Queen Bess's bestiary

One of the Wellcome Library’s most famous manuscripts recently fell under the international spotlight as a result of the publication of a lavishly illustrated edition of the text by an Italian art publisher.

The author’s original handwritten and hand-painted copy of Histoires Prodigieuses, by Pierre Boaistuau, a sixteenth-century French writer, was purchased by Sir Henry Wellcome at Sotheby’s in 1931. It is an extraordinary compilation of marvels of nature, history and mythology, comprising tales of monstrous births, freak storms and terrible beasts, each story illustrated by a richly painted illumination.

As remarkable as the book’s contents is its provenance, since it was prepared by Boaistuau for presentation to the young Queen Elizabeth I in 1560. The quality and obvious expense of the decoration and binding are appropriate for such an illustrious recipient.

The subsequent fate of the manuscript until it surfaced in the hands of a London bookseller in 1883 is entirely unknown. Perhaps the Queen presented it to one of her courtiers and it passed into an unknown country house library for the next three centuries. Since it was acquired by the Wellcome Library it has been described, displayed and discussed on numerous occasions, without apparently ever coming to the attention of French literary scholars. The recent edition, which was launched in May 2001, promises to bring the existence of the manuscript to wider notice.

External links

• Archives and Manuscripts in the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine