Bestiary Being an English Version of the Bodleian Library, Oxford M.S. Bodley 764 with all the Original Miniatures reproduced in Facsimile. Translated by Richard Barber. Published by Folio Society, London, 1992. 4to – over 9¾” – 12″ tall; 202pp. with 135 colour illustrations of the original illuminated miniatures; title-page lettering by Sebatian Carter. Cream pictorial boards with blue cloth spine, blue endpapers, housed in a blue slipcase. In fine, unread condition. A medieval moralizing treatise on beasts from the society manuscript in the Bodleian Library.
Bestiaries are a particularly characteristic product of medieval England, and give a unique insight into the medieval mind. Richly illuminated and lavishly produced, they were luxury objects for noble families. Their three-fold purpose was to provide a natural history of birds, beasts and fishes, to draw moral examples from animal behaviour (the industrious bee, the stubborn ass), and to reveal a mystical meaning
