Livro de Pantuns | Book of Pantuns

In 2018, an unusual manuscript emerged in the archive of the National Museum of Archeology of Portugal, in Lisbon. This 39-folio-long manuscript bears the title of Panton Malaijoe dan Portugees (‘Malay and Portuguese pantuns’) and contains a collection of 11 poems composed in 2 languages: a variety of Malay, and a variety of a Portuguese-lexified creole language. The collaborative edition of this manuscript involved Ivo Castro, Hugo Cardoso, Alan Baxter, Alexander Adelaar and Gijs Koster, and resulted in the publication, in July 2022, of the book to be presented here: the bilingual volume Livro de Pantuns: Um Manuscrito Asiático do Museu Nacional de Arqueologia, Lisboa | Book of Pantuns: An Asian Manuscript of the National Museum of Archeology, Lisbon, published by Portugal’s Imprensa Nacional – Casa da Moeda. In their study, the authors of the book suggest the manuscript must have been produced in colonial Batavia some time in the late 17th or early 18th century, and conclude that its contents constitute rare records of the languages represented: the Portuguese-based Creole which developed around Batavia and nearby Tugu and was especially associated with the Mardijker community of the region, and a variety of Vehicular (Contact) Malay which must have also been used by this section of the population. Therefore, the manuscript is a precious source not only of linguistic information, but also of data concerning the oral and literary traditions of colonial Batavia, as well as its social and even political structure.