This comprehensive online resource attempts to provide a detailed listing and description of the contents of the medieval bestiary, manuscripts that provided extensive information and illuminations of the wonderful and varied beasts, both real and imaginary, that were known in the Middle Ages. It appears that this resource is the work of one person, David Badke, whose research focuses on this topic.
In a time period when the production of manuscripts involved a huge investment in manpower and in precious resources based on the consumption of coloured inks, the medieval bestiary can best be described as the “colour atlas” of the Middle Ages. The last update recorded on this web site is January 2010, which seems rather long ago in web time, but the compiler has invested a tremendous amount of energy and research in making sure that everything contained in this resource has the correct permissions and legalese necessary, and thus requires little to no continual maintenance.
The front of the web page presents some of the richness and variety of the medieval bestiary, and the user can immediately see a listing of 12 neat links: Introduction, Contents/Site Map, Search this Site, Help with this Site, Contact, Chimaera: Bestiary Blog, Beasts, Manuscripts, Bibliography, Encyclopedia, Digital Text Library, and Articles. The Introduction provides a short description of what the medieval bestiary was, how it developed, and some of the more famous ones. There is also a short guide to moving through the web site. The Contents/Site Map page merely provides an architectural view of the web site that is a few links deeper than what is available on the front web page. This is one of the few spots where access to the copyright and permissions page is given, which is critical to the use and online presentation of these illuminated manuscripts. Search this Site provides searchable access to the contents of this resource via three search boxes: one internal to the web site, a Google search, and a Google Medieval Beasts custom search box. Help with this Site has a number of clickable help topics: browser and other software requirements, site structure and navigation, symbols and their use, beast list pages, beast detail pages, bibliography list pages, and bibliography detail pages. Contact gives the e‐mail address of the compiler. Chimaera: Bestiary Blog links directly to the blog which the compiler maintains on this topic (although there has not been a post on it since January 2010). Beasts gives access to both an alphabetical and a cross‐reference list of all beasts as recorded in medieval bestiaries and the Physiologus. The alphabetical list is by common name, while the cross‐reference list includes Latin, spelling variations, and alternate names. There is also a note that viewing the beast images requires the Cooliris extension on one's computer. The Manuscripts link is a listing of the many manuscripts/bestiaries used to build this web site, along with the required permissions to post images from them. The manuscripts are listed by Location/Shelfmark, Shelfmark, and City. One can also explore them by categories, such as Family or Author. The Bibliography is an interesting compilation by the author, and is very large. Many of the articles and research listed were not viewed by the compiler himself for accuracy or verification, so a system of colour symbols is used to help the viewer determine whether the compiler has reviewed or even viewed the resource or not. One can view the bibliography index by Author, Subject, or Annotated. The Encyclopedia is a series of short articles on topics related to the bestiary. It includes a clickable index and annotated index, along with access to the Search boxes. All of them were written by the compiler of the web site himself. The Digital Text Library is one of the more fascinating sections of this resource (outside of the bestiaries themselves). It contains whole digitized, out‐of‐print books that are no longer under copyright law, over 25 fascinating and well‐illustrated books at that. Finally, Articles provides access to four articles (three by the compiler himself) on various topics related to bestiaries.
In addition to direct access to this resource's contents via the table of contents, the user can also click on any of seven symbols at the topic of each page, indicating Home (a house symbol), Help (a question mark), Contents/Site Map (a star), Up/Down/Left/Right (a multidirectional arrow sign), Search (an eye), Go Back (arrow pointing left), and Go Forward (arrow pointing right).
Overall, this is a rich and diverse web resource, with access to a wide array of medieval bestiaries and their illuminated contents. It is well‐designed and easy to use, and the information provided is well documented and researched. I highly recommend this web site to medievalists and medieval historians.
