25 medieval manuscripts you can look at online right now
Digital culture at your fingertips!
A question I am frequently asked in my capacity as Weird Medieval Guys is hey, where do you find all these guys? You may or may not know that almost every institution with a significant collection of medieval manuscripts digitises many of their most significant works and makes them freely accessible online. However, with thousands of these manuscripts available to browse, it can be difficult to know where to start! Here are a few recommendations I’ve collected from my time curating weird medieval art.
The Book of Durrow
Trinity College Dublin, MS 57 (Ireland, ca. 700 AD)
This manuscript shows its age—in the best way possible, since it’s one of the oldest illuminated manuscripts around. Its pages are worn, water-stained in some places and repaired in others, but its hard to imagine that this has much detracted from the Book of Durrow’s charm.
The Book of Kells
Trinity College Dublin, MS 58 (Ireland, ca. 800 AD)
A singularly stunning Irish manuscript with some of the most ornate Celtic illustrations out there. Some would say it is the most beautiful Insular manuscript; others would say it is the most beautiful of all medieval manuscripts!
The Lorsch Gospels
Alba Iulia, Bibl. Batthyáneum, Ms R II 1 and Vatican, BAV, Pal. lat. 50 (Germany, ca. 810s AD)
A product of the Carolingian Renaissance, a cosmopolitan movement that revived interest in classical studies throughout Europe. Look at those naturalistic drawings and classical attire! A typical example of elegant Carolingian restraint. This one has been split into two parts.
The Beatus of Saint Sever
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, lat. 8878 (France, ca. 1028-1072 AD)
A good medieval illuminated Apocalypse should still be a bit disturbing to look through, even today. If you ask me, this Romanesque edition with its flat, expressive, colourful compositions fits the bill nicely.
The Stammheim Missal
Los Angeles, Getty Museum, Ms. 64 (Germany, ca. 1170s AD)
This Romanesque manuscript contains lots and lots of large, elaborate initials, each one a little self-contained scene in its own right! So many fun little details to explore.
View it here
The Aberdeen Bestiary
Aberdeen University Library, MS 24 (England, ca. 1200 AD)
A beautiful and copiously gilded manuscript considered to be one of the most lavish medieval bestiaries.
The Bodley Bestiary
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 764 (England, ca. 1225-1240)
Another beautiful bestiary replete with images of weird medieval creatures both fictional and real.
The Crusader Bible
New York, Morgan Library, MS M.638 (France, ca. 1250 AD)
Though officially known as a Bible, this manuscript originally consisted entirely of illustrations. These depict various Old Testament scenes (especially battles and conquests) albeit with contemporary 12th century attire and weaponry. The detail on the soldiers’ suits of mail is mind-boggling! Over the centuries, the Bible’s various owners added explanatory notes to its drawings in Latin, Persian, Arabic, Judeo-Persian, and Hebrew.
The Rothschild Canticles
Yale, Beinecke Library, MS 404 (Flanders or the Rhineland, ca. 1300 AD)
A prayer book with beautiful and utterly beguiling illuminations showing the influence of mystical devotional theology. Also, lots and lots of silly marginal guys. One of my all time favourite manuscripts for its mysterious and compelling artwork.
The Codex Manesse
Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, Cpg 848 (Zürich, ca. 1304 AD)
A 14th century compilation of works by around 135 courtly poets, each one represented by a full-page portrait of the writer engaging in courtly activities like hunting, riding, and romancing—although its most famous page inexplicably shows the poet Reimmar von Brennenberg getting stabbed in the head.
The Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux
Met Museum, Cloisters Collection, 54.1.2 (Paris, ca. 1324-1328 AD)
An impossibly tiny 14th century prayer book. It pages are a mere 3.5 by 4.5 inches (9.2 by 6.2 cm) yet squeezed into them are some absolutely stunning and lifelike drawings showing the highest degree of artistic skill.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264
(Bruges, 1338-1334 AD)
The first and largest part of this manuscript is an illustrated Alexander Romance. However, what makes this book really special is the marginal decoration, which contains hundreds of drawings of medieval men and women engaged in a huge variety of activities. There are jousts, puppet shows, bat-and-ball games, chess players, trebuchets, marketplaces, dances, courtship scenes, and much, much more. Practically every page feels like a treasure trove of detail about life 650 years ago.
Tacuinum Sanitatis
Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. Ser. n. 2644
Originally an 11th century Arabic health manual by Ibn Butlan, the Tacuinum Sanitatis soon found its way to Europe where Latin translations were widely circulated. This heavily illuminated edition depicts Ibn Butlan’s advice in vivid detail. From abundant fruits and vegetables to ample fresh air, you’ll feel restored just looking at all the healthful scenes.
The Sherborne Missal
British Library, Add MS 74236 (England, ca. 1399-1407 AD)
A luxurious late medieval English manuscript unique for its lifelike depictions of dozens of local native bird species. So arduous was it to write and illuminate this manuscript that the lead scribe and artist both signed their names in several places throughout to ensure their efforts wouldn’t be forgotten. This may not seem remarkable now, but very few medieval manuscripts were ever signed by their makers.
The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Chantilly, Musée Condé, 0065 (1284) (France, ca. 1416)
Famous for its unmatched luxury, especially the calendar sequence in the beginning which includes detailed drawings of daily medieval life throughout the year.
View a version with digital annotations in English or French here
View a version with downloadable page images here
The Hours of Charlotte of Savoy
New York, Morgan Library, MS M.1004 (Paris, ca. 1420-1425 AD)
Perfect for the enjoyers of weird little guys, since there’s one lurking on almost every page of this prayer book, including the famous hedgehog with grapes!
The Black Hours
New York, Morgan Library, MS. 493 (Bruges, 1460-1475)
A brief fad during the mid-to-late 15th century saw several luxury illuminated manuscripts written on black-dyed parchment. This is one of the finest examples, with every colour and detail carefully chosen to offset the pitch-black background.
Livre de la Chasse
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Français 616 (France, 15th century)
Dogs! Dogs! Dogs! This is a treatise on hunting, and if you should know one thing about medieval hunting, it’s the importance of dogs. Consequently, a great deal of this manuscript’s text and illustrations are devoted to man’s best friends. The illuminator’s skill in depicting lush, verdant outdoor settings lends the pages of the book a pleasing harmony.
Chansonnier cordiforme de Montchenu
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Ms. Rothschild 2973 (Savoy, ca. 1475 AD)
A liturgical songbook in the shape of a heart containing the scores for 43 songs and beautiful illuminated miniatures and borders.
Les Visions du chevalier Tondal
Los Angeles, Getty Museum, Ms. 30
This tale of a knight’s journey through heaven and hell has some brilliantly expressive illustrations of demonic torture.
Pierre Sala’s Petit Livre d'Amour
British Library, Stowe MS 955 (France, ca. 1500 AD)
Some time around 1500 AD, French nobleman Pierre Sala created this tiny book as a gift for his then lover and future wife Marguerite Bullioud. It contains prose and poetry written in her honour, accompanied by illustrations of medieval French proverbs and romantic themes. In the courtly tradition, the these portray love obliquely through a visual language of selflessness and hopeless devotion, such as in the above image of Pierre dropping his heart into an open daisy—marguerite is the French word for daisy.
View a list of the proverbs and the digitised manuscript here
Seligenstädter Lateinpädagogik
Uppsala University Library, MS C 678 (Seligenstadt, ca. 1487 AD)
A 15th century Latin textbook featuring slightly crude but very charming illustrations of many of its vocabulary words, which no doubt would have been a helpful memory aid to the young learner. The drawings speak to their creator’s sense of humour as well as his well-rounded education—an entry for vello, which means ‘to pull’, a skeleton bothers a happy young couple with a reference to Virgil: Mors aurem vellit Vivite, ait, Venio—‘Death plucked her ear. “Live!” he said, “For I am coming.”’
The Augsburg book of miracles
Private collection (Augsburg, 1551 AD)
Brilliant illustrations of biblical events, miracles, and strange atmospheric/astrological phenomena from 16th century Germany. Some of the events depicted really really did happen, some didn’t! I’ll leave you to decide which is which.
View most of the illustrations here
Guillaume Le Testu’s Cosmographie universelle
(France, 1555 AD)
A super fun collection of maps featuring all sorts of staples of the weird medieval creature genre (even if this manuscript is technically early modern). There are blemmyes with faces on their chests, monopods using their one big foot as an umbrella, and so much more!
Absolutely fantastic! I stayed at a wonderfully strange hotel in San Francisco whose cafe was painted with scenes from the Bodleian Library MS Bodley 264. I had thought they were just funky little illustrations until today, when I immediately recognized them in this list. What a treat :)
This is a fantastic resource!