About the Cover Illustration

The figure on the cover of RabbitMQ in Action is captioned “A farmer from Lumbarda, island of Korcula, Croatia.” The illustration is taken from a reproduction of an album of Croatian traditional costumes from the mid-nineteenth century by Nikola Arsenovic, published by the Ethnographic Museum in Split, Croatia, in 2003. The illustrations were obtained from a helpful librarian at the Ethnographic Museum in Split, 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.

Lumbarda is small fishing village of approximately 1,200 inhabitants. It is situated on the northeastern coast of the island of Korcula, one of a number of small islands in the Adriatic off the western coast of Croatia. The farmer on the cover is wearing his work clothes, not one of the colorful and richly embroidered costumes that are typical for this region, worn only on Sundays and other special occasions. His everyday outfit consists of well-patched brown trousers and a brown vest worn over a white linen shirt, and a straw hat on his head. He is smoking a pipe, leaning on a spade, and, appropriately enough, looking down at a white rabbit, in a moment of rest from his toils.

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’s 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.