Location: Link Gallery, Murray Library
Curator: David Bindle
Humans have an inherent curiosity about the plants and animals in our surroundings. This exhibit consists of depictions and descriptions of flora and fauna found in the manuscripts and rare books collections housed in University Archives and Special Collections.
This includes medieval bestiaries, treatises on hunting, zoology books, dictionaries, encyclopedias, early scientific literature, and works of art.
It is worth noting that some of the "information" found in some of these materials comes from a colonial and European exploration perspective. This has resulted in some descriptions that attribute the "discovery" of a species to a non-Indigenous science officer - without acknowledging that Indigenous peoples have had names as well as deep and generational knowledge of their local flora and fauna - long before European explorers and settlers set foot on the Americas. See: results for decolonizing species names
From Commentarii in libros sex Pedacii Dioscoridis ... de materia medica.
London, United Kingdom, British Library, MS Add. 22332
U of S Library facsimile, MSS 1020
From Westminster Abbey Bestiary
London, Westminster Abbey Library, MS 22
Usask Library’s facsimile, MSS 1001
