Outi Lauhakangas
Helskinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 2000.

From 1965 to 1974 Matti Kuusi was editor-in-chief of the famous journal Proverbium and invited proverb scholars to contribute to this forum. During this period he began to keep a card index of literature references to proverb types and made his first experiment in the thematic classification of international proverb materials in the 1970s. This volume is a study of the development of this type system. Outi Lauhakangas attempts to show how her father’s practical dream of a common international reference code came to be realised. The reader will find a list of some 700 global or almost global proverb motifs and can access the database via the website of The Finnish Literature Society. FF Communications No. 275 published by the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.