In Which the Author Reveals She is Head Over Heels in Love

With a medieval Iranian bestiary! You guys...this thing is beautiful. I would consider a life of crime just to steal this thing and keep it under my pillow at night so I could have sweet dreams of fantastic images intermingled with the most beautiful script in the world. I want it!!!!

I'm trying to narrow down topics for my big research paper for my manuscripts class. I knew I wanted to do a bestiary (I'm conciously avoided Apocalypses and hell mouth imagery...I need to branch out!) and I have several different options lined up. I stumbled across this particular one ("Manafi al-Hawayan" aka "The Benefits of Animals" aka "Morgan Pierpont MS m. 500") while poring over the drool-inducing CORSAIR system of the Morgan Pierpont Library (I want to live in this place...for serious!) and I am completely smitten!

Take, for example, f. 14v (folio 14 verso):



This is the rhinoceros. Isn't he absolutely glorious? I adore him. Look especially at the way the script interacts with the image. You see the two characters with > shapes? Now see how they mimic the curve of the rhino's horn? Glorious, no?! You can see it again at work on folio 66v, the three cranes:



Again, you've got the < shape in the three characters in the script echoed in the beaks of the cranes. I could cry, this thing is so beautiful!

I just sent an e-mail to my professor asking permission to use this manuscript for my paper. It's a bit of a stretch since we'll hardly spend any time covering even Islamic manuscripts and even then they'll primarily be Qu'ran. I'm pushing the boundaries of the course material with this Persian bestiary. Keep your fingers crossed!!!