This week I examined two copies of a Fibelbuch, or primer, published by Freidrich Geissler in Leipzig to make sure that they were correctly described. The texts were identical, consisting of an alphabet, list of vowels, a syllabary, the Ten Commandments, Pater Noster, Creed, proverbs, and multiplication table all in a Gothic type.
They had different sets of illustrations, however. One has depictions of skilled tradesmen and shopkeepers, with humorous details like a baby trying out its new wicker walker, a boy blowing up a bladder in the butcher’s shop, or a boy trying pots on his head while his mother negotiated the price for a new piece of crockery.
The other copy features pictures of men and women in different national costumes–Tyrolers, Turks, Finns, Spaniards, and Cossacks. For some reason, farmers are featured prominently, with couples from Saxony, Altenberger, Tartary, Russia, and Poland. The pictures of Russian and Poland farmers are paired with pictures of a Russian merchant and his wife and a Polish Jew and his wife.
The one of the Polish Jews caught my eye. The buildings in the background suggest that they are city dwellers like the Russian merchant and his wife. The bearded Polish man wears a tall hat, boots, and ankle-length dark robe belted with a wide yellow sash. His wife wears drop earrings, an orange dress with a form-fitting bodice and lace yoke, a tall yellow headdress, and dainty slippers.
A a b c d e f ff g. Leipzig: Greidrich Geissler, ca. 1830. (Cotsen 46436)
I had no idea of the significance of the yellow headdress and sash until I showed the illustration to Ian, who explained that those garments must have been a sartorial marker similar to the yellow badge or patch Jews in Nazi Germany were required to sew to their clothing to distinguish them from Aryans.
Given the long history of laws in Europe and the Near East that required Jews to wear on their clothes markers that unequivocably announced their Jewishness to everyone else, it seems unlikely that it was coincidence or the whim of the colorist. But there’s no text that explains the significance of the yellow garments to the child reader.
Is this something a child in Leipzig who was just learning to read would already know? This is a troubling question that cannot be answered here, but it is a powerful reminder that the pleasing pictures in alphabets can communicate silently ideas of sameness and difference. The illustration of the Polish Jew and his wife is an excellent example of a descriptive and value-free picture that looks innocent until we learn how to read it.
To look through the entire pamphlet, click here
