![]() ![]() ![]() In addition, it will touch upon the issue of gender as it connects to monde renversé motifs, of which snails and hares are just two examples. Secondly, this article will investigate why snails in the margins are often accompanied by burrowing animals such as the hare, a connection that was noted by Randall but never fully addressed. This motif frequently employs the manuscript borders as real and stable ground-lines as opposed to edges to float above or below. In particular, it will contend that the snail and the knight motif is one that has a special connection to the border decoration of manuscripts. First, it seeks to build upon Lilian Randall’s 1962 essay. The motif is the subject of a 1962 Speculum essay by Lilian Randall entitled, “The Snail in Gothic Marginal Warfare.” It is also the topic of a number of general interest articles questioning why snails and knights chose to fight one another in the margins of medieval manuscripts. Unlike many other similarly comic motifs, the snail and the knight has received some scholarly attention and significant public fascination. The knight is almost always rendered as fearful, comically over-armed, or fleeing the battle entirely. The snail is usually much larger than life-sized in comparison to the knight, and in monde renversé fashion seems to be the eventual victor of the conflict. One such motif is known as the “snail and the knight.” The term refers to marginal decoration that consists of a knight, or man, and a snail, facing off against each other. Secular, comic, and monde renversé (or world-turned-upside-down) motifs are sometimes acknowledged for their delightful character and multivalent natures, yet their purpose and meanings in the context of specific books are rarely the subject of entire studies. ![]() Despite continued gains in the field from scholars who have built upon the early work of Lilian Randall, Lucy Freeman Sandler, and Michael Camille, these margins are still understudied and under-catalogued in growing digital databases. The margins of medieval manuscripts are the locus for some of the most unstable ground in medieval art historical scholarship. Join a game developer with a PhD in Computer Science and a degree in Medieval History and find out why everyone should learn a little history (and I’ll explain the snail thing, too.) We will look at the world of medieval art, and together we'll find out how and why today's game makers can light the way forward for a better treatment of art and artists by borrowing from the approach of medieval scribes and designers.Recommended citation: Emily Shartrand, “’I Have The High Ground!’: The Snail and Knight Motif in the Margins of Manuscripts,” Different Visions: New Perspectives on Medieval Art 9 (2023). Answering this, and other bizarre questions from history, Paris explores why all game developers should learn history, and shows how medieval marginalia (the drawings in the sides of medieval manuscripts) are really just ye olde promotional art, a medieval image-based social network, if you will. ![]() What’s the deal? Let’s find out together. What’s going on? Was there a species of giant snail, long since extinct? Or some kind of collective hallucination? Scholarship on the medieval era is full of such intriguingly titled works as “The Snail in Gothic Warfare”, “What’s so funny about knights and snails?", “Snails: the central problem of high middle ages warfare”, and “Snails-rethinking our ancient foe”. Was there a giant snail problem in the late Middle Ages? Illuminated manuscripts from the late medieval period are full of beautiful, dramatic, hilarious imagery of knights fighting giant snails (and many other seriously weird stuff™). ".delightfully detailed (and occasionally rather gruesome)."Īre these quotes from game reviews, or are they comments made by people looking at late-medieval marginalia? We'll find out together! ".vehicles for delight, disgust, and befuddlement." ![]()
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