To depict events occurring indoors, medieval illuminators sometimes eliminated walls that would otherwise have closed viewers off from the action. Air, light, and people move freely among three spaces in this miniature. A female personification of Philosophy appears to Boethius in the bedroom at right, inspiring the author’s most famous work. In a connecting passageway Boethius hands the text to his future translator, Jean de Meun. And in the throne room, de Meun presents his translation of the Consolation to King Philip IV.
Boethius (ca. 477–524), The Consolation of Philosophy, in French and Latin, illuminated by the Coëtivy Master, France, Paris, ca. 1465. MS M.222, fol. 1 (det.). Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1905.