I really wanted to love this book, I'm an art history student who is owned by several cats, so in theory it should be perfect for me

But, there's a slightly odd tone to it, a little too whimsical and "lol cat death" makes me wonder who the target audience is?? I certainly couldn't buy it for fellow cat lovers, and why would a cat hater want to read it?

Sadly I think it misses the mark, I did enjoy the medieval cat pictures but...

Filled with images from medieval manuscripts and quotes about cats from across the centuries, Catherine Nappington’s Medieval Cats is a delight for cat lovers of any era. Nappington, a professor of felinology, is no stranger to the unpredictable nature of cat behavior, and so has a tongue firmly in cheek with the myriad facts and comments that fill pages of this book. Each medieval illustration is accompanied by a humorous aside that the cat in the picture might have had in mind, while the rest of the book contains historical quotes and fun facts about cats throughout history. This book was fun to read, and the medieval manuscript illustrations show that our love for cats is not just a modern fad.

My only critique is that many of the quotes were not, in fact, medieval, as some of them came from 19th-century writers (thus are firmly in the modern era), and some of the fun facts are not wholly factual (for instance, there were not roving bands of satanists roaming the European countryside in the medieval period), but as a book meant to be light-hearted and fun, I can overlook a few medievalisms.

This was bad. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, but definitely more than a bunch of dumb captions for supremely bad paintings of cats with a few quotes thrown in.

The images are reminiscent of that lion that got stuffed by somebody who had never seen a lion before. They tried, but did not succeed.

There are multiple mentions of killing cats, including skinning and burning alive.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy.

how does one rate a coffee table book of cat pictures and quotes? i had a fun time flipping through so 3 stars seems fair

i enjoyed all the many illustrations of cats in manuscripts and appreciate the level of dedicated research this must have taken from the author

pet peeve: we have moved past the need for "people who lived before us were sooo dirty and weirddd haha right?" in the intro. i get that this is aimed at the general public but could've taken a different angle to hook attention imo

all around cute book, a reliable gift for cat lovers and medieval aficionados alike!

arc review | medieval cats
3.5 ⭐️
~
For more than a millennium, a myriad of medieval manuscripts and artworks painted a picture of cats as playful and curious but also lazy, selfish, and vicious. Today, these masterpieces live on, shining a bright light on the dark age of cats and telling a hilarious story of their paw-some glory. From bum-licking to cat-fighting to mouse-tricking, Medieval Cats is a hilarious celebration of cats who are up to no good. Learn cat facts from the Middle Ages and the origins of cat proverbs, and discover poems and excerpts from literature that mention cats. Both humor book and peek into medieval art, Medieval Cats is for cat lovers—and haters—everywhere!
~
This was a fun read! I learned some historical facts about cats — some good, some AWFUL — and got to see beautiful artworks from the Middle Ages. You can definitely read this in one sitting! I think it’s purr-fect for history lovers, art lovers, and cat lovers!

This was a riot!! And informative but never boring. After reading just a few pages I pre-ordered a copy for my husband who loves history and cats for his birthday, haha.

What a fun coffee table book you could pick up and read a few pages when you need a cat fix or if you just need to laugh.

This was such a funny read! I'm a huge fan of animals in medieval art, and especially cats have a big place there. It was fun to see them accompanied by quotes and text that made this book a very enjoyable companion for an evening!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ten Speed Press for the ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Unfortunately this book didn't meet my expectations.
If you're looking for a book with cheesy jokes and fun medieval paintings sprinkled throughout, this books might be for you.
However if you're looking for something more detailed and informative, as much as I hate to say it, I'd say skip this one.

Medieval Cats -- Claws, Paws, and Kitties of Yore by Catherine Nappington.
When I first signed up for NetGalley, I got approved for a bunch of art/design-based books, which made complete sense to me, given my graphic design/illustration background. Seeing I'd been approved for another art book one morning, I said to my husband, "I guess I specialise in art and design books now!".
Catherine Nappington is a university professor, but this book is not a high-brow, in-depth look at cats; this fun art book features cats with human faces, ugly cats, and cats doing their jobs poorly, alongside quotes and possibly too many cat-based puns.
Included in the book is a wide variety of medieval drawings of cats, but my favourite is the grey cat, with his tongue in full bleep and a crown above his weirdly human eye and nose combo, second only to the furious cat (you know I love an angry cat) illustrating Edward Topsells potion to cure blindness which includes the head of a black cat.

Ten Speed Press gave me Medieval Cats for review via NetGalley. Medieval Cats by Catherine Nappington is out on March 04 2025.

If I had a physical copy of Medieval Cats, I know exactly who I'd give it to; I'm looking at you @mythicalworkshop

Thumbs up 👍.

Go read a book!

Body count: Are we counting Edward's potion?

#booksdeevaareads #2025bookshelf #goreadabook #allthebooks #Bookstagram #CreativeLife #DesignInspiration #BestFirstandLast #NetGalley #newrelease #booknerd #Designer #GraphicDesign #DesignNerd #designdeevaa #CatherineNappington #MedievalCats #TenSpeedPress #CatsCatsCats

Thank you Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press for this arc.

To be honest I was hoping for and expecting medieval images of cats and information about those images. And yes the images are there in abundance. But stuck between them are some very silly puns and ridiculous, cringey "dad" jokes/captions as well as some sus information. I think the book is intended to be more of a gag gift to be lightly flipped through.

Though the images used are attributed, there is almost no context or other information about the books from which these came. I guess I should have looked more closely at the "humor and satire" part of the description of the book. As another reviewer says, this is not an informative book about cats, medieval art, or cats in medieval art. My advice is to just look at the images and skip everything else. I'm giving the book a C just due to the illustrations.

This was a great curation of art pieces, may it be in writing or in visual arts, with depictions of cats in medieval times. I personally think this would make for a great coffee table book to pick up randomly, rather than a book you read from beginning to end in one sitting.
Entertaining and a great way to show appreciation for our little creatures ans how long they’ve been with us

This is a mostly fun little romp through medieval art and history featuring cats. There are some parts that are pretty dark that pertain to cats being tortured and/or killed. Unfortunately our history is brutal at times, and people should be aware of that. It did kinda dampen the humor, though. I thought this could be just a tad more informative in some places--I would've liked a little more depth. But it is what it says on the tin, and the pictures throughout (as well as the captions for said pictures) are hilarious. Really did not know there were quite so many medieval depictions of cats licking their butts.

What do you call a book full of kitties? A catalog!
Cats for thousands of years have been our friends, our foes, and everything in between. In our feline and human history together, the Medieval Ages were a rough time between our species. Some women blamed their cats for whispering dark evils that led them to murder their husbands. Religious leaders pointed the finger at those nasty demonic cats for The Black Death. While The Medieval Ages were a dark time for both species, this wonderful book is filled with depictions, information, jokes, legends, poems, quotes, and riddles that will suck you in.
I would recommend this book for lovers of all things cat-related, history buffs, and those that are humored by how cats were depicted between 500-1500 CE. One of my favorite depictions of cats is the Kitty Lick, Bibliothèque Municipal, MS 320, f.73, Valenciennes, France, 1280. I was delighted to find out that The Book of Kells has a whole section on cats called the Catslechtae, which is a medieval code of conduct for owning, if such a thing could be said, a cat. There are so many gems within these pages that you need to read it. It is worth the read!

#ThxNetGalley #CatherineNappington #MedievalCats

I'm genuinely so disappointed by this book. I was expecting a fun, educational book about cats in the medieval period. I was expecting to learn about their presence in art. Instead I got puns, bad jokes and memes adapted to become a catpun. They're usually not funny. In between we have some genuinely interesting art pieces, with pretty much no information about them given. In between the pictures and the bad jokes we have some quotes from other authors who mentioned cats, with a small comment (or joke).

I didn't learn anything. Near the end we get a random timeline with "dates to remember" and the dates have absolutely nothing to do with cats??? And there's no extra information about the dates either. There's is very little information in this book in general.

This is not an informative book about cats
This is not an informative book about medieval art
And it's definitely not an informative book about cats in medieval art.

It is a collection of bad jokes and hostorical cat pictures, like a medieval tiktok in a way. I don't even have a modern tiktok account.
In my humble opinion this book is great as a gag-gift for a cat lover in your life. That's really about it. I hope the publisher will market this as comedy/funny (even if I didn't find it funny at all), rather than educational because there's NO INFORMATION.

I guess the name of our "Professor Catherine Nappington" should have been a giveaway as it's cats and naps. Sigh. I was so excited for this one too. Huge letdown.

Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy!

I am not exactly a cat person but I have been always fascinated by the medieval cat-depictions. They are glorious and it was great to see a book about them. Not only did it collect a whole bouquet of marvelous cats, it also provided great trivia about the medieval life with our feline companions.
I loved the modern captions next to the pictures but the book could've been more structured. Timeline and themewise it was a bit jumbled.
Would recommend if your're not researching the topic, just wanna read it for fun.

This book was super cute and fun. I loved all the included photos of medieval cats in paintings, and some of them were extremely odd. I also found that I learned quite a bit about cats from that point in history, so it was both fun and informative.

This was a quick and cute read. I liked the Medieval art included throughout the book, and found it really interesting to see their depiction of cats over the years and what was said about cats. I also enjoyed the historical context. It was a fun book to look through.

Medieval Cats is a silly, sometimes raunchy, look at the depictions of cats in Medieval manuscripts. It's a gorgeous and funny selection of images taken from these texts and captioned with punny, humorous, and sometimes off-color captions. The book is not a hard read, and contains tidbits of facts about cats from the middle ages. The book aims to be more funny than factful, and I would suggest taking most of these with grains of salt as the snippets of history/science can lean more toward sensational than serious and are at times false.

I would be remiss if I did not note there are some glaring mistakes in the book. There is at least one misattributed quote (page 63, regarding the Book of Kells). In addition, on page 117, fact 3 states that cats have twice as many neurons as dogs. This is factually incorrect as dogs have been proven to have twice as many. This number is very easy to find online, and a quick google search disproved the in-book statement. This makes me highly skeptical of whether due-diligence was done to fact-check the writing. While I believe the intent of the book is to be humorous and not factual, it would have been nice if there were citations for many of the statements made. As it stands, I would not treat this book as factual, and expect that it has many incorrect statements.

I think that many people won't particularly care about this and will still find the book funny. It feels like a good joke-y gift book, and I did still enjoy it for the art.
This book would be a delightful gift for any cat lover and is a fun quick read, but shouldn't be taken as scientific/historical fact.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the chance to read an advanced copy of this book.

I love cats and I love Medieval art, so I was thrilled when the publisher sent me an eARC of this book!

Medieval Cats is such a fun “coffee table” book. There are lots of pictures of cats from various Medieval artworks, along with accompanying text. The text is often tongue-in-cheek or witty, which I think works well in a book like this. There is some informational text as well, relating to cats and cat owners of the time.

This would make a great gift for any cat lover in your life! It’s a fun book you can pick up here and there when you have a few spare minutes. I would recommend getting the physical, because I like to look at artwork when it’s printed, not on my phone or tablet.

As someone who studies animal science, I wasn’t able to get into this book much. I thought it would be good to use citations for some of the facts as they were lacking and it would have been good to expand on a lot of it! This would be good to gift to a child or to someone who just loved the medieval times or cats but not to someone actually wanting to learn more!