Book of Beasts – The Bestiary in the Medieval World (Getty Publications –)

I bought this hoping for a coffee table book to give as a gift. Its cover is beautiful and so are the images inside. But, be aware that the 9 images shown for the product are unreprentative of the book as a whole, showing only the pages with the best and largest images. Most pages contain far more text. This could have been fine, but the content focuses more on this particular collection than I had anticipated and less on illuminated manuscripts or bestiaries more generally than I had hoped.

This came quickly and is in excellent condition. It is to be a birthday present so it is good that it came so promptly.

Thanks to Getty Publications and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.This is an absolutely lovely book and my only regret is that I will not be able to see the exhibition it accompanies.Contained within are beautiful images drawn by Medieval artists of animals (both real and mythical) and other subjects. It's perhaps clear that the artists never saw some of these animals, and the illustrations are often fanciful at best but are all the more interesting and fun for it. The colours and details are reproduced in stunning detail and the book is laid out in a coherent and engaging way.The history and context is provided in an interesting and engaging way but may slant too much towards the academic for some. Despite the level of detail and sources provided, the editors of this book have let the pictures take centre stage.Overall, a gorgeous book with stunning imagery. Yes, some of them are amusing to the modern eye (that whale, come oooooon) they are all the more charming for it.

Scholarly catalogue of Medieval beasts. A pleasure to own and refer to