“Medieval smiley face. Conches, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 7 (main text 13th century, doodle 14th or 15th century).”
Medieval book historian Erik Kwakkel, who works at the Leiden University in The Netherlands, has been sharing fascinating findings from these books on his Tumblr blog.
One of these discoveries was that students from 800 years ago were no different to the students of today—both have the tendency to doodle and scribble in their text books when they were bored during classes.
Scroll down and head over here for more medieval doodles.
“Doodle by bored school boy.”
“A 15th-century doodle in the lower margin of a manuscript containing Juvenal’s Satires, a popular classical text used to teach young children about morals.”
“Doodle from a 13th-century law manuscript (Amiens BM 347).”
“Students with pointy noses. Leiden, University Library, MS BPL 6 C (13th century).”
“Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, BPL MS 111 I, 14th-century doodle.”
“Leiden UB VLQ 92”
“Medieval scribes tested their pens by writing short sentences and drawing doodles. The pen trials above are from Oxford, Bodleian Library, Lat. misc. c. 66 (15th century).”
[via So Bad So Good, image via Erik Kwakkel]