The Index of Medieval Art

A photograph of a pair of gloves decorated with roundels and trim, placed flat on a red mount and behind display glass, a work of art above on the wall. In the foreground right, a mobile phone screen shows the same item in the Index of Medieval Art database.

Index friends: We have completed cataloging of the print textile records in the database! Read more at ima.princeton.edu/2025/10/07/a...

A manuscript page with two large stacked scenes with lines of Latin text above and below them. The upper scene depicts a seated man raising his hand while another man kneels in front of him; the lower one shows a boy riding a camel, accompanies by three more camels.

Have a good #IndexHumpDay (Eliezer taking oath, Bible, Amiens, Bib. Mun. MS 108, fol. 13v).

A man wearing a white cap and playing a red bagpipe with gold pipes, against a patterned red ground.

Interested in learning more about how to use the Index of Medieval Art in your research? Join our free online tutorial on Oct. 7, 2025! Click through to sign up: ima.princeton.edu/.../next-onl....

(Musician, Cantigas de Santa María, RBME, MS B.I.2, fol. 313v).

A mosaic of a man in a patterned robe and pointed hat leading a camel by a rein, all within a landscape with trees.

Have a good #IndexHumpDay
(Mosaic pavement, Church of the Martyrs, Mādabā, Jordan, 550–620).

An ivory plaque careved with human, animal, and mythological figures, including centaurs, sirens, satyrs, an elephant, and a camel.

Have a good #IndexHumpDay
(9th century carving on the back of a sixth-century consular diptych, Musée du Louvre, Paris)

A detail of a manuscript page with a red rectangle containing a line drawing of a camel walking to the right on a green background. Writing can be seen around the border of the image, and some of the illustration on the next page is visible through a small hole near the camel's forward leg.

Have a good #IndexHumpDay! (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 88, fol. 16r.

An embroidered textile with images of men riding horses, some of them pointing to an inscription, and upper and lower borders containing a variet of animals, including birds and camels.

A classic for this #IndexHumpDay
(Detail from the Bayeux Embroidery, Normandy, 1066–1083)

Dromedary, Northumberland Bestiary (Los Angeles, Getty Museum, MS. 100), folio 30v.

A manuscript page with a framed image of a man with a bow, looking backward as he rides on a camel galloping to the right. There is Latin text above and below the frame.

It is #IndexHumpDay all right

A detail of a manuscript page depicting a nude man riding a camel, against a gold ground. Latin text is found at the left and upper margin of the image.

Keep on going, it's #IndexHumpDay!
(Camel, manuscript detail, Ashmole Bestiary, Oxford, Bodleian Lib., MS Ashmole1511, fol. 31v.)

Set in an outdoor space, a trapezoidal architectural block carved with a figure of a camel followed by a male figure holding its tail in one hand and a whip in the other.

This #IndexHumpDay, we thank Erik Gustafson for sharing this amazing medieval camel!

A line drawing of a camel, shown in profile against a green frame. There are lines of Latin text above and below it.

Stepping forward with determination on this #IndexHumpDay
(Northumberland Bestiary, J. Paul Getty Museum, MS. 100, folio 30r).

A detail of a manuscript page depicting a camel facing to the right, against a field of nested gold, blue, and red rectangles.

Lots of luck on this #IndexHumpDay
(London, British Library, Harley 4751, folio 24r)

Detail of a manuscript page with two simply framed images of a camel and a dromedary leaping against a red ground. The camel has its mouth open.

Someone is quite surprised to learn that it's #IndexHumpDay already!

L’Image du Monde / Bestiaire of Pierre de Beauvais (Bibliothèque Universitaire Historique de Médecine, MS H. 437), folio 105r, 14th century.

A manuscript detail with a leafy red letter B on a blue field. inside the letter is a robed, haloed figure with three faces; he holds a book and raises his right hand.

Big news at the Index! ima.princeton.edu/2025/04/01/i...

A detail of a medieval manuscript depicting a man in a red tunic opening his arms wide, before a patterned background and a starry sky. He is flanked by two scrolls with Gothic writing.

Hugs to all our medievalist friends on International Hug a Medievalist Day! (King Cepheus, British Library MS Arundel 66 f.34)

It's #IndexHumpDay again! Stay safe from griffins if you can

(Rutland Psalter, London, British Library, Additional MS 62925, folio 14v, c1260)

A turquoise-colored ceramic figurine of a camel carrying a house-shaped structure on its back.

Have a good #IndexHumpDay!

(Figurine in the Form of a Camel Carrying a Palanquin and Two Riders, 12th–early 13th c, probably Iran or Iraq; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund, 1964, no. 64.59).

A painting of a camel against a rose-colored ground with stars.

Bactrian camel, MS. 61, folio 27r, 13th century.
Saint John’s College Library, Saint John’s College, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom.
#IndexHumpDay

A round ceramic plate with a saddled camel in the center, surrounded by a band of camels and palm trees framed by bands of abstract ornament.

Another #IndexHumpDay. Let's do our best to make it a good one.

(Bowl with camel caravan, late 12th-early 13th century [Seljuq?], 48.1054. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, USA)

Index friends, The Lois Drewer Calendar of Saints in Byzantine Manuscripts and Frescoes is back online! Ever wonder whose feast day is March 3? If you said Eutropius, Cleonicus and Basiliscus of Pontus, you'd be correct!

Late-breaking legacy typo! Now fixed. Enjoy!

A manuscript page with a large block of red and black text, including red and blue initials and an ornate gold letter H on a green groud. Surrounding the text is a landscape with trees and hills in which a group of male figures beside a well present a captive to a turbaned man while another waits with pack camels.

It's #IndexHumpDay!

(Joseph, Sold to Ishmaelites, Prayer Book of Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg, Ms. Ludwig IX 19, fol. 94, 1525 – 1530, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California)

A manuscript detail showing a smiling camel facing to the right, in front of an ornamental red and gold band.

Stay the course like this camel on #IndexHumpDay

A detail of a lined notebook containing multiple signatures in various hands, with one signature line highlighted.

Index friends, please enjoy our latest Guestbook interview with Prof. Herbert Kessler here: ima.princeton.edu/.../index-gu...

A painted panel with three arches on top depicting a veiled woman, with her outstretched arms grasping her opened mantle, also held by a pair of angels holding flowers. Beneath the mantle, two groups of kneeling male and female figures, some wearing religious clothing and some crowned.

Index users, please join us for an online tutorial on using the Index of Medieval Art database, March 25 at 12 noon Eastern/New York time. A free registration link is found here: ima.princeton.edu/.../next-onl...

A clay figurine of a camel with a pack.

Happy #IndexHumpDay!
Bactrian camel, earthenware with traces of pigment, Tang dynasty, 7th – 8th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

A stone relief with a carving of a camel ridden by figure on an elaborate saddle.

Happy #IndexHumpDay
(Votive relief [?], Psyche, goddess of the soul on a camel, 3rd, or 2nd century BC.
Musée du Louvre, Paris, Île-de-France, France

It's King David, accompanied by all the creatures (and some attendants)!

A manuscript painting in which a camel, an ox, and two birds kneel in front of a group of kneeling figures, all in a landscape with a city in the distance.

Happy #IndexHumpDay to our friends on Bluesky! (Ferial Psalter, M.934, fol. 35r, detail, 1495-1498. Morgan Library & Museum, New York, New York, United States).