Which C.S. Lewis book examines the medieval worldview and imagination?

The Discarded Image examines the medieval worldview and imagination. Published in 1964 after Lewis’s death, the book grew from his academic work as a scholar of medieval and Renaissance literature.

Lewis explains how medieval writers imagined the universe as an ordered structure containing Earth, the heavens, spiritual beings, and influences associated with classical and Christian thought. He calls this system the “medieval model,” emphasizing that literature cannot be fully understood without recognizing the intellectual world in which it was produced.

The title refers to the modern abandonment of that older picture of the cosmos. The book is not a defense of every medieval belief, nor is it a history of astronomy alone. Instead, it is a literary and intellectual guide to the background behind works such as those by Chaucer, Dante, and Edmund Spenser.