British Library, Egerton MS 613
Bestiaire of Guillaume le Clerc
Codicology
| Current Location: | British Library, London, England, United Kingdom |
| Shelfmark: | Egerton MS 613 |
| Produced: | France, Mid 13th century |
| 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 |
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
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
