Illustrations as abstracts: the illustrative programme in a Montpellier manuscript of Roger Frugardi's Chirurgia.

Illustrated manuscripts of Roger Frugardi's Chirurgia (c. 1180) form but a small proportion of extant manuscripts in Latin or in any of the medieval vernaculars. We study the single de luxe illustrated Latin manuscript of the work which is notable for its extensive programme of over 100 medical illustrations. We suggest that both the length of the cycle and the integration of the illustrations into the text is linked to the absence of rubrics and that the cycle was conceived to act as a form of visual rubric. We show that this function had a determining influence on the iconography and examine the methods used to represent the text visually.