General Update
A bunch of stuff both new and updated, including several enhancements to the Medieval Bestiary site structure and functionality.
Site Enhancements
- Image galleries for Encyclopedia entries and Manuscripts can now be displayed in beast name order or in manuscript appearance order. (Beast image galleries are always in manuscript appearance order.) Beast name order is the same as it was before: images displayed in alphabetical order by the name of the beast (e.g. Amphisbaena, Ape, Asp … Unicorn, Viper, Vulture, etc.). With manuscript appearance order the images are displayed in the order they appear on the manuscript pages. This is like how beasts are displayed on the Manuscript Beast pages, where beast name order is on the left and manuscript order is on the right. More information on how to switch between beast name order and manuscript appearance order can by found on the Gallery Help page.
- The Manuscript Beast page manuscript appearance order list (the list on the right) was not correctly displaying beasts that appeared on more than one page in the manuscript. The beast was only shown once in the list; each appearance will now be shown in the correct order, so if a beast appears two or more times in the manuscript it will appear the same number of times in the list.
- The Encyclopedia now has an Index. The “Subject Index” tab (which wasn’t an index) has been renamed to “Topics”, and there is a new “Index” tab. The index lists words and phrases related to Encyclopedia entries with links to the entries they refer to; click a link to go to the page for the entry. There’s not a lot in there yet, but it will grow.
- Some pages (Bibliography and Institute details, image information) are normally displayed in a popup window when a link is clicked. When clicking on such a link in the Search results, the detail page cannot be shown in a popup (Google controls those links), so it was displayed as a normal, unformatted page, which was ugly. It will now be displayed as a proper (though non-standard) Bestiary site page. This is also true if you right click on a link that would normally open in a popup window and select “Open in new tab/window”. Not a perfect solution, but an improvement.
- There are several other fixes/enhancements that you will probably not notice, that maybe make the site a bit easier to use or look better, or remove something that annoyed me, or maybe I just like it better the new way.
Manuscripts
More manuscripts have had their entire sets of images loaded. There are now over 3700 images online. Some manuscripts also have new and updated information.
- Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Médecine, H. 437 (Image du Monde / Bestiaire of Pierre de Beauvais, long version)
- Bibliothèque du Musée Condé, MS 724 (Liber Floridus) – only six images, but magnificent ones!
- Bibliothèque Municipale de Valenciennes, MS 101 (Aviarium of Hugh of Fouilloy; Bestiary)
- Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 834 (Bestiaire of Pierre de Beauvais) – no images, more information.
- Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 944 (Bestiaire of Pierre de Beauvais) – no images, more information.
- Bibliothèque Nationale de France, lat. 8865 (Liber Floridus)
- Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Nouv. acq. fr. 13521 (Bestiaire of Pierre de Beauvais)
- British Library, Additional MS 11283 (Bestiary)
- British Library, Additional MS 28260 (Bestiaire of Gervaise)
- British Library, Stowe MS 1067 (Bestiary)
- Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, Cod. Guelf. 1 Gud. lat. (Liber Floridus)
- Private Library – Unknown Owner, ex-Phillipps MS 6739 (Bestiaire of Pierre de Beauvais) – I found the digital facsimile of this manuscript quite by accident while I was looking for other stuff on Pierre. It was hidden away in the digital repository of the Walters Art Museum though the manuscript itself is not there.
- Universiteitsbibliotheek Ghent, MS 92 (Liber Floridus)
- Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden, VLF 31 (Liber Floridus) – The facsimile for this manuscript is trapped behind the Brill paywall where it would cost me $40 a day to view it, so no images from there! The beast list on the Leiden manuscript page is also limited, since I can’t see which beasts are where. [start rant] Forcing people to pay for something that is clearly in the public domain is fundamentally wrong. So… if any of my faithful readers have institutional access to the facsimile (see the manuscript page for the link) and would be willing to capture/download the 10 or so animal folios for me (at a high resolution), I would be awfully pleased. Send me a note if you do it, and I will arrange a way to get the images. Rebel against the greedy corporate capitalists! Free the oppressed medieval manuscripts! [end rant]
Encyclopedia
- The article on Gervaise and his Bestiaire has been updated with more information, images from the only manuscript where it appears, and some sample text.
- The article on Lambert of Saint-Omer and his Liber Floridus (an encyclopedia) has a lot more information, a few images, manuscript lists, etc.
- The article on Pierre de Beauvais and his Bestiaire has been updated with some new information, a bunch of images, several lists and tables and other goodies.
Thanks
Thanks to bestiary superfan “Wonderlandia” who found several online manuscript facsimiles that I had missed, mostly of the Liber Floridus of Lambert of Saint-Omer. Which got me started on the Lambert encyclopedia article and kept me busy for several days!
Filed in What's new No Responses yet