The Peterborough Bestiary

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The most splendid wildlife book of the Middle age with 104 perfect miniatures

The Peterborough Bestiary: The wildlife described and interpreted

here were already wildlife books in antiquity, and it is not remarkable that this would continue in the Middle ages as among the most popular pictorial manuscripts. An especially beautiful example is The Peterborough Bestiary, executed in an English Abbey around 1300.

Dogs, horses, monkeys and lions, stags, sirens and the phoenix are among the over 100 painted examples, with descriptions of their behaviour in accordance with the beliefs of the time. They believed in a certain mystique in animals creating their own mythological beasts attributing marvellous qualities from many real animals.

Generous Book Illuminations: 104 miniatures and 108 initials

The Peterborough Bestiary is one at the most preciously endowed Bestiary's. Altogether 104 miniatures illustrate all pages of the manuscript: gold backgrounds with coloured Gothic decorative frames or colourfully patterned illuminations which are bordered in gold. With a page format of 348 x 236 mm the Peterborough Bestiary is the largest manuscript of its type. More extravagantly illuminated initials are continuously used in the two column text. Each new chapter begins with an animal description in red through a multi-line initial in blue and gold. Particularly original are the many small male and female portraits, that are incorporated carefully into the body of the text, a typical characteristic of the English Gothic illumination. Alternating with it, there are initials, from which plant-work runs along the edge of the text.

Peterborough - intellectual and scholarly center

Only a well equipped Scriptorium could produce such a rich manuscript. The Abbey and later Cathedral of Peterborough has been an important location during its 900 years of existence in the English church-landscape. Here, not only magnificent liturgical codices were produced but also precious manuscripts designed for scientific study.

Since 1575, the Peterborough Bestiary has been held in the Parker Library of the prominent Corpus Christi College in Cambridge.

Knowledge of antiquity, belief in the Middle Ages as a fresh beginning

Living Gothic wildlife illuminations

The redemption of Gothic Romantic Art in France led to the formation of a new decorative style in England. The wish to have more plasticity in their figures lead generally to a more energetic design. Hairstyle and features in the small portraits within the initials carries the unequivocal style characteristics of Gothic art. Of course, the new aesthetics also influenced the wildlife representation. The animals bodies began to move themselves from the background and the energy of movement lets them appear far more natural. In the 104 miniatures of the Peterborough Bestiary a very much alive and catchy panorama of the known and the exotic wildlife is displayed.

Also, the talent of the book illuminator has contributed to it in particular. With much love of the detail, he has tried to portray the animals as realistically as possible: brooding birds, swarming bees, rich hunt scenes tell histories, in miniature, from the time.

Changing structure in the background: Colours and gold

Very beautifully, the marginal double side shows the alternate background formation with shining gold surfaces and patterned two or four colour backgrounds. The discovery of the landscape in book illumination is indicated. Individual elements like trees and shrubs, already found in stylised form, are expressed by the book illuminator in a more realistic representation.

The Facsimile Edition of the most splendid Gothic wildlife book

Lavish production: Shiny gold with 104 miniatures

Held in the library of Corpus Christi College in Cambridge the Peterborough Bestiary, catalogued as manuscript MS 53, is being produced in a Facsimile Edition, faithful to the original in a limited edition of 1480 copies world-wide. The manuscript, produced around 1300 in the Abbey of Peterborough, impresses through its enormous richness.

With a page format of 348 x 236 mm the 44-page Bestiary to the largest of its type. In 104 colour miniatures, the native, exotic and marvellous wildlife known at that time are put in an extremely realistic way into the landscape. Shining gold underscores the fine interplay of the bold colours. All miniatures are bordered with Gothic decorative frames - in two colours red and blue. Others are on a gold background or framed in gold with the miniature on a colourfully patterned background.

Gothic book illumination: 108 ornament-initials, Drolleries plants

108 multi-line and coloured ornament-initials introduce the chapters to each individual animal description. They are alternately decorated with plant elements or with small male or female portraits. The latter are a typical characteristic of the English illuminated manuscript. Coloured branches run between the margins with small birds and Drolleries which further enliven the decor.

The art of book binding at its finest

A brown leather cover blind embossed meticulously hand crafted binds the facsimile volume. All pages were edge trimmed true to the original before being stitched by hand to the book-block. The scroll stamps on the cover match the content of the book, using motives of griffin, lion and dragon. The binding used is typical of those used in Cambridge with the original binding preserved in the Morgan Library in New York.

The scientific commentary

A scientific commentary by Christopher de Hamel, library director at the Corpus Christi College, and Lucy Freeman Sandler, the specialist for English book illumination at the New University, describes the manuscript in all of its splendour and authenticity. All texts are transcribed completely and translated.

The Bestiary - a standard-work for centuries

An original book for clerics and laymen

Liked similarly in spiritual and lay circles, Bestiary belong, with Psalter's and Apocalypse, as part of the illuminated manuscripts developed in the 12th Century in England and Northern France. They offer the minister, that looks for view material for his sermon, a rich treasure of examples from the animal empire in order to teach the human being God pleasing behaviour as exemplified by the animals.

The reception of antiquity

For the present-day reader, the Peterborough Bestiary is a treasure trove of late Middle Ages natural history, mythological and philosophical knowledge.

Essentially, the text is based on the writings of Physiologus presumably from Alexandria about 200 BC. The anonymous author of this manuscript introduces the behaviour of real and marvellous animals and relates this to the Christian religion, in an allegorical reference to God, human beings and the devil. The writing enjoyed immense popularity in its day. The original work was translated over the course of the centuries into many languages and was supplemented by other scholars with additions from natural history works for a very long time, until into the 12th Century.

Marvellous, native and exotic wildlife

The descriptions of more than 100 land animals, birds, reptiles and water-animals makes Peterborough Bestiary one the most complete compendia of this type. It begins with the lion as the king of the animals, but also with fabled creatures like the phoenix, unicorn and griffin. The African animals like antelope, elephant and crocodile, which could be known only from pattern books or trip descriptions, were a special challenge for the English manuscript illuminator.

Documentation Kit

ADocumentation Kit containing 2 sample pages, in the original size, from the Peterborough Bestiary Fine Art Facsimile Volume, plus an illustrated, 16 page information brochure, is available for $US85.

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