With eighteen hand-painted illustrations

[Malay manuscript]. [Pawukon]. Illustrated manuscript in Malay.

€ 24.000,00

A manuscript in Malay Jawi script illuminated with mythical figures in the margins. These figures illustrate what is likely the text of the Pawukon, a calendrical manuscript which explains and illustrates elements of the traditional Javanese calendar that arose in and around Central Java and Yogyakarta in Indonesia, but over time spread to neighbouring areas. Pawukon manuscripts were often written in both Javanese and Malay, and describe the complexity of different aspects of the calendrical system, especially the thirty-week wuku cycle. A Pawukon manuscript serves as a calendar, an almanac, and a horoscope as needed; it is mathematically impressively complex, synchronizes Muslim holidays with local methods of timekeeping, and is often illustrated with mythological scenes.

This manuscript is illustrated with eighteen figures, sixteen of which appear in the margins, each drawn in ink and coloured in washes of yellow, red, and green. The first appears as a full-page frontispiece, and the last is a large half-page illustration below the final lines of text. Above it, a contemporary hand has written in a Romanized alphabet "Soemoatra" (presumably Sumatra) and "Alia ka talim".

Some light edgewear and soiling; a few professional repairs to covers. An interesting example of the Malay Jawi script manuscript tradition.