According to superstition, if you rub the blood of a bat on your face you’ll be able to see at night. But if you use this bat, you’ll also get more hand-some. Never too cool for a good …

Why were the artists of that era so obsessed with depicting murderous rabbits? See the examples and read the explanation in this eye-opening post!

Head (or face) of a man, body of a lion, tail of a scorpion. Manticore from a Greek manuscript of "Liber de proprietatibus animalium", 16th century; Venice; Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, MS. IX-18-1432 Another beautiful Manticore can be seen under: www.flickr.com/photos/swizzlestudio/3118102523/

A fish that can stop a ship and a bull that passes gas to defend itself - these and more strange animals from the Middle Ages!

Many of our readers will already be familiar with our Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, a resource which enables you to search by shelfmark, keyword, or date, as well as by more advanced fields such as language and provenance. We thought it was about time to give a reminder that all...

Five different types of dogs by Arnaldus de Villanova, 1491. The Wellcome Library, CC-BY

Explore tony harrison's 3170 photos on Flickr!

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darklordcat Cats dance to a Satanic tune in a detail from “The Witches Cove”, a 16th century Flemish painting by a follower of Jan Mandijn.