, ‘Malay Used by English Country Traders of the 18th Century’ (2008) <http://mcp.anu.edu.au/papers/rtm/country.html>.
72 Tyerman, Daniel, Bennet, George and Montgomery, James, Voyages and Travels Round the World, by the Rev. Daniel Tyerman and George Bennet, Esq.: Deputed from the London Missionary Society to Visit their Various Stations in the South Sea Islands, Australia, China, India, Madagascar, and South Africa Between the Years 1821 and 1829. Compiled from the Original Documents by James Montgomery, second edition (London: John Snow, 1840), 200Google Scholar.
73 Jukes, Joseph Beete, Narrative of the Surveying Voyage of H. M. S. Fly, Commanded by Captain F. P. Blackwood, R. N., in Torres Strait, New Guinea, and Other Islands of the Eastern Archipelago, During the Years 1842–46; Together with an Excursion into the Interior of the Eastern Part of Java (London: T. & W. Boone, 1847), volume 1, 371Google Scholar. For a biography of Jukes see Ann Mozley, ‘Jukes, Joseph Beete (1811–1869)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, <http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/jukes-joseph-beete-2284/text2939> (14 September 2013).
74 Kitab njanji2an: jang sudah detambahij dengan barang mazmur2 dan tahlil2 indjil: akan gunanja Madjlis Pesurohan ’Indjil Wolandswy: terkarang dalam bahasa Wolandawij dan tersalin kapada bahasa Malajuw ’awleh R. le Bruijn, surohan ’indjil di-pulaw Timor (Batawijah [Batavia]: Di-patara'an Karadja'an, 1828). A copy is held in the National Library of Australia (499.2 BRU). This volume is also described in Diehl, Printers and Printing, 274–275.
75 Annabel Teh Gallop, personal communication, 5 January 2012. The shelfmark for this fragment, held in the Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden, is 24-1. Thanks to Annabel Teh Gallop for this information.
76 Diehl, Printers and Printing, 269. Psalters also reached as far as the Dutch trading post at Deshima, Japan, but were hidden, since Christian artefacts were forbidden in Japan during the period of closure to the outside world (1639–1853). The Dutch were the only Europeans permitted to trade with Japan; they operated under strict supervision at Deshima, Nagasaki Bay. Engelbert Kaempfer (1651–1716), who visited Japan, discussed how psalters, other religious books and coins were packed away on the ship when land came into sight. See Kaempfer, Engelbert and Bodart-Bailey, Beatrice M., Kaempfer's Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed, ed., trans. and annotated by Bodart-Bailey, Beatrice M. (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999), 39Google Scholar.
77 Diehl found in Sri Lanka a title-page of a Dutch-language psalter printed at Colombo in 1776, but the rest of the book was missing. Diehl, ‘The Dutch Press in Ceylon’, 338. She gives a full transcription of the title-page, which details the publisher as Johan Fredrik Christoph Dornheim. Although I have been unable to locate an extant copy of this 1776 publication in any library catalogue, it appears that a copy of a Dutch-language psalter printed at Colombo in 1772 is held at the Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart): Voet, Johann Eusebius, Het boek der Psalmen, nevens de gezangen, by de hervormde kerk in gebruik: op nieuw in dichtmaat gebragt door Joannes Eusebius Voet (Colombo: Dornheim, 1772)Google Scholar (shelfmark Theol.oct.18692).
78 End and Aritonang, ‘1800–2005: A National Overview’, 141.
79 Ross, Russell R. and Savada, Andrea Matles, ‘Sri Lanka: A Country Study’, in Sri Lanka: Current Issues and Historical Background, ed. Nubin, Walter (New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2002), 165Google Scholar. However, Holt writes that ‘the legacy of the Dutch Reformed Church in Sri Lanka today is more of an architectural than a social one, in striking contrast to the staying power of the Roman Catholicism introduced by the Portuguese’. Holt, John Clifford, The Religious World of Kirti Sri: Buddhism, Art, and Politics in Late Medieval Sri Lanka (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 6–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.