The Rollercoaster Relationship of Image and Text

Boccaccio did a very interesting thing, he put the image and the top of the page and the text underneath, normally in one lone column. How modern of him! The manuscript reads almost like a modern day picture book. He puts emphasis on words of phrases by stylizing them in a different colour (red). The manuscript is a history of famous and important women, he makes it interesting by adding images. He uses the same timeless strategy as Dr. Suess, Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein and many other great children's book authors. At the start of a new section the first letter is large and stylized, almost an image in it's own right. Boccaccio made sure the reader knew when a new section was starting and to pay attention because the first bit is always the most important. The images were used as a sort of guide, it added to the experience by having the image play out what was happening in the text. This way someone without any imagination at all could see these great ladies in all their finery acting out their stories with the vigour they were portrayed with. This effective organization tool made it so the stories were accessible to a wide range of individuals, even though the manuscript was a luxurious one and would almost certainly not have been accessed by the general public.