BOOK OF HOURS, USE OF REIMS
(Northern France)

This book of hours is illustrated exclusively with marginalia – a mixture of real-life activities, fantastical hybrid creatures, and bawdy humor that occupy the borders of the page.

Why are those strange creatures on the pages of a religious text? Social satire is a strong element in marginal imagery, as are moralizing reminders of proper and improper conduct. Marginalia also served medieval readers as visual memory aids to help recall prayers they had learned by heart.

The book on display has three types of marginal images: dragons, apes, and musicians. Dragons are common animals included in medieval bestiaries, where they are most closely associated with the Devil, who is also the greatest of serpents. [Compare the dragons in this book of hours with those in the Peterborough Psalter & Bestiary in Table Case #1.] Apes often perform human tasks in margins, but often in unusual or incompetent ways. These apes parody people who tried to break traditional medieval social boundaries or thought too highly of themselves. The ape here carries out a common medieval medical practice - inspecting a patient’s urine. Musicians as marginal images may have served as a physical reminder of the sung performance of the text. Sometimes the noises they seem to make are not entirely angelic.
In a colophon on folio 15, the scribe signed his name: Paulinus de Sorcy.