About the Cover Illustration

The figure on the cover of Apache Cordova in Action is captioned “A Shepherd from Gonesse, France.” The illustration is taken from a collection of traditional French costumes by Nicolas Bonnart (1637-1717). The drawings are hand-colored engravings on paper that depict the various styles of dress popular in Paris and its suburbs in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Gonesse is a small town about 15 kilometers northeast of Paris.

Dress codes and lifestyles have changed over the last 300 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 three centuries ago, brought back to life by illustrations from old books and collections such as this one.