Frisian Collection

An analysis of languages in the Penn Libraries’ collections revealed more than 1,300 Frisian books, a larger collection than the Library of Congress, and one that is comparable in size only to the Frisian collections at the New York Public Library. The majority of these books are printings of what the small, specialized field of Frisian Studies refers to as “post-classical texts,” from the early 1900s.

Most of the texts in the Penn Libraries survive as pamphlets or small books unique to Frisian’s minority-language publishing culture and small but vibrant literary scene that celebrates its local folklife. These are small volumes of poetry, plays, songs, short tales, proverbs, and folklore, most less than 100 pages in length, in addition to a few lengthier reference materials like dictionaries and word lists, perhaps of use in comparative linguistics. Many items are labeled pamphlets, published in the larger towns of Friesland, mainly Leeuwarden, Friesland’s provincial capital, and many items in the collection pre-date a standardized Frisian way of spelling. These post-classical texts may be important for scholars who are interested in updating or completing studies of Frisian phonology, morphology, spellings, and place names.