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Mermaids in Medieval Manuscripts

Mermaids in medieval manuscripts are not confined to one visual type or one meaning. In some manuscripts they appear as bestiary sirens luring sailors to ruin. In others they inhabit the margins of prayer books with combs and mirrors, doubling themes of vanity, desire, or worldly distraction. Elsewhere they perform music, float in courtly love texts, or coexist with bird-bodied sirens on the same page. Manuscript culture made the mermaid unusually flexible.