Rude messages left by monks in the margins of medieval manuscripts

Colin Dickey introduces the current Lapham’s Quarterly collection of rude and complaining messages left by monks in the margins of medieval manuscripts, a subject covered in detail in Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art, Michael Camille's 2004 book.

Depictions of sexual consort are frequent, among men and women, among various species of animals, and enough other combinations to make even contemporary readers blush. Camille cautions against reading such images as violations of the sacred text; because the medieval world was so rigidly hierarchized and structured, “resisting, ridiculing, overturning and inventing was not only possible, it was limitless.” That these psalters and books of hours often contained sacrilegious sentiments right alongside their holy piety, it seems, was perhaps the point: “We should not see medieval culture exclusively in terms of binary oppositions—sacred/profane, for example, or spiritual/worldly,” Camille explains. “Travesty, profanation, and sacrilege are essential to the continuity of the sacred in society.”

Living in the Margins

• [beemoh]

  That top picture is begging for a certain Skyrim meme.

  • [Ashen Victor]

    -I used to be a merman but them I took an arrow to the… hmps…
    -Where?
    -Let´s say the knee… yeah, that sounds fine… the knee.

• [stalkingcat]

  If you like rude creatures doing rude things in margins, I have to recommend the Got Medieval blog. All sorts of rudeness there. How about a monkey recovering from getting buggered by a hedgehog? http://www.gotmedieval.com/2012/02/a-right-pain-mmm-marginalia-93.html

  • [teknocholer]

    I strongly second your recommendation of Got Medieval. This post should appeal to Boingers, being about Medieval manuscript protection-by-curse:

    http://www.gotmedieval.com/2010/08/medieval-copy-protection.html

    (OK, technically it’s about theft protection, not copy protection, but no reason to let that detail spoil the fun.)

• [Mark Dow]

  The mouse
  is sticky.

• [chaopoiesis]

  More meta from Cory… 

• [goldenearth]

  It’s common knowledge that “holy people” are never quite 100% holy – these off-color marginal remarks are quite refreshing. It’s the Yin in the Yang!

• [Paul Renault]

  I’ve been collecting Lapham’s Quaterly since it started coming out.  Great writing in there!

• [Charlie B]

  HALVDAN WAS HERE

• [nnjadvtchka]

  Small correction: Image on the Edge was originally published in 1992. Sadly, Michael Camille passed away at a young age in 2002.

  If anyone finds the Got Medieval Blog enjoyable, I also recommend the British Library’s blog for manuscripts. They often post fun tidbits about manuscripts, including marginalia.

  http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/

  • [Colin Dickey]

     Oh, I hadn’t heard that Camille had died. Such sad news; he’s such a great, inventive writer.

• [Shane Liebling]

  I used to subscribe to Lapham’s Quarterly.  It is a great publication.  I have since stopped doing so.  The reason I decided not to renew is that (AFAICT) they sold my subscription information to the Republican Party.  A number of months ofter subscribing I started receiving campaign information and donation requests from numerous Republican candidates and groups.  I had no idea how to stop it (I still receive them).  So although I think they are a great read, I have no interest in supporting Lapham’s financially anymore. :(

• [Noctilucent Studios]

  The more things change…

• [Michael Mars]

  Strangely, all of the messages were under 140 characters in length…