Peterborough Bestiary

Peterborough Bestiary

The Peterborough Bestiary represents quite an influential example of the much beloved era of 12th century animal-themed manuscripts. Countless small picture fields illustrate the descriptive and interpretive text, which is illustrated with wonderful initials and tendrils. Within this text one finds familiar as well as exotic animals and mythical creatures, which are displayed as lovingly and realistically as possible.

Fantastic Depictions of Animals

In over 100 miniatures on gold grounds or in gold frames, one finds animals such as lions, beavers, different sorts of birds, crocodiles, and elephants, but also mythical creatures like unicorns, phoenixes, and satyrs. They illustrate the relevant text passages and include exhaustive detail in describing each animal individually, most of which have a Christian or moral connection. For example, there is an illustration of a crow with the purpose of representing the love and worry one experiences when raising children. The text is based on the Physiologus, composed ca. A.D. 200, which was an early Christian text that concerned itself with nature. Over the following centuries, Physiologus was amended and added to many times (for example, through Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae), and translated into many other languages, which inevitably changed it as well. Moving to the High Middle Ages, such descriptions of nature and myth became beloved subjects and offered illuminators the opportunity to be inspired to create their own depictions of animals in nature.

Glorious Design

It was not always an easy task for the artists to paint pictures of exotic animals, because they had never seen such creatures before. The only available templates were based off the descriptions of others that themselves drifted into the fantastic. The artist of the Peterborough Bestiary designed his manuscript in a diverse way. The depictions of animals are directly integrated with the text itself and not isolated in boxes separate from the words. The small rectangular pictures of fields are brightly colored and richly furnished with gold. The artistic style appears very Gothic in the natural depictions of the animals, who are often shown in a burst of movement. In addition to the animal representations, the other artistic designs of the bestiary are inspiring. Many initials adorn the text alongside the artful foliage. The initials are partially filled with wonderful portraits of men and women, some of them ornamentally designed.

Exotic Magic

In these magnificent pictures, the reader could plunge him or herself into the study of these informative but also amusing readings and can get to know the exotic realms, which they had surely never seen before. This instance of the exotic and unknown is owed to the presence of such mystical creatures as the unicorn or satyr, who are juxtaposed with more typical animals in everyday life. The fact that such bestiaries were made particularly in England and Northern France for both clerical and lay patrons, testifies to both their educational and entertainment value, which, despite the advances of scientific knowledge, still shines through for the modern reader and beholder.