Old Frisian Studies in the Seventeenth Century: The Oxford Manuscripts

Abstract

Abstract The Bodleian library at Oxford is one of the most important repositories of manuscripts and early printed books documenting the study of Old Frisian in the seventeenth century. Together with primary texts, two copies of the incunable print of the Frisian land laws, Codex Aysma and transcripts of the now lost Codex Unia, the collection includes annotations and glossaries by three pioneers of Old Frisian philology: Franciscus Junius (1591–1677), Jan van Vliet (1622–1666) and Thomas Marshall (1621–1685). This contribution explores Junius’s and van Vliet’s appraisal of the Old Frisian texts, their plans for an edition, and their interest in the narrative aspects of texts, such as the Statutes of Magnus and the Book of Rudolf. By analysing van Vliet’s and Junius’s annotations in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MSS Junius 109 and Marshall 60, it becomes apparent that these seventeenth-century philologists studied Old Frisian texts not only for lexicographical reasons or to compare Frisian with the other Old Germanic languages, but also for their fascinating historical and literary qualities.