TEODOR FLONTA

JAMAIS DEUX SANS TROIS / NON C'È DUE SENZA TRE

As the proverb in the bilingual title of this editorial confirms, De Proverbio has made it to the third issue. Just over a year has gone by since the publication of the first issue and international interest in our electronic journal can perhaps be best expressed in terms of numbers. The weekly statistics on the homepage reveal that, for the period of September '95-March '96, De Proverbio recorded more than 200,000 hits coming from countries as diverse as Bahrain, Romania, Hong Kong, Brazil, Kuwait, Lithuania, Indonesia, Taiwan, Croatia and the Slovak Republic, which encourages us to think proudly that our journal is contributing in furthering interest in paremiology and folklore across the planet.

The technological progress of the Internet software since the publication of our first issue has been enormous. We would like to keep up with it, but as our readers come from such diverse countries, some of them technologically and economically more disadvantaged than those in the Western World, we feel that, in order to help those who do not have access to the latest technological tools, content over technology should be our rule. However, as the cyberworld is changing very fast, and the Internet's appeal relies more and more on a combination of word, sound and image, I would like to ask our readers for ideas regarding a better graphic presentation of the journal and, perhaps, a new logo. We need all the help we can get because our journal does not have any resources apart from the editorial board and the editor's good will and enthusiasm.

I am very pleased to devote the present issue to the writings of two giants of paremiological studies: the late Professor Archer Taylor and the present world authority, Professor Wolfgang Mieder. I am very indebted indeed to Professor Mieder for having made available for this issue his article Archer Taylor the Paremiologist which was written originally as an introduction to his edition of Taylor's The Proverb published in 1985 by Peter Lang and his Bibliography of Archer Taylor's Proverb Studies published in the same volume.

As has become customary for our first issue of the year, we are publishing the international bibliographies of proverb collections and proverb studies compiled by Professor Mieder on a yearly basis. They are invaluable resources for anyone involved in or thinking of approaching serious paremiological research.

Copyright © Teodor Flonta

Teodor Flonta
April 1996