The Visions of Tondal

Les visions du chevalier Tondal is a fifteenth-century Burgundian illuminated manuscript in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Its text relates the story of a wealthy knight who embarks upon a dreamlike journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven in which he discovers the wages of sin and the value of penitence. One of the most popular narratives of the Middle Ages, The Visions of Tondal survives in hundreds of copies in at least fifteen languages, but the Getty’s manuscript is the only known illuminated version. The e-book features all of the miniatures in sequence alongside a partial English translation of the accompanying text, and an “open to explore” viewer that allows each miniature to be studied in stunning high-resolution detail. The publication also includes essays by Thomas Kren and Roger S. Wieck that discuss the popular medieval text and provide an overview of the library of Margaret of York, who commissioned the work. Additional texts analyze the manuscript’s illuminations and explore the career of Simon Marmion, placing the artist’s achievements within the dramatic developments in Burgundian manuscript illumination of the 1470s. Further, the complete Tondal manuscript is reproduced here for the first time in its entirety. This is an enhanced e-book edition of The Visions of Tondal from the Library of Margaret of York, originally published in print in 1990.