A Deventer scribe, writing around 1420, found his
manuscript ruined by a urine stain left there by a cat
the night before. He was forced to leave the rest of
the page empty, drew a picture of a cat and cursed
the creature with the following words:
"Hic non defectus est, sed cattus minxit desuper
note quadam. Confundatur pessimus cattus qui
minxit super librum istum in nocte Daventrie, et
consimiliter ones al propter illum. Et cavendum
valde ne permittantur libri aperti per noctem ubi catti
venire possunt.
[Here is nothing missing, but a cat urinated on this
during a certain night. Cursed be the pesty cat that
urinated over this book during the night in Deventer
and because of it many others [other cats] too. And
beware well not to leave open books at night where
cats can come.]
by CryptographerKey2847
3 Comments
“Confound that cat!” (Confundatur cattus!)
Great this extraordinary piece of feline urinary legacy even survived the collapse of the historical archive of Cologne in 2009. Would’ve been a catastrophic loss.. Bless the conservators who saved the manuscript.
Bet it still smells!