erikkwakkel:

Medieval smiley face

This is a true feel-good doodle, drawn by a medieval reader and found in the lower margin of a 13th-century page. The surprisingly modern-looking smiley face is wearing glasses and seems to float towards the text in a balloon, quite content. This little scene made my day.

Pic: Conches, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 7 (main text 13th century, doodle 14th or 15th century). More medieval doodles in this Tumblr.

You should all follow Erik Kwakkel’s tumblr, all of his amazing medieval posts have lovely annotations, a rare thing on tumblr where too often we see images with little context.  Superb!