Un miscelaneu de literatură populară ilustrat (secolul al XIX-lea)
A Miscellany of Illustrated Popular Literature (the Nineteenth Century)

Summary/Abstract: The object of our communication is a complete Miscellany of popular literature (64 numbered pages), written by one hand, in the half of the 19th century. It is neither dated nor located. It is kept in the manuscript collection of the Botoșani County Service of the National Archives and comes from a private donation. From the research we have done, we can say that this Miscellany is unique due to the rich illustration in naive style, executed in watercolour, with a special charm. The decoration of the manuscript is composed of: miniatures (representing the signs in an artistic manner), ornate initials (some of them on whole sheets), polychrome vignettes, brightly coloured, with plant, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic motifs. Probably, as can be seen from the close dependence between text and illustrations, the expert hand in the art of writing is also the author of the illustration. The texts of the Miscellany belong to the astrological literature of prophecy and luck (The Zodiac, in two versions, a Book of Luck) and also to both religious literature and folk medicine (Cures, Enchantments and other Teachings). The graphic and linguistic peculiarities lead us to believe that it was copied in Moldova.

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