The Grand Medieval Bestiary (Dragonet Edition): Animals in Illuminated Manuscripts Hardcover – September 11, 2018

I first saw this book in its French language edition on Amazon's French website in 2011 at a price of just under Euro 385 (discounted from Euro 405!!). At this price the book was way beyond my means, so I was pleasantly surprised when an English language edition appeared on the Amazon UK and US websites at a much more affordable GBP 90. I conjectured that the English language edition must be a 'cut down' version of the French 'Belle reliure', but what the heck I figured, what lover of the art of medieval manuscripts could resist even a cut-down edition displaying some of the world's finest medieval imagery and a text by two specialists from premier French universities? I therefore ordered the book from Amazon US and was amazed when a huge package weighing 16.5lb arrived on my doorstep. This is no cut-down version. With exactly the same number of pages (620) as the French original the book itself is 15.25" tall, 10.75" wide and just under 2.5" thick. Printed on high quality glossy paper in full colour, the book boasts around 600 full colour reproductions of illuminations taken not just from bestiaries, but from a wide range of illuminated manuscripts ranging from the early 8th century up to the early 16th. The book comes protected in a heavy slipcase that adds about 0.5" to the overall dimensions. Accompanying the images are four essay chapters covering general topics, such as the role of animals in medieval life and Christian philosophy that fill the first 105 pages of the book. The following 491 pages provide examples of 100 individual animals that were described in medieval bestiaries together with an essay by Professor Cordonnier outlining the symbolism and myths attached to each in the medieval Christian world view. I am not qualified to comment on whether or not the essays by the two authors stand up to the highest standards of art historical scholarship, but to a general reader like myself the text adds another dimension to the splendid reproductions of the medieval imagery. To anyone with a love of medieval art and imagery, or the relationship between man and the animals with which we share our world, this book with its high quality reproductions will be a delight. You will need a strong bookshelf to support its weight however. Perhaps a lectern with a chain to secure it would be best!

Absolutely beautiful art book! Exceeded my expectations!

This book is massive, for starters, and I'm glad it is. There's little to fault in the artwork or in the quality of the text descriptions. Maybe there were a few critters that got left out, but this covers the landscape pretty well and gives a lot of good context for how various animals were seen in the Middle Ages (including the roles played by entirely fictitious animals).One complaint unrelated to the book is that Amazon damaged the book in shipment. I was given a partial refund, but the size of the book may well lend itself to certain kinds of damage. Just something to be aware of...

What an amazing book! Price is wonderful, presentation is amazing, and content is highly satisfactory.

More than I expected it to be. Nicely organized by animal. You will spend hours looking at this book and see something new every time.

A beautiful slightly small version of the original Grand Medieval Bestiary. It is a grand and beautiful thing with lovely color plates of all kinds of real and fantastical beasties from the medieval imagination! Lots of informative history and descriptions are included with each color plate. It arrived quickly and was packaged carefully. I am very pleased with the book.

If you have any interest in illuminated manuscripts and/or the animals within, you must have this book. Although the price isn't that bad, it did keep me from buying this years ago. My loss. The pictures in this massive book will take your breath away. It's six hundred and nineteen pages and almost seventeen pounds. I have a number of works on illuminated manuscripts in general and several on the the animals within and the marginalia, but this will be the cornerstone of my medieval collection.

Great for creating medieval scrolls.