Medieval scribes writing things like “fuck the abbot” (their boss) and “I am so hung over I feel dead” and “that goddamn cat got in here and pissed on the manuscript” and drawing penis monsters and purposefully unflattering portraits of public figures and animals in the marginalia is funny, yes. But more than that it is so deeply quintessentially human. It reminds you that they were largely just frustrated young adults who did an extremely repetitive and tedious job 6 days a week during daylight hours in poor conditions and felt the same malaise young adults feel now.
I love that these have survived the centuries !
NB those pointing fingers, drawing attention to a pee-stain and an Irritated Clerk Comment about what happened one night in about 1420:
“Hic non defectus est, sed cattus minxit desuper nocte quadam. Confundatur pessimus cattus qui minxit super librum istum in nocte Daventrie, et consimiliter omnes alii propter illum. Et cavendum valde ne permittantur libri aperti per noctem ubi cattie venire possunt.” "This is not an error, but the place where a cat peed from above one night. Confusion to that worst of cats who peed upon this book in the night at Deventer (city in the Netherlands) and because of him, all others likewise. And take care not to let books be open by night where cats are able to get at them."
We once had to bury a book in baking soda for about a week because of a similar incident. 600 years difference, and no difference; cats will do what they do... :->
Sources: byjove-etc.
