beggars-opera
The best notes written in manuscripts by medieval monks

Colophon: a statement at the end of a book containing the scribe or owner’s name, date of completion, or bitching about how hard it is to write a book in the dark ages

  • Oh, my hand
  • The parchment is very hairy
  • Thank God it will soon be dark
  • St. Patrick of Armagh, deliver me from writing
  • Now I’ve written the whole thing; for Christ’s sake give me a drink
  • Oh d fuckin abbot
  • Massive hangover
  • Whoever translated these Gospels did a very poor job
  • Cursed be the pesty cat that urinated over this book during the night
  • If someone else would like such a handsome book, come and look me up in Paris, across from the Notre Dame cathedral
  • I shall remember, O Christ, that I am writing of Thee, because I am wrecked today
  • Do not reproach me concerning the letters, the ink is bad and the parchment scanty and the day is dark
  • 11 golden letters, 8 shilling each; 700 letters with double shafts, 7 shilling for each hundred; and 35 quires of text, each 16 leaves, at 3 shilling each. For such an amount I won’t write again
  • Here ends the second part of the title work of Brother Thomas Aquinas of the Dominican Order; very long, very verbose; and very tedious for the scribe; thank God, thank God, and again thank God
  • If anyone take away this book, let him die the death, let him be fried in a pan; let the falling sickness and fever seize him; let him be broken on the wheel, and hanged. Amen
branewurms

what does oh d fuckin abbot even MEAN

a-spoon-is-born

an abbot is the head of a monastery so it just means “fuck my boss” basically, an abbreviation of “O damned fuckin Abbot”. this is what it looks like:

Brasenose College MS 7, f.62v 

english-history-trip

Fun fact: The above is the first known written “fuck”.

cregga-rose-eyes

Not actually the earliest written example of fuck as a vulgar word for sex, but an early example. Read more here: https://solongasitswords.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/on-the-origin-of-fuck/

leadhoovesies

I find it hilarious that Saint Thomas’s scribe was so tired of writing for him

alexstrazsa

“I shall remember, O Christ, that I am writing of Thee, because I am wrecked today“