THE “PETER MUNDY” ALBUM DATED 1618: A SURVEY ABOUT THE FIGURES

During the reign of sultan süleyman, cultural relations showed progress because of the privileges the ottoman state had given to the europeans and thus, the production of travel and illustrated books increased in number. this kind of an interest towards diverse geographies which was raised in this period in europe, caused the production of ottoman clothing albums; and these albums had been useful to travelers who were to discover a foreign culture. the first of these albums were produced at the beginning of the xviith century in istanbul by the painters out of the court. most of these albums, which were usually taken out of turkey by their foreign patrons, are kept in museums, libraries and special collections. peter mundy, who is the patron of this album, arrived to turkey as the representative of an english commercial firm called “turkey company” in 1616 and ordered an album consisting ottoman clothes worn by different people. this album that he took away with him to london, is being kept in the collection of illustrated manuscripts of the british museum in 1974-6-17-013 inventory number. it is called the “peter mundy album” and it was completed in 1618. in this paper, this album would be introduced and six figures out of 59 paintings would be discussed in terms of their poses.