Adam gives the names to animals

Adam gives the names to animals 9.3×13.5 cm
The miniature is followed by the text about the denomination of animals and then by their classification derived from “Etimologiae” of Isidor de Seville /XII.I. 1 — 8; XII.VII. 1 — 9/. The text ends with a sermon “Quocienscumque peccator…”. In the scence of animals’ denomination the painters of the Romanesque bestiaries proceeded from the traditional iconography of the biblical scene of the Creation of animals accepted in European art of the ХП-th c. and possibly going back to byzan-tine prototypes /there the figure of Adam is depicted instead of that of Greator/. In the miniature of the Saint Petersburg bestiary the animals’ silhouettes, placed on coloured surfaces in front of Adam, are slightly tinted as if implying that they are just formed “out of the ground” /Genesis 2:19/. It is on the pages of the bestiary proper that the animals are given a specific colour as well as the name and other characteristics.