Saturday, November 26, 2005

Transylvanian Costumes








La popolatione di Transilvania is the name of this manuscript of unknown origin that (I think) was collected during the political or ambassadorial career of Luigi Ferdinando Marsili. The manuscript was produced sometime in the 17th or 18th century. The display text below outlines the provenance of the document and advises that the population of Transylvania was made up of various ethnic and religious groups which are represented in the illustrations, including anabaptists. (paraphrase of poor translation with a little guessing)

It is displayed by the University of Bologna Librit website which has a javascript arrangement making it impossible for this non-techie digital pillager to supply a direct link. It's the middle manuscript from this page but there are only a couple more figures there anyway.
"La popolatione di Transilvania composta di varie nationi di diverse lingue, religio-ni, usi, e vestiti. Ms., sec. XVII-XVIII, cartaceo, mm 455x303, cc. II, 39. Provenienza: Luigi Ferdinando Marsili. Collocazione: Ms. Marsili 15.
I rapporti di Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, generale dell?esercito austriaco, con la Tran-silvania, furono innumerevoli proprio a motivo delle campagne militari da lui svolte al servizio dell?impero; e percio naturale trovare fra i suoi manoscritti moltissimo materiale riguardante la storia, la geografia, la storia naturale e l?etnografia di questa regione. Qui sono raffigurati, con vivacita ed immediatezza, i costumi delle varie popolazioni transilvane, fra le quali sono curiosamente compresi anche gli "anabattisti"."

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