The Medieval Reading Group will meet at 5.30PM on Wednesday, 25 February in the English Faculty, GR-05, to hear Blake Gutt talk about ‘Merlin, Margins and Marginalia in BnF français 95’. The session will be followed by drinks. All are very welcome.

This paper examines the liminal figure of Merlin in the Vulgate Merlin and the Vulgate Suite alongside a discussion of the marginal illustrations of a 13th century manuscript, Bibliothèque nationale de France, français 95. Merlin is an intriguing and morally dubious character; he is intrinsic to the Arthurian universe, yet nonetheless inhabits its margins. The paper interrogates the interplay between this diegetic liminality and the visual liminality of BnF Fr. 95’s marginal illustrations, investigating the complex and often oblique interactions of these images with the text, within whose territory they vie for attention.