This week's collection of whimsical and curious stories will discuss the underappreciated practice of scribbling and doodling in the margins.
Marginalia - Over the past two years, this newsletter has covered some very niche topics but "medieval marginalia" is probably a niche so small that a convention of Abraham Lincoln imitators would look positively mainstream next to it.
For anybody new to this topic, "marginalia" simply refers to the age-old practice of writing or drawing into the margins of a book. And it is age-old indeed. In fact, the European heyday of marginalia was probably between the 12th and 14th centuries (Link).
In those days, prior to the printing press, books had to be copied painstakingly one letter at a time. This laborious task was mostly done by scribes in monasteries who spent years in solitude and boredom. We know about their work conditions precisely because of the marginal scribblings they left behind, including:
New parchment, bad ink; I say nothing more.
I am very cold.
The parchment is hairy.
Thank God, it will soon be dark.
Oh, my hand.
Now I’ve written the whole thing: for Christ’s sake give me a drink.
St. Patrick of Armagh, deliver me from writing
(Link)
Example of marginalia from the Old Library at Queen's College, Cambridge (Link)
Medieval scribes also developed a tradition of drawing in the margins bestowing a special brand of levity to many otherwise serious manuscripts. Thanks to them, many medieval books are teeming with imaginary creatures, hybrid animals, animals, and humans doing all manner of things. The drawings are often not related to the content of the texts themselves and seem to exist simply to entertain both the scribes and their readers. Here are a few highlights:
A knight riding a chicken - France, 14th century
Two rabbits fit for nightmares - Gorleston Psalter, c. 1310-1324 (left), and Bréviaire de Renaud de Bar, c. 1302-1304 (right)
Ambushing bird - Decretals of Gregory IX, c.1300-1340
When a dog turns up to joust with a rabbit - The Breviary of Renaud de Bar, 1302-1303
For anybody who cannot get enough of medieval marginalia, there is a great twitter account devoted to this: Link