NINETEENTH CENTURY SIAMESE LITERATURE AT THE DAWN OF WESTERNIZATION

Abstract

Until the introduction of printing technology during the 19th century, Siamese literature was disseminated and passed on in manuscript form only. Unfavorable climatic conditions, various adverse historical events and a lack of institutions responsible for the preservation of literary manuscripts hamper modern-day scholarly efforts to reconstruct Siamese literary history. In order to broaden the evidential basis available to scholars of pre-modern Siamese literature, qualitative as well as quantitative data were drawn from inventory lists of two manuscript collections, which hitherto had been in the possession of Prince-Patriarch Phra Paramanuchit Chinorot (1790–1853) and Prince Rakronnaret (1791–1848). Despite these records’ limited number and scope, they offer valuable insights into the size and composition of two private libraries, access to ancient and contemporary literary texts, as well as into the tastes of a highly educated mid-19th-century elite readership.