Comments on: What's going on over there?

What's going on over there?

adamvasco — Sat, 02 May 2009 11:52:02 -0800

The Luttrell Psalter is the definitive example of Marginalia; the term used to describe drawings and flourishes in medieval illuminated manuscripts. Explore pages similar to this and this up close. Here is a medieval blog which has more Marginalia, both amusing and medievally ribauld or both. For serious scholars Marginalia is the website of the Medieval Reading Group at the University of Cambridge which has a myriad of online resources.

By: chronkite

chronkite — Sat, 02 May 2009 12:55:42 -0800

I love the freedom middle ages artists like this seemed to have in representing animals and creatures they'd maybe only heard of, without the constant niggling over details we have here in the information age. Sure the bird has a huge head and human feet! Of course all thirty soldiers were facing in the exact same direction! Yeah the tree turns into an ornate letter "B"! Beautiful stuff.

By: sexyrobot

sexyrobot — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:11:47 -0800

cool stuff...a lot of this started from the process of making 'demons'...see, back in the day, when all this copying was done by hand, they didn't have erasers, so instead of trying to use a knife to scratch off the ink, possibly damaging the page, they'd simply try to transform any accidental ink blots into some sort of creature, making the most out of an unfortunate situation. since most ink blots and smudges are irregular, these creatures would usually be pretty weird. there's a couple of great examples in the treasury at the cloisters in new york city...check 'em out if u get a chance. i found this prayer book on their site, which has lots of great marginalia, but i coudn't find a good example of a 'demon' (they usually have a dark center ;)

By: _dario

_dario — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:23:41 -0800

(somewhat related) A few years ago I did the design for a permanent exhibition of Leonardo studies on optics in his native town museum (in Vinci, near Florence), so I had the opportunity to work with high resolution scans from several of his codexes, among which the Atlanticum. Besides the sheer genius, the unrelated, minuscule sketches of faces, figurines and machinery which populated all of the pages were something unique.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:42:57 -0800

Most excellent post, adamvasco - thanks!

By: languagehat

languagehat — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:35:10 -0800

Great stuff! This boggles my mind (and if it showed up in, say, a kid's book today would lead to lawsuits and tears). Thanks for the post!

By: steef

steef — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:50:44 -0800

Got Medieval is cracking me up. Personal ads! And The Psalter is truly lovely, but that Turning the Page, Shockwave crap is like trying to read a book in your lap with the Hubble Telescope. You hear me, Birtish Liberry?

By: supermedusa

supermedusa — Sat, 02 May 2009 20:06:55 -0800

awesome post!! I just bookmarked all of this (I looooooove illuminated manuscripts more thank life itself!) and those personal ads are the bomb :)

By: paperpete

paperpete — Sun, 03 May 2009 02:46:06 -0800

Great post. Thanks!

By: Snyder

Snyder — Sun, 03 May 2009 05:42:09 -0800

My favorite bit of marginalia is the poem Pangur Ban, also made into a song by Samuel Barber.

By: honest knave

honest knave — Mon, 04 May 2009 05:37:25 -0800

Thanks for posting this adam, I'll tell them you like the site :-)

By: cptnrandy

cptnrandy — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:08:42 -0800

Very cool. What caught my eye was the Luttrell name. I'm a Luttrell on my mother's side, and it wasn't until a year or so ago that I began to learn the fantastic story that goes with it (none of my relatives knew, either). Come to find out, I'm a Plantagenet, too!