Monsters and Grotesques in Medieval Manuscripts

Medieval Life in Manuscripts

by Alixe Bovey

The margins of medieval manuscripts teem with sirens, satyrs, griffins, unicorns, dragons and other bizarre creatures. Commonplace animals are twisted together in impossible combinations, and human bodies are merged with animal forms in ways that are often both comic and ghastly. Images of these monstrosities pervade art and culture in the Middle Ages, and for medieval people they must have been a tantalizing suggestion of unknown worlds and unthinkable dangers. But what were they doing there? Were they meaningless distractions, or did these strange beasts have other symbolic meanings? Alixe Bovey's thoroughly readable text explains the meaning of these monsters and their place in medieval art.

Genres: History, Art, Nonfiction, Medieval, Monsters, Mythical Creatures

64 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 2002

About the author

Alixe Bovey FSA (born 1950) is a Canadian medieval art historian and Dean and Deputy Director at the Courtauld Institute of Art, a college of the University of London. Her research has been chiefly concerned with pictorial narratives and their cultural and literary context. She has also written on medieval monsters.

In 2008, Bovey presented the BBC television series In Search of Medieval Britain, in which she retraced a series of journeys through Britain in the Middle Ages using the Gough Map.

Reviews

[Erin Hepner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I realize how mad this sounds to add this book in here, but I read it in school and still pick it up from time to time now, for the sheer enjoyment of it. This is a terribly interesting paperback on Medeival monstrosity and it's use in literature. They were pretty "freaky", those Medievals.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super short and sweet, good intro on the subject - did find myself looking for footnotes (there aren’t any)

[Michael Audet · Rating 3 out of 5]

too light on history or theory for my taste (works cited is less than a page) but worth price of admission for the reproduced miniatures alone imo

[Mira · Rating 4 out of 5]

lovely pictures---good resource book for artists.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice, brief introduction.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a bit too slim but a delightful taster of mad marginalia.