Books of Beasts is a scholarly examination of medieval texts called "bestiaries". These curious works consisted of lists of animals with accompanying pictures and traditional stories. Sometimes they were printed alongside other works, like the Bible, sometimes not.

Elizabeth Morrison and twenty six other medieval scholars assert that these were the second most popular texts in the medieval world. They weren't concerned with accuracy or science, part of the purpose of the books were to use creation as a window to contemplate the mysteries of God.

This particular book, Books of Beasts, was made to accompany a ground-breaking exhibition at The J. Paul Getty Museum. You can learn more about the exhibition here: http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/...

"Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World" presents the largest number of medieval bestiaries ever gathered together, representing one third of the known surviving illuminated bestiaries, including some that have never before left their countries of origin."

The stunning portion of this book are the bestiaries themselves. The colors and the animals in their various tableau are simply beautiful. When you consider how old the artwork is, it's staggering that something that fragile has survived so long.

"Animals both real and fantastic parade by the dozens, and sometimes hundreds, across the pages of these remarkable works. Their stories were among the most familiar and beloved of the time, and many survive today, though their origins in medieval and earlier times have, sadly, been largely forgotten."

My favorite part of this book were the stories attached to the animals. Everyone in the medieval world knew them and so, when that animal appeared somewhere else say, for example, on a tapestry or dish, it was a hidden code of sorts, imparting meaning that the modern reader has never learned.

Consider the lion: "The natural philosophers say that the lion has three principal natures. His first nature is that he likes to walk on the mountain heights. And if it should happen that he is sought by hunters, the odor of the hunters reaches to him and with his tail he covers the trail of foot prints he left behind.... And thus our Savior... covered over the foot prints of his love in Heaven, until sent by the Father, he might descend into the womb of the Virgin Mary, and save the human race that was lost."

The lion was always presented first in the bestiaries and was given the name "the King of Beasts" not only for its position on the food chain but also for its association with Jesus Christ. These associations have bled over to today, and I had no idea that's where they came from.

Fascinating, isn't it?

But as interesting as the stories and images were, this book suffers from some serious academia-itis. The various scholars, the only experts on the topic in the world I'm sure, have different writing styles and some are far more palatable than others.

By the time I got to my fifth or sixth explanation why this text was related to that text and may or may not have come first, my brain was glazing over a little bit. Other sections read more like dissertations than material that someone would pick up for fun.

That criticism aside, the topic itself is absolutely worthy of investigation, if for nothing else than these stories that were, as one of the authors said, as popular as a "viral meme" that some of their meanings are still in use today. Isn't it cool how history haunts us in ways that we may be unaware of?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free digital advance reader copy of this book. The projected publication date is in June 2019. The short quotations I cited in my review may change in the final version.

A wonderful collection of essays to accompany a museum exhibit. There is a wealth of information in these pages that will keep readers turning the page and wanting more.

Thank you NetGalley and Getty Publications for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy.

Exceptionally rich and gorgeusly illustrated book with many essays from various authors mostly about medieval bestiaries, including also depictions of real or fantastic animals in modern ages. Lions, tigers, beavers, foxes, whales, apes, etc., but also dragons, unicorns, griffins, sirens, centaurs, "cosmic" animals. Images that you can rarely see elsewhere, very interesting ones (for example Alexander the Great in a kind of submarine meets a whale) and sometimes also funny (for example the bonnacon that uses its fart as weapon or the elephant depicted obviously by someone that has never seen one). The images are accompanied by explanations and also the moralisations the authors of the original bestiaries attached to them (Christ simbolized by the unicorn, the pelican, etc.).

Goodreads Rating: 3 stars

An indispensable volume for the study of bestiaries and their role in the medieval world. While I personally didn't find it to be riveting casual reading, it still had immense amount of information that, had I been writing a paper on the topic, this would have been a great source.

The book contains essays covering the variations in bestaries throughout the medieval era, as well as covering how creatures from the bestaries ended up in other works of art, like architecture, sculpture, and maps. An epilogue about the bestiary in the modern world shows that our interest in illustrating animals in a unique way or to make an allegorical point is still as strong as it was in the middle ages.

While I did end up skimming many of the essays in the first section, since I simply found them a bit too specific and academically focused for a casual read, I still gleaned some interesting info (e.g. many bestaries were not illustrated, some were supplemental inserts to religious works, lions always start off bestaries). The essays in the "Beyond the Bestary" section were the most interesting to me and correlated more with my interests (e.g. beasties on maps!!).

The catalogue of the exhibition is interspersed throughout the essays, rather than being fully contained in its own section. However, the sectioning of the catalog does correlate with the essays and is helpful for showing how bestaries evolved and how they built off of prior versions. I did find some that I was always wanting more visual references to the works referenced, so the few pictures from each work featured just didn't give me the full picture I was hoping for. Again, for a scholarly purpose, the info likely would be enough, but for an introduction to bestaries, I think an abundance of visuals are more helpful.

Had I been more interested in the text of bestiaries, rather than the illustrations/art and natural history aspect of the, this would have likely been an amazing read for me. However, if I lived closer to the museum, I would definitely visit to see these works in person! The catalog of the exhibition included in the book looks highly diverse in illustration styles and types of beasts, so I think it's something that just needs to be seen and analyzed independently.

A strong four stars for this, although that does only apply for those willing to jump on board for academic purposes; this from the point of view of the average man on the average commuting vehicle will be too high-falutin' (as the RRP implies). It is an eye-opener, however, as regards the mediaeval bestiary, and all that it held, from routine portrayals of cats, dogs and elephants with ridiculous trunks, to the very mythical indeed. The benefits of this book are clear to see for anyone with an interest in art, for many of the illustrations prove how wonderfully illustrated and illuminated these manuscripts were. As for the text, we see academics posit who was writing these things, who was translating them into the vernacular, who was paying for their production, whether the pictures came before the text or the other way round, and many much more erudite things. The captions to many of the catalogue elements make for very repetitive reading, but they do put you as close as possible to what is the world's biggest, if not indeed only, major exhibition of bestiary art, that the Getty is hosting for the summer of 2019. And when you've learnt for the thousandth time that something proves the thinking behind the bestiary was seen elsewhere, the final essays bring us up to date with modern art and art book publishing variants of the theme. Thoroughly comprehensive, if perhaps missing out on glorying in the great farting wonder that is the bonnacon, this is a must-buy for anyone connected with this subject of study.

Book of Beasts The Bestiary in the Medieval World is a new catalog guide to accompany an exhibition at the J. Paul Getty museum on medieval bestiaries. Due out 4th June 2019 from Getty Publications, it's 354 pages and will be available in hardcover format.

This is a lavishly illustrated volume with well written subject essays by well known scholars of medieval art. The exhibition contributor list reads like a who's who of world renowned collections including the Bodleian, the V&A, Bibliothèque nationale de France, The Fitzwilliam, the Royal Danish Library, and many many others.

This volume would make a good addition for students of medieval art, calligraphers, illuminators, artists, art lovers, and students of ecclesiastical Latin and Greek. It is written in a meticulous and scholarly style, but as a layperson I had no problems understanding and learning from the included essays. The majority of the illustrations are western/Latin texts, but there are a few from eastern sources as well.

The exhibition is scheduled to run at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center from May 14 to August 18, 2019.

Five stars, this is a sterling exhibition catalog and will have value long after the exhibit is over.

A fine example of just how good exhibition-accompanying volumes can be when they are done correctly.

The Getty's Book of Beasts takes a well-organized and erudite look at this fascinating sub-genre of medieval manuscripts, which are also the subject of the museum's upcoming exhibition.

The structure and organization of the volume are well above average, the disbursement of the plates amid the text being notably better than usual as well. Some visual elements of the book are difficult to rate using a digital ARC (some page-spacing issues and greyed out text which I expect will not present in published copies).

The included essays were a bit of a mixed bag. While none are poorly done or problematic, there are certainly some which present better than others. Notably exceptional standouts include Elizabeth Morrison's essay on problems in page design, Larisa Grollemond's piece on beasts at court, and Debra Higgs Strickland's work on the beastiary in medieval world maps.

This book has some issues with formatting at the moment and I was unable to get the whole thing t open properly. Please note I was given an ARC so this issue will be fixed.
The pages I could view were beautiful, with excellent information and anecdotes about each image.