Posters in Middle Ages?

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Has there been posters in the Middle Ages? Or anything like this? I’ve googled a bit but only found modern ones (looking middle-age-esque).

Need to decorate my Witchtown. Any pics, links, info’s would be appreciated.

[joroas]

The biggest problem would have been the lack of readers, followed by the cost of printing. Almost all early things would have been in Latin, anyway.

[Westfalia Chris]

The earliest "modern" posters I know of date back from the 16th and 17th century (e.g. Luther's Theses, and pamphlets during the religious and civil wars). Apart from that, I would agree with Joroas that the combination of restricted literacy, cost of material (before the advent of woodpulp paper) and cost of manufacture would make posters unattractive.

I think a more "realistic" option (maybe ask Mad Doc Morris, who is a proper studied medievalist, IIRC) would be painted plaques or signs that illustrate the goods on offers, e.g. a market vendor could have a sign next to his/her stall with meat/sheep(wool) or so on it, but I guess the cost of that would make it more appropriate for town merchants (if we are talking about a "fictionalised" middle age, I wouldn't mind seeing a lot of posters just to add colour).

[Lowtardog]

Luthers was the first thing that sprung to mind for me. Tapestries might be an avenue to explore perhaps

[Cosmotiger]

Most of what I was about to type has been covered.   You can see an example of a printed broadsheet talking about the great plague of 1655 here:
http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/thegreatplague.htm

What we would think of as a mass-produced full color poster would not come come along until  later.  However, as mentioned, many taverns, inns or other business would have a wooden sign with a carved or painted illustration.

[Plynkes]

As said, posters weren't really a Middle Ages thing, I don't think. Before the printing press it isn't going to be worth the money to get a scribe or a monk to hand-write a poster that almost nobody is going to be able to read anyway. If you wanted something to be known it is much more convenient to pay someone to stand in the street and shout it.


A little later in Shakespeare's time they had printed playbills advertising plays, but none survive. I read somewhere that they were printed in red ink if it was a tragedy. I think they were just text, listing the name of the play and the company putting it on, etc.

[FramFramson]

Most accurate representations of middle-ages towns that I've seen don't have much on the walls. Even signs for shops themselves could be very simple - a carter or wheelwright might simply have a hanging wheel rather than a sign with their name on it.

But then we all agree that that's a bit boring when it comes to terrain building. There would be things that can be used to spice things up bland walls.

- As mentioned above, some place could have supplementary signs, menus, lists of things on offer, etc. These kinds of things work best for shops/inns/taverns, etc.
- Alcoves with devotional statues on nicer buildings (not just shops). This requires some carving or building
- Shields displaying the owner's coat of arms on higher class buildings. These normally go on upper stories. If they are at ground level, they'd probably be right by the entrance, or in a similar place of pride.
- Warnings or other public notices put up on dodgy or dangerous buildings.
- Loose items stacked up outside. e.g. a few wooden planks leaning up against a wall, etc.
- Crude graffiti on the backs of buildings or other less-travelled spaces, also on city walls or other structures that aren't as likely to have a proper owner come out and yell. This is easily your best option in terms of quantity. Note that the graffiti of the time would be very crude (nothing at all like modern graffiti - the kinds of things carved in school desks on low grades would be much closer), often be pictures rather than words, and would be done with simple, perishable stuff like charcoal or chalk.

Very primitive posters (only a few words, only 2-3 colours available and only 1 colour on a given poster, large blocky text, etc.) does become an option if you're moving towards more of a Tudor/Elizabethan period. And even then they'd still be uncommon and very prominently displayed.

[Johnno]

Maybe a wanted poster or two?

[Heldrak]

Frankly, I think that it would be a shame to let historical accuracy get in the way of some cool-looking posters/handbills/etc. 

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Frankly, I think that it would be a shame to let historical accuracy get in the way of some cool-looking posters/handbills/etc. 

There is no doubt some truth in that 

[Mason]

Frankly, I think that it would be a shame to let historical accuracy get in the way of some cool-looking posters/handbills/etc. 

Hear! Hear!

I made some for my Krappefortt project regardless of historical accuracy, it is fantasy after all!

Wirelizard pointed out, quite rightly, that I should have used a more appropriate font.
He also provided a rather good link with loads of fonts that you might find useful;

http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=401

I probably should have made them in German, as I am sure that Mordheim is set in the Empire in the Warhammer world but I made mine in English, as none of my group speak German!

Not that that would be a problem for you, methinks!
 

[fastolfrus]

Depending on how well educated your town is there might be a lot of graffiti, and not just on back walls.
Maybe look towards Rome for examples?
Pompeii has some famous graffiti, but there's the scene in "Life of Brian" for added inspiration.

A German-inspired town should have a few painted walls like Bernkastel or Rothenburg, and a singing nightwatch like Dinkelsbuhl - you could paint anything whilst he was on duty, most nights you could probably get him to help.

[FramFramson]

One of my favourite instances of historical graffiti was from one of those old Roman walls. Alongside the usual stuff like "Marcus loves Spendifica" or "Tarius is an old goat", one wit had commented "O wall, it is a wonder that you have not collapsed under the weight of so many tedious stupidities".

 

[senex]

For a little more historical approach i would try some murals (religious mostly),  scraffitos, housenames /-signs (like Freiburg iBr.) and advertisements of trade-/craftsmen (symbols / products).
If you see witchtown more in the late medieval times, paper mills became a little more common in 14XX and some woodcut-prints may be not so bad

[Red Orc]

Wall painting was traditional inside buildings all over Europe, so there's no reason it couldn't also have been on the outsides, especially for commercial purposes I would have thought, but also religious or political might be possible.

There are various possibilities as I see it, especially if you want highly-decorated houses and need to justify it:

1 - Witchtown is generally a progressive sort of place, and the town council and a few enterprising individuals have set up some of those new-fangled printing presses, leading to an 'arms-race' of developing printing technology (4-colour block printing based on woodcuts, for instance);

2 - there has been long tradition of mural art in the town, which is mostly figurative because most of the population is illiterate, but includes both commercial advertising and political pictures (the Burgomeister being a frequent target of satire, for example);

3 - there is a temple near the town dedicated to some god of learning (is this actually in the Empire? Myrmidia seems a good choice, if it is). The priests have long been responsible for educating the townsfolk, and the town has a higher level of literacy than might be expected of a town in a more realistic version of early modern Germany (or maybe not) - posters advertising shops, broadcasting messages from the Burgomeister and laws from the town council, rival political or religious groups are common, but generally written by hand by the town's many scribes.

You could of course combine all of these - a literate population, a tradition of mural art and new developments in printing - but that might make the walls too busy, I don't know...

EDITTED because I made a mess of the formatting...