TRANSKULTUROWE I KOSTIUMOLOGICZNE ZNACZENIE KSIĘGI UBIORU NA PRZYKŁADZIE HISZPAŃSKIEGO BOXER CODEX W NOWOŻYTNEJ EUROPIE
THE TRANSCULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE AND THE SIGNIFICANCE FOR COSTUMING OF A BOOK ON DRESS: THE BOXER CODEX IN EARLY-MODERN EUROPE

Summary/Abstract: The Boxer Codex is a Spanish manuscript dated approximately to 1590. It was written in the Philippines in Manila, having been commissioned by the contemporary governor of Manila, Gomez Pérez Desmariñas. The document is called after the name of the last private owner of the codex, Charles R. Boxer, a historian and specialist on the history of colonialism in Asia. It contains illustrations showing figures in costumes representing peoples living in areas colonized by the Spaniards in Asia (The Philippines) and neighbouring lands, such as China, Japan, the Spice Islands (the Moluccas), Brunei, Java, Siam (Thailand), Northern and Central Vietnam, and others. Alongside the illustrations are texts describing the geog- raphy and customs of the minorities who live there; these, research shows, may be copies from the work of Martin de Rada, Miguel Rojo de Brito, and other anonymous authors.This article examines the manuscript from the perspective of costume studies. Because of the very extensive material in the manuscript, the author has selected several illustrations connected with Chinese dress in order to show its richness and the first European view of Chinese culture on the threshold of modern times. The author juxtaposes these with the already well-known accounts of the Polish sinologist Michał Boym (1612-1659). Boym’s accounts of Chinese dress (and not just of that) form a supplement to the illustrations from The Boxer Codex. This manuscript is also one of the first documents relating to the so-called volumes of costumes, which were put together both in Europe and in the Far East, and which made it possible to learn about still undiscovered countries and their inhabitants.

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