medieval butt competition? 

left: Jacques de Longuyon, ‘Les voeux du paon’, Tournai (?), ca. 1350.

NY, Morgan, MS G.24, fol. 25v

right: ‘The Rutland Psalter’, England ca. 1260.

British Library, Add 62925, fol. 67r

‘une recitation de alcuns monstres’ 

description of a Dalmatian sea monster by Poggio Bracciolini added to a copy of ‘Le Miroir du Monde’, France before 1463.

Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 337, fol. 85r

seduction of Lancelot 

‘Le livre de Lancelot du Lac’, France ca. 1401-1425.

Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal 3480, p. 33

melancholic pussy-cat 

book of hours, France 15th century.

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, MS 662, fol. 21r

cutting the hemorrhoids 

‘emoroida inciditur sic’

Pseudo-Hippocrates, ‘Epistula ad Antiochum regem’ and other medical works, England or Netherlands 12th century.

British Library, Harley 1585, fol. 9r

flying penis monster 

Decretum Gratiani with the commentary of Bartolomeo da Brescia, Italy 1340-1345.

Lyon, BM, Ms 5128, fol. 100r

ride the snail 

book of hours, Savoie 15th century.

Clermont-Ferrand, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 84, fol. 139v

ten thousand martyrs of Mount Ararat  

Les Grandes Heures d’Anne de Bretagne, Jean Bourdichon, Tours or Paris 1503-1508.

BnF, Latin 9474, fol. 177v

serious problem

John Arderne, Liber Medicinarum, England 15th century.

British Library, Sloane 56, fol. 85v

the damned

‘London Rothschild Hours’ (‘Hours of Joanna I of Castile’), Ghent ca. 1500.

British Library, Add 35313, fol. 134v

drunken Noah, Ham mocking, Shem and Japheth facepalming

Genesis 9:20-24 ‘Cœpitque Noe vir agricola exercere terram, et plantavit vineam. Bibensque vinum inebriatus est, et nudatus in tabernaculo suo. Quod cum vidisset Cham, pater Chanaan, verenda scilicet patris sui esse nudata, nuntiavit duobus fratribus suis foras. At vero Sem et Japheth pallium imposuerunt humeris suis, et incedentes retrorsum, operuerunt verenda patris sui: faciesque eorum aversæ erant, et patris virilia non viderunt.’ (‘And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: and he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.’)

Biblia Pauperum, Netherlands ca. 1395-1400.

British Library, Kings 5, fol. 15r

Elisha (or Elijah?) reviving a boy

2Kings 4:34-35 ‘And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm.  Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes’; see also 1Kings 17:17-23 (Elijah).

Biblia Pauperum, Netherlands ca. 1395-1400.

BL, Kings 5, fol. 8r

devil setting fire to Job’s household

Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, Flanders ca. 1470-1480.

Rouen, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 1139, fol. 134r

de puero et virgine

Liber medicinae ex animalibus, Netherlands or England 12th century.

British Library, Harley 1585, fol. 72v

Book of the Holy Trinity (alchemical treatise)

Frater Ulmannus (?), Buch der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit, Franconia 15th century.

München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cgm 598, fol. 2r