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.