Oldal 31 [31]
28
Vilmos Voigt
English, Scots, and Irishmen; the Germans and Belgians; the Italians; the Span¬
ish; the Hungarians, Poles, and Muscovites; and the Turks and Jews. The last seven
synthetic chapters cover mental capacities and character, the power of obnoxious¬
ness, tyrants and legitimate rulers, men in the service of the court, magistrates and
patrons, divine experience, and religious leaders. There is no summarizing chapter,
conclusion, or postscript in the work; nor are there illustrations, maps, or pictures
of Europe or of the Europeans. The original publication has no explanatory notes or
indices. To the later editions, notes and remarks were added, first in Latin and later
in German, explaining difficult phrases, deciphering allusions, and adding further
hints for the correct understanding of the sentences. However, these later additions
do not change the premises or the conclusions of Barclay’s original work.
The extremely well-educated author deals with four major topics: the general
characteristics of man; the spirit of different historic ages; a description of the great
European countries and nations; and the education, behavior, and capacities of
men of various social status. It is not surprising that Barclay did not use the term
“European,” neither in the title nor in the chapters of his book, because the context
of his book was self-evident.
For contemporary readers, his third topic, the description of a dozen European
peoples, is the most important. The order of the peoples described is essentially
practical (from the viewpoint of the author): he lived in France and owed the publi¬
cation to the French king, but he was an English subject with a family background
in Aberdeen, Scotland. There is no ranking among the mentioned peoples, and
the author does not explain his reasons for ordering the lands and peoples as he
did. Some well-known European peoples (like the Swiss, Portuguese, peoples of
the Balkans, including the Greeks) are not separately mentioned in the descriptive
chapters. In several chapters there are brief references to other cultures or peoples,
but they are not extensively discussed. In some cases the described peoples are in fact
not properly Europeans. Barclay’s work is an early concise characterization of the
“early modern” Europe. It differs from the general typology of man, so well known
in the (European) Renaissance, and it is also different from later national, ethnic,
or even “racial” characterology, so popular during the Age of Enlightenment. As far
as I know, Barclay’s book has not been treated in major works concerning ethnic
stereotypes in Europe. However, here I can say only a few words about Barclay’s
systematization of the European “mind” (animus and not anima).
Unfortunately, we do not know much about the immediate sources of the book.
His own impressions or the learned wisdom was his intimate source. We do not
know whether Barclay was informed about a similar, but two generations earlier
English book, First Book of the Introduction of Knowledge (1542) by the English physi¬
cian Andrew Borde (1490-1549), an amusing and witty but not scholarly book based
upon the authors extensive travels in Europe, which offers sarcastic remarks about
many European ethnic or cultural groups, including the English, Cornish, Welsh,
Scots, and many Continental peoples, mostly based on their behavior in inns.