This chapter explores the relationship between text and image in three early fourteenth- century manuscripts from northern France and southern Flanders (British Library, Additional 10292–4 and Royal 14 E III; Amsterdam, Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, MS 1). In the episode studied here, where King Mordrain is stranded on a rocky island and is visited in turn by two boats, Royal and Amsterdam share a textual omission that is reflected in the colour given to a sail in Royal's miniature illustrating one of these visits. Additional gives a miniature of the same scene which depicts the correct version of the text.

This chapter has its origin in the project of a team of art historians and medieval literature specialists directed by Alison Stones. We are exploring the relationship between text and image in a group of three early fourteenth-century Lancelot-Grail manuscripts from northern France and southern Flanders that are closely linked textually and artistically: British Library, Additional 10292–4 (of which I will here be using 10292, henceforth Add); British Library, Royal 14 E III (henceforth Royal), which only contains the Estoire del Saint Graal, the Queste del saint Graal, and the Mort Artu, and a cyclic manuscript now spread between three libraries: Amsterdam, Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, MS 1 (henceforth Amsterdam), which contains the Estoire del saint Graal, the Estoire de Merlin without a Suite, and most of the Lancelot; Oxford, Bodleian, Douce 215 and Manchester, John Rylands, French 1 that contain between them the last part of the Lancelot, the Queste, and the Mort Artu, although some folios are missing.