Tomfoolery of Medieval Monks Part II

When you just can't get enough butts

This comic felt like a nice bookend to the last one:

As I was searching for images of medieval scribes to use in this comic, I came across this relatable image (speech bubbles added by me):

But I also learned that this might actually be a depiction of a scribe being visited by the patron demon of scribes—Titivillus! According to catholic lore, there are many patron saints who oversee and bless pretty much anything you can imagine—from the sick and afflicted to spelunkers and funeral directors. But the only patron demon (as far as I can gather) is Titivillus, who was said to cause scribes to make errors in their work—misspellings, ink spills, skipped lines, etc.

As it turns out, the scribes didn’t mind having someone to blame their errors on, so the demon became a patron demon of scribes everywhere.

I actually love the idea of medieval monks being under the influence of some type of deviant little being, and that Titivillus’s main goal was to get scribes to commit typos in their manuscripts. I like to think he got an extra butt or two thrown in as well.

Now, today’s comic is based on images from an illustrated musical manuscript commissioned by a wealthy Belgian in the 16th century. It’s called the Cambrai Chansonnier, and it’s delightfully bizarre and a little bit (OK a lot bit) naughty. Intermixed with depictions of Belgian life and stories from the Bible are bizarre beasts, vomiting peasants, lewd acts, and lots and lots of bare buttocks.

Here are some of my favorite parts:

this lil dog! on this lil plough! I love him.

AND… I love her. One sandal. Cauldron ass. Titties out. A legend.

for pigs! (?)

chickens! doing it!

Then there’s this cool title page…

1542! So cool! But hang on is that…

Elton John?? my man Sir Elton J?? toodlin’ away?

While there are lots of illustrations between staves of music, most of the illustrations are creative interpretations of alphabetical initials, like the following:

uhm, sir?

excuse me, SIR?

SIR??

it’s safe to say some of the dudes in these illustrations are… not doing great

But then there are others who seem to be… thriving?

picking some… fruit… handling some… grapes…

I mean he’s smiling down there so it seems… consensual? I’m not gonna judge!

A is for… a..pples… as in look at them… apples

They had fun in the 16th century. They had fun.

Surprisingly (or not, at this point) the illustrations didn’t have much to do with the songs—the lyrics, the notes, the subject matter. As usual, these were just weird little doodles that the scribes decided to include.

If you want more, just do an image search for Cambrai Chansonnier, but be warned, quite a few of them are even more NSFWish than these. Proceed with caution! And delight!

And as always, thank you for being here.

All my love,

🖤Becca Lee, the Haunted Librarian🖤