Editing Bestiary

{{Short description|Compendium of beasts}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Not to be confused with|bestiality}}
[[Image:85-Oxford 1511 - Unicorno.jpg|thumb|[[Monocerus|Monoceros]] and [[Bear]]. [[Bodleian Library]], MS. Ashmole 1511, ''[[Ashmole Bestiary|The Ashmole Bestiary]]'', Folio 21r, England ([[Peterborough]]?), Early 13th century.]]
[[Image:RochesterBestiaryFolio007rLeopard.jpg|right|thumb|upright|"The [[Leopard]]" from the 13th-century bestiary known as the "[[Rochester Bestiary]]"]]
[[Image:Perindens.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Peridexion tree|Peridexion Tree]]]]

A '''bestiary''' ({{langx|la|bestiarium vocabulum}}) is a [[compendium]] of beasts. Originating in the [[Ancient history|ancient world]], bestiaries were made popular in the [[Middle Ages]] in illustrated volumes that described various animals and even rocks. The [[natural history]] and illustration of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson. This reflected the belief that the world itself was the [[Bible|Word of God]] and that every living thing had its own special meaning. For example, the [[pelican]], which was believed to tear open its breast to bring its young to life with its own blood, was a living representation of [[Jesus]]. Thus the bestiary is also a reference to the [[symbolic language (art)|symbolic language]] of [[animals in Christian art|animals in Western Christian art]] and literature.

==History==
The bestiary — the medieval book of beasts — was among the most popular illuminated texts in northern Europe during the Middle Ages (about 500–1500). [[Christianity in the Middle Ages|Medieval Christians]] understood every element of the world as a manifestation of God, and bestiaries largely focused on each animal's religious meaning. Much of what is in the bestiary came from the ancient Greeks and their philosophers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=James |first1=Montague Rhodes |title=The Bestiary |journal=History |date=1931 |volume=16 |issue=61 |pages=1–11 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.1931.tb00001.x |jstor=24400559 }}</ref> The earliest bestiary in the form in which it was later popularized was an anonymous 2nd-century [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] volume called the ''[[Physiologus]]'', which itself summarized ancient knowledge and wisdom about animals in the writings of [[Classical antiquity|classical]] authors such as [[Aristotle]]'s ''[[History of Animals|Historia Animalium]]'' and various works by [[Herodotus]], [[Pliny the Elder]], [[Gaius Julius Solinus|Solinus]], [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]] and other naturalists.

Following the ''Physiologus'', Saint [[Isidore of Seville]] (Book XII of the ''[[Etymologiae]]'') and [[Saint Ambrose]] expanded the religious message with reference to passages from the [[Bible]] and the [[Septuagint]]. They and other authors freely expanded or modified pre-existing models, constantly refining the moral content without interest in or access to much more detail regarding the factual content. Nevertheless, the often fanciful accounts of these beasts were widely read and generally believed to be true. A few observations found in bestiaries, such as the [[Bird migration|migration]] of birds, were discounted by the [[Natural philosophy|natural philosophers]] of later centuries, only to be rediscovered in the modern scientific era.

Medieval bestiaries are remarkably similar in sequence of the animals of which they treat. Bestiaries were particularly popular in [[England]] and [[France]] around the 12th century and were mainly compilations of earlier texts. The [[Aberdeen Bestiary]] is one of the best known of over 50 manuscript bestiaries surviving today.

Much influence comes from the Renaissance era and the general Middle Ages, as well as modern times. The Renaissance has been said to have started around the 14th century in Italy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Renaissance {{!}} Boundless World History |url=https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/the-renaissance/ |access-date=2022-05-03 |website=courses.lumenlearning.com}}</ref> Bestiaries influenced early [[heraldry]] in the Middle Ages, giving ideas for [[charge (heraldry)|charges]] and also for the artistic form. Bestiaries continue to give inspiration to coats of arms created in our time.<ref>{{cite book|editor-first=Stephen|editor-last=Friar|title=A New Dictionary of Heraldry|location=London|year=1987|publisher=[[A & C Black|Alphabooks/A&C Black]]|isbn=0-906670-44-6|page=342}}</ref>

Two illuminated [[Psalter]]s, the [[Queen Mary Psalter]] ([[British Library]] Ms. Royal 2B, vii) and the [[Isabella Psalter]] (State Library, [[Munich]]), contain full Bestiary cycles. The bestiary in the Queen Mary Psalter is found in the "marginal" decorations that occupy about the bottom quarter of the page, and are unusually extensive and coherent in this work. In fact the bestiary has been expanded beyond the source in the Norman bestiary of Guillaume le Clerc to ninety animals. Some are placed in the text to make correspondences with the [[psalm]] they are illustrating.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stanton |first1=Anne Rudloff |title=The Queen Mary Psalter: A Study of Affect and Audience |date=2001 |publisher=American Philosophical Society |isbn=978-0-87169-916-9 |page=44ff }}</ref>

Many decide to make their own bestiary with their own observations including knowledge from previous ones. These observations can be made in text form, as well as illustrated out.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cohen |first1=Simona |title=Animal Imagery in Renaissance Art |journal=Renaissance Quarterly |date=2014 |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=164–180 |doi=10.1086/676155 |s2cid=191615584 }}</ref> The Italian artist [[Leonardo da Vinci]] also made his own bestiary.<ref>{{cite journal| title=Selections from the Bestiary of Leonardo da Vinci | first1=Oliver |last1=Evans |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |volume=64 |number=254 |date=Oct–Dec 1951 |pages=393–396 | doi=10.2307/537007 |jstor=537007 }}</ref>

A ''volucrary'' is a similar collection of the symbols of birds that is sometimes found in conjunction with bestiaries. The most widely known volucrary in the Renaissance was [[Johannes de Cuba]]'s ''Gart der Gesundheit''<ref>{{cite book|last1=de Cuba|first1=Jean|title=Garden Of Health|date=1501|publisher=Verard Antoine (Paris)|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b2100150b|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161115014243/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b2100150b|archive-date=2016-11-15|language=fr|format=758 scanned pages with black & white illustrations|access-date=2014-09-15|url-status=live}}</ref> which describes 122 birds and which was printed in 1485.<ref>''Hortus sanitatis deutsch.'' Mainz (Peter Schöffer) 1485; Neudrucke München 1924 and 1966.</ref>

==Bestiary content==
The contents of medieval bestiaries were often obtained and created from combining older textual sources and accounts of animals, such as the ''[[Physiologus]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Clark |first1=Willene B. |last2=McMunn | first2=Meradith T. |editor-last1=Clark|editor-first1=Willene B. |editor-last2=McMunn | editor-first2=Meradith T. | title=Beasts and Birds of the Middle Ages. The Bestiary and Its Legacy |publisher=Nation Books |date=2005 |pages=2–4 |chapter=Introduction |isbn=0-8122-8147-0}}</ref>

Medieval bestiaries contained detailed descriptions and illustrations of species native to Western Europe, exotic animals and what in modern times are considered to be imaginary animals. Descriptions of the animals included the physical characteristics associated with the creature, although these were often physiologically incorrect, along with the Christian morals that the animal represented. The description was then often accompanied by an artistic illustration of the animal as described in the bestiary. For example, in one bestiary the eagle is depicted in an illustration and is said to be the “king of birds.”<ref>{{Cite web |title=British Library |url=https://www.bl.uk/medieval-english-french-manuscripts/articles/beastly-tales-from-the-medieval-bestiary |access-date=2022-05-03 |website=www.bl.uk |archive-date=2022-02-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216215828/https://www.bl.uk/medieval-english-french-manuscripts/articles/beastly-tales-from-the-medieval-bestiary/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Bestiaries were organized in different ways based upon the sources they drew upon.<ref>{{cite book
 | last = McCulloch
 | first = Florence
 | title = Mediaeval Latin and French Bestiaries
 | publisher = [[University of North Carolina Press]]
| location = Chapel Hill
 | date = 1962
 | page = 3
}}</ref> The descriptions could be organized by animal groupings, such as terrestrial and marine creatures, or presented in an alphabetical manner. However, the texts gave no distinction between existing and imaginary animals. Descriptions of creatures such as [[dragon]]s, [[unicorn]]s, [[basilisk]], [[griffin]] and [[caladrius]] were common in such works and found intermingled amongst accounts of [[bear]]s, [[Wild boar|boars]], [[deer]], [[lion]]s, and [[elephant]]s. In one source, the author explains how fables and bestiaries are closely linked to one another as “each chapter of a bestiary, each fable in a collection, has a text and has a meaning.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Henderson |first1=Arnold Clayton |title=Medieval Beasts and Modern Cages: The Making of Meaning in Fables and Bestiaries |journal=Publications of the Modern Language Association of America |date=January 1982 |volume=97 |issue=1 |pages=40–49 |doi=10.2307/462239 |jstor=462239 |s2cid=164019988 }}</ref>

This lack of separation has often been associated with the assumption that people during this time believed in what the modern period classifies as nonexistent or "[[imaginary creatures]]". However, this assumption is currently under debate, with various explanations being offered. Some scholars, such as [[Pamela Gravestock]], have written on the theory that medieval people did not actually think such creatures existed but instead focused on the belief in the importance of the Christian morals these creatures represented, and that the importance of the moral did not change regardless if the animal existed or not. The historian of science [[David C. Lindberg]] pointed out that medieval bestiaries were rich in symbolism and allegory, so as to teach moral lessons and entertain, rather than to convey knowledge of the natural world.<ref>{{cite book
 | last = Lindberg
 | first = David C.
 | author-link = David C. Lindberg
 | title = The Beginnings of Western Science
 | publisher = [[University of Chicago Press]]
 | location = Chicago
 | date = 1992
 | page = [https://archive.org/details/beginningsofwest00lind/page/354 354-356]
 | isbn = 0-226-48231-6
 | url = https://archive.org/details/beginningsofwest00lind/page/354
 }}</ref>

== Religious significance ==
[[Image:AberdeenBestiaryFolio005rAdamNamesAnimalsDetail.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Adam]] naming the animals, in a detail from the 12th century [[Aberdeen Bestiary]]]]

The significance shown between animals and religion started much before bestiaries came into play.  In many ancient civilizations there are references to animals and their meaning within that specific religion or mythology that we know of today. These civilizations included Egypt and their gods with the faces of animals or Greece which had symbolic animals for their godly beings, an example being Zeus and the eagle.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Animal Symbolism (Illustrated) |url=https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2505&context=ocj |website=Open SIUC}}</ref> With animals being a part of religion before bestiaries and their lessons came out, they were influenced by past observations of meaning as well as older civilizations and their interpretations.

As most of the students who read these bestiaries were monks and clerics, it is not impossible to say that there is a major religious significance within them. The bestiary was used to educate young men on the correct morals they should display.<ref name=Lippincott1981>{{cite journal |last1=Lippincott |first1=Louise W. |title=The Unnatural History of Dragons |journal=Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin |date=1981 |volume=77 |issue=334 |pages=3–24 |doi=10.2307/3795303 |jstor=3795303 }}</ref> All of the animals presented in the bestiaries show some sort of lesson or meaning when presented. Much of the symbolism shown of animals.{{Incomprehensible inline|date=April 2025}} Much of what is proposed by the bestiaries mentions much of paganism because of the religious significance and time period of the medieval ages.

One of the main 'animals' mentioned in some of the bestiaries is dragons, which hold much significance in terms of religion and meaning. The unnatural part of dragon's history shows how important the church can be during this time. Much of what is covered in the article talks about how the dragon that is mentioned in some of the bestiaries shows a glimpse of the religious significance in many of these tales.<ref name=Lippincott1981/>

These bestiaries held much content in terms of religious significance. In almost every animal there is some way to connect it to a lesson from the church or a familiar religious story. With animals holding significance since ancient times, it is fair to say that bestiaries and their contents gave fuel to the context behind the animals, whether real or myth, and their meanings.

==Modern bestiaries==
In modern times, artists such as [[Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec]] and [[Saul Steinberg]] have produced their own bestiaries. [[Jorge Luis Borges]] wrote a contemporary bestiary of sorts, the ''[[Book of Imaginary Beings]]'', which collects imaginary beasts from bestiaries and fiction. Nicholas Christopher wrote a literary novel called "The Bestiary" (Dial, 2007) that describes a lonely young man's efforts to track down the world's most complete bestiary. John Henry Fleming's ''[[Fearsome Creatures of Florida]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fearsomecreatures.com |title=Fearsome Creatures of Florida by John Henry Fleming |website=Fearsomecreatures.com |access-date=2016-12-06}}</ref> (Pocol Press, 2009) borrows from the medieval bestiary tradition to impart moral lessons about the environment. [[Caspar Henderson]]'s ''[[The Book of Barely Imagined Beings]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.barelyimaginedbeings.com |title=The Book of Barely Imagined Beings |website=Barelyimaginedbeings.com |access-date=2016-12-06}}</ref> ([[Granta]] 2012, [[University of Chicago Press]] 2013), subtitled "A 21st Century Bestiary", explores how humans imagine animals in a time of rapid environmental change. In July 2014, Jonathan Scott wrote ''The Blessed Book of Beasts'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rna.org/news/184377/Beasts-from-the-East.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141019031915/http://www.rna.org/news/184377/Beasts-from-the-East.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=2014-10-19 |title=Religion News Association & Foundation |website=Rna.org |date=2016-11-21 |access-date=2016-12-06 }}</ref> Eastern Christian Publications, featuring 101 animals from the various translations of the Bible, in keeping with the tradition of the bestiary found in the writings of the Saints, including [[John Chrysostom|Saint John Chrysostom]]. In today's world there is a discipline called [[cryptozoology]] which is the study of unknown species. This discipline can be linked to medieval bestiaries because in many cases the unknown animals can be the same, as well as having meaning or significance behind them.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dendle |first1=Peter |title=Cryptozoology in the Medieval and Modern Worlds |journal=Folklore |date=2006 |volume=117 |issue=2 |pages=190–206 |doi=10.1080/00155870600707888 |jstor=30035486 |s2cid=55397570 }}</ref>

The lists of monsters to be found in [[video games]] (such as ''[[NetHack]]'', ''[[Dragon Quest]]'', and ''[[Monster Hunter]]''), as well as some [[tabletop role-playing game]]s such as [[Pathfinder Roleplaying Game|Pathfinder]], are often termed bestiaries.

==See also==
* [[Allegory in the Middle Ages]]
* [[List of medieval bestiaries]]
* [[Marine counterparts of land creatures]]
* [[Animal representation in Western medieval art]]

==References==
{{Refbegin}}
*“Animal Symbolism (Illustrated).” OpenSIUC, https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2505&context=ocj. Accessed 5 March 2022.
* {{cite journal |last1=Cohen |first1=Simona |title=Animal Imagery in Renaissance Art |journal=Renaissance Quarterly |date=2014 |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=164–180 |doi=10.1086/676155 |s2cid=191615584 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Dendle |first1=Peter |title=Cryptozoology in the Medieval and Modern Worlds |journal=Folklore |date=2006 |volume=117 |issue=2 |pages=190–206 |doi=10.1080/00155870600707888 |jstor=30035486 |s2cid=55397570 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Edwards |first1=Karen |title=Milton's Reformed Animals: An Early Modern Bestiary |journal=Milton Quarterly |date=2005 |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=183–292 |doi=10.1111/j.1094-348X.2005.00100.x |jstor=24465084 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Henderson |first1=Arnold Clayton |title=Medieval Beasts and Modern Cages: The Making of Meaning in Fables and Bestiaries |journal=Publications of the Modern Language Association of America |date=January 1982 |volume=97 |issue=1 |pages=40–49 |doi=10.2307/462239 |jstor=462239 |s2cid=164019988 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=James |first1=Montague Rhodes |title=The Bestiary |journal=History |date=1931 |volume=16 |issue=61 |pages=1–11 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.1931.tb00001.x |jstor=24400559 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Lippincott |first1=Louise W. |title=The Unnatural History of Dragons |journal=Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin |date=1981 |volume=77 |issue=334 |pages=3–24 |doi=10.2307/3795303 |jstor=3795303 }}
*Morrison, Elizabeth, and Larisa Grollemond. “An Introduction to the Bestiary, Book of Beasts in the Medieval World (article).” Khan Academy, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/medieval-world/beginners-guide-to-medieval-europe/manuscripts/a/an-introduction-to-the-bestiary-book-of-beasts-in-the-medieval-world. Accessed 2 March 2022.
*Morrison, Elizabeth. “Beastly tales from the medieval bestiary.” The British Library, https://www.bl.uk/medieval-english-french-manuscripts/articles/beastly-tales-from-the-medieval-bestiary {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216215828/https://www.bl.uk/medieval-english-french-manuscripts/articles/beastly-tales-from-the-medieval-bestiary/ |date=2022-02-16 }}. Accessed 2 March 2022.
*“The Renaissance | Boundless World History.” Lumen Learning, LumenCandela, https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/the-renaissance/. Accessed 5 March 2022.
* "[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/anglo-saxon/flowers/bestiary.html The Medieval Bestiary]", by James Grout, part of the ''Encyclopædia Romana''.
* McCulloch, Florence. (1962) ''Medieval Latin and French Bestiaries.'' 
* Clark, Willene B. and Meradith T. McMunn. eds. (1989) ''Beasts and Birds of the Middle Ages. The Bestiary and its Legacy.''
* Payne, Ann. (1990) ''Mediaeval Beasts.''
* George, Wilma and Brunsdon Yapp. (1991) ''The Naming of the Beasts: Natural History in the Medieval Bestiary''.
* Benton, Janetta Rebold. (1992) ''The Medieval Menagerie: Animals in the Art of the Middle Ages''.
* Lindberg, David C. (1992) ''The Beginnings of Western Science. The European Tradition in Philosophhical, Religious and Institutional Context, 600 B. C. to A. D. 1450''
* Flores, Nona C. (1993) "The Mirror of Nature Distorted: The Medieval Artist's Dilemma in Depicting Animals".
* Hassig, Debra (1995) ''Medieval Bestiaries: Text, Image, Ideology.''
* Gravestock, Pamela. (1999) "Did Imaginary Animals Exist?"
* Hassig, Debra, ed. (1999) ''The Mark of the Beast: The Medieval Bestiary in Art, Life, and Literature''.
{{Refend}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Bestiaries}}
{{wikt}}
* ''[http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/HistSciTech.Bestiary The Bestiary: The Book of Beasts],'' [[T.H. White]]'s translation of a medieval bestiary in the [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]] library; digitized by the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] libraries.
* [http://bestiary.ca/ The Medieval Bestiary] online, edited by David Badke.
* ''[http://www.kb.dk/elib/mss/gks3466/index.htm The Bestiaire of Philippe de Thaon]'' at the National Library of Denmark.
* ''[http://www.kb.dk/elib/mss/gks1633/index.htm The Bestiary of Anne Walshe]'' at the National Library of Denmark.
* ''[http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/bestiary.hti The Aberdeen Bestiary]'' at the University of Aberdeen.
* [http://expositions.bnf.fr/bestiaire/expo/index.htm Exhibition (in English, but French version is fuller) at the Bibliothèque nationale de France]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150913011011/http://www.christiansymbols.net/index.php Christian Symbology] Animals and their meanings in Christian texts.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051125101448/http://www.theoi.com/Bestiary.html Bestiairy - Monsters & Fabulous Creatures of Greek Myth & Legend with pictures]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Types of illuminated manuscript]]
[[Category:Medieval European legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Medieval literature]]
[[Category:Zoology]]
[[Category:Bestiaries|*]]