Manuscript

British Library, Egerton MS 613
(Bestiaire of Guillaume le Clerc)

Codicology

Produced: France, Mid 13th century
Current Location: British Library, London, England, UK
Manuscript Type: Miscellany
Bestiary Family: French
Language: French
Folios: 74
Author: Guillaume le Clerc
Illustrated: Yes
Media: Vellum
Script: Gothic
Dimensions: Height: 22.5 cm Width: 14.5 cm
Sample page - British Library Egerton MS 0613
Folio 40v

Description

Le Bestiaire divin of Guillaume le Clerc is on folio 31r - 58v. The illustrations are simple pen drawings. The quality of the drawings varies considerably; some are very finely executed while others are crude. The style is so different it is likely two (or more) people did the drawings. The salamander chapter has a frame for a drawing, but instead of an image the frame is filled with text in a different (an almost illegible) hand; the text has not been deciphered. This is the copy of the Bestiaire designated A by Reinsch.


[From Payne, p.16]

This is one of the finest of over twenty versions of Guillaume's bestiary which survive... The rhyming couplets are written in double columns, illustrated with 34 framed pen-and-ink drawings...


[Adapted from the British Library description]

Miscellanies in prose and verse, among which are... Li bestiaire, a poem, by Guillaume, clerc de Normandie...

Additional Descriptions

Additional description

Editions and Facsimiles

Printed editions

Robert Reinsch, ed., Le Bestiaire: Das Thierbuch des normannischen Dichters Guillaume le Clerc
George C. Druce, trans., The Bestiary of Guillaume le Clerc

Digital facsimiles

British Library