Medieval Cats is a charming look at paintings of cats in medieval manuscripts. When you think of the fact that monks were often copying manuscripts alone, with perhaps a cat for company, it’s no wonder that these little beasties find their way into nooks and crannies throughout. They are cats being cats - mousing, prowling, and of course licking their privates (I laughed out loud at a painting of Jesus, obviously appearing to his disciples after rising from the dead, and in the corner is a cat - leg in the air, bright red tongue licking and giving that “what are you looking at?” Stare that we all have seen).

Since it is clear that medieval illuminists did not take their task fully seriously, neither does the author. The plates are accompanied by witty captions and fun cat facts to know and tell. This book would make a wonderful coffee table book - beautiful pictures, yes, but also something for people to laugh about and have fun with. I loved it!

Many thanks to Ten Rivers Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Utterly delightful. Includes some narrative about cats in the medieval world, but is mostly images of the many cats of medieval manuscripts, often with captions or image descriptions that had me laughing out loud.

What a cute book! I think this would be a great thing to have around the house, the pictures are so silly!

This is a fun book with lots of illustrations of cats from medieval manuscripts, with quotes, some facts and myths. It’s an enjoyable light read that made me smile (so many cats licking themselves!)

Weird cat pictures, illuminated manuscripts, and Shakespeare -- an unexpected and fun combination. There were a lot of interesting facts and quotes as I learned about the history of cats in different civilizations, and there was a lot of snark, which is appropriate when talking about cats. This would be a great gift for a cat lover.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

Fun and well illustrated book about, you guessed it… cats in medieval literature. There are plenty of examples from throughout history and the illuminated manuscripts. The author also uses quotes from famous people and authors with some historical facts. The captions under the examples from the manuscripts got to be a bit much.

Adorable! So many cats. I love the art and all the fun facts. It has so much interesting information I can't wait to figure out how to incorporate this into class.

5 stars

Felids, or cats, are an animal that people tend to love or hate. Regardless, the relationship between humans and cats goes back thousands of years. As such, they are an animal that commonly turn up in portraits and literature, as well as on pottery, and in medieval manuscripts. Medieval Cats: Claws, Paws and Kitties of Yore by Catherine Nappington is a short, yet fun, book that focuses on the depictions of cats in medieval manuscripts. A huge thank you to Ten Speed Press and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book.

Medieval manuscripts are beautifully illustrated books, predominantly written on parchment, but in the later medieval period they were written on paper. The production of these manuscripts would have been labour intensive and time consuming. If one stops and takes a moment to look at the images included within manuscripts, it is likely that some interesting images will jump out of the pages.

In Medieval Cats, author Catherine Nappington, has selected a vast array of feline depictions from medieval manuscripts and combined them with a range of cat facts, poetry and literature to create this intriguing book. As someone who loves medieval manuscripts, medieval history, and animals, Medieval Cats was a light and enjoyable read.

Medieval Cats: Claws, Paws and Kitties of Yore is due for publication on the 4th of March 2025.

TW: cat deaths depicted and discussed

This was an amusing look at medieval cat illustrations paired with some fascinating cat history. The cat illustrations are always amusing because of how weird they look.

For anyone who loves cats this is a great read. It's fun, lots of quotes and just shows cats throughout history and the impact on some current jokes and sayings. I did laugh out loud and wanted to share this with many people who I know that love cats! I would gift this to cat lovers as well

I absolutely LOVED this book. This book features fun facts and art work about medieval cats in a humorous way which had my attention from start to finish. The captions along side the medieval artwork is spot on every time and hilarious.

As a vet tech and cat mom/lover I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I think it captured cats as a whole even in the medieval times. It's a little ironic that killing off cats indirectly started the bubonic plague. It was nice to see as years went on cats became more appreciated and well loved even by royalty. I can't say enough positive things about this book, I loved every minute of it.

Thank you to Netgalley, Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press, and Catherine Nappington for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Medieval Cats features cat related riddles, jokes, quotes, facts, fables, fairytales, poems, proverbs, and puns alongside medieval cat drawings and paintings.

Nappington gives us a sprinkle of medieval, sometimes gruesome, cat history combined with pictures that often make you think: Have these people ever seen a real life cat?

While I read this book in one sitting, I believe the best way to enjoy Medieval Cats is to take it in small bites. It makes an interesting coffee table book to leave through at your leisure.

As with all humor/satire books some jokes will land and others won't, but overall I enjoyed the tone of this book. Though there were a few things I would have liked to see done differently. For example this book features some very contemporary memes and song lyrics that stand out amongst the medieval tales. The gap between these two is in my opinion too great to be bridged by what this book offers.

Besides that I would have liked a tad more structure from this book. The chapters are not always well defined and the ending came quite suddenly. However this is something that will probably not be as noticeable if you don't read it in one sitting.

Medieval Cats is the book for you if you'd like to learn more about cats in the medieval times with a twist of humour. This book makes a great present for any cat owner or otherwise cat obsessed person.

TW: animal harm, animal torture, animal death, capital punishment

Thank you Ten Speed Press and Catherine Nappington for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Hilarious book but also informative about how a different time period viewed these kitties! Man the artwork included was so good and horrifying haha. It was an enjoyable read!