Dragon-Mounted Writing Desk

The Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four canonical gospels, perhaps because it was written under demanding conditions. Here's a medieval manuscript illumination showing Mark in a portable writing desk. It is conveniently mounted on the back of a dragon. Think of it as texting and driving during the First Century.

This image comes courtesy of medieval book historian Erik Kwakkel. I interviewed him a couple of weeks ago. If I understand his annotation correctly, the image comes from a manuscript found in the Ricketts manuscript collection at the Lilly Library at Indiana University.