On the cover of Event Processing in Action is “A habitant of Risi,” a hamlet in the interior of the peninsula of Istria in the Adriatic Sea, off Croatia (see map). The illustration is from a recent reproduction of a book of Croatian dress customs, Characterization and Description of Southwestern Wende, Illyrians and Slavs, by Balthasar Hacquet, originally published around 1800. The illustrations were obtained from a helpful librarian at the Ethnographic Museum in Split, Croatia, itself situated in the Roman core of the medieval center of the town: the ruins of Emperor Diocletian’s retirement palace from around AD 304. The book includes finely colored illustrations of figures from different regions of Croatia, accompanied by descriptions of the costumes and of everyday life. About Risi we learn that

In this part of Istria, men wear black felt hats, jackets made of brown meslanka,¹ trousers with garters below the knee, as well as white socks and shoes with clasps. Short vests with small buttons are worn over dark red shirts. The men carry a bag with small personal items and weapons such as an axe, rifle, or sword. An Istrian is generally of medium height with black hair. His ancestry is a mix of Italian and Slav, and he is considered both impulsive and bold.

Istrian dances recall Greek dances and the accompanying music is played on vidalice,² harps, bagpipes, or fiddles. Highland populations produce a variety of objects made of wood, such as paddles, drums, boxes, and so on. Because roads are rare, they use donkeys to transport these goods, and the rest of what they need is brought to the towns by sea. The main occupation of the population is mountain cattle and sheep breeding, not only for the wool, but mainly for the sake of trade and the good prices of meat.

Our particular Istrian is carrying a bag with his personal items and he has a number of daggers and pistols in his belt, but no rifle or axe. Instead he is holding an impressively long pipe.

Dress codes and lifestyles have changed over the last 200 years, and the diversity by region, so rich at the time, has faded away. It is now hard to tell apart the inhabitants of different continents, let alone of different hamlets or towns separated by only a few miles. Perhaps we have traded cultural diversity for a more varied personal life—certainly for a more varied and fast-paced technological life.

Manning celebrates the inventiveness and initiative of the computer business with book covers based on the rich diversity of regional life of two centuries ago, brought back to life by illustrations from old books and collections like this one.

¹This Croatian word comes from the Italian “mezzo lana,” which means a mixture of wool.
²Double flute made of a single block of wood. They have a single mouthpiece, but two channels that direct the air flow into two separate pipes.