“Of The Bear” reproduces the illumination of a bear licking her young into shape from the bestiary Ashmole 1511, fol. 21r. It was made using white egg tempera mixed with mineral pigments, as well as a 24 karat gold leaf background.

Bears in medieval bestiaries

Medieval literature describes bears as strong, ‘loving honey’ and hibernating much of winter. Particularly strange to us today is how medieval literature tell us they rear their offspring: “by licking them into shape.” In the translation of Bodley 764 we read why:

“The bear gets its Latin name ‘ursus’ because it shapes its cubs with its mouth, from the Latin word ‘orsus’. For they are said to give birth to shapeless lumps of flesh, which the mother licks into shape. […] But this is because they are born before they are mature: the birth is only thirty days after conception, and this hasty fertility creates unformed young.”

“Barber, Richard; “BESTIARY”, The Boydell Press, 1993 (p.58)”

Bears in the bible

Bears appear a number of times in the Bible, but often merely as a dangerous animal that often accompanies the Lion. In two cases, though, bears are compared for their strength and fierceness: “they are fighters, as fierce as a wild bear robbed of her cubs” (2 Samuel: 18:8) and “Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open” (Hosea 13:8).

However, bears only appear in one (short) story, which we find in the chapter 2 Kings 2. When a group of boys mock Elisha (successor of the prophet Elijah), two bears appear from the forests and maul them down:

²³ From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!” ²⁴ He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.

2 Kings 2:22-23 from the Bible (New International Version)