Combat snails and murderbunnies
Feb. 6th, 2026 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baroque_mongooseI have had a stinking head cold since Tuesday and haven't been feeling too good as a result, which means that I haven't felt like doing any actual practical scribal stuff (and, besides, it's really irritating to have to keep stopping to blow your nose if you're using a dip pen). So, instead, I've been doing research - going online and collecting assorted references. Some of them are dated, some of them aren't, but I'm now at the point where I'm capable of dating things myself, at least to the century; so it doesn't matter if I find a manuscript with no date, and I can also pick out anything that is miscategorised. If you do a search for "10th century manuscripts" online, I can guarantee you'll find a few that aren't - I found one or two that were very clearly 14th century - so don't do this yourself till you're at least reasonably familiar with the various styles.
I haven't kept all of them by any means. For a start I'm looking for illumination (I know how to do the calligraphy), so if it's just lettering I move on. Some of the photos are too small to allow effective copying of the details, or the original MS is just in poor condition, or (occasionally) it's terrible art. I found a 12th century Crucifixion yesterday that was so crudely done and out of proportion that I wondered why the good abbot hadn't instructed the scribe to scrape the page clean and start all over again. The average eight-year-old could have done better. To be fair, that is pretty rare; most of the art is great, even if it's not exactly what we're used to these days. But I'd say I don't keep more than about a quarter to a third of what I find.
There are definite shifts. Early illumination tends to be more geometric in general, though there's a fair bit of knotwork in evidence through the whole period of illuminated manuscripts; by about the 10th century you're getting a few animals and birds here and there, but not so many. As time goes on, the borders relax a little and start to become more naturalistic, though still very stylised. There are some absolute zingers from the 11th and 12th centuries, with curves picked out with a very narrow white edging line on one side (which proves they weren't just using ink - you need opaque pigment to do that). By this point, not only are regular animals and birds more in evidence, but the chimaeras start coming in; these are usually winged. Among these I am going to count a St Mark I found yesterday, where the scribe clearly couldn't decide whether to draw the Evangelist himself or his symbol (a lion), so they drew a man with angel wings, a halo, and a lion's head with the derpiest expression I think I have ever seen.
By the 13th and 14th centuries, it starts getting seriously trippy. Granted, there are some earlier pieces that I look at and wonder what the scribe was on at the time; but in those two centuries it was kind of crazy. The borders, by now, are mainly sinuous vines and tendrils bearing leaves and flowers (in some cases, several different types), and they tend to be openwork rather than straight-edged. (Obviously this is a generalisation, as you'll still find straight-edged borders during this period. They're just less usual.) And the thing with all these beautiful tendrils is that you can stick just about anything in among them... and they did. My word, they did. You might find animals, birds, boats, knights in armour, ladies spinning flax, or... very much stranger things. This is where you start to get the people with one leg, usually depicted naked, lying on their backs, and using their single foot (which is enormous) as a sunshade. A favourite motif is the Combat Snail; I have about five of those (and rejected several more for lack of clarity). This is an unfeasibly large snail which is menacing a fully armoured knight. Rabbits are very popular, especially the ones I call "murderbunnies" - they're armed with swords or axes, their expressions tell you they're out for blood, and they're often depicted actually killing someone or just about to. (Of course, not all rabbits in margins are murderbunnies, but it's common.) There are the malacomorphs, these being humans or animals depicted emerging from a snail shell (what was this weird obsession they had with snails?) and balancing on it. Usually on a tightrope. Usually brandishing a sword. Just because. And let us not forget, but let us also discreetly draw a veil over, the fact that some of these marginalia were downright crude. You don't want the details. Let's just say I don't keep those ones. After all, it's not as if I'm going to want to put them on any of my scrolls.
The cold is still quite bad, so today is going to be another research day. Who knows what I'm going to find this time?
I haven't kept all of them by any means. For a start I'm looking for illumination (I know how to do the calligraphy), so if it's just lettering I move on. Some of the photos are too small to allow effective copying of the details, or the original MS is just in poor condition, or (occasionally) it's terrible art. I found a 12th century Crucifixion yesterday that was so crudely done and out of proportion that I wondered why the good abbot hadn't instructed the scribe to scrape the page clean and start all over again. The average eight-year-old could have done better. To be fair, that is pretty rare; most of the art is great, even if it's not exactly what we're used to these days. But I'd say I don't keep more than about a quarter to a third of what I find.
There are definite shifts. Early illumination tends to be more geometric in general, though there's a fair bit of knotwork in evidence through the whole period of illuminated manuscripts; by about the 10th century you're getting a few animals and birds here and there, but not so many. As time goes on, the borders relax a little and start to become more naturalistic, though still very stylised. There are some absolute zingers from the 11th and 12th centuries, with curves picked out with a very narrow white edging line on one side (which proves they weren't just using ink - you need opaque pigment to do that). By this point, not only are regular animals and birds more in evidence, but the chimaeras start coming in; these are usually winged. Among these I am going to count a St Mark I found yesterday, where the scribe clearly couldn't decide whether to draw the Evangelist himself or his symbol (a lion), so they drew a man with angel wings, a halo, and a lion's head with the derpiest expression I think I have ever seen.
By the 13th and 14th centuries, it starts getting seriously trippy. Granted, there are some earlier pieces that I look at and wonder what the scribe was on at the time; but in those two centuries it was kind of crazy. The borders, by now, are mainly sinuous vines and tendrils bearing leaves and flowers (in some cases, several different types), and they tend to be openwork rather than straight-edged. (Obviously this is a generalisation, as you'll still find straight-edged borders during this period. They're just less usual.) And the thing with all these beautiful tendrils is that you can stick just about anything in among them... and they did. My word, they did. You might find animals, birds, boats, knights in armour, ladies spinning flax, or... very much stranger things. This is where you start to get the people with one leg, usually depicted naked, lying on their backs, and using their single foot (which is enormous) as a sunshade. A favourite motif is the Combat Snail; I have about five of those (and rejected several more for lack of clarity). This is an unfeasibly large snail which is menacing a fully armoured knight. Rabbits are very popular, especially the ones I call "murderbunnies" - they're armed with swords or axes, their expressions tell you they're out for blood, and they're often depicted actually killing someone or just about to. (Of course, not all rabbits in margins are murderbunnies, but it's common.) There are the malacomorphs, these being humans or animals depicted emerging from a snail shell (what was this weird obsession they had with snails?) and balancing on it. Usually on a tightrope. Usually brandishing a sword. Just because. And let us not forget, but let us also discreetly draw a veil over, the fact that some of these marginalia were downright crude. You don't want the details. Let's just say I don't keep those ones. After all, it's not as if I'm going to want to put them on any of my scrolls.
The cold is still quite bad, so today is going to be another research day. Who knows what I'm going to find this time?
