En couleur ou en noir et blanc ? Lire le Dialogue des creatures en 1482

A collection of 122 moralized fables, the Dialogus creaturarum was written in Italy in the 14th Century, then translated into French in two versions, the same year (1482) : one, an anonymous translation, transmitted by one manuscript and two printed editions, the other, by Colard Mansion, known from two manuscripts. From the oldest witnesses on, the iconography plays a fundamental role ; however, while the illuminators could use color to distinguish certain « characters », the engravers could not. The conservation of some hand-colored printed copies confirms, on the one hand, the importance of color to the illustration of such a work, on the other hand the attachment of early owners to a type of book still resembling the manuscript.