In the second half of the 18th century, the publication of ancient texts documenting legal history, antiquity and literature burgeoned. Political and administrative texts had been published for a long time already. The province’s authorities had appointed a provincial historian in 1590, who was commissioned with collecting pieces of historical importance. Pier Winsemius and Simon Abbes Gabbema, who both held this title during the 17th century, had also published some sources in their histories of Friesland, as did the Frisian theologian Christianus Schotanus. In 1617, Sibrandus Siccama edited the early-9th-century Lex Frisionum. In 1750, Eduard Marius van Burmania published Analecta, of enige oude ongedrukte schriften van diversen inhoud, tot Friesland alleen specterende (“Analecta: Some ancient unprinted writings of diverse content relating to Friesland”), relying on his own family archive and that of the provincial forester (a position that he also held). In 1764, the provinceial authorities ordered one of their members, G.F. thoe Schwartzenberg en Hohenlansberg, to systematically publish ancient state documents. This led to a multipart series of folios, the Groot placaat- and charterboek. The first volume, published in 1767, opened with a translation of the Lex Frisionum.

Old Frisian legal manuscripts were not included in the series, most likely because they had already been published by others. They were recognized throughout the Frisian region from the Vlie to the Weser. Since Roman law was introduced in Friesland in 1498, they were of little historical significance for that region, but in Groningen they applied until 1594 and in East Friesland even up until the French period. Interest had been aroused in Prussian-ruled East Friesland in the 18th century; legal scholars like M. von Wicht and T.D. Wiarda both published Old Frisian legal manuscripts. Significant early editions included a manuscript of the Hunsingo custom law by Diderik Frederik Johan van Halsema in 1778 and the republication of an incunabulum by Petrus Wierdsma and Pieter Brantsma in 1782, containing a compilation of almost all the so-called Oudfriesche wetten (“Old Frisian laws”). These publications were of a high scholarly standard, both in terms of the quality of the text editions and the quality of the annotations and explanations. Alongside these editions undertaken by private scholars, there were the activities of the Groningen-based society Pro Excolendo as of the 1770s; and in 1846 and 1851 the Fries Genootschap supported the editing project of Oude Friesche wetten, which Montanus De Haan Hettema had pursued since 1834. This coincided with German initiatives. In 1840, Karl von Richthofen, a student of Jacob Grimm, edited the oldest legal manuscripts and included an accompanying dictionary. His monumental Friesische Rechtsquellen and his equally monumental Altfriesisches Wörterbuch were to become the definitive works of reference for a long time to come. The Rechtsquellen contained virtually all manuscripts known at the time, in a critical rather than diplomatic edition. It was left to De Haan Hettema to publish some of the material as diplomatic editions of individual manuscripts.

By 1850, nearly all Old Frisian legal manuscripts were available in print, and were also included in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. German legal historians like Richthofen and Grimm attached great importance to Frisian laws, both because they considered this an outlying tribe of the Germanic whole, and because they credited the Frisians with an ethnotype of staunch fidelity to their native tradition. Other interested parties included liberal politicians who credited the Frisians with a strong tradition of tribal democracy and individual liberties. Johan Rudolph Thorbecke, later to become prime minister of the Netherlands, was among those captivated by the libertarian spirit of Old Frisian legal texts.

Since the oldest of these documents were written in Frisian, their publication also served a philological purpose. As early as 1815, Jacob Grimm had published an Old Frisian text. From the 1860s, Old Frisian became part of the academic curriculum within the context of the new discipline of Old Germanic. Matthias de Vries (1820–1892) in Leiden was the first to teach Old Frisian.

The edition of more general-historical documentation revolved around narrative sources. Around 1775, work began on the publication of the 16th-century MS memoirs of Jancko Douwama, an opponent of the ruling regime and, as such, admired by the province’s Patriot party. Eventually his work was published under the auspices of the Fries Genootschap, founded in 1827. Precursor associations of the Genootschap published other 16th- and 17th-century narrative sources. Two important editors were Hans W.C.A. Visser and Hendrik Amersfoordt. The first instalment of their three-part Archief voor vaderlandsche, en inzonderheid Vriesche geschiedenis, oudheid- en taalkunde (“Archive for national, especially Frisian history, antiquity and language”) came out in 1824, and included early-16th-century historical writings by Petrus Jacobi Thaborita on the factionalism of that period. Interest in the narrative among a wider readership elicited an annotated version of It aade Friesche terp (“The old Frisian dwelling-mound”), a 1677 compilation of late-16th-century local mythologies, including the origin and legendary antiquity of the Frisian people. In its own way, the Oera Linda boek (the notorious prank/forgery of 1872, purporting to be an “edition” of a primordially ancient chronicle) followed on from this idea.

Local documents were edited from the mid-century on, starting in 1850 with the Beneficiaalboeken (a 1543 registry of ecclesiastical land ownership). This edition had been suppressed in the 1778 edition of the Groot placaat- en charterboek, apparently for fear that it might alert Catholics as to their pre-Reformation possessions. These documents were now found to have use for topographical and other purposes, during legal cases and the negotiation of ecclesiastical affairs, as well as for the production of the new atlas of the province. This atlas, prepared for the provincial authorities by the provincial archivist Jacob van Leeuwen and the Leeuwarden city archivist Wopke Eekhoff, was an updated and expanded edition of the cadastral minutes of 1832. Eekhoff would also edit the 15th- and 16th-century charters of Leeuwarden’s St Anthony Hospital.

The Fries Genootschap undertook source editions of a more local nature, such as the 1880 publication of the Register van den aanbreng (land and tax inheritance records from 1511). After 1900, the Genootschap, influenced by the more positivist-inclined Frisian Movement, published, among others, the pre-1550 Frisian charters and a fresh edition (by Pieter Sipma and Jelle Hindrik Brouwer) of the works of the 17th-century poet Gysbert Japix.

With the name of Japix, we enter the category of literary text editions. Japix’s hypercanonical Friesche rymlerye (1668), the only substantial collected work of a pre-1755 Frisian poet, always attracted great interest, and has persistently been seen as a figurehead of Frisian culture. As early as 1785 there were calls for a new edition of the work, with glosses for the more difficult words; people looked to Everwinus Wassenbergh, a professor of Greek from Franeker, to undertake this, but in the event the edition was made by Wassenbergh’s student, the classicist Ecco Epkema. The work came out in two parts in 1821-24: the text itself and a comprehensive dictionary. In 1853, two anthologies were published, one for use at secondary schools, the other for the general reader. Despite repeated calls in the first half of the 19th century, a version specifically for primary schools was not forthcoming.

The history of the other two editions of older Frisian literature followed a different course. The popular Waatze Gribberts bruyloft (1701) was republished no fewer than seven times before 1840. Given the dearth of reading material in Frisian, this work filled a demand and can be seen as a rustic counterpart to Gysbert Japix. In 1820, Wassenbergh brought out a new edition with an introduction and annotations. He did this anonymously, since he feared tarnishing his academic standing by an association with the ribald text. He appreciated the work for its good prose style and its rootedness in Frisian popular life. That, it turned out, was a misapprehension; the work was later found to be a close translation of several Low German farces.

In Rimen en teltsjes (“Rhymes and tales”, 1871 and many reissues), Joast Halbertsma collected literary Frisian work written by himself and his brother, Eeltsje, the dispersed partial publications of which had begun in 1822. It became a widely and lastingly popular volume for domestic reading among Frisians.

Foeke Buitenrust Hettema produced the first scholarly anthology (1887-90), including an explanation of words and annotations, based on the entire collection of Frisian texts written after the Middle Ages.