Saw another debate about whether it’s ever okay to write in books today & it reminded me of my favourite genre of marginalia: much worse copies of illustrations.
I’ve already posted the best bat, but it’s always worth looking at again:
[British Library, Harley MS 3244, fol. 55v]
There’s also this chicken, which was struggling even in the original:
[Kongelige Bibliotek, GKS 3466 8º, fol.10]
& this genuinely terrible lizard:
I’m not well-versed enough in analysis to say for sure that the 16th c. scribbler responsible is the same person who provided captions for the other images in this text, but I like to think so because some of them give strong indications of a personality type that’s still recognizable today:
[I don’t have a shelfmark for these, but they’re from the UBC RBSC’s copy of Gesner’s Historia animalium. Also, the image of the donkey says “you asse” & the (notoriously gluttonous) gulon says “greedy gut” if you’re having trouble deciphering the script.]
Here’s another one from the Wellcome Library’s copy of
The noble lyfe & natures of man, of bestes, serpentys, fowles & fisshes yt be moste knowen (1521)
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