I would just like to pop in again after all this time and offer some sources, as I know there has been discussion for a while. A good number of these initially came from an infographic from Lapham’s Quarterly Magazine, which I don’t have access to, and I’m not sure if sources were cited. Some of these, however, have been confirmed by scholars, particularly a group at the University of Leiden who had a blog going for a while on the subject of medieval writing. Not everything mentioned was documented with photos, but here are a couple:
“Ale has killed us” (translated as “massive hangover”) in Ogham x
“Cursed be the pesty cat that urinated over this book during the night“ x
(please note the helpful finger pointing to the pee stain/cat doodle)
“This work is written master give me a drink; let the right hand of the scribe be free from the oppressiveness of pain” x
“Whoever translated these Gospels did a very poor job” x
“If someone else would like such a handsome book, come and look me up in Paris, across from the Notre Dame cathedral” - we even have the scribe’s name, Herneis le Romanceur x
“I shall remember, O Christ, that I am writing of Thee, because I am wrecked today. It’s now Sunday evening “ x
The “don’t @ me” scribe x
The source for the poor scribe complaining about his awful salary was linked to from the University blog as well but the page about that text seems to have been removed.
The scribe who hates Thomas Aquinas x
“Let him be broken on the wheel and hanged” x
