Western Europe and Armenia: Europe I
One series of spousal ceremonies that would have been very familiar both to Bernard and Pciart and the readers of their Dutch translation were the Dutch marriage traditions. Picart dedicates no fewer than four engravings to various parts of traditional Dutch customs relating to marriage, from the “Palmknoopen” (when the bridal party gathered to create small bouquets that they would then throw at the bride and groom before they went to the church) days before the wedding to the actual ceremony. Each engraving comes with the illustrator’s own annotations, adding even more narrative and scholarly depth to Bernard’s commentary. For these two French refugees, learning about Dutch marriage traditions was an act of assimilation. They can see both the oddities and the beauty in the traditions many of the members of their community participated in.