Illustration Space

While manuscripts of the Imago mundi are rarely illustrated, some of its vernacular adaptations have an illustration programme worked into the text. The most striking example is the Image du monde, which has the text refer explicitly to illustrations. Sometimes, however, these were never added to the manuscript, although space was left for them!

The example below is a page from the Image du monde preserved in  Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits. NAF 6883, f. 48v. The missing image would have been a diagram explaining lunar eclipses! The manuscript can be consulted in full on the Gallica website.To return to the exhibition entrance, click here.