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Detailed record for Royal 12 C XIX
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| Title |
Bestiary, and various theological texts, e.g., Isidore of Seville, Imago Mundi |
| Origin |
England, N. or Central |
| Date |
1st quarter of the 13th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Decoration |
80 miniatures in colours and gold, some with punchwork. 1 foliate initial in gold and colours (f. 6). 1 unfinished diagram of a 'T' map of the Earth (f. 95v). Initials in red with blue pen-flourishing, or blue with red pen-flourishing (ff. 1-84v). Initials in green with red pen-flourishing or in red with green pen-flourishing (ff. 87v-112). |
| Dimensions in mm |
220 x 160 (145 x 90) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 112 (+ 3 unfoliated modern parchment flyleaves at the beginning and at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex. |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Gilt edges. |
| Provenance |
Added sketch of a human head, 13th-14th century (f. 21).
John Theyer (bap. 1598, d. 1673), antiquary: a note in his hand (f. 28); included in the catalogue of his library left to his grandson Charles Theyer (b. 1651): see E. Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae, 3 vols (Oxford: Sheldonian, '1697', but 1698?), II, no. 6557.
Robert Scott (b. c. 1632, d. 1709/10), London bookseller: included in the catalogue of John Theyer’s manuscripts in his possession, made in 1678 by William Beveridge and William Jane, Royal Appendix, 70, no. 167.
Charles II (b. 1630, d. 1685), king of England, Scotland, and Ireland: purchased from Scott together with other 311 manuscripts from Theyer's library.
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library. |
| Notes |
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
A direct copy of the Worksop Bestiary, New York, Pierpont Morgan Library M. 81 (see Two East Anglian Picture Books : A Facsimile of the Helmingham Herbal and Bestiary and Bodleian Ms. Ashmole 1504, ed. by Nicholas Barker (London: The Roxburgh Club, 1988), p. 5, who characterises them as 'paired manuscripts'. See also Baxter 1998.
According to Morgan 1982, stylistically related to the manuscripts of life of St Cuthbert, Cambridge, Trinity College o. I. 64, and Yates Thompson 26 (formerly Additional 39943), produced in Durham.
Illustrations classed as transitional between First and Second Families of Bestiaries by James 1928.
Crossed tironian ets; ampersands. |
| Select bibliography |
G. C. Druce, 'The Symbolism of the Crocodile in the Middle Ages', Archaeological Journal, 64 (1909), 311-38 (pp. 316, 323).
G. C. Druce, 'Notes on the History of the Heraldic Jall or Yale', Archaeological Journal, 68 (1911), 173-99 (pp. 177, 191, 195, pl. IV).
G. C. Druce, 'The Caladrius and its Legend', Archaeological Journal, 69 (1912), 381-416 (pp. 385, 407, pl. III).
G. C. Druce, 'Some Abnormal and Composite Human Forms in English Church Architecture', Archaeological Journal, 72 (1915), 135-86 (p. 169).
G. C. Druce, 'The Medieval Bestiaries and Their Influence on Ecclesiastical Decorative Art', Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 25 (1919), 41-82 (p. 74).
G. C. Druce, 'The Medieval Bestiaries and Their Influence on Ecclesiastical Decorative Art', Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 26 (1920), 35-79 (p. 40).
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, pp. 33-34.
Eric G. Millar, English Illuminated Manuscripts from the Xth to the XIIIth century (Paris: G. Van Oest, 1926), p. 116.
M. R. James, The Bestiary: Being a Reproduction in full of the Manuscript Ii.4.26 in the University Library, Cambridge (Oxford: Roxburghe Club, 1928), p. 16.
[Eric G. Millar], British Museum Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 4 (London: British Museum, 1928), pl. 13.
Guide to an Exhibition of English Art gathered from Various Departments and held in the Prints and Drawings Gallery (London: British Museum, 1934), no. 103.
Elfrida O. Saunders, English Illumination, 2 vols (Paris: Pegasus Press, 1928, repr. New York, 1969), I, p. 48, II, pl. 52.
M. R. James, The Bestiary: Being a Reproduction in full of the Manuscript li.4.26 in the University Library, Cambridge (Oxford: Roxburghe Club, 1928), pp. 11-12, 25, 52, suppl. pls 4, 5.
J. P. Gilson, Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, 4 (London, 1928), p. 9, pl. xiii.
F. Saxl and R. Wittkower, British Art and the Mediterranean (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1948), pl. 29. 1.
F. Saxl and H. Meier, Catalogue of Astrological and Mythological Illuminated Manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages, vol. 3, Manuscripts in English Libraries Parts 1 and 2, (London: Warburg Institute, 1953), p.197.
Eric G. Millar, A Thirteenth Century Bestiary in the Library of Alnwick Castle (Oxford: Roxburgh Club, 1958), pp. 2, 11 n. 1, 13-15, 17-44, pls. LXXXII-XCII.
Hubert Silvestre, 'Enfin un manuscrit anglais du De vita et moribus philosophorum de Walter Burley?', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 13 (1959), 255-59 (p. 256, n. 5).
Florence McCulloch, Medieval Latin and French Bestiaries, University of North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures, 33 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1962), pp. 34, 162.
Margaret Rickert, Painting in Britain: the Middle Ages (London: Penguin Books, 2nd edn. 1965), p. 88.
C. M. Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts 1066-1190, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 3 (London: Harvey Miller, 1975), p. 126.
J. W. Einhorn, Spiritualis Unicornis: Das Einhorn als Bedeutungsträger in Literatur und Kunst des Mittelalters (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 1976), pp. 80-81, 336.
P. L. Armitage and J. A. Goodall, 'Medieval Horned and Polled Sheep: The Archaeological and Iconographic Evidence', Antiquaries Journal, 57 (1977), 73-89 (pp. 76-78).
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), no. 53.
Nigel Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts, 2 vols, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 4 (London Harvey Miller, 1982-1988), I: 1190-1250, no. 13.
Dora Faraci, Il bestiario medio inglese (Ms Arundel 292 della British Library) (Rome: Japadre, 1990), p. 258, pl. 13.
Xenia Muratova 'Les manuscrit-frères: un aspect particulier de la production de Bestiaires enluminés en Angleterre à la fin du XIIe siècle', in Artistes, artisans et production artistique au Moyen Age: Colloque international, ed. by. Xavier Barral i Altet, 3 vols (Paris: Picard, 1986-90), III: Fabrication et consommation de l'oeuvre, pp. 67-92 (pp. 72, n. 14, 81, 82).
Ann Payne, Medieval Beasts (London: British Library, 1990), pp. 13, 17, 20, 34, 40, 46, 54, 60, 64, 70, 77-79, 81-82, 84, 89, 91.
Ann Payne, 'The Northumberland gestiary and its group', Sotheby's Art at Auction 1990-1991, ed. by Sally Prideaux (London: Sotheby's, 1991), pp. 159-65 (p. 159, figs 2, 4, 5).
Debra Hassig, Medieval Bestiaries: Text, Image, Ideology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 186.
Ron Baxter, Bestiaries and Their Users in the Middle Ages (Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 1998), pp.100, 110, 117-24, 147, 170.
Xenia Muratova, 'Le bestiare medieval et la culture normande', in Manuscrits et enluminures dans le monde normand (Xe-XVe siècles), ed. by Pierre Bouet and Monique Dosdat (Caen: Presses Universitaires, 1999), pp. 151-68 (p. 154).
Christopher de Hamel, The British Library Guide to Manuscript Illumination: History and Techniques (London: British Library, 2001), pl. 53.
Sophie Page, Magic in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2004), pp. 3 (title page), 20, 64, pl. 20.
Jacqueline Leclercq-Marx, ‘La sirène et l’o(ono)centaure dans le Physiologus grec et latin et dans quelques bestiaries: Le texte et l’image’, in Bestiarires médiévaux: Nouvelles perspectives sur les manuscrits de les traditions textuelles, ed. by Baudouin Van den Abelle, Publications de l’Institut d’études médiévales, Collection Textes, études, congres, 21 (Louvain: Brepols, 2005), pp. 169-82 (p. 178 n. 43).
Scot McKendrick, John Lowden, and Kathleen Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 80 [exhibition catalogue].
Maria Careri, Christine Ruby and Ian Short, Livres et écritures en français et en occitan au XIIe siècle: Catalogue illustré (Rome: Viella, 2011), no. 44.
Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World, , ed. by Elizabeth Morrison (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2019), no. 5. |
| Last revised: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 |
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Binding
Front cover |
f. 1
Text page |
f. 5v
Text page |
| |
f. 6
Lions |
f. 6
Lions |
f. 6
Lions |
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f. 8
Tiger |
f. 8v
Centaur and snake |
f. 8v
Centaur and hedgehogs |
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f. 9v
Unicorn |
f. 9v
Unicorn |
f. 10
Text page |
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f. 10v
Beaver |
f. 10v
Beaver |
f. 11
Text page |
| |
f. 11v
Hyena |
f. 11v
Hyena |
f. 12
Text page |
| |
f. 12v
Hydrus |
f. 12v
Hydrus |
f. 13
Hydra |
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f. 13
Hydra |
f. 14
Goats |
f. 15v
Satyr |
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f. 15v
Satyr |
f. 16
Panther |
f. 16
Panther |
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f. 19
Wolf |
f. 20v
Text page |
f. 21
Dog |
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f. 21
Dog |
f. 23
Deer |
f. 23
Deer |
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f. 23v
Mice and worms |
f. 23v
Mice and worms |
f. 26v
Fire-stones |
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f. 26v
Fire-stones |
f. 27
Ostrich |
f. 27
Ostrich |
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f. 27v
Text page |
f. 28
Tiger |
f. 28
Tiger |
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f. 29v
Manticore |
f. 29v
Manticore |
f. 30
Parandus and yale |
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f. 30
Parandus |
f. 30
Yale |
ff. 31v-32
Goats and a bull |
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f. 31v
Goats |
f. 31v
Goats |
f. 32
Bull (bullock) |
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f. 32
Bull (bullock) |
f. 32v
Ox |
f. 32v
Ox |
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f. 33
Camel |
f. 33
Camel |
f. 36v
Cats and mice |
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f. 36v
Cats and mice |
f. 37
Mouse and mole |
f. 37
Mouse and mole |
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f. 37v
Leucrota |
f. 37v
Leucrota |
f. 38
Eagles |
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f. 38
Eagles |
f. 38v
Vultures |
f. 39v
Swan |
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f. 40
Crane |
f. 40
Cranes |
f. 40
Cranes |
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f. 42v
Hawk and magpies |
f. 42v
Hawk |
f. 42v
Magpies |
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f. 43
Ravens and crow |
f. 43
Ravens |
f. 43
Crow |
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f. 44
Swallow |
f. 44v
Quail |
f. 44v
Quail |
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f. 45
Bees |
f. 45
Bees |
f. 47v
Caladrius |
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f. 47v
Caladrius bird |
f. 48v
Pelicans |
f. 48v
Pelicans |
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f. 49
Nycticorax |
f. 49
Nycticorax |
f. 49v
Phoenix |
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f. 49v
Phoenix |
f. 50
Text page |
f. 54
Doves |
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f. 54
Doves |
f. 61
Text page |
f. 61v
Text page |
| |
f. 62
Elephant and dragon |
f. 62
Elephant and dragon |
f. 62v
Text page |
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f. 63
Basilisk and regulus |
f. 63
Basilisk |
f. 63
Regulus |
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f. 64
Serpents |
f. 65v
Asp |
f. 65v
Asp |
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f. 66
Asp |
f. 67
Man and dragon |
f. 67
Man and dragon |
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f. 68v
Lizard and salamander |
f. 68v
Lizard |
f. 68v
Salamanders |
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f. 95v
Decorated initial |
f. 102v
Text page |
f. 112v
Text page |
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