Getty Museum

Livre des merveilles du monde (Book of the Marvels of the World)

Date

about 1460–1465

Medium

Colored washes, gold, and ink

Culture

French

Department

Manuscripts

Institution

Getty Museum

Object ID

e42ad25d-fba9-4cfa-b6e1-6a9418d31008

Produced in the mid-15th century, *The Book of the Marvels of the World* weaves tales of locales both near and far from its place of creation in France that are based on ancient sources, medieval folklore, and the supposed travels of eyewitnesses. Organized alphabetically, the book serves as a compendium of medieval views of civilizations around the known world (although the manuscript is missing about half its original illuminations and text). The extensive images in the manuscript imagine "exotic" peoples and customs in a way that captures medieval European notions about difference and the perception of outsiders. For the arm-chair traveler in medieval France, the text reflects a belief that other places, while captivatingly bizarre, were also dangerously different, even if they were comfortingly far away. The artist responsible for the illuminations is known to modern scholars as the Master of the Geneva Boccaccio (active about 1445 to 1470) after a luxury manuscript copy of a Boccaccio text now in a library in Geneva. He is best known for his work for high-ranking members of the nobility in the circle of Duke René d'Anjou in Angers from around 1460. His style is characterized by attention to narrative detail, subtle shading of drapery, individualized facial features, meticulously delineated landscapes, and lithe, elegant figures–all heightened by flashes of brilliant color. The colored drawing technique (called "colored grisaille") allows for lively, dynamic, and fluid compositions that capture the sense of a traveler moving quickly from place to place across the known globe.

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