The English bulldog appears frequently in our digitized Curzon collection of cartoons from the Napoleonic Wars. Here, a bulldog named Wellington and a Russian bear attack a monkey representing Napoleon.
Meanwhile, back in London, a "most Wonderful and Sagacious...LEARNED DOG" could be seen as part of a variety show. He could tell time, count money, and "spell any Person's Thoughts by the impenetrable Secret". digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/8cc7…#InternationalDogDay
There was also the "MOST BEAUTIFUL DOG", discovered in Greenland, with 16-inch ears and a fine wool coat, who had astonished "the principal Nobility in England". These advertisements feature in our @jjcollephemera collection of printed ephemera. digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/07a9…
@jjcollephemera@bodleianlibs In medieval bestiaries--illustrated catalogues of real and mythical animals--dogs were described with a few principal traits. Firstly, they lick their own wounds to heal them:
@jjcollephemera@bodleianlibs Thirdly--and perhaps most unfairly--a dog holding meat in its mouth, seeing its own reflection in water, will drop the real meat to try to pick up the reflection of meat.
@jjcollephemera@bodleianlibs Bestiaries also often include stories of exceptionally faithful dogs, such as King Garamantes' dogs, who rescued him from capture, and and a dog who died of grief watching over his master's body.
@jjcollephemera@bodleianlibs Two of our digitized bestiaries lead off their dog sections with a handsome picture of three dogs of different colours. The text explains that the word "canis" comes either from Greek or from the sound of a barking dog ("canere").
@jjcollephemera@bodleianlibs Dogs appear as a commonplace of courtly life in the medieval Romance of the Rose, whether accompanying a horseman or eating scraps under the table.
The entire manuscript has been digitized by @ExeterCollegeOx and made availble on Digital Bodleian.
Every single page is decorated. In the calendar which starts the psalter, medallions depict activities associated with the months, and signs of the zodiac. digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/4000…
The Ashmole collection is still full of wonderful, magical things, however (as our friends at @AshmoleanMuseum can attest). For example, MS. Ashmole 304, Matthew Paris's texts on prognostication, written c. 1250: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/a3a4…
There's also MS. Ashmole 1431, an 11th-century herbal produced in Canterbury, which features in several Pinterest posts about Ashmole 782: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/bdde…
This pretty scene of castles and horses is in fact a depiction of the coming of the Antichrist, from the 15th-century apocalyptic
"Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur". Today we'll be touring all 15 signs of the Antichrist in this manuscript, MS. Douce 134: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/3854…
Signs 1 and 2 of the coming of the Antichrist: the sea rises to the mountaintops and then descends out of sight.
The third sign of the coming of the Antichrist: the gathering together of the fish and sea monsters. (It appears that the sea has risen again since the second sign.)