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Micheline's Blog

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Micheline's Blog

Tag Archives: Middle age

The Ashmole Bestiary

01 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Beast Literature, Bestiaries

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Aberdeen Bestiary, Ashmole Bestiary, Beasts, Bestiary, Bodleian Library, illuminated manuscript, Manuscript, Middle age, Oxford

  195-1
 
Tiger (Folio 12v).  A mother tiger is distracted by a mirror in which she thinks she sees her stolen cub, while the hunter escapes with the cub.  (Photo credit: The Medieval Bestiary)
 
Online Manuscript:
http://treasures.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/The-Ashmole-Bestiary
 
 
  • The Ashmole Bestiary is housed in the Bodleian Library [Oxford University], MS. Ashmole 1511
  • It is a 13th-century (1200s) illuminated manuscript, as is the Aberdeen Manuscript.
  • It consists of 122 folios measuring 27.5 cm (height) by 18 cm (width)
  • The parchment is Vellum (calfskin)
  • The calligraphy is Littera textualis formata (font)
  • Codex: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex

—ooo—

  1. Ashmole Bestiary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashmole_Bestiary
  2. The Ashmole Manuscript: http://bestiary.ca/manuscripts/manu556.htm
  3. Treasures of the Bodleian: http://treasures.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/The-Ashmole-Bestiary
  4. Aberdeen Bestiary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberdeen_Bestiary
  5. The Aberdeen Manuscript: http://bestiary.ca/manuscripts/manu100.htm
  6. Illuminated Manuscript: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminated_manuscript

The Ashmole Manuscript

First, I must apologize.  My post on the Aberdeen Bestiary had lost several paragraphs when I published it.  I did not notice that my text was incomplete until later in the day.  I have now rewritten the missing paragraphs and have posted my article again.

The current post deals with the Ashmole or Ashmolean Bestiary (the two names are used) and it is believed that it was illuminated by the same artist as the The Aberdeen Manuscript which originated in England and was probably illuminated in Lincolnshire or Yorkshire.  But, the current post also contains information regarding the history of books.

The Story of Books

The Parchment: sheepskin, goatskin and calfskin

I have written about the paper, or parchment, used by artists illuminating books: sheepskin, goatskin and calfskin.  The Aberdeen Bestiary was written and illuminated on sheepskin or goatskin.  However, the Ashmole Bestiary was written and illuminated on calfskin, or vellum, which is the superior paper.

Wax Tablets: Early Folio

(please click on the image to enlarge it)
Woman holding wax tablets in the form of the codex. Wall painting from Pompeii, before 79 AD.
Woman holding wax tablets in the form of the codex. Wall painting from Pompeii, before 79 D.
 

Bookbinding: the Codex

Both the Aberdeen and the Ashmole manuscripts are codices, the plural form for codex.  Codices are books as we know them, i.e. we go from page to page sequentially.  However, the binding used in the Middle Ages was of better quality.  The pages were connected to one another using a thread.  Some illuminated manuscripts were left unbound so one could see the illuminations in full.  But, the pages were eventually bound together, which had one important advantage: pages could not be stolen.  The Aberdeen Bestiary has incisions, i.e. someone cut out part of certain folios (feuilles, leaf).  That’s unfortunate, but we at least know that part of the page is missing.  How can we tell when the entire page has been taken away?

The Folio

Codices contained sequential folios (leaf, page), which was not the case when books were written as scrolls.

(Please click on the image to enlarge it.)
The Joshua Scroll, Vatican Library, illuminated scroll, created in the Byzantine empire

« The Joshua Scroll », Vatican Library, example of an illuminated scroll, probably of the 10th century, created in the Byzantine empire (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 
 

The Codex and the Scroll: volumen, rotulus & recto-verso

Codices (the codex) were introduced in Late Antiquity and continued developing until the Middle Ages.  The scroll was probably replaced by the 6th century AD.  Scrolls were read from side to side (volumen) or from top to bottom (rotulus).  Ironically, when we read information on the internet, we use the scroll!

According to Wikipedia, “The scholarly study of these manuscripts from the point of view of the bookbinding craft is called codicology; the study of ancient documents in general is called paleography.”  (Codex, Wikipedia.)

There was a time, moreover, when only one side of the folio (the page) was illuminated and written on (calligraphy).  In other words, the sequential codex did not have a recto-verso.  The terms Recto and Verso predate the printing-press.  (Recto and Verso, Wikipedia.)

The Ashmole Bestiary

The Ashmole Bestiary is a an early Gothic (Christianized) manuscript.  By and large, it features animals that cannot be found in Europe, except for a few.  As we know, Bestiaries provided depictions of mythical and mythological, or both, animals.  In the case of real animals, information was often obtained from the written accounts of travelers to foreign lands.  Such accounts did not provide artists with information that could lead to accurate portrayals of various beasts, a case where the proverbial “picture is worth a thousand words” applies.  Short of a picture, a tiger might not look like a tiger.

I should think, however, that former portrayals of exotic animals often sufficed.  If literature is written in the context of literature (intertextualité), the same is probably true of animal lore, which is illustrated literature.

All bestiaries are derived from the Physiologus and from other rather old descriptions of animals.  The authors of these descriptions have been listed: Isidore of Seville, Gaius Julius Solinus, Claudius Aelianus or Aelian, or earlier historians, mainly: Pliny the Elder, Aristotle and Herodotus.  This is not a complete list, but I believe that providing other sources would be overwhelming and a little redundant.  Moreover, my post would be too long.

However, if one clicks on The Ashmole Bestiary, one can see a depiction of animals presented in the Ashmole Bestiary.  If one clicks on Treasures of the Bodleian, one will find a short description of the Ashmole Bestiary provided by a Bodleian scholar.  As stated above, the Ashmole Bestiary is housed at Oxford, in one of the Bodleian libraries.

You may wish to look at Gothic art, which is the art associated with Cathedrals such as Notre-Dame de Paris and certain scripts used in Bestiaries.  Gothic art followed Romanesque art, starting in the mid 1200s and was followed by Renaissance art.  These are large categories, but I have always found it useful to begin with large categories.  It simplifies the presentation of most subjects.  The rest follows naturally.  There will be, of course, an early Gothic and a late Gothic.

There are a few more points I wish to discuss concerning illuminated manuscripts.  I have not discussed Richard de Fournival’s Bestiaire d’Amour.  We may also wish to look at what was happening at the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 or 1124 – 1 April 1204).

Tiny Gallery

The Elephant

(Please click on the images to enlarge them.  It should work.)
(Photo credit:  The Treasures of the Bodleian [above image] & The Medieval Bestiary [4])
 
img8201
tumblr_lsvkayzYa31qfg4oyo1_r1_1280 
img8200
 
 
 
 
Folio 78v: Treasures of the Bodleian (Dragon strangling an elephant.)
Folio 15v: Elephant (An elephant with a chain through its trunk carries a castle full of soldiers on its back.)
Folio 18r: Bonnacon (The hunters have come prepared with shields, so the bonnacon’s primary weapon has failed to save it from the spear.)
Folio 15v: Griffin (A griffin has caught an unfortunate pig.)
Folio 71r: Swan (The swan sings sweetest when it is about to die.) 
 
Camille Saint-Saëns  (9 October 1835 – 16 December 1921) 
Le Carnaval des animaux  (Le Cygne/The Swan)
 
 img9159
© Micheline Walker
1 March 2013
WordPress
 
 

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The Physiologus & Animals Depicted in Bestiaries

25 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Beasts

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Aberdeen Bestiary, Beasts, Bestiary, India, John Chrysostom, Medieval Bestiary, Middle age, Physiologus

The Physiologus

The Physiologus

Bestiaries: sources

For the complete lists of animals featured in the Physiologus, see Physiologus, Wikipedia.  For a shorter list of these animals as well as their attributes, go to Medieval Bestiary: http://bestiary.ca/manuscripts/manubeast1345.htm.

For pictures featured in the Physiologus, go to Medieval Bestiary, Gallery: http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastgallery218.htm

To access manuscripts other than the Physiologus, click on tab labelled Manuscripts: Medieval Bestiary, Gallery: http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastgallery218.htm

—ooo—

In a post dated 22 February, I indicated that writers and artists who produced the bestiaries of the Middle Ages used as their main source a book entitled The Physiologus (‘The Natural Scientist’).  “It consists of stories based on the ‘facts’ of natural science as accepted by someone called Physiologus (Latin: “Naturalist”), about whom nothing further , and from the compiler’s own religious ideas.”[i]

There is no doubt concerning the authenticity of our unknown “naturalist,” i.e. the person who compiled the texts contained in the Physiologus.  But there is some disagreement with respect to the authorship of the texts included in the Physiologus.  The Physiologus  “is ascribed to one or other of the 4th-century bishops Basil and Epiphanius.” Peter of Alexandria, Basil, John Chrysostom, Athanasius, Ambrose, and Jerome; even pre-Christian authors like Solomon and Aristotle were said to have written parts of it (Curley, p. xvi).  (See Medieval Bestiary)

However, for our purposes, we need simply know that “medieval bestiaries ultimately are derived from the Greek Physiologus.”[ii] but that India “may also be a source:” 

Some Indian influence is clear—for example, in the introduction of the elephant and of the Peridexion tree, actually called Indian in the Physiologus. India may also be the source of the story of the unicorn, which became very popular in the West.[iii]

 

The Popularity & Dissemination of the Physiologus

The Physiologus may not have been as popular as the Bible, but nearly so.  “It was translated into Latin (first in the 4th or 5th century), Ethiopian, Syriac, Arabic, Coptic, and Armenian. Early translations from the Greek also were made into Georgian and into Slavic languages.”[iv]  It was then translated into several other languages.  However, the symbolism  attached to these allegorical animals may have changed and new symbols may have been added as various manuscripts wound their way through translations and possible “editions” of some original Physiologus.  A thousand years elapsed between the publication of the Physiologus and that of the Aberdeen Bestiary. 

According to Britannica, The Physiologus would have “48 sections, each dealing with one creature, plant, or stone and each linked to a biblical text.”  As for animals featured in the Physiologus, they are listed in Wikipedia.  In its list, Wikipedia names the dragon and the unicorn, both of whom are “fantastic” animals, as are the griffin, the phœnix, and other animals .  (See Physiologus, Wikipedia and Medieval Bestiary)

sans-titre

Griffin couchant facing throne at Knossos (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Dragon, the Griffin, the Unicorn, and the Phoenix

In the Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth & Religion, the Physiologus is described as “an exposition of the marvellous properties of some 50 animals, plants and stones, with a Christian interpretation of each.”[v]  In this statement, the key word is “marvellous.”  It matches the word used to describe the “fantastic” aspects of certain documents dating back to the French Middle Ages. Several mediavelists speak of the “merveilleux [marvellous] chrétien.”

Truth be told, among animals described in the Physiologus, some do not exist.  The dragon and the unicorn, who are listed in Wikipedia’s entry on the Physiologus, are legendary animals that I call “mythical animals.”  There are other mythical animals, two of whom are the afore-mentioned dragon and unicorn, but the Physiologus does not feature the phœnix, a mythical creature who was adopted as a symbol in Early Christianity.  Nor does it mention the griffin.  However, somehow I discovered the above fresco of the griffin while reading about the Physiologus. It is so lovely that I could not resist inserting it in this post. Although there are several mythical animals, the dragon, the griffin, the phœnix, and the unicorn are the more familiar. They are the four animals I call “mythical animals.”

Mythical vs Mythological Animals

Mythical animals may inhabit mythologies, east and west, but unlike the Minotaur of Greek mythology, they are legendary beasts who do not have a lineage.  In this regard, they differ from Greek mythology’s Minotaur who is the son of a bull and Phasiphaë, the daughter of Helios and the wife of Theseus, the mythical and mythological — Greek mythology — founder-king of Athens.  As for Pegasus, the winged horse, he is the offspring of Poseidon and Medusa.  However, among the fifty or so beast Physiologus depicts, there is a Centaur, a zoomorphic — half human, half horse — mythological animal as well as the Siren of Greek mythology.

 
(please click on the image to enlarge it)
A phœnix depicted in a book of mythological creatures by F. J. Bertuch (1747-1822)

A phœnix depicted in a book of mythological creatures by F. J. Bertuch* (1747-1822)

*F. J. Bertuch

(please click on the image to enlarge it)
Theseus fighting the Minotaur by Jean-Etienne Ramey, marble, 1826, Tuileries Gardens, Paris

Theseus fighting the Minotaur by Jean-Étienne Ramey, marble, 1826, Tuileries Gardens,* Paris

*Jean-Étienne Ramey

A Poetical Reality

The reality of these “fantastic” animals is poetical.  It is the reality that J. K. Rowling used when she wrote the Harry Potter series.  For instance, she featured the mythical phœnix, who is described in the Physiologus as an animal that rises from its own ashes and therefore represents Christ rising from the dead three days after his crucifixion.  Similarly, the legendary pelican kills its off springs and, three days later, revives them by feeding them her blood.[viii]  The author of the Physiologus may have borrowed from “pagan” sources, but his interpretation of the 50 animals, plants and stones is a Christian interpretation, which would suit medieval and Christian authors of bestiaries and artists depicting the fanciful animals bestiaries featured.

The animals featured in the Physiologus are in fact all the more “marvellous” and poetical in that they are zoomorphic, i.e. combining human and animal features, which is the case with the Centaur.  But mythical and mythological animals may also combine the features of several animals, which is the case with Pegasus, the winged horse.  However, whatever their appearance, these animals all stand for human beings or all symbolize human attributes.  They are not humans in disguise, but allegorical or animals depicting mankind.

Conclusion

I wanted to write on the Aberdeen Bestiary, but many of the animals featured in the Aberdeen Bestiary originate in the Physiologus, as does the symbolism attached to them.  It would appear that the “religious sections of the Physiologus (and of the bestiaries derived from the Physiologus) are concerned primarily with abstinence and chastity; they also warn against heresies.”[ix] 

However, what is most fascinating about these animals is that they are part of our world.  They are fanciful and the iconography attached to them, mostly delightful, but it could be that we actually need the phœnix.  If the phœnix rises from its ashes, we can also rise again, whatever ordeal has befallen us.  As for the pelicans who stretch maternal love to the point of reviving dead off springs by feeding them their blood, they are quintessential motherhood.  In other words, both the Physiologus and bestiaries it inspired tell our story, and that story is one we created.

The Physiologus is an “illuminated” manuscript.  Artists and scribes transformed it into a work of art.  Second-century artists may have used techniques that differ from the manner in which the Book of Kells and the Aberdeen Bestiary are illuminated, but the Lascaux Cave is a splendid testimonial to a motivation to “picture” our world and, in particular, the animals we require.  Several manuscripts of the Physiologus have survived.  The Bern Physiologus may well be the most notorious extant illuminated manuscript of the Physiologus.  For pictures, click on Bern Physiologus (Wikimedia commons) and Medieval Bestiary: http://bestiary.ca/manuscripts/manubeast1345.htm)

Angels have wings, yet we swear on the Bible.

Bellerophon riding Pegasus (1914)
Bellerophon riding Pegasus (1914)

‘Arrival to the Oxford market’: Anonymous (XIII century)

 
Main Source:  Medieval Bestiary: http://bestiary.ca/manuscripts/manubeast1345.htm
Photo credit: Wikipedia (all images)
 
[i] “bestiary”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/63117/bestiary>.
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Ibid.
[v] “Physiologus”, Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth & Religion (Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press, 2003).
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] Donald Ray Schwartz, Noah’s Ark, An Annotated Encyclopedia of every Animal Species in the Hebrew Bible (Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson Inc., 2000).
[viii] “Physiologus”, Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth & Religion (Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press, 2003)
[ix] Britannica, loc. cit.
The Unicorn in the Physiologus

The Unicorn in the Physiologus

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)

© Micheline Walker
24 February 2013
WordPress
 
 
 
 

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