The first publication to be printed in Latvian was a catechism which appeared in 1585. The first Latvian dictionary, Lettus, was compiled by Georg Mancelius in 1638. The German monks who wrote these texts used a version of the the Fractur alphabet adapted from German which was ill suited to the Latvian language. This alphabet was used until the mid 1930s, when it was replaced with a modified version of the Latin alphabet devised by Dr. J. Endzelins and K. Mühlenbach.