some #Cerastes

#old_art #OC #ocart #art #oc_Cerastes

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Within an orange square frame, a horned orange head is emerging from sand beside a watercourse holding a bird by its feet. A brown-striped snake is passing above on what seems to be a green bank. The orange head is shown in profile with a pointed ear visible and has a long dog-like snout. It also has a very worried expression. Image from Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 764, folio 102v.

The medieval cerastes hunted by burying itself in sand with only its horns sticking out and lunging out at animals that came near as in this image from an English bestiary dated from c1225-1250. #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #cerastes #medievalart

In an outlined frame on a manuscript page, a horned greyish-green beast with two sturdy legs and purple wings seems to be hissing towards the left. It has two curling horns and a mostly round ear. Its mouth is widely open and it is poking out its tongue. Its long curving tail seems to have a second snake-like head at the end of its tail. Image from Bibliothèque Universitaire Historique de Médecine (Montpellier), H. 437 (L'Image du Monde / Bestiaire of Pierre de Beauvais), folio 99r.

This particular beast is thought be a cerastes but is only described as a "serpent with horns". There is no explanation of the wings or the fact that it seems to have a second head at the end of its tail. #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #cerastes #medievalart

In a square lozenge on a manuscript page, a goat-headed and horned creature is lying on what appears to be a brown rock. The beast's body is a reddish-brown with white decorations and is long and curving with its tail stretching out of view in the frame. It has clawed forelegs. Its head is white and there is a clear line where it joins the body so that the head appears to have been stuck on the body. The background is a dull brown which may once have been gilt. Image from Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KB, KA 16 (Der Naturen Bloeme), folio 123v.

The cerastes was described as a horned serpent which, in spite of modern ideas, doesn't appear to mean legless. Most cerastes drawn in full have legs as like this c1350 Flemish image. #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #cerastes #medievalart

A green and white striped curving serpent with four curlicued horns on top of its snub-nosed head. There is text below it and the manuscript page appears to have been torn on the top left. Image from Cambridge University Library, Kk.4.25, folio 95r.

This week's medieval beast is the cerastes. This was a horned serpent so flexible it was as if it was boneless. This snake-like version is from a poorly treated English bestiary dated to 1220-1240. #medievalmanuscripts #medievalbeasts #cerastes #medievalart