Mills in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

See also Database Machine Drawings and Haue / Dechsel und Mühlrad / Mühlstein / Läuferstein als Attribute des Müllers.

And suche penaunce that torneth and retorneth may wel be resembled to the whele of a mylle that lyghtly torneth alwey to ther that he bygan. The Pilgrimage of the Soul Book 1, Chapter 25

• A re-creation of a Roman waterwheel -- see Roman water wheel or Roman Technology in Action.
• Man sitting by a watermill, De similitudinibus (British Library Cotton Cleopatra C. XI, fol. 10), c. 1220
• A laden ass is driven by its master towards a mill, bestiary (British Library Harley 4751, fol. 25), c. 1230-1240
• Watermill, The Luttrell Psalter (British Library MS. ADD. 42130, fol. 181), c. 1325-1335
• Frescoes at the Castello Buonconsiglio, c. 1405-1410: detail from April; detail from December
• Detail from St. Christopher, c. 1425-1535
• Landscape with a watermill, Le Tresor des Histoires (British Library MS Cotton Augustus V, fol. 345v), 15th century
• Map of the mountain of the Sybil by Antoine de La Sale, c. 1437-1443
• The Flood, De civitate dei (BNF Fr. 28, fol. 66v), third quarter of the 15th century
• Detail from The Donne Triptych, c. 1475
• Gaharis is victorious at the ford, Lancelot du Lac (BNF Fr. 111, fol. 167v), c. 1480
• Return of the Holy Family to Nazareth, 16th century
• Detail from a tapestry of the Return from the Hunt, first quarter of the 16th century
• Drawing of a village on a riverbank with a mill by Albrecht Dürer, 1512
• Detail from The camp of Charles V at Lauingen in the year 1546 by Matthias Gerung, 1551

(A type of windmill.)

• Initial 'D', a postmill turned by a miller, Physica (British Library MS Harley 3487, fol. 161), 14th century
• Windmill, The Luttrell Psalter (British Library MS. Add. 42130, fol. 158), c. 1325-1335

Jakke Mylner asketh help to turne hys mylne aright. He hath grounden smal, smal; the kings sone of heven he schal pay for alle. Loke thy mylne go aright, with the four sayles, and the post stande in stedfastness. With ryght and with myght, with skyl and with wylle, lat myght helpe ryght, and skyl go before wille and ryght before myght, than goth our mylne aryght. And if myght go before ryght, and wylle before skylle, than is our mylne adyght. The Chronicle of Henry Knighton

• The Romance of Alexander (Bodl. 264), 1338-1344, fols. 49r and 81r
• Priam and the reconstruction of Troy, Fleur des histoires (Bibl. Mazarine, ms. 1559, fol. 114v), c. 1450-1474
• A woman sets fire to a windmill (fol. 71) and an archer aims at a cockerel standing on top of a windmill (fol. 89), Smithfield Decretals (British Library MS Royal 10 E. IV), c. 1340
• Windmill, Kyeser's Bellifortis (ÖNB 5278, fol. 173r), c. 1400-1425
• Mary and Joseph at Bethlehem, Vita Jesu Christi (BNF Fr. 181, fol. 25), second half of the 15th century
• Exterior scene, Roman de Girart de Nevers (Bibliothèque Royale Albert ler MS 73, fol. 43v), c. 1460
• Detail from St. Elizabeth in an altar-painting of the Visitation, from South Tyrol, c. 1460-1470
• February in The Grimani Breviary, c. 1490-1510
• Right wing of the Triptych of the Garden of Earthly Delights, Hieronymus Bosch, c. 1500
• Background of the center panel of a triptych with St. Claire, St. John the Evangelist, and St. Francis of Assisi, 16th century
• January in the Hennessey Hours, c. 1530-1540
• January, The Golf Book (British Library MS Add. 24098, fol. 18v), c. 1520-1530
• The birth of Jan de Weisses from the Life of Jan de Weisses, c. 1551-1600
• The Misanthrope by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1568
• Landscape with a windmill by Jan Brueghel the Elder, c. 1600
• Landscape with Windmills by Jan Brueghel the Elder, c. 1607

(A type of windmill.)

• An ivory tablet in which an ape turns a windmill using bellows, Netherlands, 14th century
• Guillaume de Digulleville looks at the land, The Pilgrimage of Jesus Christ (Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève, ms. 1130, f. 159v), c. 1367-1399
• Detail from a stained glass window of the Adoration of the Magi, originally the church of Saint-Vivien at Rouen, c. 1410
• The siege of Samaria (fol. 172) and a madman (fol. 293), Bible Historiale (BNF Fr. 9), beginning of the 15th century
• Detail in The Annunciation to the Shepherds, a book of hours (Getty 22, fol. 67), c. 1415-1420
• St. Christopher fresco at Steinegg, c. 1425-1450
• The assassination of Vitellius, De casibus (BNF Fr. 226, fol. 201v), first quarter of the 15th century
• King David kneeling before God, Lady Margaret Beaufort's Book of Hours (St. John's College MS MS N.24, fol. 87r), c. 1440-1445
• Illustration from the Roman de Tristan (Musée Condé MS 648, fol. 199r), 1440-1460
• Revolt in Rome (fol. 28), the Samnite envoy(s) to Rome (fol. 85), and Romans colonizing Latium (fol. 94v), Ab urbe condita (BNF Fr. 33), mid-15th century
• Merchants and workers, De informatione principum (BNF Fr. 126, fol. 7); Cato the Elder, Laelius and Scipio, Cato Major de Senectute (BNF Fr. 126, fol. 123), c. 1450
• Allegory of Fortune and Poverty, De casibus (BNF Fr. 132, fol. 42v), third quarter of the 15th century
• Tournament of the Chastel of Brut, Romance of the Round Table (BNF Fr. 112(1), fol. 181v), c. 1470
• Justice, one of the Four Virtues of Seneca, De quator virtutibus (Musée Condé MS 282, fol. 240v), c. 1470
• The walls of Jerusalem (fol. 95) and the battle of Dinant (fol. 280), Toison d'or (BNF Fr. 138), 15th-16th century
• Allegory of Fortune and Poverty, De casibus (BNF Fr. 130, fol. 88), first quarter of the 16th century