Produced: Flanders, 1270

Language: Latin

Author: Hugo de Fouilloy
Illustrator: 
Scribe: 

Binding: Pasteboard covered with brown morocco
Media: Tempera colors/gold leaf/ink on parchment
Script: Littera textualis currens

Folios: 102  Height: 19.1 cm   Width: 14.3 cm

Manuscript type: Bestiary

Location: J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California, United States

Family: First; B-Is

 |  | Folio 79v

"The Getty Museum's manuscript is a compilation that includes two rare treatises by Hugo de Fouilloy in addition to the Bestiary. The first text is the Aviary, which uses the characteristics of different types of birds to make moral points. The second, a Treatise on Flocks and Shepherds, constructs a metaphorical discussion of Christ as an abbot, taking care of his flock, and the abbot and monks in a monastery caring for their charges. Both of Hugo's Latin texts were intended for teaching lay brothers, those who performed manual work in a monastery. This manuscript, though made around 1270 in Flanders, is stylistically close to contemporary elegant Parisian illuminations produced at the court of King Louis IX, which are characterized by gracefully gesturing figures, vigorous outlines, and gold-patterned backgrounds." - Getty Museum

Illustrations: aviary - 30; bestiary - 35; all full color. Blue and red capitals with pen scrollwork at the start of the aviary chapters.

 Clark aviary group: Ter Duinen.

This manuscript was formerly Sion College L 40.2/L28, sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 72), according to the Lambeth Palace Library, which took possesion of most of the Sion College manuscripts when the College closed in 1996. The L28 manuscript had been sold before then.

Additional description

Digital facsimiles: Getty Museum (partial)