Wheelbarrows

These links show different types of wheelbarrows and hand-carts in use in the Middle Ages and Renaissance – as opposed to a handbarrow, which is basically a wheelbarrow without a wheel.

Additional information on medieval wheelbarrows can be found at NewYorkCarver.com and The Medieval Technology Pages, or the Florilegium.

There is also information about constructing a 16th Century Wheelbarrow or a 16th Century German Wheelbarrow.

See also “The Origins of the Wheelbarrow” (Technology and Culture vol. 35, no. 3) or “The Medieval Wheelbarrow” (Technology and Culture vol. 32, no. 2).

• Detail from an illustration of Cyrus and the reconstruction of the Temple, a bible (Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève MS 1185, fol. 127v) c. 1220-1230
• St. Denis preaching (BNF Fr. 2091, fol. 111r) and St. Denis imprisoned, (BNF Fr. 2092, fol. 32), The life of St. Denis, 1317
• Celebrations for Fauvel's wedding, Roman de Fauvel (BNF Fr. 146, fol. 36v), c. 1320
• Jester in barrow wheeled by two apes, psalter (Douce 6, fol. 136v), c. 1320-1330
• A crippled child in a wheelbarrow, the Luttrell Psalter (British Library Add. 42130, fol. 186v), c. 1325-1340
  Notice the strap that his caretaker uses to bear the weight across his back.
• Fols. 139v and 184r from the Taymouth Hours (British Library, Yates Thompson 13), c. 1325-1335
Therwith thai went ful yare
And bought hem a gode croudewain,
His lord he gan ther-in to lain,
He no might him bere namare.

Amis and Amiloun, ll. 1857-1860

• The Romance of Alexander (Bodl. 264), 1338-1344, fols. 22r, 98v, 133v, and 158v
• Stained glass window from York, now at Shibden Hall
• A man pushes a cask on a wheelbarrow, book of hours (Douce 62, fol. 10r), c. 1400
• Man with a wheelbarrow and a cask, a book of hours (PML M.919, fol. 214r), c. 1418
• Detail from a fresco at Castello della Manta, c. 1420
• The Mouth of Hell, the Hours of Catherine of Cleves (PML M.917/945, fol. 168v), c. 1440
• Construction of Bucephalia, The History of Alexander (BNF Fr. 9342, fol. 185), mid-15th century
• Several paintings in Danish wall-churches c. 1450 showing the devil carrying the damned to hell in wheelbarrows
• Construction of Alexandria Eschate, The History of Alexander the Great (BNF Fr. 20311, fol. 201v), third quarter of the 15th century
• Construction of Corunna, The History of Troy (BNF Fr. 59, fol. 191v), second half of the 15th century
• The government of cities, The Book of the Treasure (BNF Fr. 191, fol. 239), second half of the 15th century
• Publicola destroys his house, Facta et dicta memorabilia (BNF Fr. 288, fol. 198), second half of the 15th century
• The capture of Grammont, Froissart's Chronicles (BNF Fr. 2644, fol. 135), second half of the 15th century
• The Tower of Babel, Chronique universelle (PML M.224, fol. 1r), c. 1460
• December, the Hours of Adélaïde de Savoie (Musée Condé 76, fol. 12v), c. 1460-1465
• Salvaging from the ashes, Konzil von Konstanz (ÖNB 3044, fol. 82r), c. 1465-1475
• Sigebert III orders the reconstruction of a city in Austrasia, Chroniques de Hainaut (Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève MS 0810, fol. 148), c. 1470
• Two men, one pushing, one pulling a wheelbarrow, on which sits a woman playing bagpipes, Vasque de Lucène (Laud Misc. 751, fol. 165r), c. 1470-1480
• Tower of Babel, Le recoeil des histoires de Troyes (British Library Royal 17 E II, fol. 8), c. 1475-1483
• August, the Hours of Charles d’Angoulême (BNF Latin 1173, fol. 4v), c. 1475-1500
• A misericord from Ripon Cathedral, c. 1484-1494
• A woman pushes a wheelbarrow, the Huth Hours (British Library Add. 38126, fol. 110), c. 1485-1490
• A woman pushes a wheelbarrow, the Croesinck Hours (PML M.1078, fol. 50r), c. 1489-1499
• A man with a wheelbarrow, Kuttenberger Kantionale (ÖNB Mus. Hs. 15501, fol. 92v), 1490
• Misericords from Saint-Lucien de Beauvais: a woman pushes a wheelbarrow with a fat drunk man, 4th quarter of the 15th century, and a young man pushes a wheelbarrow with a barrel, c. 1492-1500
• February, a book of hours (PML S.7, fol. 2v), c. 1490
• A woman removes sheaves of grass in a wheelbarrow, book of hours (Douce 8, p. xvi), end of the 15th century
• An ivory writing-tablet with the Fountain of Youth within the Castle of Love, 15th or 16th century
• A knife-sharpener uses a modified wheelbarrow to make his grindstone portable in Les Cris de Paris, c. 1500
• The Winebag and Wheelbarrow, a satire of gluttony, by Hans Weiditz, c. 1521
• A glutton, a book of hours (PML M.1175, fol. 191r), c. 1525-1530
• The Fountain of Youth by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1546
  In this detail, an elderly woman is carried to the Fountain of Youth in a wheelbarrow.
• An illustration of mine-workers from Cosmographia, c. 1544-1552
• The Fountain of Youth by Jost Amman
• Market Scene (c. 1550) and Apostles Peter and John (1575) by Pieter Aertsen
• Enamelling work, Schwazer Bergbuch (TLF Cod. Dipl. 856, fol. 162r), 1556
• Detail from Melancolia in the Garden of Life by Matthias Gerung, 1558
• Enamelling work, Schwazer Bergbuch (ÖNB 10852, fol. 159v), 1561
• A wheelbarrow, Theatrum Instrumentorum et Machinarum by Jacobus Bessonus, 1578. "A new mode of barrow which, with the labour of a single man in a flat place, or uphill, can bring as much load as two or three others with any other type of instrument."
• Man pushing a wheelbarrow, Machines et utensils de guerre (Douce b. 2, fol. 29r), 1582
• A wheelbarrow with logs in The story of the family of Seth by Johann Sadeler I, 1586
• Spring by Sebastiaen Vrancx
• Scenes from Bohemia: A Forest by Aegidius Sadeler II, c. 1600
• Washing and sorting the wool by Isaac Claesz. van Swanenburg, c. 1607-1612
• Vertumnus and Pomona by Frans Francken the Younger
• September from a series of etchings of the Twelve Months, c. 1638