Armed hybrids in the margins
In which I wonder about why and how mer-knights outlasted other half-human fighters in manuscript borders.
Medieval books, especially psalters and books of hours, often have fantastic hybrid creatures incorporated into the border ornamentation. The manuscripts of the fourteenth century are most famous for this feature, and the strange creatures posing with familiar everyday objects have become popular in medieval-derived memes. Here’s an example from Verdun Bibl. Mun. MS 0107, ca. 1305
In the 15th century, the hybrids are still weird and fantastical, but things are changing. The prevailing art style has less tiny detail, and there are generally fewer, larger creatures per page. Creatures are more often isolated than interacting. I haven’t done thorough enough surveys to show the data, but there seems to be a trend in the marginal combatants. Single-hand sword and shield is the most common fighting style in both centuries, but later manuscripts have fewer examples of full-coverage armor like you’d see on men-at-arms.
Here’s a centaur archer from the Trivulzio Book of Hours, ca 1465.
The centaur appears well armored, but out of 4 creatures with bows and 1 with a crossbow in this manuscript’s borders, only this example features a helmet. Here’s a lion/human hybrid with an extra face, who could only be wearing armor that’s concealed under civilian clothes.
By the early 16th century, the Ghent-Bruges school of illumination seems to dominate the private devotional manuscripts market, even developing a consistent regional brand across many workshops. These manuscripts feature a substantial set of motifs that rotate across the hundreds of pages of prayers.
The Ghent-Bruges school discards the “spray border” style used in the Trivulzio book of hours and hugely popular in the 15th century. Instead, they use “scatter borders” that use trompe l’oeil techniques to give the impression of real flowers and bugs strewn onto the page, complete with little shadows. These could still be “inhabited” as in the previous centuries, but usually by real, recognizable animals like monkeys and cranes, or tiny humans harvesting flowers that tower over them.
In addition to scatter borders, Ghent-Bruges border motifs included fictitious architecture, geometric arrangements of pilgrim medals, and some scenes. One of those scenes makes a noteworthy exception to the general disappearance of cavorting mixed monsters.
Why is this fantasy battle seemingly the last holdout of the long tradition of combative fantasies in devotional margins?
I still don’t really know. I haven’t found a cultural myth that features this scene, but it might have been written about in a language other than English. I think there’s probably something powerful and appealing in the many layers of duality, juxtaposition, and liminality inherent in a warrior of the sea facing off against a wild man of the woods astride a giant eagle (or a legendary alerion). The examples showing the shore littered with jewels suggest a reference to The Letter of Prester John.
This persistence also shows how the cultural meme of mer-people has much more staying power than the pre-modern love for hybrid drolleries. I don’t know whether the implication of a whole mer-society with values worth fighting for is a cause or a result of that staying power.
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