Press release - The Hague, May 18th 2021
Meme generator breathes new life into medieval images
International success for tool initiated by Dutch national library
What started as a Dutch tool to create memes using medieval images, has grown into an international success story. Since the launch of ‘the medieval meme generator’, an initiative of the KB, the national library of the Netherlands, 15.000 medieval memes have been made in 129 countries, reaching an audience of around 2 million meme lovers worldwide.
On www.medievalmemes.org visitors can use images taken from the Dutch national library’s medieval collection and turn them into memes. When using the meme generator, people actively create new contexts for these historic images by adding current captions. The available images are accompanied by explanatory video’s, providing viewers with background information and showing them that, much like today, people in the Middle Ages used images to comment on their surroundings and current affairs.
Since the launch of the medieval meme generator last November, many of the memes created have reached all corners of the earth. Memes such as Bernie Sanders crashing multiple medieval coronations, Saint Anthony trying to concentrate, skeletons on a dung hill and sad looking pigs on early Monday mornings were shared time and again on platforms from Twitter to Reddit.
Devils, skeletons and dancing princesses
Because of their beautifully colourful embellishments, detailed handwriting and graphic depictions, images from the Middle Ages are incredibly suitable for creating memes. In medieval Europe the majority of people had poor literary skills, which is why pictures were a popular instrument for spreading political, religious or social messages. In our highly visual, digital culture today, things are not much different; we’ve replaced paints with pixels, but we rely on images to get our (meme) messages across.
The pictures in the meme generator − showing anything from devils, skeletons, dancing princesses and dragons to the most horrific scenes − come directly from ancient collections at the KB and ‘Huis van het boek’ (House of the Book), the oldest book museum in the world.
Meaningful collection
Every image on www.medievalmemes.org prompts a short video in which a specialist tells the story behind the picture. This teaches visitors about how people in the Middle Ages experienced the world, and shows them how subjects that were important in medieval times are still relevant today. New pictures from the extensive Dutch collections of medieval handwriting will appear regularly on the website.
Storing memes
In the same way that medieval images give us an idea of life in the Middle Ages, future historians will benefit greatly from the information current memes disclose about the visual and online culture in the 21st century. The KB therefore also actively stores elements of our internet culture today as a source of research in the future, including (medieval) memes.
Bijlagen
About the meme generator:
The meme generator is an initiative of the KB and was developed thanks to a grant from the Creative Industries Fund NL. The meme generator was designed and built by BLIS Digital Agency.
About the KB:
The KB is the national library of the Netherlands. It is our task to gather, store and share all publications from and about the Netherlands. We use our physical and digital collections, and our expertise, to connect people to the power of the written word. Our aim is to provide everyone with the opportunity to read, study or conduct research, thereby continuing their development. We do this together with our heritage partners, the public libraries and academic institutions. It is our contribution to creating a smarter, more competent and more creative Netherlands. www.kb.nl
