On the Intersection of Kıyâfetü’l-İnsâniyye Fî Şemâili’l-Osmâniyye (National Library of Vienna (ÖNB) COD. H.O. 25) and ‘Silsilenâme-i Al-i Osman’ (Istanbul University Rare Books Library TY.9366)

Abstract

This article examines the manuscript Kıyâfetü’l-insâniyye fî şemâili’l-Osmâniyye, registered under the inventory number Cod. H.O.25 in the Austrian National Library (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) in Vienna, which is regarded as one of the significant examples of the Ottoman portrait tradition. The work, a copy of the manuscript prepared in 1579 by Seyyid Lokman for Sultan Murad III, contains the biographies and portraits of twelve Ottoman sultans, from Osman Gazi to Murad III. The portraits largely preserve the compositional scheme developed by Nakkaş Osman in the late sixteenth century; the arrangement of frames, the use of color, and the gold-leaf embellishments reflect the stylistic characteristics of the palace atelier of the period.

Although the absence of a colophon leaves the production date and the identity of the painter uncertain, the text on the first page and references to Hoca Sadeddin Efendi suggests that the Vienna Şemailnâme may have been prepared at his request and that he may have written the text on the first page. The similarity of the binding decorations to two manuscripts dated 1583 and 1584 in the Topkapı Palace Museum Library supports dating the Vienna copy to the late sixteenth century.

The research also analyzes visual connections between the Vienna manuscript and the Silsilenâme-i Âl-i Osman (TY.9366), dated to the eighteenth century and preserved in the Rare Books Library of Istanbul University. It was determined that the first twelve sultan portraits in the Silsilenâme were derived—apart from minor differences—from the Vienna Şemailnâme, although the artist exercised certain compositional liberties. This indicates that processes of modeling, reproduction, and creative interpretation functioned simultaneously in Ottoman miniature art.

In conclusion, the Vienna manuscript H.O.25 constitutes an important source for understanding both the transmission of the Ottoman sultan portrait tradition and the documentation of the aesthetic principles of sixteenth-century palace art.