Transcript
Book 1, Prologue, Pages 3 and 4
The left page is a snarling lion rendered in the Greek black pottery style, grasping a 16 pointed sun.
The right page contains four portraits of the many names and faces of the king in question. Each portrait is in a different style of illumination. At the foot of the portraits are a scattering of leaves and flowers: pipal, neem, myrtle, asphodel, oak.
Author’s Voice (continuing from the previous page):
…and never will again?
You may already know him
by one of his many names
and many faces:
Zulkarnain, Alisaunder, Alexandri, Sikander
and so on.
And you may already recognise
some of his many deeds.
For, you see –
Prologue 003-004
Footnotes:
Portrait of Zulkarnian – (thanks to “The Mad Dog of Big Wet Smooches” on Bluesky for recovering the source for me years after I misplaced it
Portrait of Alisaunder – Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 264
Portrait of Alexandri – Venice, Biblioteca di San Lazzaro degli Armeni, ms.424 (The Armenian Alexander Romance)
Portrait of Sikander – “Alexander Visits the Sage Plato in his Mountain Cave”, Folio from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Amir Khusrau Dihlavi, MET 13.228.30
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