Dressing a City’s Demeanour: Ottoman Costume Albums and the Portrayal of Urban Identity in the Early Seventeenth Century

Abstract

The costume album remains an invaluable tool in revealing how patrons organised and catalogued their constantly expanding world through dress. Considering the success of the costume book as a booming market product in early modern Europe and its response in the bazaars of Ottoman Istanbul in the early seventeenth century, the topic warrants further examination of how these books shaped literate society’s perceptions of other cultures. Two early costume albums illustrate a compelling dialogue concerning the population of Ottoman Istanbul, both commissioned in bazaars by foreign travellers: the Warsaw Album of the Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie (BOZ 165), and the Peter Mundy Album currently residing at the British Museum (Add. 23880/1974-6-7-013). My paper assesses how these books create contrasting portrayals of power and social diversity in the Ottoman Empire by using depictions of dress as windows into cultural mores. I explore how each book attempts to form a city portrait through its compilation of characters and dress in the albums. With these sources, I highlight how the joint efforts of Ottoman artists and foreign patrons offer a surprising range of interpretation, despite their mass-produced reputation in scholarship. This study highlights the considerable role of the European compiler as a curatorial agent in this process.