The international journal "Proverbium" appeared in 25 issues from 1965 to 1975 under the primary editorship of Archer Taylor and Matti Kuusi in Helsinki, Finland. Articles appeared either in English, French, German or Russian, and the subject matter of the 208 papers by major proverb scholars is very diverse indeed. There can be no doubt that -Proverbium- is a scholarly -goldmine- for anyone interested in the many facets of proverbs.
A number of papers investigate the origin and meaning of individual proverbs, while others attempt to differentiate among such genres as proverb, proverbial expression, proverbial comparison, wellerism, maxim, quotation, etc. There are also articles investigating the use and function of proverbs in literature or in the press, and significant bibliographies of the proverb scholarship of a country or region are also included. And, of course, studies abound which deal with such theoretical issues as the linguistic, structural and semiotic aspects of proverbs.
In order to make the journal more accessible, Matti Kuusi has added a name and subject index to the last issue. He has also provided an informative account of the genesis of Proverbium for this two-volume reprint. Wolfgang Mieder, as the editor of this reprint, has added a preface and a detailed annotated bibliography in the form of English abstracts for each of the major articles at the end of the second volume."