hermajestyschimera reblogged
The best notes written in manuscripts by medieval monks
Colophon: a statement at the end of a book containing the scribe or owner’s name, date of completion, or bitching about how hard it is to write a book in the dark ages
- Oh, my hand
- The parchment is very hairy
- Thank God it will soon be dark
- St. Patrick of Armagh, deliver me from writing
- Now I’ve written the whole thing; for Christ’s sake give me a drink
- Oh d fuckin abbot
- Massive hangover
- Whoever translated these Gospels did a very poor job
- Cursed be the pesty cat that urinated over this book during the night
- If someone else would like such a handsome book, come and look me up in Paris, across from the Notre Dame cathedral
- I shall remember, O Christ, that I am writing of Thee, because I am wrecked today
- Do not reproach me concerning the letters, the ink is bad and the parchment scanty and the day is dark
- 11 golden letters, 8 shilling each; 700 letters with double shafts, 7 shilling for each hundred; and 35 quires of text, each 16 leaves, at 3 shilling each. For such an amount I won’t write again
- Here ends the second part of the title work of Brother Thomas Aquinas of the Dominican Order; very long, very verbose; and very tedious for the scribe; thank God, thank God, and again thank God
- If anyone take away this book, let him die the death, let him be fried in a pan; let the falling sickness and fever seize him; let him be broken on the wheel, and hanged. Amen