The ostrich supplied feathers for medieval crests and 16th century fans, and their eggshells were turned into ornate cups – and yet, to the illustrators of the day, they might as well have been gryphons.

Pliny writes:

IT FOLLOWETH now that wee should discourse of the nature of foules. And first to begin with Ostriches. They are the greatest of all other foules, and in manner of the nature of foure footed beasts: (namely, those in Affricke and Æthyopia) for higher they bee than a man sitting on horsebacke is from the ground: and as they bee taller than the man, so are they swifter on foot than the very horse. For to this end onely hath Nature given them wings, even to helpe and set them forward in their running: for otherwise, neither flie they in the aire, ne yet so much a rise and mount from the ground. Cloven houfes they have like red deere, and with them they fight; for good they be to catch up stones withall, & with their legs they whurle them back as they run away, against those that chase them. A wonder this is of their nature, that whatsoever they eat (and great devourers they bee of all things, without difference and choise) they concoct and digest it. But the veriest fooles they be of all others. For as high as the rest of their bodie is, yet if they thrust their head and necke once into any shrub or bush, and get it hidden, they thinke then they are safe ynough, and that no man seeth them. Now two things they doe affoord, in recompence of mens paines that they take in hunting and chasing them: to wit, their egs, which are so big, that some use them for vessels in the house: and their feathers so faire, that they serve for pennaches to adorne and set out the crests and morions of souldiors in the warres.

See also The Medieval Bestiary: Ostrich, Albert the Great On the Ostrich, Sir Thomas Browne's Vulgar Errors, and Fact Checking: Can Ostriches Digest Iron?

• Fols. 41r, 41v, 42r, 42v, 43r, 43v, and 44r of the Aberdeen Bestiary, 12th century
• An ostrich, bestiary (Laud Misc. 247, fol. 159r), 2nd quarter of the 12th century
• An ostrich, bible (BNF Latin 16744, fol. 165v), c. 1170-1180
• One of two ostriches pecks at one of four eggs, and the other turns up its head toward the star Virgilia, Worksop bestiary (PML M.81, fol. 34r), c. 1185
• An ostrich eating a horseshoe, bestiary (BNF Latin 6838 B, fol. 23), 13th century
• An ostrich, bestiary (British Library Royal 12 C XIX, fol. 27), 1st quarter of the 13th century
• An ostrich, bestiary (British Library Harley 4751, fol. 42v), 2nd quarter of the 13th century
• A pair of ostriches, the notebook of Villard de Honnecourt (BNF Fr. 19093, fol. 18v), 1230
• An ostrich, bestiary (Bodl. 602, fol. 25r), 2nd quarter of the 13th century
• Job 19:14,15. The ostrich leaves her eggs to hatch in the dust, forgetting that they may be trodden on or harmed by wild beasts, Bible moralisée (Bodl. 270b, fol. 223v), middle of the 13th century
• An ostrich eats a horseshoe, bestiary (BNF Latin 11207, fol. 21v), mid-13th century
• An ostrich, Bestiaire divin (BNF Fr. 14969, fol. 49), 3rd quarter of the 13th century
• An ostrich, bestiary (BNF Latin 3630, fol. 87), 3rd quarter of the 13th century
• An ostrich eating a horseshoe, Aviarium (BNF Latin 11429, fol. 103), 3rd quarter of the 13th century
• Ostriches on fols. 203v and 208r, bestiary (BNF Arsenal 3516), 2nd half of the 13th century
• Ostriches on fols. 252 and 264, Bestiaire divin (BNF Fr. 1444), 3rd-4th quarter of the 13th century
• An ostrich, Bestiaire d'amours (BNF Fr. 1951, fol. 28), 3rd-4th quarter of the 13th century
• An ostrich eating a horseshoe, Li Brance de Renart (BNF Fr. 1581, fol. 14r), 4th quarter of the 13th century
• Ostriches on fols. 235r and 242v, Bestiaire d'amours (BNF Fr. 412), 1285
• An ostrich, Bestiaire divin (BNF Fr. 14970, fol. 21v), c. 1285
• Ostrich and eggs, Bestiaire d'amour (PML M.459, fol. 19r), c. 1290
• Ostrich eating a horseshoe, Chronicle of Guillaume de Tyr (BNF Fr. 9082, fol. 313), 1294
• Ostriches and their eggs, bestiary (Douce 151, fol. 46v), c. 1300
• An ostrich, De avibus (Lyell 71, fol. 14r), c. 1300
• An ostrich deposits its egg in the sand, forgets about it and wanders away, Bestiaire d'Amour (Douce 308, fol. 103r), 1st quarter of the 14th century
• An ostrich lays its eggs on the ground, while another vainly attempts to fly (fol. 113v) and a man feeding horseshoes and nails to an ostrich (fol. 114r), the Queen Mary Psalter (Brit. Lib. Royal 2 B VII), c. 1310-1320
• Ostrich and eggs, Fountains Abbey bestiary (PML M.890, fol. 12v), c. 1325-1350
• Ostrich eggs are warmed by the sun, Bestiaire d'amours (BNF Fr. 15213, fol. 89v), 2nd quarter of the 14th century
• An ostrich, De avibus et piscibus (BNF Latin 6823, fol. 175r), c. 1330-1340
• Ostrich delivering its young, Speculum humanae salvationis (ÖNB 2612, fol. 31r), c. 1330-1340
• Ostriches on fols. 12v, 113v, 170v, and 236v, Concordantiae caritatis (Lilienfeld 151), c. 1349-1351
• Ostrich delivering young, speculum humanae salvationis (BNF Arsenal 593, fol. 22v), 2nd half of the 14th century
• Allegory of Job (BNF Grec 135, fol. 190), 1361-1362
• Ostrich delivering young, Speculum humanae salvationis (BNF Latin 511, fol. 29), c. 1370-1380
• Ostrich delivering young, Speculum humanae salvationis (PML M.140, fol. 31r), late 14th century
• Tame ostrich, Pontifical of Guillaume Durand (Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève 143, fol. 12), before 1390
The fethere of an ostriche is lijk the fetheris of a gerfawcun and of an hauk; which ostrige forsakith hise eirun in the erthe, in hap thou schalt make tho hoot in the dust.

The Wycliffite Bible

• An ostrich, De proprietatibus rerum (BNF Fr. 16993, fol. 177), 14th-15th century
• Ostrich delivering young, Speculum humanae salvationis (PML M.766, fol. 50r), c. 1400
• God resting on the seventh day, Bible historiale (BNF Fr. 9, fol. 7v), beginning of the 15th century
• Ostrich delivering young, Speculum humanae salvationis (BNF Latin 512, fol. 30r, 15th century
• An ostrich, the Hours of Charlotte of Savoy (PML M.1004, fol. 24r), c. 1420-1425
• An ostrich delivers its young, Speculum humanae salvationis (Douce 204, fol. 28v), c. 1430-1450
• Pairs of men shoeing an ostrich on fols. 27r and 27v, and a nude man riding an ostrich (fol. 170r), book of hours (PML M.358), c. 1440-1450
• An ostrich, De proprietatibus rerum (BNF Fr. 136, fol. 24v), c. 1445-1450
A brid that hatteth an ostrich bereth the significacioun of the mantelle that j haue and of me whiche hath the fetheren aboute him and algates flee may he nouht ne reise him self into the eir Summe that knowen him nouht shulden weenen he shulde fle

The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man

• The ostrich burying its head in the sand, showing that one should pursue wisdom and shun those without understanding, missal (Laud Misc. 302, fol. 137r), middle of the 15th century
• Ostrich delivering young, Speculum humanae salvationis (BNF Fr. 188, fol. 33), mid-15th century
• An ostrich delivers its young, Speculum humanae salvationis (PML M.385, fol. 31r), mid-15th century
• Ostrich delivering young, German textual miscellany (PML M.782, fol. 51r), c. 1450-1460
• An ostrich eating a horseshoe (ÖNB 2368, fol. 15v), c. 1460-1465
• An ostrich eating a horseshoe (ÖNB 2617, fol. 10r), c. 1460-1470
• An ostrich, 1470-1510
• Birds, De proprietatibus rerum (BNF Fr. 217, fol. 185v), 4th quarter of the 15th century
• Ostrich delivering young, Compilatio historiarum (PML M.158, fol. 41r), c. 1476
• An initial S containing birds in the Douce Pliny (Arch. G b.6, fol. 119v), 1476
• An ostrich, book of hours (PML M.187, fol. 128v), c. 1480
• Ostrich in the wall-paintings at Brixen, 1482
• Drawing of an ostrich by Giulio Romano, 1514-1546
• An ostrich, the Tudor Pattern Book (Ashmole 1504, fol. 40r), c. 1520-1530
• Three putti playing with an ostrich, 1532
• An ostrich, Oppian's Cynegetica (BNF Grec 2736, fol. 47), c. 1540-1550
• Illustration from Cosmographia with three parrots and an ostrich, 1544-1552
• Ostriches on fols. 48v and 78, Oppian's Cynegetica (BNF Grec 2737), 1554
• Struus en nachtegale (The Ostrich and the Nightingale), from De Warachtighe Fabulen der Dieren, c. 1567
• An ostrich hunt, 1598

OSTRICH EGG CUPS

See also Ostrich Egg Drinking Vessels and Кубки и светильники в виде яиц.

• Richard II and the English Royal Treasure describes several ostrich egg cups, including five hanaps of ostrich egg mounted in silver-gilt
• Ostrich egg cup (Schatzkammer of the Munich Residenz) made in France or southern Germany, c. 1400
• The reliquary of Elisabeth Matsch from the treasury of the Stadtpfarrkirche Rapperswil, c. 1440
• Ostrich-egg standing cup and cover (British Museum WB.112) made in Nuremburg, c. 1551-1575
• Ostrich egg standing cup (KHM) made in Leipzig, c. 1560-1580
• The Goodricke Cup (British Museum AF.3050) made in London, c. 1563 (also here)
• Standing cup with an ostrich egg (British Museum WB.111) made by AK in Prague, late 16th century
• Powder-flask with an ostrich egg (British Museum WB.113) made by Hans Miller IV in Augsburg, late 16th century
• Ostrich egg standing cup with coral made by Clement Kicklinger in Augsburg, c. 1570-1575 (also here and here)
• Ostrich-egg cup (Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel / Hessisches Landesmuseum, lost after World War II) made by Elias Lencker the Elder, 1571
• Ostrich egg cup of the University of Basel (HMB 1882.90) made by Elias Lencker the Elder in Nuremburg, c. 1575 (also here)
• Ostrich-egg cup in the shape of an ostrich (SKD III 115) made by Elias Geyer in Lepizig, c. 1589-1595
• The Whitfield Cup (also here and here), made by John Spilman in England in 1590 see also Still Life with Ostrich Egg Cup and the Whitfield Heirlooms by Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraeten, c. 1670
• Ostrich-egg cup (Met 68.141.295a, b), made in London in 1591
• Ostrich egg cup and cover (AGO), made by Jörg Ruel in Nuremburg c. 1600
• An ostrich-egg cup at the Royal Museums of Art and History of Belgium, 16th/17th century?
• Ostrich-egg cup (V&A LOAN:GILBERT.57:1-2008), made in Zurich c. 1620-1630
• Ostrich egg cup and cover, made in London in 1623-1624
• Ostrich egg cup donated to the Ashmolean