These elements may also be seen in related types of illuminated manuscripts, such as choir books and psalters. The marginalia is often inspired, not only for the creativity and the sheer hilarious, imaginative illustrations, but because the monks trapped in their long days of drudgery still found a way to live on. Looking closely at the pages of Books of Hours, we can observe characteristic decorative elements, such as historiated initials, painted miniatures, foliate borders, and marginal illustrations. Jon Kaneko-James takes a closer look at a few famous examples of medieval rabbits causing mayhem that you’re sure to enjoy. Illustrated monks pull faces at those who look at the text, cats chase mice, and people chase each other with knives. Early manuscripts thus become archives and witnesses to individual and collective memories, best read as relics of existence, as Maurice Merleau-Ponty describes things. I’ll be entirely honest and admit that codicology isn’t my thing, so I’m not 100% certain why someone would spend hours lovingly illuminating an otherwise serious manuscript with such bizarre and nightmarish scenes, but for some reason, they would.ĭrolleries sometimes also depicted comedic scenes, like a barber with a wooden leg (which, for reasons that escape me, was the height of medieval comedy) or a man sawing a branch out from under himself… which brings us to a particular type of Drollery – the ‘World Turned Upside Down’.Īh, the essence of comedy, the contrary and unexpected thing. These books had incredible detailing and illustrations on the cover and page margins, and the bindings were painstakingly sewn together by hand. Manuscripts heft and solidness can be seen, too, in the depictions of miniature books in medieval illustrations. These largely come under the category of ‘Drolleries’ or ‘Grotesques’. There are a great many strange things that can be seen in medieval illuminated manuscripts: weird human-animal hybrids, distorted monsters and odd scenes. Sure, the monks that drew them probably saw rabbits often, but the ones in the fields never murdered anyone. 294r (via Sexy Codicology) The typical depiction of a rabbit, especially when used in Medieval art and literature, is an image of purity and innocencea harmless puff of cuddly cuteness. You might have noticed over time that rabbits are a commonly-recurring theme. Violent Rabbit Illustrations Found in the Margins of Medieval Manuscripts Kate Sierzputowski BL Yates Thompson 8 f. Nearly all medieval manuscripts provide ample space in the margins for readers notes and comments. We’ve posted many times about the weird marginal illustrations in medieval manuscripts. In illuminated manuscripts, words and images worked together to inform the medieval reader and occasionally these readers left their own mark.
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