Medieval bestiaries
Subtitle: text, image, ideology
By: Debra Hassig.
Series: RES monographs on anthropology and aesthetics; RES monographs in anthropology and aesthetics.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 300
Subjects: Bestiaries -- England -- History and criticism.; English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500 -- History and criticism.; Latin literature, Medieval and modern -- England -- History and criticism.; Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval -- England.; Illumination of books and manuscripts, English.; Anglo-Norman literature -- History and criticism.; Manuscripts, Medieval -- England.; Bestiaries -- Illustrations.; Animals in literature.; Animals in art.
Description: Medieval Bestiaries: Text, Image, Ideology integrates the bestiary into the social history of art through an examination of twenty-eight manuscripts produced in England during the twelfth, thirteenth, and early fourteenth centuries.

The analysis of the reception of the bestiary by different types of readers - religious and lay, male and female - links selected bestiary entries to specific social, political, economic, and theological concerns of significance at the time that the manuscripts were produced and read. Special attention is devoted to bestiary characterizations of women and Jews. The first comprehensive analysis of text and images that takes both an iconographical and semiotic approach to the imagery, this study also takes into account the aesthetic dimension of these works. It challenges, moreover, the pervasive thesis that the bestiaries were collections of standard texts and images intended solely for religious contemplation.

By tracing their changing functions across the centuries and evaluating them in the broader context of medieval intellectual history, bestiaries are shown to be a dynamic genre.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-287) and index.