A careless moment in a 15th-century workshop involving one curious cat walking across freshly inked parchment has turned into a rare time capsule of everyday medieval life. More than 500 years later, those accidental paw prints are now at the heart of Paws on Parchment, a new exhibition at Baltimore’s Walters Art Museum. 

A view of the manuscripts from Paws on Parchment. Image credits: The Walters Art Museum

This art show does something unusual. Instead of treating cats as simple pets, it places them front and center as working animals, symbols, companions, and even storytellers across medieval Europe, Asia, and the Islamic world. 

More importantly, by following cats through illuminated manuscripts, paintings, and marginal drawings, the exhibition reveals how deeply these animals were woven into human lives long before the age of viral cat videos.

“Objects like this have a way of bridging across time, as it’s just so relatable for anyone who has ever had a cat,” Lynley Anne Herbert, assistant curator at the Walters Art Museum, told artnet.

Medieval people had practical reasons to love cats

The exhibition began with a single object, a Flemish illuminated manuscript from the 1470s marked by muddy, inked paw prints. The pages captured a fleeting but relatable moment, a scribe carefully setting his work aside to dry, only for a cat to walk straight through it. This accident sparked a much larger investigation. 

Herbert began searching the museum’s collection for other appearances of cats and soon realized there were enough examples to tell a broader story. To understand what these images meant to medieval audiences, Herbert looked beyond the artworks themselves. 

She studied poetry, moral stories, recorded pet names, and encyclopedic texts, such as Isidore of Seville’s Etymologies from the seventh century, as well as medieval books that described animals and their symbolic meanings. What emerged was a clearer picture of how people truly felt about cats. 

Credit: The Walters Art Museum.

While many medieval households loved their cats, they were kept primarily for practical reasons. Cats protected homes, churches, and libraries by hunting mice and rats, safeguarding food supplies, valuable books, textiles, and even public health, since rodents spread deadly diseases. 

This is why cats were often shown stalking or catching mice in manuscripts, and these hunting scenes also carried symbolic weight. Medieval viewers saw cats as stealthy creatures that could move silently and see in the dark. 

As a result, some images used cats chasing mice as a warning—a visual metaphor for the devil tempting sinners and eventually trapping their souls.

“Due to their stealthiness, ability to see in the dark, and deadly hunting skills, cats chasing mice became symbolic of the way the devil toys with the souls of sinners, and how he will inevitably catch them,” Herbert said.

Paws served all kinds of purposes

However, not all depictions were serious. Some scribes drew cats playing musical instruments or behaving like humans. These images were funny because they showed animals doing things they were not supposed to do. 

By flipping roles this way, the artists “reinforce the importance of an orderly society by showing the chaos possible if the natural order of things got turned on its head,” Herbert added.

The exhibition also highlights surprising cultural perspectives. A 15th-century Italian painting shows a kitten lifting its paw next to the infant Jesus’s toes, referencing a legend in which a cat helped keep the newborn warm. According to the story, Mary blessed the cat and marked its forehead with an “M,” explaining the tabby pattern seen today.

An illustration showing a cat keeping the newborn’s toe warm using its paw. Image credits: The Walters Art Museum

Elsewhere, a 17th-century Armenian gospel book filled with cat illustrations hints at a family’s affection for their pets. Islamic manuscripts show cats as symbols of cleanliness and compassion, reflecting teachings attributed to the Prophet Mohammed. 

In fact, one Islamic ruler, the 13th-century Mamluk sultan Al Zahir Baybars, even established gardens to feed and shelter stray cats.

But why do these cats still matter today?

Paws on Parchment does more than showcase charming images. It challenges the idea that medieval people were emotionally distant from cats. The exhibition shows that cats were valued for utility, belief systems, and imagination. 

“Many medieval people loved their cats just as much as we do,” Herbert said.

Plus, at the same time, the images remind us that medieval art was layered with meaning, and even playful drawings carried moral or religious messages that modern viewers can easily miss.

The exhibition has also had an unexpected real-world impact. Partnering with the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter, the museum invited a litter of foster kittens for a private tour after the show opened.

“They were so sweet, and after spending two hours with them, I grew really attached… so my family and I just officially adopted two of them. It’s been such an unexpected and special outcome, and I’m so grateful they scampered into my gallery and left their paw prints on my heart,” Herbert said.

While the exhibition focuses on a limited number of surviving works, it opens the door to deeper research on animals in art and how human-animal relationships have evolved. Over the next two years, the Walters plans two more exhibitions on animals in art, expanding this approach beyond cats. 

Find out more about Paws on Parchment here. The exhibition is open until February 22, 2026.