Medieval bestiary

The Three Hares is not found in the medieval bestiary but much like The Pelican in her Piety it is a common motif in medieval church carvings. Its meaning is something of a mystery and depictions of it in medieval art have been found as far west as Devon, England and as far East Dunhuang, China. This image was the only one cut from a lino plate while the others have been made to look like linocuts. The plate itself was about 11 inches in diameter which is pretty colossal for a linocut and…

#medieval

Early cartographers often included illustrations or descriptions of sea monsters on their maps, in order to warn explorers of their location. Sometimes the drawings were symbolic, such as a picture of a king riding a fish, to denote who ruled that part of the sea. Others were supposed to be literal monsters, but the pictures were created from descriptions by frightened seafarers, often years after the fact. The image shown here is from around 1230 AD, depicting a whale that sailors mistook…

Blog post on an exhibition and catalogue that explore this unique medieval book and its enduring influence.

Many of our readers will already be familiar with our Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, a resource which enables you to search by shelfmark, keyword, or date, as well as by more advanced fields such as language and provenance. We thought it was about time to give a reminder that all...

Digital collage from medieval miniatures by Bulgan Lumini

Medieval Bestiary : Beasts : Crow

Date: ca. 1420–30. Geography: Made in Basel, Switzerland. Culture: Upper Rhenish. Medium: Tapestry weave: wool on linen. Dimensions: 33 7/16 x 29 1/2 in. ...

You’ve seen SCA scrolls with miniatures, but you’ve never seen anything like THESE before! In the interest of keeping this a family-friendly site, we’re only using images that qua…