Bizarre and vulgar illustrations from illuminated medieval manuscripts

PublishedNovember 1, 2013

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How do you spice up the dull task of copying line after line of a medieval manuscript? Some monks added lighthearted touches to the marginalia of their manuscripts by doodling murderous beasts, penis monsters, and lots and lots of butts. Some images below are NSFW.

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Walking Fish from a 13th-century English Bible

Foxes vs. Monkeys from a 13th-century Bible

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

Snail vs. Knight, from The Smithsfield Decretals, decretals of Gregory IX, Tolouse, c. 1300. Illuminations were added about forty years later in London.

Rabbits killing men in The Smithfield Decretals, c. 1300

Cats vs. rabbits, headless people, and a lion playing the violin in the Breviary of Renaud de Bar, France, 1302-1303

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

An angry chef with a big knife, from The Luttrell Psalter, 1325-1335

An ape killing a man with a big axe

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

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

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

A bird-like demon with a smaller fighting demon and a woman in his basket, from Nürnberger Schembart-Buch, 17th century