These are grouped into two important families on the basis of variations in their texts and programs of ILLUMINATION.Ī number of Latin versions of books of the Bible, translated from Greek and Hebrew, were used in the EARLY CHRISTIAN Church these are known as Old Latin versions.
The Latin bestiary still flourished alongside its French counterparts and was often produced in luxurious illustrated copies in England during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Other medieval versions include that of Gervaise, written in French (perhaps in Normandy) in the thirteenth century that of Guillaume le Clerc (the most popular version), written in the early thirteenth century in French by a Norman priest working in England and two versions ascribed to Pierre de Beauvais, 'le Picard', composed in the dialect of Picardy, also in the early thirteenth century. 1125), dedicated to Aelis (or Adela) de Louvain, second wife of Henry I of England this version gave rise to the popular medieval Bestiaire. From this expanded text, Philippe de Thaon produced a rhyming version in Anglo-Norman (c. Several more beasts and additional material were conflated with the Latin Physiologus from the Etymologies of the seventh-century Spanish bishop Isidore of Seville and other selected sources. The Physiologus was influential for a thousand years, being translated into Arabic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Syriac, and other VERNACULAR languages the later medieval bestiaries descended primarily from a variable Latin translation that was available from at least the fifth century. In the Physiologus, discussions of the characteristics of almost fifty creatures, plants, and stones, along with the etymologies of their names, were distilled from classical mythology and the Christian tradition. The core of the text originated in the writings of authors such as Herodotus, Aristotle, and Pliny the Elder, and in a Greek text known as the Physiologus ( The Natural Philosopher), which is thought to have been compiled in Alexandria around the second century by a Christian ascetic. The text was frequently illustrated, in styles catering to a variety of purses, and motifs drawn from it are widely encountered in other decorative contexts, including BAS-DE-PAGE scenes, HERALDRY, and encyclopaedic world maps (see MAPPA MUNDI ). Among the most beloved of picture books, a favourite of the literate laity, it functioned as a LIBRARY and SCHOOL BOOK and as homiletic source material. The bestiary, in all its varied manifestations, enjoyed great popularity during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, especially in England. The rising of the phoenix from the pyre, for example, is related to Christ's Resurrection. The Bestiarius, De Bestiis, or Book of Beasts consists of descriptions and tales of animals, birds, fantastic creatures, and stones, real and imaginary, which are imbued with Christian symbolism or moral lessons. Some lavishly illuminated examples were produced in ANGLO-SAXON England for individual bishops such as Saint Ethelwold of Winchester. They are found in GOTHIC illumination from the thirteenth century on.Ī SERVICE BOOK consisting of a collection of episcopal blessings, delivered during the MASS after the Pater noster and arranged according to the liturgical year.
See also BACKDRAWING.īas-de-page (literally, 'bottom of the page') scenes are usually unframed images that may or may not refer to the text or image above. Drawing to guide layout or to establish a design, drawn on the back of the leaf to be painted and traced by the painter with the aid of BACKLIGHTING.Ī technique used in tracing a drawing from one side of a leaf to the other by placing a strong light source on the other side of the leaf being illuminated and a weaker light source behind the artist (used in the Lindisfarne GOSPELS in the early eighth century and described as a technique by a fifteenth-century artist Cennino Cennini in his handbook 'Il libro del'Arte').
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