Jumat, 29 Agustus 2008

Codex Manesse

medieval knight and horse

Herr Ulrich von Liechtenstein
[now where have I heard that name before?]



medieval musicians play for the king

Meister Heinrich Frauenlob



medieval man winched up castle wall

Herr Kristan von Hamle



jousting medieval knights

Herr Walther von Klingen



man reading scroll

Graf Rudolf von Neuenburg



tournament champion receiving tribute

Herzog Heinrich von Breslau



medieval falconry

Konradin von Hohenstaufen



male and female playing chess

Markgraf Otto IV. von Brandenburg



gathering in tent pavilion

Meister Gottfried von Straßburg



illuminated manuscript - male and coats of arms

Der Tannhäuser



backgammon game in medieval manuscript

Herr Goeli



knights in combat outside castle

Kristan von Luppin



medieval sailing ship

Herr Friedrich von Hausen



Codex Manesse may well be the quintessential medieval manuscript. The parade of miniatures - gallant knights and comely maidens, chess, backgammon and falconry, jousting tournaments and heraldry, castles and court musicians - feature the types of (near) cliché imagery we all immediately identify with the period.

The manuscript was compiled in the early 1300s at the request of the Manesse family in an attempt to record the major figures of the minnesang - the German tradition of composing and performing love songs, similar to the provincial troubadours of France.

The 137 manuscript illustrations depict 12th and 13th century poets (minnesänger) in scenes reflective of their names or themes from their songs. They mostly came from the nobility - Dukes, Kings and Counts - but sometimes the minnesang included educated members of the middle and lower classes.

The Manesse brothers observed that the bourgeois classes of their time were gaining in power, partly as a result of the 13th century interregnum that had seen much of the authority of the Holy Roman Empire ceded to territorial rulers. New forms of literature - particularly the fables - were replacing the minnesang as the dominant oral and written tradition, so the motivating force behind the production of Codex Manesse was as a means to preserve the history of the declining Germanic troubadour culture. Codex Manesse remains, therefore, the most important primary source document for love songs of the middle ages in middle high German.

Codex Manesse

medieval knight and horse

Herr Ulrich von Liechtenstein
[now where have I heard that name before?]



medieval musicians play for the king

Meister Heinrich Frauenlob



medieval man winched up castle wall

Herr Kristan von Hamle



jousting medieval knights

Herr Walther von Klingen



man reading scroll

Graf Rudolf von Neuenburg



tournament champion receiving tribute

Herzog Heinrich von Breslau



medieval falconry

Konradin von Hohenstaufen



male and female playing chess

Markgraf Otto IV. von Brandenburg



gathering in tent pavilion

Meister Gottfried von Straßburg



illuminated manuscript - male and coats of arms

Der Tannhäuser



backgammon game in medieval manuscript

Herr Goeli



knights in combat outside castle

Kristan von Luppin



medieval sailing ship

Herr Friedrich von Hausen



Codex Manesse may well be the quintessential medieval manuscript. The parade of miniatures - gallant knights and comely maidens, chess, backgammon and falconry, jousting tournaments and heraldry, castles and court musicians - feature the types of (near) cliché imagery we all immediately identify with the period.

The manuscript was compiled in the early 1300s at the request of the Manesse family in an attempt to record the major figures of the minnesang - the German tradition of composing and performing love songs, similar to the provincial troubadours of France.

The 137 manuscript illustrations depict 12th and 13th century poets (minnesänger) in scenes reflective of their names or themes from their songs. They mostly came from the nobility - Dukes, Kings and Counts - but sometimes the minnesang included educated members of the middle and lower classes.

The Manesse brothers observed that the bourgeois classes of their time were gaining in power, partly as a result of the 13th century interregnum that had seen much of the authority of the Holy Roman Empire ceded to territorial rulers. New forms of literature - particularly the fables - were replacing the minnesang as the dominant oral and written tradition, so the motivating force behind the production of Codex Manesse was as a means to preserve the history of the declining Germanic troubadour culture. Codex Manesse remains, therefore, the most important primary source document for love songs of the middle ages in middle high German.

Minggu, 24 Agustus 2008

Filipino Costumes

Male Filipino Costume

Un Yndio Natural



female Philippines costume

Una Joven, Mestiza



male guard uniform - the Philippines

A guardia de Vino
(an officer to look after the government monopolies, such as arrack and tobacco)



female Filipino costume with veil

A Damsel Going to Early Mass




male costume from Manilla

A Manila man




female attire from the Philippines

Una Yndia Natural, de Filipina



male wearing Philippines national costume: Barong Tagalog

Un Mestizo Chino



female costume Philippines

A señorita walking to church in the daytime



national costumes of the Philippines

A Spanish Mestiza of Manila



Filipino female costume

A country girl



Filipino costume - old woman

An Old Woman



Rich mestizo wearing Barong Tagalog

Rich mestizo



traditional costume of a Mandaya Woman

A Mandaya Woman

"Note the silver "patina" on her breast, and the load of armlets. The Mandaya women blacken their front teeth by holding a quid of tobacco and strongly acidic leaves between teeth and lips."
[IN: 'The non-Christian peoples of the Philippine Islands' by DC Worcester, 1913, among the Cornell University South East Asia Visions Collection]



engraving of Filipino costumes
Costumes des Habitans de Manille

[IN: 'Atlas du Voyage de la Perouse, no. 42', 1797 by Jean-Francois de Galaup, Comte de La Perouse. Drawing by JM Moreau; engraved by P Triere. [source]


All the images above (apart from the last two) come from a watercolour album from about 1841, online at NYPL. (there are a few more there I've not posted) The first half of the pictures above are displayed at full size. All of the NYPL images have been extensively background cleaned.

Incidentally, a few of the men are wearing the national male costume of the Philippines: Barong Tagalog (the female counterpart is called Baro't saya {Barbie or anime(!)})

Further Filipino costume illustrations: Skyscraper city forum and The Impact of Spanish Rule in the Philippines from the Tagalog language and cultural resources site at the University of Northern Illinois.

It's obviously an old site, but the People of the Philippines exhibition from the Museum of Anthropology at the California State University, East Bay, has some useful information, particularly about the distribution of ethnic groups across the Philippines.

I added costumes to the delicious tags recently.

Added later: See this article on the Boxer Codex (1595) that is said to depict the Tagalogs, Visayans, Zambals, Cagayanons and Negritos of the Philippines in vivid colors.

Filipino Costumes

Male Filipino Costume

Un Yndio Natural



female Philippines costume

Una Joven, Mestiza



male guard uniform - the Philippines

A guardia de Vino
(an officer to look after the government monopolies, such as arrack and tobacco)



female Filipino costume with veil

A Damsel Going to Early Mass




male costume from Manilla

A Manila man




female attire from the Philippines

Una Yndia Natural, de Filipina



male wearing Philippines national costume: Barong Tagalog

Un Mestizo Chino



female costume Philippines

A señorita walking to church in the daytime



national costumes of the Philippines

A Spanish Mestiza of Manila



Filipino female costume

A country girl



Filipino costume - old woman

An Old Woman



Rich mestizo wearing Barong Tagalog

Rich mestizo



traditional costume of a Mandaya Woman

A Mandaya Woman

"Note the silver "patina" on her breast, and the load of armlets. The Mandaya women blacken their front teeth by holding a quid of tobacco and strongly acidic leaves between teeth and lips."
[IN: 'The non-Christian peoples of the Philippine Islands' by DC Worcester, 1913, among the Cornell University South East Asia Visions Collection]



engraving of Filipino costumes
Costumes des Habitans de Manille

[IN: 'Atlas du Voyage de la Perouse, no. 42', 1797 by Jean-Francois de Galaup, Comte de La Perouse. Drawing by JM Moreau; engraved by P Triere. [source]


All the images above (apart from the last two) come from a watercolour album from about 1841, online at NYPL. (there are a few more there I've not posted) The first half of the pictures above are displayed at full size. All of the NYPL images have been extensively background cleaned.

Incidentally, a few of the men are wearing the national male costume of the Philippines: Barong Tagalog (the female counterpart is called Baro't saya {Barbie or anime(!)})

Further Filipino costume illustrations: Skyscraper city forum and The Impact of Spanish Rule in the Philippines from the Tagalog language and cultural resources site at the University of Northern Illinois.

It's obviously an old site, but the People of the Philippines exhibition from the Museum of Anthropology at the California State University, East Bay, has some useful information, particularly about the distribution of ethnic groups across the Philippines.

I added costumes to the delicious tags recently.

Added later: See this article on the Boxer Codex (1595) that is said to depict the Tagalogs, Visayans, Zambals, Cagayanons and Negritos of the Philippines in vivid colors.