Produced: England, 15th century

Language: Latin

Author: 
Illustrator: 
Scribe: 

Binding: 
Media: Parchment
Script: 

Folios: 77  Height: 21 cm   Width: 13.5 cm

Manuscript type: Bestiary

Location: Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen, Denmark

Family: Second

 |  | Folio 33v

The Bestiary of Anne Walshe is a Latin bestiary of English origin, produced circa 1400-25. It is now in the Royal Library in Copenhagen, Denmark, and has been made available as an electronic facsimile which has been published on the Web.

The manuscript is generally believed to be of English origin. According to  Bruun, the script is definitely of English origin. The 1926 catalog of the Copenhagen Kongelige Bibliotek manuscript collection also assigns the manuscript to England, though the catalog does not cite a specific reason for this assessment.

The text of the manuscript generally follows the Etymologies of Isidore with additions from other sources.

The manuscript has 117 illustrations on its 154 pages (about 76% of the pages). The illustrations have no gold at all, and the images are simple colored drawings, rarely with any background. The drawings in Anne's bestiary have a decidedly whimsical air to them. The artist seems to have had a sense of humor.

The manuscript bears Anne's name because someone has written "Anne Walshe" in several variations on multiple pages. Who "Anne" was is not known. The writing is often a scribble, suggesting that "Anne" used the blank areas of the manuscript to practice her writing. Some of the images have also been marked up (eg: the extra teeth on the wolf, folio 16v). See  Badke for more on "Anne" and the scribbles.

Digital facsimiles:  Kongelige Bibliotek