The main part of the book explores the complex and fascinating iconography of the individual creatures most frequently depicted by medieval miniaturists. Animals also had a greater symbolic significance than they do today: in popular fables, such as those of Reynard the Fox, they held up a mirror to the follies of mankind, and on the religious plane, they were understood as an integral part of God’s creation, whose attributes and behaviors could be taken as clues to His plan of salvation. In his insightful opening chapters, the noted art historian Christian Heck explains that the prevalence of animals in illuminated manuscripts reflects their importance in medieval thought, an importance due in part to the agricultural society of that age, in which a variety of species and not just docile pets were the daily companions of man.
But animals are depicted in every other sort of illuminated manuscript as well, from the eighth-century Echternach Gospels, with its geometrically schematized symbols of the Evangelists, to the early fifteenth-century Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, with its famously naturalistic scenes of peasant and aristocratic life. Many proto-zoological illustrations, of great charm but variable accuracy, are found in the bestiaries, or compendiums of animal lore, that were exceedingly popular in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Some examples of such early works (chivalric or not) include: The Filocolo by Giovanni Boccaccio from 1335/6 (first novel in Italian) Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta again by Boccaccio from 1343/4 (first psychological novel in the West) Le Mort d'Arthur by Thomas Malory from the 1470's (first novel in English) and other such works.Īlso, other countries developed novels - see for example Lady Murasaki's genius Tale of Genji from Heian Japan (early 11th century).As the 587 colorful images in this magnificent volume reveal, animals were a constant and delightful presence in illuminated manuscripts throughout the Middle Ages. Most of the books written in prose were chivalric romances (aka, the kind of books where the brave knight rescues the damsel in distress), which were early signs of what would evolve into the modern form. However, modern novels grew out of medieval traditions, and there are some medieval books we can consider "novels." In the early 13th century, there was a shift from poetry towards prose writing.
In fact, the first "modern novel" was Don Quixote published in 1605, two centuries after the Middle Ages! There are some examples of "novels" dating from the Roman era however, these were very different than ones you would find in modern bookstores. That's a really cool question! Unfortunately, it's also kinda hard to answer, because the genre known as a "novel" has greatly evolved throughout time.
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