The medieval moggie who left his mark on history

[Neil]

By Hugo Gye
 
Many animal lovers are familiar with the nuisance caused by cats interrupting their work by climbing across their papers or computer keyboard.

But this is not a new phenomenon, as this extraordinary photograph of a medieval manuscript proves.

The 15th-century book is marked with four pawprints, which appear to be the result of a cat jumping on to the paper.

Age-old problem: This 15th-century manuscript has been damaged by a cat walking across it The animal also seems to have stepped in ink of some kind, leading to the exceptional clarity of the marks even five or more centuries later.

After he sent it to historian Erik Kwakkel last year, the image took on a life of its own as web users shared it as a poignant proof of how cats have been beloved pets for half a millennium.

The book is part of the 'Lettere e commissioni di Levante', an official record of the activities of the Dubrovnik government throughout the Middle Ages.



Document: The book contains medieval records from the city of Dubrovnik, now in Croatia
These days, if a government document was disfigured by an animal it would probably be destroyed and replaced - but back then writing was such an elaborate and expensive exercise that the book could not be wasted.

This week, Mr Filipovic went online to give his own interpretation of the image's success.

'You can almost picture the writer shooing the cat in a panicky fashion while trying to remove it from his desk,' he wrote.

 
Unique: The mishap is an extraordinary glimpse into the daily life of a scribe in the Middle Ages
'Despite his best efforts the damage was already complete and there was nothing else he could have done but turn a new leaf and continue his job. In that way this little episode was "archived" in history.'

This is not the only incident of a cat vandalising a manuscript - one item in the Cologne archive features a page left half-blank because an animal had urinated on it when it was left out overnight.

Cats were often allowed to live in monasteries and scriptoria because they chased away mice which might otherwise nibble at the manuscripts.

[probono]

That's a nice story. Thanks for sharing.

It reminds me of the dogs prints you sometimes see on roman tiles - or the foot prints out at Goldcliff - or for me on a Samian ware bowl that my parents found, the potters finger prints - clear enough that they could have been used as evidence - it makes the objects more alive I think.

[Chef Geoff]

I can imagine how the scribe felt, white paper is like a magnet to our cat

[Val Beechey]

Same with one of my cats Geoff.  I sometimes leave things by the phone as a reminder for further action. Every time you can guarantee Timmy will be found sitting on them, guarding them from goodness knows what.
It must have been soul destroying for the poor scribe.  Caligraphy is long and painstaking. I know, I had a go at it once, long ago.

Nice post Neil, a touch of the every-day to it.

Val

[dances with badgers]

thought it was only my cat that did that lol.walks over keyboard all the time