Untitled

queer sex and more!

in an illustrated medieval travelogue (a german translation of "mandeville's travels"), bavaria/swabia, ca. 1476

I would bet the reason there's no mention of these things is that this isn't just unrelated marginalia -- it's a direct illustration of the text. I can't read the German, so I can't confirm this is the right page, but Mandeville does contain the following passage:

And in another isle be folk that be both man and woman, and they have kind; of that one and of that other. And they have but one pap on the one side, and on that other none. And they have members of generation of man and woman, and they use both when they list, once that one, and another time that other. And they get children, when they use the member of man; and they bear children, when they use the member of woman.

That's pretty clearly what's being shown above. If you look at the standing figures next to the pair having sex, you can see that they do have one breast each, and are equipped with both a penis and a vagina. We are probably meant to assume that the figures on the ground are similarly built, but we can't really tell because our view is obstructed by the one on top.

And there is scholarly writing about that passage and its relation to medieval conceptions of sex & gender. (A quick look through my university library's catalog turns up, e.g., M. W. Bychowski's "The Isle of Hermaphrodites: Disorienting the place of intersex in the Middle Ages".) There's no reason for there to be separate scholarship on this particular imagery, since it's just illustrating the literal text of the passage -- people might include it in an article about this passage, but they wouldn't discuss it separately from the text.

it inspired me to have a stab at transcribing the german text. here's what i got (don't take this as authoritative):

Ouch vindet man vil lüt da die baide gelider hant man und wiber gelider und manner und wiber natturenn Jch main die gelider zwischen den bainen und die selben lüt hant die ain brust groß und die andern clain als ain wip und ain man und so sy wellent so tragent sy kint als hie zu lant wib tûnt und machent ainandern zu tragent als hie zu lant glich ain man ainem wib tüt wenn sy wellent wenn sy beschlauffent sich mit baiden natturen

english translation (again, just my interpretation):

One also encounters many people who have both members, the members of men and of women, and the nature of men and of women. I mean the members between the legs. And those same people have one big breast and one small one, like a woman and a man. And when they want to, they carry children just like women do over here, and they make each other pregnant just like over here a man makes a woman [pregnant], when they want to, [and they do so] by sleeping with each other using both natures.

in a broader context, they are just one of many so-called "monstrous races" that were very popular in medieval times. the idea was that basically, if you travel far enough, you will eventually meet all kinds of freaky and curious half-human people, all with their specific lore, weird ways of living, weird phenotypes etc. (with these fabulous peoples, there's probably also a gray area between "what people actually believed in" and "what just made for a great story", but this is not the right place to tackle that question.)

here's a collection of these "monstrous races" in a book from 1493 (an edition of the "Nuremberg Chronicle"). you can see the blemmyes in the third row left AND our beloved one-breasted gender-non-conforming pals in the 5th row left! :)