With the aim of improving understanding related to lectures, the lecturer of codicology, Dr. Sri Ratna Saktimulya, M.Hum. brought Javanese Language, Literature, and Culture students of the 2023 class to visit three libraries; the Widyabudaya Keraton Ngayogyakarta library, the Sonobudoyo Museum library, and the Widyapustaka Pura Pakualaman library.
This field lecture started in the morning at 08.30 until the afternoon at 15.00. Students were asked to gather in the parking lot of the Keraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat before 08.30 for joint preparation and direction. The first destination visited was the Widyabudaya library. There, students were invited and accompanied by abdi dalem to look around and get to know the rooms in the library such as the reservation room, archive room, depo-archive room. In addition, students were also given manuscripts to observe their physical condition according to the material that had been taught such as the paper material, the illumination contained in the manuscript, and others.
Continued with the Sonobudoyo Museum library, students are guided to get to know various manuscripts made from various materials such as paper and wood, and are shown the process of digitizing manuscripts and how to care for manuscripts. Then in the Widyapustaka library, students are shown a manuscript care system by maintaining a stable temperature and conducive to manuscripts, especially those that are quite old.
In the physical condition of Javanese manuscripts, various illuminations are often found in them. Pudjiastuti, Mujizah, Ikram, et al. (2018) explained that the term illumination was originally used to refer to decorations on manuscripts in the form of gold. But later, the term then developed its use and referred to images (decorations) in manuscripts. There are several models of illumination in manuscripts, such as pepadan (a picture that shows the change of pupuh tembang), rubrication (red coloring of a word or sentence that makes an important idea), and wedana (image illumination in the form of text framing ornaments) (Saktimulya, 2015).
By organizing this field study, students are expected to increase their knowledge and experience about manuscripts, starting from the process of creating and managing ancient manuscripts as well as knowing various valuable collections in the fields of Javanese language, literature and culture. Furthermore, students are also expected to understand the existence of manuscripts and archives themselves, namely as part of historical sources and a direct description of the cultural life of their time. This can help students contribute to the development of knowledge in this field.
Author : Fega Achillea Maydena
Editor : Haryo Untoro
