No Fear Friday: Doodles

Welcome to No Fear Friday, where I good-natured-ly make fun of bad artwork from the Middle Ages, to hopefully inspire those interested in the scribal arts to give it a try. This week:

Doodles!

I wanted to pick something this week that would complement my recent "Pointy end goes on the Paper" drawing article this week on sketching, and doodles seemed like a good choice. Unfortunately, I find myself in a bit of philosophical quandary...

Cut to a well apportioned library, a large overstuffed armchair before a roaring fire. A cat dozes on the carpet in the warmth of the flames. Stacks of books on philosophy and natural history litter the side table and floor. I am seated in the arm chair in a deep burgundy smoking jacket, a pipe clenched in my teeth as I contemplate the fire. I turn to look at the camera, a pensive and confused look on my face. 

"What exactly is a doodle? How can one accurately describe the form and function..." I am interrupted by a large soap bubble escaping the pipe and popping in my face. 

But seriously... It's really remarkably hard to determine which bits of medieval marginalia were actually supposed to be bits of intended decorative art, and which were just...well doodles.

Is it a Doodle?

Knight on a horse (Angers, BM, MS 339)

Take this amazing guy. Normally this is something you wouldn't have any trouble calling a doodle, but how can you be sure? The lines seems rather deliberate, and there isn't any other flotsam and jetsam, so maybe this is a deliberate illustration?

ca.1500 at Michigan State University

Or this one. Looks like a doodle, acts like an illustrated border. And apparently this manuscript's borders are full of random flowerpots and manicules (re: disembodied hands), so I'm leaning on the side of  'deliberate.'

British Library, Stowe 49 (14th century)

This one, on the other hand, looks deliberate.... but according to a great article by the esteemed Erik Kwakkel on speech bubbles, what's going on here is a beleaguered father traveling with his kids, who are all complaining about something. That is definitely a topic someone might cartoon about, especially if they were stuck traveling next to that family on the road. You know that family, it's the family my family turns into when the toddler starts having a meltdown in public.

English 15th cent. Bodl.546

This one also keeps popping up when you search for 'medieval doodles,' but it looks more like a half-finished illustration to me. Either that or someone really thought their doodle was good and decided to add more to it, slap on some color, and call it deliberate. "No, I wasn't defacing that book, I was totally adding illustrations! I get paid a commission for that, right?"

Probably a Doodle

@BibLyon ms. Palais des Arts 321

 

These I'm going to call probably doodles, if for no other reason than they seem to have little or nothing to do with the text above them.  The words inside them are obviously just part of the doodles. These aren't planned parts of the overall manuscript, these are here for fun and to take up space. 

Quick edit, I found another great blog which points out to me that these are "catchwords." Which is a word at the bottom of a page that matches to the first word of the next page so a book gets bound correctly. That's even better, because what happened here then is instead of trimming off the catchwords once the book was bound, someone decided to just doodle around them.

There is also this catchword doodle, which is....less safe for work.

@PiersatPenn Chambery bibl mun 0027

Or there is a category of doodles which are obviously added afterwards to call attention to a particular section of the manuscript. While nicely executed, this centaur and the surrounding notes are the equivalent of someone modern taking a highlighter to a book.

Codicis Justiniani libri cum glossa (11th century) Montpellier University, ms. H. 82, fol. 12

This is another good example of that. We've got a small paragraph of notes, a manicule pointing at another very important note, and two male heads....just cause.

14th century copy of the Sermones Quadragesimales (sermons for Lent)

Uppsala C 678, 15th c

These are also probably doodles, well done doodles, but doodles. Even if someone went to the extra trouble to paint John Lennon's hair yellow. (Also, what is with the nose-hair mustache? Jeez, trim those things will ya?)

Definitely a Doodle!

Code de Justinien (Lyon, B.m., ms. 0373, f. 085, 373)

Why just draw a manicule when you can make a jaunty manicule hat on a floating disembodied head? You'll never forget where that one line of manuscript is now!

Paris Mazarine 1336, 15th c

Cat head! Or... human head with cat ears? Man-Cat!

 

These last two I don't have attribution for. But as they come to us by way of  Erik Kwakkel's blog and he's sort of an authority on medieval marginalia, I'm comfortable that they are authentically medieval. Besides, how could I deny you two disembodied heads arguing and a skeleton starting in on some day drinking?

The Secretes of Alexis of Piedmont, 1562

I feel bad about this one. Someone put a lot of effort into doodling this spectacular man-bug...jester...guy. And then someone felt the need to try to wipe him from existence. Thankfully the ink used to obscure him doesn't appear to be as lasting as the ink used to draw him.

These are definitely, positively, without a doubt bona-fide doodles! 

Vitae Sanctorum, 11thc (Paris, Bibl. Mazarine, ms. 1708, f. 027) 

Via @erik_kwakkel

Bodleian Library, Lat. misc. c. 66, 15th century.

(approx 760 AD) St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Bible

I mean, pages of random drawings interspersed with writing practice? Doodles! I particularly like the page where the early scribe was trying to figure out the best way to draw a B. I've done early period illumination, those knots ain't easy! Also that little swirly back and forth wave thing on the same page? I do that! Exactly that! It's like my go-to doodle when I'm bored! Me and this scribe from 760ce... we understand each other. 

SKETCHING!!!! 

This right here is what got me really excited! My "Pointy end goes on the Paper" drawing article this week is on sketching, and what do I find when looking up medieval doodles is actual examples of not-Leonardo-da-Vici medieval sketching!! And even using some of the methods I recommended!

Villard de Honnecourt (vers 1220-1230), fol. 35 - Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France

also Villard de Honnecourt

We've got both shapes and skeletons going on here! And playing with poses in the top one!

The Absolute Best

I'm not calling the last picture the 'best of the worst' this week, because I find all of these doodles delightful and marvelous. But this one is probably the most delightful and marvelous of all:

LJS 361, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries folio 26r

This doodle is found in a 14th century manuscript, and research indicates that it was probably made by a child of between 4 and 6 years old. Speaking as the parent of a 4 year old, I would be perfectly pleased to hang this wonderful illustration of a spaceman and his pet cow on my refrigerator.

Conclusion

This is one of those deep philosophical discussions that I could keep going for a while, but in the interest of brevity I think I'm going to have to defer to this wonderful "Mmmm... Marginalia" article which has the best definition of a medieval doodle ever:

"You don’t doodle in gold leaf."

Duh

Next Article in the Series: Hippos

Previous Article in the Series: Owls