Pictures of Beds - 12th Century of course!

Some pictures of 12th C beds, for Amalie, who made almost exactly the tent I want, so I'm hoping she'll make the bed I want and then I can find someone to make a copy of her prototype :-). The other pictures of people sleeping show what may be simple pallets on the ground, people just wrapped in cloaks of blankets, pictures which smudge out the details of what they are lying on, and people lying on beds that look like slabs with no upright features. These depictions of beds are all fairly similar in construction, and look lightweight enough to use for camping, indeed one is shown in a tent below. Notice how these beds often double as couches.


Bede "Life of St. Cuthbert" (British Library Yates Thompson 26)
Durham; last quarter of 12th century
Images online here and there, with lots of beds in it.
f21. The dying Boisil instructs St. Cuthbert, and prophesies things which were to come to him.

f.80 A paralytic is healed by contact with one of St. Cuthbert's shoes

f61. A sick man is healed with bread which St. Cuthbert had blessed

f33v. St. Cuthbert drives out a devil from the wife of Hildmaer, a prefect of King Ecgfrid

f54. After St. Cuthbert's election to the bishopric, an earl's servant is cured by water blessed by the saint

f58v. The wife of an earl is cured, after a monk sprinkles her with holy water sent by St. Cuthbert


Admont Bible (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Wien. Cod. ser. nov. 2701)
Salzberg early 12th C
I've rambled about this manuscript before.
f18. The story of Hoshea


Copenhagen Psalter (Kongelige Bibliotek Thott 143 2º)
England, 1175-1200.
f9v Nativity


Aberdeen Bestiary (Aberdeen University Library MS 24)
England around 1200
f57r The Caladrius looks at a sick person, takes the illness upon itself and flies away with the disease to the sun.
I quite like this one - a couch and bed combined, the rails at the back, as well as acting as backrests, could be used to hang clothing over. Although they may limit how close the bed can be placed to sloping tents walls.


Skylitz chonicles (Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid Bibl. Nac. vitr. 26-2)
mid-12th mid-13th century,
Look how large the bed is compared to the tent.


Winchester psalter (British Library MS Cotton Nero C.IV)
c1145-1155
f 29. The Death of the Virgin

Worchester Chronicle (Oxford, Corpus Christi Library, MS 157)
Worchester Cathedral Priory, England, c1130-40
The Visions of Henry I in Normandy
This bed is a different style - we can't see the legs properly, but the bed head is a solid piece, instead of two poles and a crossbar.