The Costume Book of Lambert de Vos

The Costume Book of Lambert de Vos

The Costume Book of Lambert de Vos is one of the most precious testimonies to the reciprocal relations between Orient and Occident in the 16th century. In early modern Europe, interest in the politics, society and military of the Ottoman Empire grew, not least due to its increasing imperial policy. After the fall of the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire in 1453, the Ottoman sultans sought to expand their dominion to the north and west. This resulted in the so-called Ottoman Wars, which the sultans waged against European states between the 15th and 19th centuries. In Europe, enemy images of the invaders quickly became established, but this was accompanied by a fascination with the culture of the "new power ".

A Precious Specimen of a Fascinating Genre

This interest in the Ottoman society is probably most colorfully reflected in the so-called "Turkish costume books ", which formed a genre of their own in Europe from the 16th century onwards. The numerous accounts by travelers, merchants and diplomats fuelled the desire for pictorial representations of the stories told. To this day, around 120 manuscript costume books or parts of them have survived. Of these, the Bremen example is one of the best preserved and particularly magnificently furnished. It is particularly renowned for its portrait of Sultan Selim II (1524–1574) and the huge bridal procession made up of several leaves, which can be folded out.

The Ottoman Society from the Perspective of a Fleming

The manuscript's excellently documented origin is also remarkable: an entry by the artist proves that it was created in 1574 by Lambert de Vos (around 1538 – after 1574) for the Imperial Ambassador in Constantinople Karel Rijm (1533–1584). Little is known about the Flemish illuminator himself. De Vos probably came from Mechelen and was in Constantinople from around 1572, where he was associated with diplomats and envoys for whom he illuminated a number of codices.
He decorated the Costume Book for the ambassador with 103 full-page depictions of members of the Ottoman society, especially those from Constantinople. The work can be divided into four hierarchical segments: It begins with the Sultan and his courtiers, followed by clergymen and the male population of the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman women are then depicted, followed by national-religious minorities and provincials. All the images are in an exceptionally good state of preservation and were painted on valuable Genoese paper, which was smoothed in an oriental manner.

A Beautiful Cimelia from the Bremen University Library

Created in Constantinople, the codex probably found its way to Bremen in the 17th century as a diplomatic gift. At this time, Bremen was frequently present at the imperial court through legations. At the beginning of the 18th century, the manuscript was certainly one of the curiosities and treasures of the Bibliotheca Bremensis, as the Frankfurt patrician and bibliophile Conrad Zacharias von Uffenbach (1683–1734) recounts in his Travelogue, in which he enthuses about the work's craftsmanship: "It is incomparably done, and one cannot wonder enough how the colors, especially the blue, which otherwise is quite changeable, are preserved so well and high as it is only water colors. "