How Medieval Nuns Invented the Postcard

Around 1490, Sister Kierstine Vetters inscribed the back of what was a single leaf miniature depicting St. Barbara and sent it to another nun. The recipient then tipped the folio into a manuscript prayer book (The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, ms KA 31, fol. 118) in which she had cobbled together a selection of other images, likely also gifts from other nuns. These images are, in effect, postcards, with an image on one side, and a greeting to a friend on the other.