Above, men in ordinary work clothes hack raw stone from a rock face with picks and hammers. Below, in a separate compartment of the same page, Esther approaches King Ahasuerus with her hand extended, the biblical scene in which she wins his favor and saves her people. The pairing is the manuscript’s method in miniature: the quarried rock stands for the raw, unglamorous prima materia that must be dug out of common matter before any refining can begin, while the biblical scene beneath supplies a moral parallel, favor and transformation arriving through humility rather than status. This is the first of seven "parables" that translate the more abstract theory of the earlier treatises into narrative scenes. The stark contrast between manual labor above and royal court below is the detail worth lingering on: the Work, in this telling, starts in dirt, not in a palace.

Maker: Unknown illuminator (text attributed to Salomon Trismosin)
Date: 1582 copy
Medium of the original: Plate
Original held by: British Library
Credit: British Library · via Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00502

As chosen: 8 x 10 in, art print, classic frame
Picture	8 x 10 in
Outside size	9.6 x 11.6 in
Depth	0.9 in (22 mm)
Weight	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]]
Hanging	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]]
Material	Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing
Made in	Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes offered
Size	dpi	Grade	How it fits
8 x 10 in	157	Good	Trimmed 9.5%

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
8 x 12 in	145 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
11 x 14 in	114 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
12 x 16 in	105 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
12 x 18 in	96 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
16 x 20 in	78 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
16 x 24 in	72 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
18 x 24 in	70 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
20 x 30 in	58 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
24 x 30 in	52 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
24 x 36 in	48 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
30 x 40 in	42 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
36 x 48 in	35 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
40 x 60 in	29 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged