A long overdue update… Improvements? Several areas of the site have been improved: A Fox The fox is Reynard the Fox, trickster figure and anti-hero of medieval western Europe, and the subject of a new Encyclopedia article. Reynard is a mean, nasty and amoral beast whose tricks harm everyone around him, whether foe or friend. […]

After a nice summer break, a new (small) update. Hildegard von Bingen, twelfth century German mystic, author, composer and healer, was a remarkable woman. Among her other books is one called Physica, which is an encyclopedic treatise on medicine. Hildegard’s medical recipes used not only the usual herbs, but also parts of fish, birds, animals […]

There are two main parts to this update, plus the usual fixes and improvements. De bestiis et aliis rebus Or “On beasts and other things”, a catch-all title for a compilation text. The De bestiis is an odd work that consists of four books: the De avibus by Hugh of Fouilloy, a version of the […]

The Physiologus was popular in the Middle Ages. Very popular. How popular? We can judge by the number of still existing manuscripts that include the text. This update includes a large addition to the Physiologus encyclopedia article. That includes a lot of added manuscripts. When I started I had less than 100; now there are […]

This update is mostly about four encyclopedia articles, either newly added or substantially updated. Some of the manuscripts of these encyclopedias are illustrated, so there are a few hundred new images online. There are also around 100 new manuscripts, plus some new bibliography entries. And that’s all, folks!

This update is all about clearing out the backlog of data I had waiting to be entered in my database. It was a long and tedious task, but my Zotero lists are now nearly empty, for the first time in years. Clearing the backlog added 112 manuscripts, 131 bibliography items and 520 images. In the […]

A long delayed and – I’m sure – eagerly awaited update. This one is all about Bartholomaeus Anglicus and his encyclopedia, De proprietatibus rerum or “On the properties of things”. He wrote the work in Latin around 1260, and it was quickly copied and translated into several languages, including French, English, Dutch and Spanish. It […]

This update is all about Jacob van Maerlant and his Middle Dutch encyclopedia of strange animals. I can’t read Middle Dutch – or modern Dutch – which made working with Jacob’s encyclopedia, Der Naturen Bloeme, something of a challenge. Fortunately Jacob used the Latin name for the animals, so I could at least figure out […]

Well, that was a lot of work! With this update I have added all of the animal chapters (470+) from the Liber de natura rerum of Thomas of Cantimpré, a thirteenth century encyclopedia. That includes over 100 new and newly identified beasts, an English translation/paraphrase of the Latin text from each chapter (seen under the […]

This update is mostly about manuscripts called Psalters (see below), with a bit about Gerald of Wales. Manuscripts A few more manuscripts have had their illustrations loaded and/or beast lists completed. Encyclopedia There is one updated and one new article.