Definitions

Drollery

“An amusing figure, often of a grotesque character. Drolleries appear throughout the history of book illumination. . .but they were particularly popular from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century.”

British Library, Catalog of Illuminated Manuscripts

Grotesque

“A hybrid and comic figure, often combining elements from various human and animal forms.”

British Library, Catalog of Illuminated Manuscripts


“Drolleries or grotesques are small figures almost always with some comical appearance. . . .

A possible interpretation is that drolleries are just another manifestation of the world the wrong way around.”  

–Dr. Ana Belen Sanchez Prieto