The Aberdeen Beastiary

The Aberdeen Beastiary just went on-line. This 12th century medieval English manuscript which
The attached photo comes from Adam naming the animals.
uses tales of animals to teach moral lessons. The book is wondrously illustrated and written in Latin.

If you click on the what looks like a timeline under the photo, you can access the original Latin with English translation, scholarly commentary, etc.

A new digital version has been uploaded by Aberdeen University, accessible here.
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/ms24/f5r

Aberdeen Bestiary Details

To show you the kind of detail produced by the new digital capture of the Aberdeen Bestiary, here is a close up of the hunter shooting a magpie from a tree, significance is unknown. In the second, a knight has stolen a tiger cub. 

"The tigress, when she finds her lair empty by the theft of a cub, follows the

tracks of the thief at once. When the thief sees that, even though he rides a swift horse, he is outrun by her speed, and that there is no means of escape at hand, he devises the following deception. When he sees the tigress drawing close, he throws down a glass sphere. The tigress is deceived by her own image in the glass and thinks it is her stolen cub. She abandons the chase, eager to gather up her young. Delayed by the illusion, she tries once again with all her might to overtake the rider and, urged on by her anger, quickly threatens the fleeing man. Again he holds up her pursuit by throwing down a sphere. The memory of the trick does not banish the mother's devotion. She turns over the empty likeness and settles down as if she were about to suckle her cub. And thus, trapped by the intensity of her sense of duty, she loses both her revenge and her child. "

Free on-line books from Metropolitan Museum of Art

If dismal hibernal weather is causing you to be housebound, you can check out the Metropolitan Museum of Art Web site for more than on-line shopping. The Met has made hundreds of their out-of-print books available on-line for both reading and downloading. Besides books on ceramics, armor, paintings, costume, and sculpture, you can check out such titles as:

- Ancient Egyptian Representations of Turtles

- Cochinreal Red: The Art History of a Color

- Andean Four Cornered Hats

- Li Kiung-lino Classics of Filial Piety

Some of the books feature horses. One of my favorites is "Man and the Horse: An Illustrated History of Equestrian Apparel. " It includes interesting information about ambling horses, and how to interpret what it means when the artist chose to depict a rider on a trotting horse versus an ambling horse.

Here is a link:

https://books.google.com/books?id=9nXWVLsdNp4C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Europa Regina and Iceland as Old Maps

Old maps can be such fascinating views not only into geographic features but as to how cultures view their world. The first map is Europa Regina first envisioned in the 1500s that shows Europe in the shape of a queen. This individual map circa 1530 AD was made for Holy Roman Emperor Charles V showing his claim to rule Europe with Iberia as the crown of his kingdom and Bohemia as its heart. Per Wikipedia, "The most obvious connections to the Holy Roman Emperor are the Carolingian crown and the imperial insignia - sceptre and orb. Another connection to Charles V is the gown, which resembles the contemporary dress code at the Habsburg court, and the face of the queen, which some say resembles Charles V's wife Isabella. As in contemporary portraits of couples, Europa regina has her head turned to her right and also holds the orb with her right hand, which has been interpreted as facing and offering power to her imaginary husband, the emperor."

The second map shows the 16th century view of of Iceland, surrounded by monsters of the deep.

Minoans Lead the 2004 Parade in Opening of Olympics

Here's an amazing opening day sequence to the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.