How do you spice up the dull task of copying line after line of a medieval manuscript? Some monks added lighthearted touches to the marginalia of their manuscripts by doodling murderous beasts, penis monsters, and lots and lots of butts. Some images below are NSFW.

Walking Fish from a 13th-century English Bible


(via Discarding Images)

Foxes vs. Monkeys from a 13th-century Bible


(via Got Medieval)

An Ethiopian beast named Anabula, which looks like a sad elephant from Liber de nature rerun, France, c. 1290


(via Discarding Images)

Monk fighting off some devils with a club, from the Smithfield Decretals, c. 1300


(via Medieval Fragments)

Snail vs. Knight, from The Smithsfield Decretals, decretals of Gregory IX, Tolouse, c. 1300. Illuminations were added about forty years later in London.


No one knows exactly why were these snail images so popular, but here are some theories.


(via Discarding Images)

Rabbits killing men in The Smithfield Decretals, c. 1300


(via Demonagerie)

Cats vs. rabbits, headless people, and a lion playing the violin in the Breviary of Renaud de Bar, France, 1302-1303



(via Got Medieval and Medieval Fragments)

Long Neck, from Book Of Hours, England, early 14th century


(via Discarding Images)

Cats doing cat things: sleep, play with mice, and take an unhealthy interest in caged birds from a medieval bestiary


(via Bestiary)

An angry chef with a big knife, from The Luttrell Psalter, 1325-1335


(via Muckley)

An ape killing a man with a big axe


(via Medium Aevum)

The Flying Green Penis Monster, from Decretum Gratiani with commentary of Bartolomeo de Brescia, Italy, 1340-1345


(via Discarding Images)

A cheeky interloper in left margin, from Vows of the Peacock, c. 1350


(via io9)


Hellmouth, from the Taymouth Hours, 14th century


(via Got Medieval)

Penis tree from a 14th-century copy of the Roman of the Rose


(via Discarding Images)

A rabbit with axe, in Gorleston Psalter, England, 14th century


(via Discarding Images)

A tasty donut in Les Grandes Heures du duc de Berry, Paris, 1409


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A monkey is doing something in a late fifteenth century edition of Jean de Wavrin's Anciennes et novellas chronicles d'Angleterre


(via Got Medieval)

Melancholic cat plays the lyre in a Book of Hours from France, 15th century


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The Thinker Monkey, from the Breviary of Mary of Savoy, Lombardy, c. 1430


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Aliens with a to-do list and a whip, in Livres du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio, France, 15th century


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People and Sea Devils, from Histoire de Merlin, by Master of Adelaide of Savoy in Poitiers, around 1450-1455


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Hi, do you want my broom? Illustration from Traité des quatre dernières choses by Jean Le Tavernier, c. 1455


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A Dalmatian Sea Monster, an illustration by Poggio Bracciolini, added to a copy of Le Miroir du Monde, mid-15th century


(via Discarding Images)

Cat playing a bagpipe in a Book of Hours, Paris, c. 1460


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Arrow in the ass


(via Got Medieval and Lapham's Quarterly)

What are you doing here, dragon? An illustration from Les faize d'Alexandre (a translation of Historiae Alexandri Magni of Quintus Curtius Rufus), Bruges, c. 1468-1475


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Smiling skeleton, from Ars bene moriendi, France, 1470-1480


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Monkey prank, from Recueil des croniques d'Engleterre, Bruges, 1471-1483


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Teletubbies in a basket, in Le Livre des hystoires du Mirouer du monde, Paris, 15th century


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Demons in a castle, from Le mister par personages de la vie, passion, mort, resurrection et assention de Nostre Seigneur Jesus Christ, 1547


(via Demonagerie)

Creepy People on a map, from Cosmographie universelle, 1555


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Not exactly a garden party, from Wunderbarliche, doch wahrhaftige Erklärung von der Gelegenheit und Sitten der Wilden in Virginia by Theodor de Bry, c. 1590


(via Smithsonian Libraries)

A bird-like demon with a smaller fighting demon and a woman in his basket, from Nürnberger Schembart-Buch, 17th century


(via Demonagerie)