Vincent of Beauvais, Le Miroir Historial (French translation of Jean de Vignay), Paris 1400-1410.
Den Haag, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 72 A 24, fol. 313v

New snat drop. :) He's very handsome and orange.

academic caption: "cat trying to climb an unclimbable tower"

Source: The British Museum

I would imagine swords are out also. Mr O'Neal also said: “Pluto is not a planet, but I am.” 😆

Me: "Absolutely."

*A Misericord is a small wooden ledge on the underside of a hinged folding seat in a church choir stall

Just like people today, medieval people apparently enjoyed watching cats lick their own butts. The subject appears in all sorts of medieval artworks, and no one really knows why.

Perhaps it was simply a way for monks to relieve the boredom of spending endless hours producing illuminated manuscripts. Maybe they thought it was funny to sneak mischievous little drawings of cats into otherwise serious books.

The motif appears across a surprisingly wide span of time and place, yet among the surviving sources, only one medieval monk ever commented on it. His verdict? It was nothing more than a waste of time and precious ink.