Medicine: examining urine
The medieval Church
Medieval Surgery
Rural life: the lazy ploughman
Friar playing music
Dante's Divine Comedy
Harvesting acorns
Living and dead Princes
Golden Haggadah
Noah in the Holkham Bible
Apothecary shop
City walls
Lord at supper
Peasants work the land
The Last Judgement
Hundred Years War
Demons fall into Hell
Chronicle of the Black Death
Genesis picture book
Medieval encyclopedia
Sir Gawain & the Green Knight
Peasants' Revolt
Scottish freedom
English cookery manuscript
This famous illustrated bible is full of pictures of everyday life in the 1300s. The illustrations were originally used by a preacher to help him explain the stories to his audience. Each picture is accompanied by brief explanatory text in Anglo-Norman French – this was the language used by most English noblemen at the time.
This image shows Noah releasing a raven and a dove, birds representing vice and virtue. The dove is shown again returning with an olive branch, a symbol of peace. In the water, we see the world submerged by the flood: there is a dead ox and two naked corpses, the raven picks out the eye of the dead horse, and the dove plucks an olive branch from an underwater mountain.
Shelfmark: Add. 47682