Lilian M. C. Randall, Images in the Margins of Gothic Manuscripts, University of California Press, 1966, VG

Randall, Lilian M.C. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1966. 

English, First Edition, Very Good, Hard Cover, 4to, 8 ¾” x 11 ¼,” 235 pp. of text, plates Unpaginated.

Black cloth over boards 1 ½” from spine and marbled beige paper over boards, black illustration to front, gilt stamped titling to spine, marbled beige end papers, sticker that reads “ex libris Katherine Nell Macfarlane” to front pastedown, in publisher’s marbled beige dust jacket with brown illustration to front and black text to front, spine, and inner flaps. Mild bumping to tips of edges, mild fading to head and tail of spine, minor soiling to bottom of last page, pencil inscription to back pastedown, otherwise tightly bound, clean throughout, and excellent. In a Very Good dust jacket now protected in a mylar sleeve. Mild edgewear, minor chipping to tips, ¾” tear and minor chipping to head of spine, otherwise excellent. 235 pp. of text, plates Unpaginated. Replete with 738 black-and-white photographs of manuscript margins. Includes Preface, Introduction, Index of Subjects, and Plates. During the Gothic period, marginal illustrations in manuscripts gained popularity and these smaller images became known as drôleries. By reading the imagery in the margins, one can garner “an exceptionally detailed record of the ideological and cultural climate of the period” (from the dust jacket). Randall provides an informed “text introduction to the subject of marginal illumination” and a comprehensive “index of drôlerie subjects, giving manuscript and folio number, from several hundred outstanding Gothic manuscripts” (from the dust jacket).