#marginalia

[fox-teeth]

Sketching out ideas (top) for a second series of medieval illuminated manuscript stickers (first series shown on bottom).

Open to suggestions; which beaft would you like to see? Tell me in the comments! Open to all creatures from your favorite bestiary or manuscript margins--not just the ones I already sketched!

(bat, salamander and murderous rabbit are happening)

[eshpur]

✣ Medieval Miku ✣

[jbbartram-illu]

queck (in progress)

Inspired by this delightful illustration from the the Gorleston Psalter (1310-1324)

[cuties-in-codices]

guy sitting by a fire

in a manuscript of jean de wavrin's "anciennes chroniques d'angleterre", flanders, c. 1470-90

source: Paris, BnF, Français 75, fol. 198r

[a-book-of-creatures]

Hey tumblr we need to have a talk about something I noticed.

Specifically going by tags attached to images I’ve blogged or reblogged, there seems to be a misconception that marginalia means “any quirky medieval art”.

It’s not.

Marginalia is anything in the margins of a text.

The ones that will get posted on tumblr will more often than not be quirky drawings, but they also include notes, annotations, scribbles, and whatever else. The quirky drawings just happen to get a lot of press on here because, well. They’re quirky drawings.

For instance, see this image here of a platanista (river dolphin) chomping down on an elephant’s trunk?

This is not marginalia! This is a full-fledged illustration. It’s within the text (Liber natura rerum, Thomas de Cantimpré, Librairie de Valenciennes Ms 0320). It illustrates the entry on Platanista.

This is what it looks like in context.

But you know what are marginalia? Let me circle them for convenience.

Know the difference. It won’t save your life but it will make you more popular at a medievalist conference.

[saltedsnailstudio]

carved a few more peculiar creatures

[ebrithilbowser-blog]

So I thought about how centaurs effectively have two bodies and nobody knows weather they have their organs in the horse body or the human body or if they have two sets of organs.

Blemmyae on the other side seem to have barely enough space for all of their organs with their mouth cavity, eyeballs, brain etc. in their torso.

So I created this combination of both creatures to solve the problem. Now it has one body and one head like god intended.

[mioritic]

St. Edmund, decapitated, cries "hic, hic, hic" ("here, here, here") in the margins of a 12th century Bible

MS 002III (The Bury Bible), f. 322r

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, via red_loeb

[upennmanuscripts]

Will it cluck, or will it bark? In either case, a pink chicken-dog gazes skyward in the bottom margin of f. 250r, Ms. Codex 724, a 13th century Bible. #drollerydonnerstag

🔗:

[othmeralia]

I LOVE a well used and well annotated book! Any signs of actual, everyday usage is such a wonderful find in rare books.

This is found in our copy of Bouquet composé des plus belles fleurs chimiques (1629) by David de Planis Campy.

[bolognamayhem117]

There's been some confusion on the edges of camp. This is not the first instance, nor the first person in need of a listening ear to approach this particular bear sow. This is just the first instance in which Halsin has come upon the deeply concerning scene of a companion addressing a TRUE bear as if it were him.

He'll be sure, moving forward, to announce when he goes on his walks and what shape he shall be taking that walk in.

Regardless, that bear is a keen and sympathetic listener.

[fox-teeth]

Everyone liked the color charts I test printed for Basilisk so much, I felt compelled made a nice version! Great for anyone that has an interest in Risograph printing, historical pigments, or weird medieval marginalia.

(buy it here)

[kiersau]

𝕻𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖎𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖙 𝖛𝖘 𝕽𝖊𝖆𝖑 𝖒𝖆𝖓𝖚𝖘𝖈𝖗𝖎𝖕𝖙𝖘

[victusinveritas]

Snails and rabbits were both larger and had a tendency to attack unsuspecting gardener-warriors.

[cuties-in-codices]

sweeping up the alphabet

border illustrations from the hours of marguerite d'orléans, france, 15th c.

source: Paris, BnF, Latin 1156 B, fol. 135r

[ammonitetestpatterns]

"examples of prime marginalia in a latin grammar book. “se saper brami s'io te porto amore / mira di sopra il mio ferito core” (if you desire to know if i love you / look above at my wounded heart)."