ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a sort of pictobiography of Merlin from the lavishly illustrated fourteenth-century manuscript, BL, Add. 10292. It shows how the images of Merlin, under pressure from the forces of the Counter-Reformation in Italy and the Puritans in England, begin to alter to create a Merlin whose visage reflects the artist's position in the religio-political conflicts of his age. After the encounter with Blaise, the next major event illustrated in the manuscript is Merlin's revelation to Vortigern of the secret of the collapsing tower. Although it does not have the authority of the Historia, the famous prophecy of the triple death became one of the most frequently illustrated events in Merlin's life. A few decades after Strozzi incorporated Merlin into the mythology of Venice, the frontispiece to Thomas Heywood's remarkable Life of Merlin returns the seer to his native island with some extraordinary differences.
