Ashmole Bestiary

The Ashmole Bestiary (Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 1511) is a late 12th or early 13th century English illuminated manuscript Bestiary containing a creation story and detailed allegorical descriptions of over 100 animals. Rich colour miniatures of the animals are also included.

Ashmole Bestiary; folio 21r: Monoceros and bear

The Aberdeen Bestiary (Aberdeen University Library MS 24) and the Ashmole Bestiary are considered by Xenia Muratova, a professor of art history, to be "the work of different artists belonging to the same artistic milieu."[1] Due to their "striking similarities" they are described by scholars as being "sister manuscripts."[1][2] The medievalist scholar M. R. James considered the Aberdeen Bestiary ''a replica of Ashmole 1511".[2]

Hugh of Fouilloy's moral treatise on birds, De avibus, is incorporated into the text with 29 full colour illustrations.

References
  1. Muratova, Xenia (1989). "Workshop Methods in English Late Twelfth-Century Illumination and the Production of Luxury Bestiaries". In Clark, Willene B.; McMunn, Meradith T. (eds.). Beasts and Birds of the Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 53–63. ISBN 0-8122-8147-0.
  2. James, M. R. (1928). The Bestiary. Oxford: Roxburghe Club. pp. 14ff., 55–59.


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