Beauty & the Beasts

New Exhibition at Rochester Cathedral

Blessed ones,

The other Monk of this website, Dr Christopher Monk, asked me to pass on some information about a new exhibition he has been working on. Well, I know he's been very industrious this last couple of months, so I said yes. One has to be gracious.

The Rochester Bible. British Library, Royal MS 1 C VII, folio 55v, detail.

Rochester Cathedral has opened its crypt exhibition space to three British Library Manuscripts: the Rochester Bestiary, the Rochester Bible, and Elizabeth Elstob's 18th-century copy of excerpt from the 12th-century Textus Roffensis. The manuscripts are in the exhibition until the end of October 2023.

Entitled 'Beauty and the Beasts', the exhibition explores its theme broadly, not only presenting the visitor with the beautiful illustrations of beasts from the three manuscripts, but also presenting material about the importance of beasts – domestic farm animals, in particular – to the lives of the monks that lived in the medieval cathedral priory at the time when the very manuscripts they were producing (from animal skins) were being prepared and crafted.

My role as the primary consultant was to write both hard copy for the physical exhibition and online material for 'Learn More' activities. You can find my commentary on the Rochester Bible and Elstob's excerpts, along with that of other contributors on the Beauty and the Beasts web pages. 

For information relating to the importance of domestic animals in the history of Rochester Priory, head to the Farming and Food pages.