Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 7. (Budapest, 1964)

HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM — MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Kovács, György: An Illustrated Wayang Book

wayang scripts. This caused difficulty in treating the illustrated script of the 1962 acquisitions of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Art (inventory number 62.522). The task was further complicated by the fact that the purchased manuscript is incomplete. The first and last pages which very likely contained data about the origin of the script, or perhaps a chronogram

3 or, even more important, the title, are missing. Nevertheless, the manuscript deserves attention and promises to the theme studied and to research on wayang literature in general. Naturally the illustrations are the focus of treatment and evaluation here. The text, only insofar as it can elaborate the theme and lend support to the author's statements, does not concern this study. Before we actually begin I would like to express my appreciation to Edit Tóth for the iconographical contribution. TT. The manuscript, comprising seventy-six 33 X 21 cm. pages, in aged but good condition, is held by two 34X22 cm. pieces of cardboard which were probably added later to protect the manuscript. The pages are in good condition, some are spotted and there are indications of having come into contact with water. The pages were originally bound in book form as uncut sheets and from traces of gluing we can assume they were standardly bound although the majority of the pages became separated from the binding through use. The edges are somewhat ragged, but neither this nor the discolourations mar the illustrations or the text. When the Museum acquired it the unnumbered pages did not follow the original order. Therefore it was necessary to rearrange them according to context and assign temporary numbers. Only one page differs from the rest. The text is framed by a thin red line. In the upper margin someone wrote ,,title page". This is misleading because the text begins with the continuation of a sentence carried over from a previous page. Signs of gluing along the left lateral margin also prove this. Three types of watermarks are found on the various pages. The first, the outlined initials V. D. L., occupies a 6,5 cm. square in the centre of the page. The V and L are 1,8 cm. high while the D is only 1 cm. They must stand for Van der Ley, one of the founders of the old Dutch paper manufacturing who was living in the 18th century.

4 The two other watermarks represent the same, only their circular inscriptions differ. The diameters of the two concentric circles are 10,5 and 10,1 cm. and there is a crown directly above them. The upper rim of the simple base is scalloped and from it rise three widening arches which are surmounted by a small Maltese cross at the place of their meeting. The height of the crown is 4,8 cm.; its greatest width (at the upper part) is 5,8 cm. Within these two circles there is a third one having a diameter of 7,4 cm. and containing a 6 cm. high lion rampant. On its head there is a simple triple branched crown. In its 3 Humboldt, W. v. : Über die Kawi-Sprache auf der Insel Java, Berlin 1836 — 1838, Bd. 1. Pp. 19 ff. 4 Heawood, E. : Watermarks mainly of the 17th and 18th centuries. Hilversum 1950. p. 26.