Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 13. (Budapest, 1993)
PÁSZTOR Emese: A Jancsika - egy 17. századi török lótakaró típus
EMESE PÁSZTOR "JANCSIKA" - A CAPARISON TYPE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY Separate chapters are devoted to ornamental horse equipment (or "horse dresses" as they were called in old Hungarian) in the sixteenth-seventeenth century inventories or lists of treasury and moveables of the Hungarian aristocracy and nobitlity. The sources distinguish "viselő" (everyday) pieces for normal use and "pompára való" (gala) sets for special occasions - weddings, baptizing ceremonies or funerals - but they were also worn in order to give respect when meeting a high-ranking officer of government administration. The latter type of horse gear, called "úri paripa" (gentlemen's horse) in the sources, was decorated with gold, silver, precious stones and valuable fabrics; beside highlighting an important event, these sets were also expressing the wealth and power of their owner. 1 While simple equipment for normal, everyday use usually became worn through time, and we know them only from the descriptions, the gala sets were protected in treasuries and as late as the end of the nineteenth century many of them were exhibited 2 and some can still be found in museum collections 3 . Analyzing and comparing them with the sources we may get a better insight to the splendour of Hungarian aristocracy and nobility from which only fragments have remained for today. Among the pieces of horse equipment, the most interesting ones are caparisons and saddle covers' 1 . Hungarian literature refers to both as "csó/íír'Y'tshotarV although this word - originating from the Turkish guitar /'chultar'/ 5 - means only a type of the diverse carpet-like covers that hid the saddle of horses led on various ceremonies; many other variations are also represented in contemporary descriptions. Perhaps the most frequently used name for these is "c<7/ri7g"/'tsafragh7(see a j so caprag, cafrang, csaprag), which originates form the Ottoman-Turkish word çaprak 6 . Instead of csótár, which is incorrectly used today, it was this word that was used as a collective term for all kinds of saddle covers 7 . In the lists, cafrags are usually followed, by a separate group of covers of mainly Turkish origin, such as csótár, jakub, kecse /'ketshe'/, velence or kápa. 8 In the middle of the seventeenth century a new expression turns up in the lists of horse equipment: the word "jancsik" /'yantshik'/(see also Jancsika, jancsenka), which survives only for a hundred years in Hungarian. Many researches have already tried to explain the word. Sándor Szilágyi defined it as "a small sack to be hung on the saddle" 9 , Antal Beke and Samu Barabás thought it to be "a thin horse harness, mounted with gold" 10 , while Kálmán Thaly was convinced that the piece is a "Turkish csótár" 11 . Zsuzsa Kakuk, on the other hand, originates the word from the Ottoman-Turkish yancik /'yanjiq'/, meaning sack in the first place and caparison, horse