Sketches of a clerk : pen-and-ink drawings in the margins of the medieval account books of Reval (Tallinn)

The following is a case study of the numerous pictures found in the margins of late-medieval account books of Reval. The first goal is to present the corpus of pictures and to analyse the forms, functions, and dynamics of this practice of drawing. Besides particular, unique features of the Reval drawings, I will show the connections of this corpus of pictures with the practices of other North European urban chanceries. Along with the discussion of the pragmatic aspects which characterise the Reval pictures, the question will be raised of the possibilities of using these pictures for reconstructing late medieval urban mentalities. List of Illustrations 7 Visual Sources 9 The Medieval Account Books of Reval 12 The Scribes 16 The Pictures 19 Horseshoes 19 Scales 26 Hands 31 Other Repeated Pictures 36 Singular Pictures 39 The Dynamics of the Corpus 63 The Parallels 66 The Reval Corpus of Pictures as a Historical Source 68 Conclusion 71 Bibliography 72