Wonders of the East: Medieval Belief and Making Monsters in the Middle Ages

Sponsored by The Book Club of California.

In the Middle Ages, monsters were of great interest to artists, authors, and theologians. They appear in all visual media and all textual genres. They were, to their creators, both serious subjects of contemplation and fun entertainment. This talk will focus on a particular set of medieval monsters known as the Wonders of the East, a series of fantastic peoples, beasts, plants, and landscapes that was especially popular in medieval England, where they appear on the edges of world maps and in the margins of devotional books, as well as in three surviving manuscripts, all heavily illustrated, where they are given pride of place. This talk will consider where such monsters were located, how they were constructed, and what sort of work they were designed to do for their intended audiences.

An in-person and virtual presentation by Asa Mittman, author and Professor of Art & Art History, California State University, Chico.

To register for this virtual event, click here.