Liber Bestiarum

This medieval Latin bestiary, known from an English thirteenth-century illuminated manuscript, catalogues real and fabulous animals and reads each as a lesson in Christian morals. Entries typically treat the lion, elephant, fox, whale, unicorn, phoenix, and many birds, beasts, and stones: physical lore, sometimes drawn from older authorities, is followed by an allegorical application to virtue, vice, or the Church. The text is arranged as a sequence of short chapters rather than a story. Pictures of the creatures accompany the words. The work is a book of natural and spiritual instruction, not a zoological field guide in the modern sense.

Bound in red Nigerian goatskin blocked in four colours with a design by David Eccles, 4 raised bands. All page edges gilded. Ribbon marker. COMMENTARY VOLUME by Christopher de Hamel. Bound in blue cloth blocked with a gilt design. Dark blue buckram solander box with red leather spine label.