The illustrations, decorations, and marginalia often have nothing to do with the text, and are often much weirder and more vulgar than anything else in the book. Those original manuscripts are rare now, and hard to read, but for the diligent student, they have a bonus. Dr Kathleen Walker-Meikle is a Wellcome Trust Fellow at the University of York, working on animals and medieval medicine.Before the printing press, books were copied by hand, often by monks who worked for years on one volume. A wide range of sources, including chronicles, letters, sermons and poems, are used in what is both an authoritative and entertaining account. It also examines the representation of pets and their owners in art and literature the many charming illustrations offer further evidence for the bonds between humans and their pets, then as now.
#Cats as marginalia in medieval manuscripts full
It offers a full survey of pets and pet-keeping: from how they were acquired, kept, fed, exercised, and displayed, to the problems they could cause. This book takes a completely different angle, showing that they were also beloved domestic companions to their human owners, whether they were dogs, cats, monkeys, squirrels, and parrots. Animals in the middle ages have often been discussed ? but usually only as a source of food, as beasts of burden, or as aids for hunters. The bibliography and notes are extensive, everything is carefully referenced. The text can be a bit dry in places but is very informative. There’s a couple of illustrations but not a great deal, Larsdatter would be better for any interested in manuscript images. Walker-Meikle talks a bit more about the literature references but the most valuable part is the inferences that she makes and the detailed descriptions of how pets such as small dogs, pampered cats and trained squirrels (I love that. Larsdatter has various links and sources on her webpage Larsdatter sitemapīut like most of her pages it’s mostly the manuscript images of the various animals that she describes. It can sometimes be hard to find information on pets in the medieval world. Through enlarged, full-color details and a lively narrative, this volume brings these intimately scaled, fascinating images to a wider audience. Unpredictable, topical, often irreverent, like the “New Yorker” cartoons of today, marginalia images drawn in the margins of manuscripts were a source of satire, serious social observation, and amusement for medieval readers. An astonishing mix of mundane, playful, absurd, and monstrous beings are found in the borders of English, French, and Italian manuscripts from the Gothic era. Each volume focuses on a particular theme and provides an accessible, delightful introduction to the imagination of the medieval world. Paul Getty Museum and the British Library.
#Cats as marginalia in medieval manuscripts series
“Images in the Margins” is the third in the popular Medieval Imagination series of small, affordable books drawing on manuscript illumination in the collections of the J. It also often gives us clues into the more common aspects which aren’t always depicted in other places, such as the image of the swimmers. Marginalia often serve as a good insight into the mindsets of the people copying the manuscript. There’s also brief history notes alongside the marginalia, talking about the importance of hunting for instance alongside hunting marginalia. Images in the Margins does a good job of detailing which manuscript in particular the images come form so it’s possible to look up digital copies of the text later. It talks about th history of marginalia and how it started in the large capital letters of earlier manuscripts. This is a cute little book about the marginalia often shown in medieval manuscript. Images in the Margins by Margot Mcilwain Nishimura
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