My Virtual Reading Room

That's hilarious!

That must have been annoying.

Oh, goodness...frustrating...but a great response:-p

Aww, poor scribe; frustrating indeed! Urine was sometimes used in the making of vellum, so probably cats could still smell it on the pages - they'll often pee on anything that already has the scent of pee, even though it's too faint for human nostrils to detect.

Cats and medieval manuscripts are apparently a really messy (and surprisingly frequent) combination. I feel for the poor scribes. Back when I tried my hand at calligraphy, the cats - then very young - were fascinated with the movement of the quill, and sometimes pounced it while I was at work; it does nothing for one's penmanship! And as my icon (of a real 15th century manuscript) shows, it doesn't take urine for a cat to ruin a page...

Of course, a few centuries later, it's quite amusing! ^^

Proof! Cats are, and always have been jerks.
Also, mice eat books, so the scriptorium likely kept cats around.