How do you spice up the dull undertaking of copying crease after line of a medieval ms ? Some monks added lighthearted tactile sensation to the marginalia of their manuscript by doodling homicidal savage , penis lusus naturae , and batch and lots of can . Some images below are NSFW .
Walking Fish from a 13th-century English Bible
( viaDiscarding Images )
Foxes vs. Monkeys from a 13th-century Bible
( viaGot Medieval )
An Ethiopian beast named Anabula, which looks like a sad elephant from Liber de nature rerun, France, c. 1290
Monk fighting off some devils with a club, from the Smithfield Decretals, c. 1300
( viaMedieval Fragments )
Snail vs. Knight, from The Smithsfield Decretals, decretals of Gregory IX, Tolouse, c. 1300. Illuminations were added about forty years later in London.
No one knows precisely why were these snail images so popular , but here are some theories .
https://gizmodo.com/why-do-knights-fight-snails-in-illuminated-manuscripts-1414832198
Rabbits killing men in The Smithfield Decretals, c. 1300
( viaDemonagerie )
Cats vs. rabbits, headless people, and a lion playing the violin in the Breviary of Renaud de Bar, France, 1302-1303
( viaGot MedievalandMedieval Fragments )
Long Neck, from Book Of Hours, England, early 14th century
Cats doing cat things: sleep, play with mice, and take an unhealthy interest in caged birds from a medieval bestiary
( viaBestiary )
An angry chef with a big knife, from The Luttrell Psalter, 1325-1335
( viaMuckley )
An ape killing a man with a big axe
( viaMedium Aevum )
The Flying Green Penis Monster, from Decretum Gratiani with commentary of Bartolomeo de Brescia, Italy, 1340-1345
A cheeky interloper in left margin, from Vows of the Peacock, c. 1350
( viaio9 )
https://gizmodo.com/are-these-the-dirtiest-manuscript-doodles-of-the-middle-5918169
Hellmouth, from the Taymouth Hours, 14th century
Penis tree from a 14th-century copy of the Roman of the Rose
A rabbit with axe, in Gorleston Psalter, England, 14th century
A tasty donut in Les Grandes Heures du duc de Berry, Paris, 1409
A monkey is doing something in a late fifteenth century edition of Jean de Wavrin’s Anciennes et novellas chronicles d’Angleterre
Melancholic cat plays the lyre in a Book of Hours from France, 15th century
The Thinker Monkey, from the Breviary of Mary of Savoy, Lombardy, c. 1430
Aliens with a to-do list and a whip, in Livres du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio, France, 15th century
People and Sea Devils, from Histoire de Merlin, by Master of Adelaide of Savoy in Poitiers, around 1450-1455
Hi, do you want my broom? Illustration from Traité des quatre dernières choses by Jean Le Tavernier, c. 1455
A Dalmatian Sea Monster, an illustration by Poggio Bracciolini, added to a copy of Le Miroir du Monde, mid-15th century
Cat playing a bagpipe in a Book of Hours, Paris, c. 1460
Arrow in the ass
( viaGot MedievalandLapham ’s Quarterly )
What are you doing here, dragon? An illustration from Les faize d’Alexandre (a translation of Historiae Alexandri Magni of Quintus Curtius Rufus), Bruges, c. 1468-1475
Smiling skeleton, from Ars bene moriendi, France, 1470-1480
Monkey prank, from Recueil des croniques d’Engleterre, Bruges, 1471-1483
Teletubbies in a basket, in Le Livre des hystoires du Mirouer du monde, Paris, 15th century
Demons in a castle, from Le mister par personages de la vie, passion, mort, resurrection et assention de Nostre Seigneur Jesus Christ, 1547
Creepy People on a map, from Cosmographie universelle, 1555
Not exactly a garden party, from Wunderbarliche, doch wahrhaftige Erklärung von der Gelegenheit und Sitten der Wilden in Virginia by Theodor de Bry, c. 1590
( viaSmithsonian library )
A bird-like demon with a smaller fighting demon and a woman in his basket, from Nürnberger Schembart-Buch, 17th century
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