700-year-old English  speech bubbles

If you thought comics were a modern invention, think again! The top image of c. 1300 shows a drawing that has the ingredients of a modern comic book drawing, including the fact that the text is placed in real speech bubbles: the words (which are in English!) are connected to the speaker’s mouth by means of a tiny line. It turns out this tradition was alive and kicking in medieval times. Read more about these 700-year-old speech bubbles - including what the funny English text says - in this longer blog I posted.

Pics: London, British Library, Stowe MS 49 (c. 1300); Los Angeles, Getty Museum, MS 66 (13th century); Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 11978 (15th century).