Research project

Guide Dogs in Medieval Artistic and Textual Sources

It is often claimed—in both scholarly and popular sources—that guide dogs for the blind are a modern innovation. But as this project demonstrates clearly, guide dogs also existed during the medieval period.

Duration: 2024 - 2025
Contact: Krista A. Milne
Funding: NWO Open Competition XS

Medieval guide dog illustrations from the collection of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford (Bodl. 264, f. 77v); licensed under CC BY 4.0.

This project aims to transform a crucial but often overlooked area of disability studies by collecting and analysing a corpus of medieval artistic and textual representations of guide dogs from Northwestern Europe. This project considers these representations as creations of literary and creative artifice while also considering their implications for social, cutural, and disability history.

As this project has revealed, guide dogs were a familiar and greatly valued presence in many areas of Northwestern Europe. While it is sometimes claimed that guide dogs did not receive extensive training before the nineteenth century, this project shows that they likely received significant training even during the medieval period, and that these dogs were often depicted as helpful and competent.

Through explorations such as these, this project seeks to elucidate the history of guide dogs and attitudes toward them, while also enriching our understanding of the origins of modern-day attitudes toward guide dogs and blindness.