About the Cover Illustration

The figure on the cover of OAuth 2 in Action is captioned “Man from Zagrovic, Dalmatia, Croatia.” The illustration is taken from a reproduction of a mid-nineteenth century album of Croatian traditional costumes 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, which is located within the ruins of Emperor Diocletian’s retirement palace from around AD 304, in the Roman core of the medieval center of the town. The book includes finely colored illustrations of figures from different regions of Croatia, accompanied by descriptions of the costumes and of everyday life.

Zagrovic is a small town in inland Dalmatia, built on the ruins of an old medieval fortress. The figure on the cover is wearing blue woolen trousers and, over a white linen shirt, a voluminous red woolen jacket, richly trimmed with the colorful embroidery typical for this region. He is holding a long pipe in one hand and has a musket slung over his other shoulder. A red cap and leather moccasins complete the outfit.

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.