Though there several new things in this update, it is mostly about manuscripts and their images.

Manuscripts

I have been examining manuscripts, trying to find information on some elusive ones, and updating descriptions and images for the some of the ones I already knew about.

• Arnamagnæanske Institut, AM 673 a 4º (Icelandic Physiologus): This is the only known copy of the Physiologus written in Old Norse. The manuscript has not aged well; it has darkened and is riddled with holes. Some of the images are barely visible, or have parts that are not visible at all. To make the images usable I have done some digital enhancement to increase the contrast; the content itself is unchanged. The digital facsimile of this manuscript was very well hidden! I finally found it on the Arnamagnæanske Institut web site, attached to the Dictionary of Old Norse Prose (ONP), as an example of Old Norse text. The usual link to the facsimile is on the manuscript page, so you don’t have to search endlessly for it.
• Biblioteca Ambrosiana, E. 16 sup.: Switching languages, a Greek Physiologus with some odd illustrations. Because I can’t read Greek, and because many of the images are strange, there are several beasts, birds and serpents I have not been able to identify. All of the animal images have been loaded, with the unknown ones marked “unidentified”. The manuscript has darkened and the line drawing images have faded, so a little digital enhancement was needed to increase contrast. No image content was changed.
• Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, MS gr. IV. 35: The last few missing images have been loaded. These are most birds that I have not been able to identify.
• Bibliothèque Municipale de Cambrai, MS 259: The part of this manuscript of interest here is the Aviary (book of birds) by Hugh of Fouilloy. I can’t be sure I have all of the images because the facsimile is not complete, but it is likely they are all loaded. The facsimile images are not of the highest quality.
• Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon, MS. PA 78: All images updated/uploaded. The online facsimile is of low quality, so I had to digitally enhance the images (color correction, enlargement), but the content of the images was not changed.
• Bibliothèque Nationale de France, lat. 6838B: A bestiary, not included in the older Bestiary Family lists, but probably Second Family. There are around 120 images, mostly simple colored line drawings.
• British Library, Harley MS 1585: This manuscript is a collection of medical texts, including a section on the use of animals in medicine. That section looks like a bestiary, except where the bestiary has animal descriptions and allegory, this manuscript has descriptions of medicinal uses for the animal. All of the animal section images have been loaded, as well as a few oddities from the rest of the manuscript.
• British Library, Harley MS 3244 : Existing images updated to high resolution and all missing images added.
• British Library, Harley MS 4751 (Harley Bestiary): Existing images updated to high resolution and all missing images added.
• British Library, Royal MS 12 C XIX: Existing images updated to high resolution and all missing images added. Also some additions to the manuscript description.
• British Library, Royal MS 12 F XIII (Rochester Bestiary): Existing images updated to high resolution and all missing images added. Also some additions to the manuscript description.
• Getty Museum, MS. Ludwig XV 3: All images added (probably; the online facsimile is incomplete, so images may be missing).
• Museum Meermanno, MMW, 10 B 25: All images updated to higher resolution.
• Museum Meermanno, MMW, 10 D 07: This is a herbal and a treatise on the medicinal use of animals. All of the animal illustrations have updated to high resolution.
• Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.81 (The Worksop Bestiary): All images have been added in high resolution. There are also some updates to the manuscript description.
• Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden, BPL 1283: This manuscript contains a herbal and a treatise on the medicinal use of animals. All of the animal illustrations have been loaded.
• Yale Center for British Art, Helmingham Herbal and Bestiary: This late fifteenth century composite manuscript contains a herbal (book of plants) and a bestiary in pictures. It is an unusual bestiary in that there is no text describing the animals, only a one or two word label for each entry. All of the animal images have been loaded.

Beasts

• The Sources section on the main beast pages has gotten too long, so I moved the whole section to its own page, accessible by clicking the Sources tab.
• Animal tales from the Histories of Herodotus (fifth century BCE) have been added to Sources for relevant beasts.
• Several beasts now have excerpts (in Sources) from The wonders of the world by Solinus (third century CE). This is another encyclopedia on various subjects, but less chaotic than that of Aelian.
• Quotes from The Metamorphoses by Ovid have been added to Sources for the relevant beasts.
• A few Aesop’s Fables have been added or updated on some beast pages.
• Multiple beasts have updates to descriptions and lots of new images.
• A few beasts have been added (water-horse, rat, etc.) and some have had their bounds widened (for example, “Stag” is now “Stag (Deer)”, because I found some deer images that were does and not stags).
• I have added a new category of animals to handle beasts, birds and serpents I cannot identify. These do not appear as entries in the Beast pages, but they do (usually) appear in manuscript galleries; this lets me add all available images for a manuscript, even if I don’t know what the peculiar beast is. If you run across one of these mystery animals while looking at manuscript images, and you know what it is or can offer a suggestion, please tell me about it.

Images

Many images from various manuscripts and other sources have been added. There are now over 3000 images available on the site, most at a reasonably high resolution.

Encyclopedia

• New article on Herodotus (fifth century BCE) with excerpts from his book Histories.
• New article on Solinus, a third century Roman writer, author of De mirabilibus mundi (The wonders of the world), an encyclopedia.
• Updates to the article on Aesop’s Fables.
• Updates to the article on Ovid (first century CE).