These types of litters, or “handbarrows,” are built to allow two people to carry construction equipment, goods, and other items. It is a bit like a shallow wheelbarrow, but with handles at both the front and the back instead of a wheel.

(We do find occasional reference to these handbarrows in medieval documents, e.g. “Item, j handbarowe, ij d.” in the 1403 will and inventory of John de Scarle.)

• Reconstruction of the Temple, a bible (BNF Latin 99, fol. 110v), first quarter of the 13th century
• Reconstruction of the Temple, a bible (Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève, 1185, fol. 238v), c. 1220-1230
• The reconstruction of the Temple, a bible (Bibl. Mazarine 39, fol. 3), c. 1230-1250
• The reconstruction of the Temple, a bible (Bibl. Mazarine 72, fol. 91), c. 1230-1250
• The reconstruction of the Temple, a bible (Bibl. Mazarine 145, fol. 197v), mid-13th century
• Charlemagne at the construction of the Palatine Chapel, Grandes Chroniques de France (Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève 782, fol. 129v), 1274?
• Two men carrying a litter, Lancelot Cycle (Douce 178, fol. 410v), c. 1300
• The construction of Alexandria, Historiae Alexandri Magni (BNF Fr. 20311, fol. 90), third quarter of the 15th century
• Construction of the Temple, Antiquities of the Jews (BNF Fr. 247, fol. 163), c. 1470
• Soldiers carry vessels on their heads and on a litter, print by Jacobus of Strassburg, 1504
• Peasant women carry hay on a litter, c. 1544-1552
• Detail from The Peasant Wedding by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1567