DACE BULA (RIGA, LATVIA) Latvian Folksongs: Collected, Published and Studied 1 Abstract: Early descriptions and documentations of Latvian folksongs are found in several types of historical sources spanning the time period from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. In the pre-Romantic period, three Baltic German pastors were most notable for their interest in Latvian singing traditions: Paul Einhorn, Georg Manzel and Gotthard Friedrich Stender. In the eighteenth century, Latvian folk poetry was noticed by several Herder’s contemporaries: Johann Georg Hamann, Johann Jacob Harder and Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel. Herder’s visit to Latvia reinforced an already existing interest in folk poetry and created a circle of Baltic German collaborators and followers, involved in collecting and publishing folksongs, among them: Gustav Bergmann, Friedrich Daniel Wahr, Georg Friedrich Büttner. In the second half of the nineteenth century, folkloristic pursuit was taken over by emerging Latvian national activists. The collection and publication of folklore were among the primary tasks of the Young 1 The survey does not inculde the ethnomusicological aspect; for the history of collecting, publishing and studying Latvian folksong melodies, see Martin Boiko’s article „Latvian Ethnomusicology: Past and Present”.