Given our enchantment with the endless stream of innovations and immersive experiences offered up by the culture industry, any of us could be forgiven for believing that a simple, modest exhibition dedicated to illuminated manuscripts would be stodgy and inconsequential. Yet, in the dim glow of ancient vellum and gold leaf, timeworn treasures still have the capacity to strike a contemporary chord. On a recent visit to the Getty Center in Los Angeles, I experienced this resonance anew. In an exhibition that showcased the peculiarities of the medieval imagination, viewers were confronted with something at once outlandish and unsettlingly familiar.

We might not be so different from medieval artists who drew exotic creatures, places, and people they’d never seen.