Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 7. (Budapest, 1964)
HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM — MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Kovács, György: An Illustrated Wayang Book
dexter fore-paw there is a curved broadsword held point upward, its empty left forepaw is held downward. Its curving tail forms an s ending in a threeprongecl tuft, the centre branch of which is the longest. The two inscriptions enclosed between the three circumferences begin at the centre of the lion's crown and move in clockwise direction. The Dutch inscription is drawn in the same outlined letters as the initials V. D. L. and it is one of the mottoes from the Orange-Nassau coat of arms: ,,God zy met ons". The word ,,zy" found in the described Dutch national emblem follows the orthography of the 18th century. The other inscription, which also begins at the lion's crown in Roman letters interwoven like tendrils, is: ,,Concordia res parvae crescunt". 5 This motto reminds us of the origin of the name of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) operating between 1602 and 1798. 6 The inscription was written with pen and ink and in places it is so finely executed that it reminds us of brush strokes, especially in case of the captions. A complete unillustrated page contains 18—19 lines pre-ruled in pencil, while an illustrated side has approximately 1/2 or 2/3 the number. The beginning and end of the lines are marked by two vertical pencil strokes running the length of the page. The writing is in cursive Javanese (miring) and legible. As a whole it gives the impression of calligraphy with minor corrections and additions. It has one peculiarity though, the sign of r (tjakra), after a consonant, does not begin under the consonant but to the left of it. Ascending, it results in a form identical to the symbol of the short i which follows a consonant in the devanagari writing. One line usually contains 20 aksara (consonant symbols), an average of 40 sounds including the inherent a, the vowels written below and above the aksara (sandangngan) and the combined consonants (pasangngan). Coloured floral decorations are found in ten sections where certain portions of the text begin. One is unpainted, being only outlined in pencil. Only one of these pages is illustrated, but the beginning of each verse is indicated in red before the initial letter. The entire text is metrical and only rarely do a few words break it. Several types of metres are used, the most common contains 8 lines of 8 syllables each, concluded by a 12 syllable line. 7 The names of the characters are not written in an identical way; minor differences may be found. In addition to the characters illustrated several other names are mentioned in the script, but these will not be taken up here. Those depicted appear several times and therefore they require separate listing. The characters illustrated vary in height, between 6 and 20 cm., and it was possible to name shome of them on the basis of the captions. The rather 5 The Javanese letters so sompletely cover the Latin inscription of the watermark that only a few of the highly stylized Latin syllables were identified. In completing the fragmentary inscription I am greatly indebted to dr. József Fazakas, researcher at the Széchényi Library. 6 Angoulvant, Gabriel : Les Indes Néerlandaises. Paris 1926. Vol. I. pp. 24 — 32. 7 Hooykaas Chr : The Old-Javanese Rámáyana . . . Amsterdam 1958. P. 81.
