Description

Images in the Margins is the third in the popular Medieval Imagination series of small, affordable books drawing on manuscript illumination in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum and the British Library. Each volume focuses on a particular theme and provides an accessible, delightful introduction to the imagination of the medieval world.

An astonishing mix of mundane, playful, absurd, and monstrous beings are found in the borders of English, French, and Italian manuscripts from the Gothic era. Unpredictable, topical, often irreverent, like the New Yorker cartoons of today, marginalia—images drawn in the margins of manuscripts—were a source of satire, serious social observation, and amusement for medieval readers. Through enlarged, full-color details and a lively narrative, this volume brings these intimately scaled, fascinating images to a wider audience.

About the Author

Margot McIlwain Nishimura teaches the history of medieval art at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Praise For…

 “One of a series of well-produced books that showcases the riches of the Getty’s collections.”—Reference and Research Book News

“The reproductions are intricate and lovely puzzles for the grown-up eyeball/mind, so beauteously high-colored and attractive that it is hard to stop looking.”—Lincoln County News (Damariscotta, Maine)

 “Strikes the perfect tone, focusing in each instance on the role of marginalia within its manuscript.”—Comitatus