some of my favorite pieces of medieval bitching
copying manuscripts was pretty unpleasant work, and medieval scribes aren’t afraid of telling us so. they wrote plenty of complaints in the margins and at the ends of manuscripts they copied. these are some of my personal favorite medieval complains:
Leiden Corpus, VLF 5, f. 172v:
hoc opus est scriptum magister da mihi potum; Dextera scriptoris careat grauitate doloris: The work has been written- master, give me a drink! Let the writer’s right hand be free of the oppressiveness of pain.
Jagiellonian Library, Ital. fol. 149: Laus tibi sit Criste/hic liber explicit iste: Christ, let praise be unto you/for here this book is through
Brasenose College, MS 7, f.62v: false are the works wich this Abbot writ in the abbie of Osney alias Godstow 1528; (on the next column) O d fuckin Abbot
Oxford, New College, MS 121, f.376v:
Explicit secunda pars summe fratris thome de aquino ordinis fratrum predicatorum, longissima, prolixissima, et tediosissima scribenti: Deo gratias, Deo gratias, et iterum Deo gratias: Here ends the second part of the summa of Brother Thomas of Aquino, of the Order of Preaching Brothers- the longest, wordiest, and most tedious thing to the one who writes it. Thank God, thank God, and again, thank God.
BL, Add MS 11695: The work of writing makes one lose his sight, it hunches his back, it breaks ribs and bothers the stomach, it pains the kidneys and causes aches throughout the body. Therefore, you the reader, turn the pages carefully and keep your fingers from the letters, because just as hail destroys the fields, the useless reader erases the text and destroys the book. (trans. by the British Library)
Brussels 2849-51, fol. 48v: (following what the copyist thought was a sloppy translation)
Dus soudic dat dietschen: This is how I would put this in Dutch. (trans. by Erik Kwakkel)
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
S.n. 12.857, fol. 95v: Whoever translated these Gospels did a very poor job. (trans. by Erik Kwakkel)
St. Gallen, Codex Sangallensis 904, p.204: Latheirt: I have a massive hangover.