This webpage links to infants’ cradles from artwork and from extant examples.

Re-creations of medieval cradles have been produced by Geoffrey Bourrette (another photo) and House Brandenburg.

• Zodiac: the lion, Georgius Zothorus’ Liber astrologiae (BNF Latin 7330, fol. 16v), second quarter of the 13th century
• Bathsheba gives birth to a son, The Maciejowski Bible (PML M.638, fol. 42v), c. 1250
• Birth of the Virgin, Psalter (BNF Smith-Lesouëf 21, fol. 13v), end of the 13th century
• Doll-cradle, 14th century
• The birth of Thomas Becket (fol. 290) and Nicholas of Myra (fol. 314v) The Queen Mary Psalter (British Library MS Royal 2 B. VII, fol. 290), c. 1310-1320
• The fable of the excessively pious man and the mongoose (here and here), Kalila va Dimna (BNF Latin 8504, fol. 110v), 1313
• Miracles of St. Louis, from the Life of St. Louis (BNF Fr. 5716), c. 1330-1340: Jehennet de Fresnay (fol. 436), Mabilete de Fontenay (fol. 534), Jehennet (fol. 573), and Amile de Saint-Mathieu (fol. 595)
• The birth of Alexander, Romance of Alexander (Bodley 264, fol. 2v), c. 1338-44
• St. Ambroise and the bees, The Golden Legend (BNF Fr. 241, fol. 98), 1348
• Testing the legitimacy of a child, Concordantiae caritatis (Lilienfeld Stiftsbibliothek 151, fol. 126v), c. 1349-1351
• A woman carries a child in a cradle on her shoulders, Voeux du paon (PML G.24, fol. 10r), c. 1350
• Anne rocks Mary's cradle in a book of hours (The Hague, KB, 76 F 21, fol. 13r), c. 1400-1410
• The infant Hercules strangles the serpents sent by Juno, Consolation de philosophie (Toulouse 822, fol. 69r), first half of the 15th century
• The Birth of Mary (ÖNB 1844, fol. 252r), 1409
• Detail from The Nativity, fresco at the Church of St. Bartholomew at Senicno pri Golniku, Slovenia, 15th century
• Detail from The Nativity on an altarpiece at the Cloister of St. Klara at Freising, c. 1430-1435
• The Birth of Mary, Speculum Humanae Salvationis (BNE B. 19, fol. 6v), c. 1420-1440
• An infant sleeps in a cradle, The Hours of Catherine of Cleves (PML M.917, fol. 53r), c. 1440
• The miracle of St. Ambrosius by Fra Filippo Lippi, c. 1441-1447
• The Flood, The City of God (BNF Fr. 28, fol. 66v), third quarter of the 15th century
• The Birth of Mary, Breviary of Ulrich von Sonnenberg (ÖNB 2585, fol. 342r), c. 1450-1475
• The Birth of Mary in an antiphonary (ÖNB Mus. Hs. 15490, fol. 64r), c. 1455-1465
• Hercules strangles the serpents, History of Troy (BNF Fr. 59, fol. 102v), second half of the 15th century
• Melusine nurses Thierry and Raimonnet, Melusine (BNF Fr. 24383, fol. 30), second half of the 15th century
• St. Zosimas, Speculum historiale (BNF Fr. 51, fol. 197v), 1463
• Moses' infancy, Weltchronik (ÖNB 2823, fol. 83r), 1463
• Detail from The Birth of Mary, the Schottenaltar, c. 1469-1480
• Ban de Benoic leaves Trebe, Lancelot du Lac (BNF Fr. 112(1), fol. 1), c. 1470
• Somme Rural (BNF Fr. 202), 1471; family trees in fols. 9 and 15v
• July in the Book of Hours of Louis de Laval (BNF Latin 920, fol. 11), c. 1475
• Detail from The Dance of Death fresco at Metnitz, 15th century
• St. Augustinus and St. Ambrosius by Michael Pacher, c. 1480-1482
• The birth of St. Elizabeth of Thuringia from the Church of St. Agidius in Bardejov, Slovakia, c. 1480-1500
• The Birth of Mary by Nicolaus Alexander Mair
• Border, Antiquities of the Jews (BNF 12, fol. 199), fourth quarter of the 15th century
• The seven ages of man in the Liber de proprietatibus rerum (BNF Fr. 218, fol. 95), fourth quarter of the 15th century
• The English leave Bayeux, The Vigils of Charles VII (BNF Fr. 5054, fol. 195v), 1484
• Detail from The Birth of Mary, c. 1490-1495
• The epileptic infant, Life and Miracles of Saint Louis (BNF Fr. 2829, fol. 115), end of the 15th century
• Hercules strangles the serpents, History of Troy (BNF 252, fol. 73), 15th-16th century
• Detail from The Birth of Mary from the altarpiece of the Church of St. Gumbertus at Ansbach, c. 1490-1510
• Detail from The Birth of Mary, c. 1495-1505
• Detail from The Birth of St. Nicholas from the altarpiece of the Church of St. Nicholas at Presov, Slovakia, c. 1495-1505
• The birth of Matthias Schwartz in 1497, from the Schwartz Trachtenbuch, 16th century
• Bas-de-page on fols. 72v and 141v, the Book of Hours of the Ango Family (BNF NAL 392), 1500
• A child in a cradle, book of hours (Douce 276, fol. 110b recto), beginning of the 16th century
• The Birth of Mary by Marx Reichlich, c. 1501-1505
• The Birth of the Virgin by Juan de Borgoña, 1509-1511
• Detail from St. Ambrosius by Andre Haller, c. 1510-1515
• Detail from The Birth of Mary from the altarpiece at St. Leonhard im Laventtal, 1513
• The healing of the child bitten by a sow, 1513
• Domestic life, first half of the 16th century
• The Birth of Mary from Dom Mariae Heimsuchung in Augsburg, c. 1515-1525
• Detail from The Birth of Mary from the Candlemass Church in Schönbach, c. 1515-1525
• Detail from the healing of the paralyzed woman; detail from the revival of the two dead children; from an Austrian altarpiece of the miracles of Mary, c. 1518-1522
• The Birth of Mary, from the altarpiece of the Church of St. Peter in Friesach, 1525
• A child in a cradle, book of hours (Douce 135, fol. 88r), second quarter of the 16th century
• Rural scene by Marten van Cleve, 1527
• The Holy Family, c. 1545-1555
• The fable of the excessively pious man and the mongoose, Anvâr-i Suhaylî (BNF Supplment persan 921, fol. 182v), Iran, 1547
• Cradle, Italy, c. 1570
• Cradle probably made in 16th century Lombardy
• Miniature (dollhouse) cradles, 17th century
• Sewing mother with two boys and a cradle by Adriaen van Gaesbeeck, c. 1645
• The Mother by Pieter de Hooch, c. 1661-1663