Medieval cats, cats, cats
Over the past few days I have been tweeting this year’s most popular entries in the blog maintained by the project I am directing at Leiden University. The two images you see here are the main ingredients of the most popular blog this year, which was written by guest blogger Thijs Porck (45k views to date). Many of you will know the top image. I tweeted it early in 2013 and it went viral: it was picked up by blogs, magazines, newspapers and radio shows (see some of them here). The image below it is less well known, but its story is even more astonishing. Next to a gaping blank spot on the page the scribe who copied the book wrote a note to the reader:
"Here is nothing missing, but a cat urinated on this during a certain night. Cursed be the pesty cat that urinated over this book. […] [B]eware well not to leave open books at night where cats can come." Two helpful pointing fingers locate the unfortunate spot on the page.
Had I been on Tumblr at the time, I would have shown you the images here. It seems fair to take this opportunity to do so now. If you are interested, you can read the blog entry in which these images feature here. Happy New Year!
Pic: The cat paw image was sent to me by @EmirOFilipovic.