About the Cover Illustration

The figure on the cover of WPF in Action with Visual Studio 2008 is captioned “Henri, Seigneur de Metz.” A seigneur was a medieval lord, who was granted power and privilege by the King, as well as large tracts of land which he, in turn, then leased to others. Metz today is the capital of Lorraine, a district in northeastern France.

The illustration is taken from the 1805 edition of Sylvain Maréchal’s four-volume compendium of regional and historical dress customs. This book was first published in Paris in 1788, one year before the French Revolution. Each illustration is finely drawn and colored by hand. The colorful variety of Maréchal’s collection reminds us vividly of how culturally apart the world’s towns and regions—as well as its inhabitants—were centuries ago. You could tell where they lived and what their station in life was by their dress alone.

Dress codes have changed since then and the diversity by region and class has faded away. It is now hard to tell apart the inhabitants of different continents, let alone different countries, towns, or regions. Perhaps we have traded cultural diversity for a more varied personal life--certainly for a more varied and fast-paced technological life.