let's dance

found at http://discardingimages.tumblr.com

Start your Sunday with this trio of performers and their lovely lightness of foot and paw. 
Here's a closeup:

This scene is found in the manuscript known as "The Maastricht Hours" on folio 112.  Here's the whole page.  You might also enjoy this blog post on "Medieval Dog Tricks" - I did.

doodlecats

found at discardingimages.tumblr.com

These scribbled little buddies hang out in a manuscript of theological miscellany dating from the 15th century (Saint-Denis, Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms. 988, fol. 124r).  I tried to find the original manuscript page to link and show you, but I do not search well in French, it turns out.  Here is the link to the Bibliotheque Mazarine - I bet you'll do better than I did!

a sinuous doggy line

thanks discardingimages.tumblr.com (PD)

From a Book of Hours owned by Joanna I of Castile (1479-1555), this sinuous fellow accompanies some birds and flowers on the pages of folio 62v.  Want to see the book online?  Here you are.

a dog kennel, c 1440

Unknown
A Hunter Attending to Kenneled Dogs, about 1430 - 1440,
Tempera colors, gold paint, silver paint, and gold leaf on parchment
Leaf: 26.4 × 18.4 cm (10 3/8 × 7 1/4 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

This is an illustration from a manuscript of Livre de la Chasse (Book of the Hunt) created in Brittany circa 1430-1440.  The original "Book of the Hunt" was written in the late 1380's by Gaston III, Count of Foix, reckoned to be one of the greatest huntsmen of his day.  This page shows a hunter attending to kenneled dogs.  I have not found a translation of it, but I do know that the Livre de la Chasse was translated into English by Edward of Norwich, the 2nd Duke of York.  He titled his translation The Master of Game, and tomorrow I'll show you a short passage from it about dog kennels.

a dog watches over words

public domain, courtesy of the british library. link to page here

This floppy-eared boy lies in watch over one page of a Dutch Book of Hours dating c. 1420 and very likely belonging to a nun.  He shares duty with a dragon, so he's not too worried.

From the British Library, below:
Book of Hours, with the Hours of the Virgin, the Short Hours of the Holy Cross, Prayers and Suffrages (ff. 8-179v), imperfect. Netherlands, N. (Utrecht or Guelders), c. 1420, Dutch, by The Master of the Morgan Infancy Cycle. Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.

give a dog a bone, c 1320

thanks discardingimages.tumblr.com

From the Hours of Saint-Omer, France ca. 1320  (Want to see the book he comes from?  British Library, Add 36684, fol. 34r).

blessed is he who has a pet sloth

Joris Hoefnagel (Flemish / Hungarian, 1542 - 1600), and Georg Bocskay (Hungarian, died 1575)

A Sloth, 1561 - 1562; illumination added 1591 - 1596, Watercolors, gold and silver paint, 

and ink on parchment

Leaf: 16.6 x 12.4 cm (6 9/16 x 4 7/8 in.)

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Or a tree kangaroo?  1500s Europe was mostly unclear on the difference, though the Hapsburg royal family in Vienna and elsewhere had menageries famed for their variety.  This gorgeous image from the Getty is a mashup: as the object page explains, the words on their black-tinted parchment existed first, spelling out part of the Sermon on the Mount.  Thirty years later around 1591-6 Joris Hoefnagel added the twig-munching creature in his fancy pavilion. 

a cymbal-ic cat

Book of Hours, Cat beating cymbal,
from a marginal cycle of images of the funeral of Renard the Fox,
Walters Manuscript W.102, fol. 78v detail

This whiskery fellow chimes his way along a margin in a Book of Hours held by the Walters Art Museum.  On adjoining pages, other creatures also march along in character, and all together they become a fanciful funeral procession for Reynard the Fox.  The book, dating from late 13th-century England, is neither complete nor bound correctly, and as a result it's not known which prosperous soul got to enjoy this jolly embellishment to their devotions.
Here's the entire page if you'd like to spot our cymbalist above.
Here's one of his fellows, a dog with a set of bagpipes made out of...is that what I think it is?
Here's the whole book page by page if you're curious and want to find more!

rabbits run

courtesy of the Getty's Open Image Program

Brittany, France, mid 1400's: a Livre de la Chasse (Book of the Chase) is created by an unknown master of illumination.  Ah, bunnies are known for providing sport, in their small way, and so we get this lively illustration of a warren of rabbits.  Let's look closer.

They hop here and there, they find their burrows, and if the lower right hand corner is any indication, they also find romance.

Rabbits (Getty Museum)

Rabbits; Unknown; Brittany, France; about 1430 - 1440; Tempera colors, gold paint, silver paint, and gold leaf on parchment

http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/2137/unknown-ma . . .

"life according to one's desire"

digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program

That's what the banner at the top of this page - and the words on the dog's collar - say when translated from the French; at the bottom, you see the words "Plus que jamais" (More than ever).  The illuminator Jean Fouquet created this frontispiece for a Book of Hours commissioned by Simon de Varie, a court official under France's Charles VII and Louis XI. The woman and dog appear to be simply pictorial brackets for the coat of arms, and not a part of them.  This book is by far the best thing known about de Varies.  

Object information from the Getty:

Jean Fouquet (French, born about 1415 - 1420, died before 1481)
Coat of Arms Held by a Woman and a Greyhound, 1455, Tempera colors, gold paint, gold leaf, and ink on parchment
Leaf: 11.4 × 8.3 cm (4 1/2 × 3 1/4 in.)
Partial gift of Gerald F. Borrmann

cats: getting in your stuff since...ever

discarding images, via pinterest

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, MS 404, fol. 156v:  it's difficult to get any hand-spinning done when you're trying to get the cat away from a bowl of delicious whatever.

-- Fun fact: According to the breakdown of the manuscript at the Beinecke, fol.156v is one of a set of pages containing "Excerpts from Proverbs 11.1-15.4."  

waiting for the master

found on pinterest, believed PD. on p f.50v-51r

This quiet and domestic vignette is found in the Book of Hours of Joanna of Castile (Libro d'Ore di Giovanna di Castiglia, 1486-1506 - here is the link to the digitised book at the British Library).  Also known as the "Hours of Joanna the Mad," the book contains a calendar, devotional texts, and prayers.  There are holy scenes from the life of Christ, but there are also pages and pages of open margins with scattered flowers, birds, and charming animals both everyday and fanciful.  It's a serene thing to behold, which makes it all the more poignant to me that Joanna's life was complicated and subject to politically motivated cruelties.