C.S. Lewis's The Discarded Image was published in 1964.
The book is a study of the medieval and Renaissance model of the universe as represented in literature. Lewis examines how writers imagined the heavens, Earth, nature, spirits, and humanity within a structured cosmic order. He calls this framework the “medieval model,” contrasting it with modern scientific pictures of the universe.
The work grew out of Lewis's academic expertise in medieval and Renaissance literature. It was his final academic book and appeared after he had moved from Oxford to Cambridge, where he had become a professor of medieval and Renaissance English.
The title is sometimes mistaken for a work of fiction because Lewis wrote many novels and imaginative books. The Discarded Image is nonfiction: it explains the intellectual background that helps modern readers understand texts such as medieval romances, epic poetry, and works influenced by Christian cosmology.