The scribal portrait discussion raises a question I have been wondering about for some time.
A full page illustration in an Icelandic manuscript containing a vernacular life of John the Baptist
(AM 233a, fol.) has shows the baptist and his parents. (A brief search at the Index of Christian Art
a few years back yielded no parallels.) At the bottom of the picture is a small, tonsured figure who appears to be dozing, and who I suspect is experiencing a vision of the figures portrayed. I did not, however,
think of looking for parallels of this figure when I had the opportunity. Does anyone know of illustrations
containing similar "visionaries"? I´m afraid I don´t have a copy of the picture to send - those with access
to a really good library can look at plate 33 of Halldórr Hermannsson, Icelandic Illuminated manuscripts
of the Middle Ages Copenhagen 1935
Meg
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