This is a past event
The new Aberdeen Bestiary website, with images of startling clarity, prompts a new enquiry into the source of the manuscript. Can tiny clues within the book point towards its place of production? Why suggest Bridlington Priory? The lecture examines shreds of evidence within the manuscript, and the overwhelming interest in bestiary lore and making books at Bridlington.
The high-tech imagery of the new Aberdeen Bestiary website allows the book to be examined in more detail than ever before. It is one of the finest manuscripts produced in 12th-century England, and has an almost identical partner Oxford, Bod. MS Ashmole 1511. The pair are among a group of deluxe manuscripts made in northern England, whose source is not known. They are linked by style and a strong Augustinian background. One Augustinian priory, Bridlington, places bestiary lore at the core of its regulations for monastic conduct. It also had a thriving scriptorium. If this is not sufficient evidence to nail the source of the manuscript, the lecture will demonstrate the type of setting where our bestiary was produced.
Professor Geddes teaches medieval history of art at Aberdeen University. She has worked on websites for the Aberdeen Bestiary and St Albans Psalter, both intriguing highlights of 12th-century art. She is currently working with the Getty Museum in California to deliver an international exhibition about bestiaries.
- Speaker
- Professor Jane Geddes
- Hosted by
- Friends of Aberdeen University Library
- Venue
- The Special Collections Centre Seminar Room, The Sir Duncan Rice Library
- Contact
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Entry to the talk is FREE but booking is advised. Contact Emma Fowlie e.fowlie@abdn.ac.uk