Medieval selfies and the earliest selfie-stick

Selfies are by no means an exclusively modern phenomenon. During the Middle Ages artists would portray themselves, even realistically. The person seen here made two selfies of himself and even tells us his name: “Rufillus”, Latin for The Redheaded. In the top image he is using a stick to support his arm so as to make a better picture. I like to think it is the earliest example of a selfie-stick!

Read more about these images in this blog post: https://medievalbooks.nl/2018/09/20/me-myself-and-i/

Sources: Cologny, Martin Bodmer, 127; Amiens, Bibliothèque municipale, Lescalopier 30.