Title: Medieval Cats Claws, Paws, and Kitties of Yore
Author: Catherine Nappington
Release Date: March 4th, 2025
Publisher: Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press
RRP: $15.99 USD
Rating: 2/5
Thank you very much to Netgalley and Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press for access to this copy of Medieval Cats Paws Claws and Kitties of Yore by Catherine Nappington.
“A hilarious celebration of cats in artwork from medieval times.
Look what the cat dragged in from the Middle Ages—a curious compendium of cats unlike any you’ve ever lapped up before.
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!”
I discovered Medieval Cats Paws Claws and Kitties of Yore, in the Arts & Photography section in Netgalley. Unfortunately I did not notice that it had been also filed under Humor & Satire. My expectations for a lovely book about depictions of cats in medieval art and literature were dashed. It seems that Medieval Cats is just a coffee table satire book filled with lots of art, but very little useful information.
The author of the book, Professor Catherine Nappington (Cat…Nap?) is purported to teach felineology at the University of Maine. However, I was unable to find any information on the university’s website about this professor, and no results for the subject of ‘felineology’.
Once I got over my disappointment, I started the book in the hopes that I could still learn a little bit about cats in Medieval art and literature.
Medieval Cats Paws Claws and Kitties of Yore is filled with lots of interesting examples of cat illustrations in medieval manuscripts, and snippets from medieval literature. Each piece of art or text has the reference right underneath. This is helpful if you want to go looking for more information.
On the other hand, at least in my copy which is an advance reader copy and therefore possibly not complete, there is no index or bibliography. It is hard to tell if the book is supposed to include an index or bibliography, as my copy stops rather abruptly at page 208.
I found the format of the book confusing, and it would have been nice if the examples were organised chronologically. As it is, the dates of the examples within each chapter jump all over the place. The chapters themselves are named in a joking faux-medieval style, for instance: “The Catt Satteth upon the Matteth”. While humorous, these titles have nothing to do with the chapter contents.
The reddit-style captions underneath each illustration are also amusing, but that made me ask: why wouldn’t I just go straight to /r/MedievalCats for almost the exact same experience?
In fact the whole of Medieval Cats by Catherine Nappington reads like someone scraped /r/Medieval Cats for the best art examples and then compiled these into a book with some added snippets of literature from the period. Having realised this, I found it difficult to enjoy the remainder of this volume.
I would suggest picking up Medieval Cats by Catherine Nappington if you just want to look at amusing pictures of cats in Medieval art, or would like to have a fun coffee table book available for visitors to peruse while you are making the coffee.
Or, you could just go straight to Reddit…