The Grand Medieval Bestiary: Animals in Illuminated Manuscripts

Now in an affordable edition, a splendid pageant of the animal kingdom as the Middle Ages saw it As the 587 colorful images in this magnificent volume reveal, animals were a constant--and delightful--presence in illuminated manuscripts throughout the Middle Ages. They were illustrated not only in bestiaries--the compendiums of animal fact and fable that were exceedingly popular in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries--but in every sort of manuscript, sacred and profane, from the Gospels to the Romance of the Rose . This book is arranged in manner of a proper bestiary, with essays on the medieval lore and iconography of one hundred creatures alphabetized by their Latin names, from the alauda , or lark, whose morning song was thought to be a hymn to Creation, to the vultur , whose taste for carrion made it a symbol of the sinner who indulges in worldly pleasures. The selection includes a number of creatures that would now be considered fantastic, including the griffin, the manticore, and of course the fabled unicorn.