Fish and the Medieval Bestiary

There is so much to discover today! I know so little about medieval art and there is so much to see. I have just discovered the existence of the Medieval Bestiary - a compendium of beasts.The Bestiary illustrated animals, birds and even rocks, usually accompanied by a moral lesson (per Wikipedia).

Alongside this I have found and only very much skimmed the surface of the British Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts and Kitab Aja'ib Al-Makhluqat Wa Gharaib Al-Mawjudat literally "The Wonders of Creation and the Curiosities of Existence" here. See below one of the pieces by the author, Abu Yahya Zakariya ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud-al-Qazwini (ca. 1203-1283 CE), known as al-Qazwini.

These discoveries have resulted from my research on medieval fish images today. I am beginning to wonder if this burgeoning obsession with fish and boats derives from my surname Fisher and my peasant ancestry. Maybe I am trying to on some level trace my roots. I also came across this image and article A peasant is a peasant, is a peasant? : Medieval Maritime Peasant Lives on www.medievalists.net sourced from the paper by Maryanne Kowaleski, Professor of History and Medieval Studies at Fordham University.

To end today's blog, I have put a bit of a tongue-in-cheek humour from The Toast where two medieval monks invent bestiaries...

MONK #1: ugh sorry to bother you again

MONK #2: no no its fine

this is what i’m here for

what is it

MONK #1: what part of a goat is a snail again

like the front end or the back end

MONK #2: what part do you feel like should be the snail part

MONK #1: the back part?

MONK #2: you shouldnt doubt yourself

you know more about goats than you give yourself credit for