St Jude and King Ahaziah second half of the th century Scenes from a manuscript service book and lectionary St Jude is writing his epistle with the tools of a scribe the quire is here represented as held in its place by a piece of lead suspended to a string one page is already written the other is prepared to receive the writing The writer holds a pen and a scraper to erase mistakes from the vellum on one side are three inkhorns for the different coloured inks The box within the chairs contains his writing implements King Ahaziah is sick in bed and awaiting the return of his messengers whom he had sent to consult Baalzebub the god of Ekron and to know if he were destined to recover Kings ch i At the end of the fourteenth century people had not yet laid aside the custom of going to bed quite naked Illustration from Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages from the Seventh to the Seventeenth Centuries by Henry Shaw London