#Cats as scribes in medieval manuscripts archive#

In the Missal of the Haarlem Linen Weavers’ Guild, made in Utrecht in the first decade of the fifteenth century, the illuminators provided an osculation plaque at the bottom of the full-page miniature depicting the Crucifixion. A priest would repeatedly kiss the canon page of his missal, depositing secretions from his lips, nose, and forehead onto the page. One of the most obvious ways in which a category of manuscripts-missals-carries signs of use is the damage often found in the opening of the canon of the mass. Īlthough it is often difficult to study the habits, private rituals, and emotional states of people who lived in the medieval past, medieval manuscripts carry signs of use and wear on their very surfaces that provide records of some of these elusive phenomena.

#Cats as scribes in medieval manuscripts archive#

184 C 2 (Photo: Byvanck archive artwork in the public domain).

1400-10, tempera and gold on vellum, 349 x 270 (265 x 179) mm, 2 columns, 32 lines, littera textualis, Latin. Missal of the Haarlem Linen Weavers Guild, North Holland (Haarlem?), ca. 149v), showing damage where the priest repeatedly kissed it.