More than 500 years ago, a scribe bent over a sheet of parchment and carefully copied each line by hand. After finishing a page, the scribe set it aside so the ink could dry. Before it did, a cat walked across the page. Its paws smudged the wet writing and left a trail of tiny prints behind.
The accident happened in the late 15th century while a Flemish scribe was working on an illustrated manuscript. Instead of throwing the marked page away, the scribe kept it and continued the book. The cat's brief visit became part of the finished work.
Centuries later, the paw prints are still visible. The page drew fresh attention when it appeared in Paws on Parchment, an exhibition at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. The show explored the many ways cats appeared in old manuscripts and artworks.
Cats also had a practical place in medieval homes and workshops. People kept them as companions, but valued them as hunters too. By catching rats and mice, cats helped protect food, cloth, and books from damage. That may help explain why they appear so often in art from the period.
Today, the prints offer an unusually direct link to the past. The scribe may have seen them as a small annoyance, but they now make the manuscript feel more human. One curious cat turned an ordinary interruption into a record that has lasted for centuries.