Northumberland Bestiary
The Northumberland Bestiary is an illuminated medieval natural-history manuscript of about 1250 by unknown English artists, produced as a religious and moralizing book for readers of the period and now held by the J. Paul Getty Museum. Its pages are ruled with bordered panels of animals, Old Testament-style figures and hunting scenes, painted in flat earthy reds, greens, blues and ochres on parchment with dense Latin text in columns. A designer could draw on its loose, lively animal poses, its framed grid layouts, and its warm limited palette set against aged cream paper.
