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:
Wait...what?
A Manicule is a very specific type of doodle, which calls attention to a particular phrase in a manuscript. So called because in the medieval period the favorite way to draw attention to a certain section of manuscript was to draw a hand pointing at it.
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| Lambeth Palace Library MS 24 |
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| Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, VLQ MS 99 (13th century) |
As so. It's basically the medieval equivalent of using a highlighter, or underlining, or putting a star or asterisk in the margin.
A lot of these are pretty simple, and a lot of them have very loooong pointing fingers.
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| Ambrosius Speira’s Quadragesimale de floribus sapientiae ca. 1413-1454/5 |
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| Cardiff Rare books collection |
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| Trinity College Library, Cambridge R.17.11 f.46v |
"Note"
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| Harvard Library, Bible, 1527 |
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| Cardiff Rare books collections |
Interesting 'note' here, pun intended. You also often see these with what looks like 'No' written with them. I originally looked at these and went, "Well, that's totally a manicule disagreeing with the text. I mean, the guy wrote NO! next to it." BUT, apparently 'No' with a tilda squiggle above it is actually an abbreviation for 'Note'... aka 'make a note of this section, it is so important that I drew a manicule AND wrote 'note'.'
With Fancy Sleeves or Other Clothing.
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| Kansas University, Kenneth Spencer Library, MS C54 (15th century) |
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| St Andrews, University Library, Typ NL A85 JT (Antwerp, 1487-1490) |
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| BL Harley 1900 (early 15thc) |
Of course this one is pointing with the elbow and not the fingers, but the fingers are occupied with showing off the fancy ring.
With Other... Additions
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| Paris, BnF, lat. MS 4935 (15th century) |
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| Paris, BnF, Fr. MS 12584 (13th century) |
Some people are a little uncomfortable with a disembodied hand... so let's draw it with a face attached?
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| @BLMedieval Harley 3487 |
Or why does it even have to be a human face. Let's give it a dog head!
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| British Library, Royal MS 12 E.xxv (c. 1300) |
Or how about some dragon legs?
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| Roman de Renart, 1301-1350, Gallica BnF |
Snail Shell?
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| British Library, Arundel 292 f. 72 |
Emerging from a well like the ghost girl from the horror film "The Ring"?
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| Oxford, Bodleian Library, Add. A 15 (15th century) |
This one's got the right of it. If you are uncomfortable with a disembodied floating hand, just put the entire person in there. Or maybe this passage is just THAT important that it needs a monk jumping up and down and pointing excitedly.
Speaking of 'So Important'
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| Avignon, Bibl. mun., ms. 1094 |
When just one manicule won't do.
Brackets!
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| Carpentras bibl mun ms 36 |
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| Berkeley, Bancroft Library, BANC MS UCB 085 (14th century) |
This one is the stuff of nightmares. I get it... It's a large passage you want to note... but why though? WHY?
A Manicule Is Not Technically a Manicule...
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| Berkeley, Bancroft Library, BANC MS UCB 085 (14th century) |
...When it's an octopus. (Take note, creepy finger bracket hand! THIS is how it's done!)
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| Penn state Libraries. Ms. Codex 218 fol. 114r, 15C |
...When it's a swan.
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| Glasgow University Library MS Hunter 251 |
...When it's a....Yeah... And there it is.
So, long story short, Manicules are awesome. And if you are on Twitter, tumbler, instagram and other social media platforms look up the hashtag
#maniculemonday. It's a thing.
Next post in the series: TBD
Cannot believe they actually used a penis manicule..
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