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Mavi Boncuk |
Constantinople and the scenery of the seven churches of Asia Minor – illustrated in a series of drawings from nature by Thomas Allom with an illustrated account of Constantinople and description of the plates by the Rev. Robert Walsh LL.D. chaplain to the British Embassy at the Ottoman Porte.[1]
In the beginning of the last century it contained 28,000 persons, of whom 11,000 were Christians of the Greek, Armenian, and Latin churches, which have their respective temples, monasteries, and bishops. The present population is estimated at 100,000. It contains a number of Protestants sufficient to form a congregation for religious worship; and it is the only one of the towns of the Apocalypse in which is established a church of the Reformation.
The city describes a semicircle, at the lower termination of its noble bay; its site is low and alluvial, and embosomed in a range of hills. The Franks carry on an immense trade, by exchanging the produce of the West for that of the East. Caravans daily arrive from Persia, bringing raw silks and drugs, and ships from Europe with cochineal [crimson dye obtained from the crushed bodies of the same named Mexican insect], indigo etc; but the most remarkable commodity in which the English trade, is fruit. Charles II, it seems was so fond of figs, that he directed his ambassador, Sir T. Finch, to conclude a commercial treaty, by which two ship-loads should be allowed for the king’s table; and under the shadow of this, all England has since been supplied with them. The drying and packing of these form an animated and entertaining scene in Smyrna at the season.
The Frank quarter, which the Europeans occupy, forms a spacious terrace, or marino, along the seashore, ventilated by the fresh and welcome breath of the never-failing Inbat. The edifices in which the merchants reside, are divided into stores and offices below, and above into corridors and galleries which communicate with various apartments and salons opening on the sea, the breezes from which circulate through them with a constant current. The Turkish quarter is perfectly Oriental, consisting of narrow streets, with balconies projecting one over the other till they nearly meet at the top, excluding light and air. One is given in our illustration, its dark and distant prospect terminated by the hill of the Acropolis, and its narrow passage nearly obstructed by a single file of loaded camels, bringing to the Frank quarters the produce of Persia and India, to be exchanged for that of Europe and America.
British Museum library at St Pancreas, London - shelf mark 562*.d.26
[1] Robert Walsh (1772-1852) was an Irish priest who was resident in Constantinople as a chaplain to Lord Strangford's Embassy from 1
821 to 1824 and from 1830 to 1835. Thomas Allom (1804-1872) was a British architect (the church at Highbury as well as Saint Peter's church in Notting Hill are his creations) who abandoned his practice and travelled for nine months (c. 1836-1837) in Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine and Constantinople.
R. Walsh and Th. Allom worked together on the publication of a travel album for the Fischer publishing house. Outcome of their collaboration is this two-volume edition, with drawings by Allom, Hervé and others, and accompanying explanatory texts by Walsh. This book enjoys wide circulation to this day and together with Miss Julia Pardoe's work is one of the most characteristic albums of that period, extolling mainly the architectural and natural beauties of the multicultural capital of the Ottoman Empire.
The album opens with a thorough historical introduction and a detailed list with information on the emperors and sultans. This is followed by an array of images of monuments (mosques, fountains, cisterns, castles, cemeteries, palaces, etc.), neighbourhoods and scenes from everyday life (public bathhouses, markets, cafés, etc.) in Constantinople, enchanting the reader with their beauty. This city was enhanced in travel works of the nineteenth century, both by captivating descriptions and by pictorial representations in the style of this edition.
The work also includes views from Albania, Epirus, Thrace, the Bosporus, Adrianople and Giannena, as well as from the seven cities of Asia Minor (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyateira, Sardes, Philadelphia and Laodicea). In the last book of the New Testament, the "Revelation of John", written on Patmos around AD 96, these are referred to as the seven early Christian Churches-communities to which this eschatological text is addressed. The "Revelation" was the stimulus of many journeys, not exclusively pilgrimages. From the mid-seventeenth to the late nineteenth century, it occasioned spiritual inquiries and meditations of European travellers intent on visiting these ruins and cities in Asia Minor.
Written by Ioli Vingopoulou
Clik here to view.
Mavi Boncuk |Constantinople and the scenery of the seven churches of Asia Minor – illustrated in a series of drawings from nature by Thomas Allom with an illustrated account of Constantinople and description of the plates by the Rev. Robert Walsh LL.D. chaplain to the British Embassy at the Ottoman Porte.[1]
In the beginning of the last century it contained 28,000 persons, of whom 11,000 were Christians of the Greek, Armenian, and Latin churches, which have their respective temples, monasteries, and bishops. The present population is estimated at 100,000. It contains a number of Protestants sufficient to form a congregation for religious worship; and it is the only one of the towns of the Apocalypse in which is established a church of the Reformation.
The city describes a semicircle, at the lower termination of its noble bay; its site is low and alluvial, and embosomed in a range of hills. The Franks carry on an immense trade, by exchanging the produce of the West for that of the East. Caravans daily arrive from Persia, bringing raw silks and drugs, and ships from Europe with cochineal [crimson dye obtained from the crushed bodies of the same named Mexican insect], indigo etc; but the most remarkable commodity in which the English trade, is fruit. Charles II, it seems was so fond of figs, that he directed his ambassador, Sir T. Finch, to conclude a commercial treaty, by which two ship-loads should be allowed for the king’s table; and under the shadow of this, all England has since been supplied with them. The drying and packing of these form an animated and entertaining scene in Smyrna at the season.
The Frank quarter, which the Europeans occupy, forms a spacious terrace, or marino, along the seashore, ventilated by the fresh and welcome breath of the never-failing Inbat. The edifices in which the merchants reside, are divided into stores and offices below, and above into corridors and galleries which communicate with various apartments and salons opening on the sea, the breezes from which circulate through them with a constant current. The Turkish quarter is perfectly Oriental, consisting of narrow streets, with balconies projecting one over the other till they nearly meet at the top, excluding light and air. One is given in our illustration, its dark and distant prospect terminated by the hill of the Acropolis, and its narrow passage nearly obstructed by a single file of loaded camels, bringing to the Frank quarters the produce of Persia and India, to be exchanged for that of Europe and America.
British Museum library at St Pancreas, London - shelf mark 562*.d.26
[1] Robert Walsh (1772-1852) was an Irish priest who was resident in Constantinople as a chaplain to Lord Strangford's Embassy from 1
821 to 1824 and from 1830 to 1835. Thomas Allom (1804-1872) was a British architect (the church at Highbury as well as Saint Peter's church in Notting Hill are his creations) who abandoned his practice and travelled for nine months (c. 1836-1837) in Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine and Constantinople.
R. Walsh and Th. Allom worked together on the publication of a travel album for the Fischer publishing house. Outcome of their collaboration is this two-volume edition, with drawings by Allom, Hervé and others, and accompanying explanatory texts by Walsh. This book enjoys wide circulation to this day and together with Miss Julia Pardoe's work is one of the most characteristic albums of that period, extolling mainly the architectural and natural beauties of the multicultural capital of the Ottoman Empire.
The album opens with a thorough historical introduction and a detailed list with information on the emperors and sultans. This is followed by an array of images of monuments (mosques, fountains, cisterns, castles, cemeteries, palaces, etc.), neighbourhoods and scenes from everyday life (public bathhouses, markets, cafés, etc.) in Constantinople, enchanting the reader with their beauty. This city was enhanced in travel works of the nineteenth century, both by captivating descriptions and by pictorial representations in the style of this edition.
The work also includes views from Albania, Epirus, Thrace, the Bosporus, Adrianople and Giannena, as well as from the seven cities of Asia Minor (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyateira, Sardes, Philadelphia and Laodicea). In the last book of the New Testament, the "Revelation of John", written on Patmos around AD 96, these are referred to as the seven early Christian Churches-communities to which this eschatological text is addressed. The "Revelation" was the stimulus of many journeys, not exclusively pilgrimages. From the mid-seventeenth to the late nineteenth century, it occasioned spiritual inquiries and meditations of European travellers intent on visiting these ruins and cities in Asia Minor.
Written by Ioli Vingopoulou