--- product_id: 6328063 title: "The Discarded Image (Canto Classics): An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature" price: "£19.04" currency: GBP in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/6328063-the-discarded-image-canto-classics-an-introduction-to-medieval-renaissance store_origin: GB region: United Kingdom --- # The Discarded Image (Canto Classics): An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature **Price:** £19.04 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Discarded Image (Canto Classics): An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature - **How much does it cost?** £19.04 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.uk](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/6328063-the-discarded-image-canto-classics-an-introduction-to-medieval-renaissance) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description The Discarded Image paints a lucid picture of the medieval world view, providing the historical and cultural background to the literature of the middle ages and renaissance. It describes the 'image' discarded by later years as 'the medieval synthesis itself, the whole organization of their theology, science and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe'. This, Lewis's last book, has been hailed as 'the final memorial to the work of a great scholar and teacher and a wise and noble mind'. Review: Will change what you think you understand - I recently enjoyed 'The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English' by Hana Videen. I thought I'd try another deep-dive language narrative. I was expecting a 'light read,' which is never the case in a CS Lewis. A grasp of the book requires your undivided attention. I'd consider this a necessary read for history explorers of the middle ages. Words and universal concepts morph over time. The example "Nature"… as the word concept we know first appeared textually in the modern concept in the 16th century. "Nature" is among the word-concepts Lewis explores that distance our mind's eye from those ages. Our words and concept of word meanings, our linguistic/mental paradigm, is contrasted with the model comprehended by the medieval mind. Our mind's eye is different, radically different, from those that went before. Christianity had the same effect on the discarded image of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian pagans who came before is understood and ordered radically differently. A medieval text can never be read the same. "Nature" was dark, feral, frightening, and hostile, a condition that demanded Man to intervene and care for as Adam. Nature was to be dominated in the spirit of God's purpose for Man. It's a read for the word lover. CS Lewis's "Discarded Image" is a fascinating tour into the mind's eye of its temporal residents. Surely our paradigm will be overcome in the future. The medieval worldview can be seen to fade through the 17th century. It would disappear by the late 19th century. Enlightenment, science, and philosophy would end its thousand-year paradigm encapsulating the universe. There is no other author of this era so steeped and learned in the language and translations of this antiquity. The sheer volume of recognized and 'obscure' texts and tomes Lewis commands to demonstrate the book's premise is off the charts. Review: Exploring the Medieval Mind - When I heard for the first time medieval music in undergraduate school, I felt as though I was listening to something created on another planet. Organa, cantus firmi, and unrelenting parallel perfect fifths - my musical palette was surprised, and not particularly pleasantly, by harmonies alternatively and unpredictably bland and bitter. If my guide to the medieval mind had been C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) in The Discarded Image, though he wrote not a word (to my recollection) about medieval music, I might well have been able to hear the ancient tones in a more sympathetic and perceptive way. The "discarded image" of which he wrote is a "model" of the universe embraced by the medieval mind. I would call it a worldview, and the medieval model was an attempt to harmonize and internalize a comprehensive understanding of astronomy, geography, biology, metaphysics, history, aesthetics (rhetoric), philosophy, and education in a single, complex, consistent, and beautiful model. His brief discussion on the seven liberal arts was the most illuminating I have read, and his observation of the medieval predilection with "triplets" and spheres I immediately considered relevant to the music I have heard. As I read his book this week, Lewis first stunned me with the breadth of his scholarship: references, quotes, and footnotes peppered the text throughout, which nonetheless flowed mellifluously along in his approachable and self-effacing voice. Details illuminated, rather than obscured, the big picture painted by the Cambridge professor of medieval and renaissance English. On every page, one sensed the delight with which Lewis approached his subject, and I will confess to having succumbed to his enthusiasm. With such a guide, I found that comparisons between the medieval model and our own worldview(s) were most illuminating. For example, in his brief discussion of the rational soul - in more modern thinking rationality consists mostly of logical argument while in the medieval model the rational soul included also a sense of morality - stimulated me to question the assumption of my own time. He noted, too, the medieval humility toward creative work, unleashing a sense of unstrained ease; and the more modern focus upon individual creativity, providing more of a constrained, and, on occasion contrived, sense of hard work in poetry and literature. A valuable work for any teacher of medieval history, this book provides wonderful insight into the medieval mind and worldview. For how are we to understand our own world unless we understand it in comparison with the alien and foreign medieval one, explained and illuminated so skillfully by this master teacher and scholar? ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #56,953 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #1 in English Literature #6 in Medieval Literary Criticism (Books) #16 in British & Irish Literary Criticism (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.7 out of 5 stars 442 Reviews | ## Images ![The Discarded Image (Canto Classics): An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61QgLi2U2uL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Will change what you think you understand *by S***E on June 12, 2022* I recently enjoyed 'The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English' by Hana Videen. I thought I'd try another deep-dive language narrative. I was expecting a 'light read,' which is never the case in a CS Lewis. A grasp of the book requires your undivided attention. I'd consider this a necessary read for history explorers of the middle ages. Words and universal concepts morph over time. The example "Nature"… as the word concept we know first appeared textually in the modern concept in the 16th century. "Nature" is among the word-concepts Lewis explores that distance our mind's eye from those ages. Our words and concept of word meanings, our linguistic/mental paradigm, is contrasted with the model comprehended by the medieval mind. Our mind's eye is different, radically different, from those that went before. Christianity had the same effect on the discarded image of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian pagans who came before is understood and ordered radically differently. A medieval text can never be read the same. "Nature" was dark, feral, frightening, and hostile, a condition that demanded Man to intervene and care for as Adam. Nature was to be dominated in the spirit of God's purpose for Man. It's a read for the word lover. CS Lewis's "Discarded Image" is a fascinating tour into the mind's eye of its temporal residents. Surely our paradigm will be overcome in the future. The medieval worldview can be seen to fade through the 17th century. It would disappear by the late 19th century. Enlightenment, science, and philosophy would end its thousand-year paradigm encapsulating the universe. There is no other author of this era so steeped and learned in the language and translations of this antiquity. The sheer volume of recognized and 'obscure' texts and tomes Lewis commands to demonstrate the book's premise is off the charts. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Exploring the Medieval Mind *by A***E on December 26, 2011* When I heard for the first time medieval music in undergraduate school, I felt as though I was listening to something created on another planet. Organa, cantus firmi, and unrelenting parallel perfect fifths - my musical palette was surprised, and not particularly pleasantly, by harmonies alternatively and unpredictably bland and bitter. If my guide to the medieval mind had been C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) in The Discarded Image, though he wrote not a word (to my recollection) about medieval music, I might well have been able to hear the ancient tones in a more sympathetic and perceptive way. The "discarded image" of which he wrote is a "model" of the universe embraced by the medieval mind. I would call it a worldview, and the medieval model was an attempt to harmonize and internalize a comprehensive understanding of astronomy, geography, biology, metaphysics, history, aesthetics (rhetoric), philosophy, and education in a single, complex, consistent, and beautiful model. His brief discussion on the seven liberal arts was the most illuminating I have read, and his observation of the medieval predilection with "triplets" and spheres I immediately considered relevant to the music I have heard. As I read his book this week, Lewis first stunned me with the breadth of his scholarship: references, quotes, and footnotes peppered the text throughout, which nonetheless flowed mellifluously along in his approachable and self-effacing voice. Details illuminated, rather than obscured, the big picture painted by the Cambridge professor of medieval and renaissance English. On every page, one sensed the delight with which Lewis approached his subject, and I will confess to having succumbed to his enthusiasm. With such a guide, I found that comparisons between the medieval model and our own worldview(s) were most illuminating. For example, in his brief discussion of the rational soul - in more modern thinking rationality consists mostly of logical argument while in the medieval model the rational soul included also a sense of morality - stimulated me to question the assumption of my own time. He noted, too, the medieval humility toward creative work, unleashing a sense of unstrained ease; and the more modern focus upon individual creativity, providing more of a constrained, and, on occasion contrived, sense of hard work in poetry and literature. A valuable work for any teacher of medieval history, this book provides wonderful insight into the medieval mind and worldview. For how are we to understand our own world unless we understand it in comparison with the alien and foreign medieval one, explained and illuminated so skillfully by this master teacher and scholar? ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Lewis and The Medieval Model *by W***H on July 3, 2012* Joseph Campbell's book on myth, "Hero with a Thousand Faces" remains one of the most influential works for modern storytellers from Stanley Kubrick to Arthur C. Clarke to George Lucas. When a fellow writer asks me to recommend books on story building, Campbell's work is on my short list. Campbell's theory describes what he called the Monomyth, the idea that most ancient myths and epic stories contain the same character archetypes, structures and themes. This monomyth concept has become, in some writing circles, what a unified field theory would be for physicists; a central theory that explains everything. Another book I've been recommending lately to my fellow fantasy writers is C. S. Lewis' last book, a scholarly work titled "The Discarded Image. An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature." While Campbell's work gave me an understanding of the basic structure of my favorite fantasy stories, Lewis' book helped me to understand their texture, color and flavor: why Tolkien's elves and their longing for the lost lands across the sea spoke to me while the elves of so many Tolkien imitators seemed little more than guys with pointed ears who spoke funny: why Lewis' Merlin in "That Hideous Strength" is my favorite version of that character; why I enjoyed "The Chronicles of Narnia" while other fantasy stories aimed at kids left me flat. Lewis's book showed me the specific elements that gave depth to the fantasy novels I most enjoyed and made their stories resonate deep in my soul. Lewis called his theory of European thought as presented in the literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance "The Medieval Model:" a worldview of man and the universe based on a mix of classical philosophers and Christian teaching. When I hear professors of medieval literature cite the novels of Lewis and Tolkien as excellent introductions to medieval literature for modern readers, it is this worldview, this "Medieval Model" that they are recognizing. If you wish to understand Lewis's novels then you should read "The Discarded Image." I found this book so useful that I have a blog dedicated to it, TheSwordofFireSaga. I'm glad to see this useful work republished in a new form. Now when will we see the Kindle ebook? Regards, William R. McGrath Author of The Sword of Fire series Asulon, Eretzel, Apocalypse ## Frequently Bought Together - The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (Canto Classics) - Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature (Canto Classics) - Studies in Words (Canto Classics) --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/6328063-the-discarded-image-canto-classics-an-introduction-to-medieval-renaissance](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/6328063-the-discarded-image-canto-classics-an-introduction-to-medieval-renaissance) --- *Product available on Desertcart United Kingdom* *Store origin: GB* *Last updated: 2026-05-24*