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Livre des merveilles du monde
France, probably Angers
ca. 1460
281 x 220 mm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913) in 1911
MS M.461, fols. 77v–78r
Description:
Thrace (left)
The grand city of Constantinople rises in the background of Thrace, which is depicted as a world turned upside down where the afterlife is seen as so preferable to this world that mothers mourn the birth of children and people are happy to be murdered.
Sri Lanka (right)
A second image of Sri Lanka/Taprobane presents an entertaining scene of giant snails with shells big enough to serve as homes for the humans of the region.