Children Doodled in margins of medieval manuscript.
By AmberLynn
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
United States
July 22, 2016 6:05am CST
Try to say that ten times fast!
Came across this article and thought it was interesting. A researching was perusing a database of medieval manuscripts when they came across these doodles. Now it isn't uncommon to come across doodles in manuscripts, but the majority of them are easily indentifiable as drawings from an adult hand.
These drawings, however, caught the attention of the researcher and they had it furthered analyzed. It seems the drawings were made up to a century AFTER the original manuscript was published, and that said drawings were done by the hand of a child between 4-6 years old.
The article explains it better then I probably could but I think I've summed it up nicely.
It caught my eye for several reasons. When I think of medieval manuscripts I do not think of any kind of doodles drawn in the margins. I can imagine notes within the margins and perhaps a rudimentary map but not an actual drawing. Secondly, the fact that they were able to identify the drawings as having been made by a child's hand.
Then the last thing that amused me was that a child was left alone near such manuscripts to be able to do such a thing. Or were they allowed to doodle to amuse them / distract them whilst their parent was busy? Hmm...
Article I read about it :
A researcher leafing through a medieval manuscript found some unexpected doodles of devils and a farm animal in the book's margins.
3 people like this
5 responses
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
22 Jul 16
That they are. Have you noticed the feet of the both the cow and man look like musical notes?
1 person likes this
@akalinus (44366)
• United States
22 Jul 16
@ScribbledAdNauseum No, I missed that! I remember one that read, "Little Miss Warner, that's enough. Give the monkey a pinch of snuff." It was an old school textbook from the early 1900s.
1 person likes this

@celticeagle (190044)
• Boise, Idaho
23 Jul 16
One thing that comes to mind for me is that paper was probably harder to come by back then. Kids had to draw where they could.

@celticeagle (190044)
• Boise, Idaho
24 Jul 16
@ScribbledAdNauseum ....Yes, right. So I think finding the art on the margins might be common at least for this family.
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
23 Jul 16
I hadn't thought of it in that way. You are right though. I am sure it was a commodity that was quite pricey then.
1 person likes this

@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
23 Jul 16
Perhaps, but only to the right crowd methinks.
@cmoneyspinner (9218)
• Austin, Texas
10 Jun 17
No surprise really. I find children's scribblings in church hymn books. Of course they shouldn't be there. But give a small kid a pen, pencil or a crayon and they will write in a book if they get their hands on the book. It doesn't matter if the book is "important". If the adult wasn't paying attention ... 



@JadePlatypus (234)
• Australia
24 Jul 16
It's not the same, but I remember seeing a facebook meme where people in an art gallery were taking photographs of a pair of glasses on the floor, thinking they were part of the exhibition. In actual fact, a visitor to the exhibition had left them behind.






