If you’ve never googled ‘marginalia’, you’ve yet to experience one of the weirder aspects of medieval artistry – the decorations around the borders of pages.
For some reason, no matter what was going on with the written word, the artists – usually monks – felt they had carte blanche to be as strange or as gross as they felt like.
For instance, there are more murderous rabbits than you can fire an arrow at.
Levitating snails that looked pretty dangerous.
Not to mention the flatulent clergy.
Another recurring theme of both marginalia and main illustrations is the cat giving its nether regions a good clean – and these are some excellent examples.
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BONUS
It gets weirder. Just ask this nun when she’s finished harvesting the fruit of the phallus tree.
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These 10 logos look so much better with a medieval makeover
Source British Library, History of Yesterday, Sad and Useless Image Sad and Useless
The post Medieval illustrators were obsessed with cats licking their bums – ye beste 11 appeared first on The Poke.
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