The Aberdeen Bestiary Project (Aberdeen University, 1996)

Digital resource

A description of the project to digitize Aberdeen University Library, Univ. Lib. MS 24.

The Aberdeen Bestiary (Aberdeen University Library MS 24) is considered to be one of the best examples of its type. The manuscript, written and illuminated in England around 1200, is of added interest since it contains notes, sketches and other evidence of the way it was designed and executed.

The entire manuscript has been digitised using Photo-CD technology, thus creating a surrogate, while allowing greater access to the text itself. The digitised version, offering the display of full-page images and of detailed views of illustrations and other significant features, is complemented by a series of commentaries, and a transcription and translation of the original Latin.

The first and still the most comprehensive online edition of a Bestiary.

Language: English

'Liber de naturis rerum' von Pseudo-John Folsham - eine moralisierende lateinische Enzyklopädie aus dem 13. Jahrhundert (Hamburg: University of Hamburg, 2003)

Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Hamburg.

Language: German

Die moralisierende Enzyklopädie 'Liber de naturis rerum' von Pseudo-John Folsham (in Christel Meier, ed., Die Enzyklopädie im Wandel vom Hochmittelalter bis zur frühen Neuzeit, München: Münstersche Mittelalter-Schriften 78, 2002, page 123-154)

A description of a natural-science encyclopaedia 'Liber de naturis rerum' which was written 1230-40 in England. The author is anonymous, probably an English Dominican. The encyclopaedia was sometimes falsely ascribed to John Folsham, an English Carmelite, died 1348. The work is found in Trinity College Library, R.15.13.

Language: German

The Bird and Animal Captions in the Pepysian Sketchbook (Colorado: English Language Notes, 2000; Series: Volume 38, Issue 2)

Digital resource

Pepys Library, Pepys MS 1916, otherwise known as the "Pepysian Sketchbook" ... is well known for its drawings and paintings of draped hum figures, grotesques, animals and especially birds. ... Many of the captions are badly rubbed and difficult to make out clearly. By examining the manuscript under ultra-violet light, I was able to read and transcribe tj the captions more reliably; furthermore, ultra-violet light revealed and additional eight captions... I offer here a new transcription of all the captions and a few lexicographical notes on some of the bird and animal names. - [Author]

Language: English
DOI: 10.1215/00138282-38.2.1

Animales e imaginario: la zoología maravillosa medieval (Caracas: Dirección de Cultura, Universidad Central de Venezuela, 1995; Series: Colección Letras de Venezuela 125; Serie Ensayo)

376 pp., illustrations, bibliography.

Language: Spanish
ISBN: 980-00-0875-6; LCCN: 96193653; LC: GR825.A651995; DDC: 398/.469

The Priest and the Fox: Tricksters in Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale (Trickster's Way, 2005; Series: Volume 4, Issue 1, Article 2)

Digital resource 

The nefarious escapades of the trickster Reynard the Fox emerged from the beast fable genre in the twelfth-century Latin poem Ysengris, a direct antecedent of the French Roman de Renart and ancestor of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Nun’s Priest’s Tale. Chaucer appropriates the low comedy humour gaulois and “pithy moralizing,” typical of fabliaux, “a racy and often cynical comedy, savoring sex and violence, though not without subtler moments”, but puts his own “tongue-in-cheek” spin on the French Branch II tale of the clever fox and the duped cock. Although the figure of Reynard is prevalent in trickster lore, the primary trickster at play in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale may be not the fox but the teller of the tale, the Nun’s Priest himself who travels the road to Canterbury. Both share trickster’s capacity for slippery rhetoric. Indeed, the Nun’s Priest crosses and re-crosses his trail of meaning as effectively as a smooth-talking fox tricks a bemused rooster into closing his eyes. His use of “ambiguity and ambivalence, doubleness and duplicity, contradiction and paradox” are, thus, indicative of the presence of trickster. - [Author]

Language: English

Der deutsche Anhang zu Hildegard von Bingens 'Liber simplicis medicinae' in Codex 6952 der Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (Franz Steiner Verlag, 1995; Series: Sudhoffs Archiv, Volume 79, Number 2)

Digital resource (JSTOR)

The article contains an analysis and edition of the German appendix to Hildegard von Bingen's 'Liber simplicis medicinae' ('LSM', also known as 'Physica') in Codex 6952 of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris [folio 232v-238v]. Surprisingly, the German text is not based on the preceding Latin treatise, but on another unknown version of the 'LSM' which is closer to the archetype. The appendix thus has to be regarded as a new manuscript find, which also contains material found only in Hildegard's 'Liber compositae medicinae' ('LCM', also known as 'Causae et Curae'). This suggests that the translator had access to both texts, or that both once circulated as one treatise. In the reception of Hildegard's work, the 13-page German appendix is unique in that Hildegard's description of nature is transformed into three different types of medical writing: 1) a herbal, 2) a catalogue of diseases from head to toe and their remedies, and 3) a dietetic list of foodstuffs. To illustrate the technique applied by the compiler/translator, the edition of the Paris-appendix identifies all the quotes from the 'LSM' and 'LCM' which have so far been uncovered. - [Abstract]

Language: German

Aelian’s On the Nature of Animals (Trinity University Press, 2011)

Digital resource

De Natura Animalium (On the Nature of Animals) has a similar patchwork quality, but it was esteemed enough in his time to survive more or less whole, and it is about all that we know of Aelian’s work today. A mostly randomly ordered collection of stories that he found interesting enough to relate about animals—whether or not he believed them—Aelian’s book constitutes an early encyclopedia of animal behavior, affording unparalleled insight into what ancient Romans knew about and thought about animals—and, of particular interest to modern scholars, about animal minds. ... That he is not better known is simply an accident: he has not been widely translated into English, or indeed any European language. This selection from his work will introduce readers to a lively mind and a witty writer who has much to tell us. - [Author]

Language: English

On the Nature of Animals (London: Harvard University Press, 1958-59; Series: Loeb classical library)

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Aelian's On the Characteristics of Animals, in 17 books, is a collection of facts and beliefs concerning the habits of animals drawn from Greek authors and some personal observation. Fact, fancy, legend, stories and gossip all play their part in a narrative which is meant to entertain readers. If there is any ethical motive, it is that the virtues of untaught yet reasoning animals can be a lesson to thoughtless and selfish mankind. The Loeb Classical Library edition of the work is in three volumes. - [Publisher]

Language: English
978-0674994911; OCLC: 221187132

Caxton’s Aesop (Harvard University Press, 1967)

Digital resource 

Aesop’s fables, along with a body of other folktales that became attached to them, were traditional popular lore in the Middle Ages and a natural choice for early printing. William Caxton, who established his press in Westminster in 1476, printed his English translation of the fables in 1483–84 from the largest collection then available. The complete Caxton’s Aesop is presented here in an attractively illustrated scholarly edition. Robert Lenaghan’s introduction gives the known historical background of the Caxton fables and their sources, and discusses the Aesopic fable in the Middle Ages. - [Publisher]

Language: English
ISBN: 978-0-674-73084-7

The Fables of Aesop (New York: Macmillan & Co., 1922)

Digital resource 

The Fables of Aesop selected, told anew and their history traced by Joseph Jacobs. done into pictures by Richard Heihway.

Much has been learnt during the present century about the history of the various apologues that walk abroad under the name of "Æsop." I have attempted to bring these various lines of research together in the somewhat elaborate introductory volume which I wrote to accompany my edition of Caxton's Æsop, published by Mr. Nutt in his Bibliothèque de Carabas. I have placed in front of the present version of the "Fables," by kind permission of Mr. Nutt, the short abstract of my researches in which I there summed up the results of that volume. I must accompany it, here as there, by a warning to the reader, that for a large proportion of the results thus reached I am myself responsible; but I am happy to say that many of them have been accepted by the experts in America, France, and Germany, who have done me the honour to consider my researches. Here, in England, there does not seem to be much interest in this class of work, and English scholars, for the most part, are content to remain in ignorance of the methods and results of literary history. I have attached to the "Fables" in the obscurity of small print at the end a series of notes, summing up what is known as to the provenance of each fable. Here, again, I have tried to put in shorter and more readable form the results of my researches in the volume to which I have already referred. - [Preface]

Language: English

Aesop's Fables; a new translation (New York: Avenel Books, 1912)

Digital resource 1  (Project Gutenberg)
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An English translation of Aesop's Fables. Illustrations by Arthur Rackham.

Language: English

Æsop's Fables in English and Latin, interlineary (A. & J. Churchil, 1703)

Digital resource  (Google Books)

Aesop's Fables in English translation with Latin text below.

Language: English/Latin

Aesop's Fables Online Collection (John R. Long, 1997)

Digital resource

An online collection of over 650 Aesop's Fables in English.

Language: English

Aesopica: A Series of Texts Relating to Aesop or Ascribed to Him (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2007)

Digital resource

Ben Edwin Perry's Aesopica remains the definitive edition of all fables reputed to be by Aesop. The volume begins traditionally with a life of Aesop, but in two different and previously unedited Greek versions, with collations that record variations in the major recensions. It includes 179 proverbs attributed to Aesop and 725 carefully organized fables, for which Perry also provides their eldest known sources. To better evaluate the place of Aesop in literary history, Perry includes testimonies about Aesop made by Greek and Latin authors, from Herodotus to Maximus Planudes. - [Publisher]

Language: English
978-0252031922

Aesop: The Complete Fables (London: Penguin Books, 1998)

The complete corpus of 358 fables ascribed to Aesop. This translation is based on the earlier work by Emile Chambray (Esope Fables, text Etabli et Traduit par Emile Chambray, Paris, 1927), who established the numbering system.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-14-044649-4

Aesop's Fables (Chicago: Belford, Clarke & Co., 1887)

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Digital resource 2

An English translation of the fables of Aesop.

Language: English

Three Hundred Æsop's Fables (G. Routledge and Sons, 1867)

Digital resource 

Three hundred Aesop's Fables translated from Gree to English. Online source has the full text of the book.

Language: English
OCLC: 50382934

Buch der Naturgegenstände (Kiel: C.F. Haeseler, 1892)

Digital resource  (Google Books)

A Syriac version of the Physiologus, with German translation. The source manuscript is probably a 19th century copy.

In addition to previously published editions of Physiologus, the Syrian Buch der Naturgegenstände [BNG, Book of Natural Things] published and translated below, written by the philosopher Aristotle, provides a new one. According to its content, it is divided into four main divisions: land animals, birds, reptiles and aquatic animals; Of these, the sections on land animals and on aquatic animals are each introduced by a larger section in which general remarks on the peculiarities of the animal class in question are compiled; The comments about the birds are broken up into several sections; they are missing about the reptiles. What is now offered in the individual sections goes far beyond the content of the traditional Physiologus, both in terms of the number of chapters and the scope of the narrative in individual chapters; on the other hand, the theories that are otherwise attached are missing. For these reasons I concluded in my treatise "On the history of the so-called Physiologus" published in 1885 that not only the basic form of the Physiologus was present in the Book of Natural Objects, but also the source Basilius the Great for the animal stories in his Homilies on the Hexaemeron. However, I have to withdraw this assumption as untenable; because, what is particularly important, the unity of the BNG cannot be proven; rather, it must be admitted that it is a collective work. First of all, the geographical chapters (80-89) should perhaps be excluded, as they insert themselves between reptiles and fish and completely interrupt the content; then the writing is also characterized as a collective work by the fact that the same animal is mentioned repeatedly a few times (Siren 38 and 110, Seleucis 56 and 63). In the BNG we obviously have to distinguish between different parts, one of which corresponds to the stories of Physiologus, while another refers back to Basilius, so that our book is related to the Phys. Syr. Land as well as the section in Pseudo-Eustathius dealing with the creation of animals, both of which also show a union of Physiologus and certain sections from Basil. Our task will now be to subject the relationship of the BNG to the writings mentioned to a new examination; We start with those sections that are common to the BNG and the Physiologus. - [Author]

Language: German
LCCN: 44-25036; LC: PJ5671.P54; DDC: 381.45; OCLC: 6892892

Zur Geschichte des sogenannten Physiologus (Ploen: 1885)

Digital resource  (Google Books)

On the history of the Physiologus. Includes a table of beasts.

Language: German
OCLC: 785870867

The Animal History of Albertus Magnus and Thomas of Cantimpré (Speculum, 22 (April), 1947, page 205-225)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

The problem of the relationship between the last five books of Albertus Magnus' De Animalibus and the corresponding books of the De Natura Rerum of Thomas of Cantimpre was first raised nearly a century ago and has not yet been conclusively solved. ... The present paper attempts to show that Albertus borrowed extensively from Thomas. Certain restrictions as to the kinds of evidence valid for such an argument are immediately obvious. Since Thomas' statements are nearly all taken from earlier writings, which were also available to Albertus, material common to the De Natura Rerum and the De Animalibus does not necessarily constitute evidence of influence. Moreover, since Albertus usually rephrases borrowed material, it is difficult to establish conclusively by parallel phrasing alone the sources upon which he drew. It is necessary, therefore, to find in Thomas' work statements not included in his sources and to show that Albertus reproduced these passages. The obvious approach to such a purpose is a study of Thomas' errors. If it can be shown that Albertus consistently reproduces errors original with Thomas, we have, it seems to me, unmistakable evidence of borrowing. - [Author]

Language: English
DOI: 10.2307/2854727

Sapientia ile Scientia Arasinda: Bingenli Hildegard’in Hayvanlar Kitabi (Kebikec, 2019; Series: 47)

Digital resource 

Hildegard von Bingen, one of the most important women of the Middle Ages, was a writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, and German Benedictine abbess. Hildegard was born into a noble family as the youngest of ten children in Bermersheim, Germany, in 1098. She was 15 years old when she began wearing the Benedictine habit and pursuing a religious life. Hildegard was educated at the Benedictine cloister of Disibodenberg. In Hildegard’s time, the monasteries were providing a high quality education as, a constituent part of Benedictine life. She wrote theological, botanical and medicinal texts, as well as, letters, liturgical songs, and poems. Hildegard known as “Sybil of the Rhine”, produced her major works on theology and her visions. She used the curative powers of natural objects for healing, and wrote treatises about medicinal uses of trees, stones, animals and plants. Hildegard also wrote two texts on the natural sciences: Physica and Causae et Curae. The nine books of Physica describe about 500 herbs, plants, animal, precious stones, and metals. Hildegard of Bingen describes the characteristic of four-footed land animals and reptiles in the 7th and 8th books of Physica, respectively. Physica is the first book in which a woman discusses plants, trees, animals and herbs in relation to their medicinal properties. It is also the earliest book on natural history written in German. - [Abstract]

Language: Turkish

De animalibus (Catholic Library)

Digital resource

An online transcription of the De animalibus of Albertus Magnus. The source of the transcription is not stated. The Latin name of the animals are presented as a link list with the (partial?) text displayed on click.

Language: Latin

De animalibus (Johannes und Gregorius de Gregoriis, 1495)

Digital resource  (Google Books)

An early printed edition of De animalibus, an encyclopedia by Albertus Magnus. Includes a table of contents and an index of animal names.

Language: Latin

Diui Alberti Magni de Animalibus Libri vigintisex Nouissime impressi (Venice: Joannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis, de Forlivio / Octauiani Scoti, 1495, 1519)

Digital resource 1
Digital resource 2 (Google Books)

An early printed edition of De animalibus by Albertus Magnus.

Language: Latin
LCCN: 76516279; OCLC: 159902963

Incipit liber Alberti magni animalium ... (per Paulum Johan[n]is de Butschbach alamanum Paul von Butzbach, 1479)

Digital resource  (Google Books)

An early printed edition of De animalibus by Albertus Magnus.

Language: Latin

The secrets of Albertus Magnus : of the vertues of herbs, stones, and certain beasts. (London: Printed by M.H. and J.M. and are to be sold by J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, & T. Passinger, 1691)

Digital resource 

Full title: The secrets of Albertus Magnus : of the vertues of herbs, stones, and certain beasts. Whereunto is newly added, a short discourse of the seven planets, governing the nativities of children. Also a book of the same author, of the marvellous things of the world, and of certain things, caused of certain beasts

An English translation of pseudo-Albertus Magnus's De virtutibus herbarum, lapidum, & animalium quorundam libellus, and his De mirabilibus mundi, ac de quibusdam effectibus causatis à quibusdam animalibus. Commonly attributed to but probably not actually by Albertus Magnus.

Language: English

Albertus Magnus, on Animals: A Medieval Summa Zoologica (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2018)

Digital resource

An English translation of Albertus Magnus

In this translated and annotated edition, Kenneth F. Kitchell Jr. and Irven Michael Resnick illuminate the importance of this work, allowing Albert’s magnum opus to be better understood and more widely appreciated than ever before. Broken into two volumes (Books 1–10 and 11–26), Albertus Magnus On Animals is a veritable medieval scientific encyclopedia, ranging in topics from medicine, embryology, and comparative anatomy to women, hunting and everyday life, commerce, and much more—an essential work for historians, medievalists, scientists, and philosophers alike. - [Publisher]

Language: English
978-0-8142-1359-9; OCLC: 40575321

Questions concerning Aristotle's on Animals (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 2008; Series: The Fathers of the Church : A New Translation)

An English translation of Quaestiones super De animalibus by Albertus Magnus, a commentary on Aristotle's De animalibus.

This text, the Questions concerning Aristotle's On Animals [Quaestiones super de animalibus], recovered only at the beginning of the twentieth century and never before translated in its entirety, represents Conrad of Austria's report on a series of disputed questions that Albert the Great addressed in Cologne ca. 1258. The Questions, in nineteen books, mixes two distinct genres: the scholastic quaestio, with arguments pro et contra, a determination, and answers to the objections; and the straightforward question-and-response. - [Publisher]

Language: English
978-0813215198; DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt285073

Man and the Beasts (de Animalibus, Books 22-26) (New York: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies (SUNY), 1987; Series: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, Volume 47)

The intent of this translation is to introduce the modern reader to the zoological researches of Albertus Magnus. Though revered as a saint and doctor of the Church and remembered as the mentor of Thomas Aquinas, Albert is less known for his accomplishments in the natural sciences, despite the fact that prominent historians have acclaimed him as the most noted naturalist of Latin Europe in the Middle Ages. ... The present translation of Books 22 to 26 .. is based on [Hermann] Stadler's edition. ... In these final five books of De Animalibus Albert doffed the cap of a scholastic philosopher and assumed the role of a naturalist, a scientist giving free rein to his powers of observation, calling upon an abundant store zoological knowledge accumulated during his travels and citing a number of authorities for animals that lay beyond the ken of his own experience." - [Author]

Stadler based his edition on the manuscript copy of De Animalibus in the municipal archives of Cologne (Historisches Archiv der Stadt Köln, W 258A).

Scanlan includes a biography of Albert, a discussion of his sources and methods, and an extensive biography.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-86698-032-6

De animalibus libri XXVI (Munich: Beitäge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters, 1916-20; Series: Volumes 15 & 16)

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An edition of the De animalibus of Albertus Magnus Books 1-26.

Volume 15 of the series includes Books 1-12; volume 16 includes Books 13-26.

German introduction and notes; Latin transcription. With an index of books, chapters and animal names in volume 16.

Language: Latin

L'agnello e la colomba: gli animali più simbolici e il loro contesto nell’arte catalana medievale (IKON: Journal of Iconographic Studies, 2009; Series: Volume 2)

Digital resource 

By examining Catalan art of the medieval period as a reference context, it is possible to analyze the inclusion of the lamb and the dove in a series of important iconographic programs that take us from monuments to illustrated books, from the 11th and 12th centuries to 15th century. Logically, it is not possible to examine all the examples that have come to us nor all the nuances of the case, but I will try to offer a representative list here. The distance that separates these animals from the represented being places them among the most profoundly symbolic beings of Christian religiosity. In any case, and in general terms, the triumphant Agnus lacks a narrative perspective equivalent to that of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must consider the similarities and differences that separate both symbols, dove and lamb, as projections and symbols of the complex situations that require the metaphorical visualization of the divine being. - [Abstract]

Language: Italian
1846-8551; DOI: 10.1484/J.IKON.3.34

The Evolution of the Basilisk (Greece & Rome, Second series, 10:2 (October), 1963, page 170-181)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

The author traces the evolution of the basilisk story from ancient Latin works, concluding that it is based on the Egyptian cobra. The story is then followed through to the middle ages, with examples from medieval authors, showing how it changed because of misunderstandings.

Language: English

Bestiaire chretien: Mort, renovation, resurrection dans le Physiologus; Actes du Colloque de Poitiers, 13-14 mai 1983 (in Francois Jouan, ed., Mort et fecondite dans les mythologies: Travaux et memoires, Paris: Belles Lettres, 1986, page 119-137)

Language: French

Animal descriptions in Andrea da Barberino's Guerrino meschino (Romance Philology, 56:1, 2002, page 23-39)

Aims to identify Andrea da Barberino's sources for the descriptions of exotic beasts found in his Guerrino meschino and to analyse his use of these sources.

Language: English
ISSN: 0035-8002

New Evidence Toward Identifying Dante's Enigmatic Lonza (Electronic Bulletin of the Dante Society of America, 1997)

Digital resource

Of the three beasts in Inferno 1, the lonza's puzzling nature is triple, comprising its etymology, its naturalistic counterpart, and its allegorical significance. Dante described it as swift, slender, and spotted. For centuries, scholars have grappled with unsatisfactory zoological identifications. The lynx, panther, leopard(ess), pard, cheetah, hyena, and even lioness have been proposed or rejected in turn." - Allaire

The author refers to Pliny and the Tuscan Bestiary in an attempt to identify the beast called the lonza.

Language: English

Early Christian Symbolism in Great Britain and Ireland before the Thirteenth Century (London: Whiting & Co., 1887; Series: The Rhind Lectures in Archeology)

Digital resource 1  (Digital Text Library)
Digital resource 2  (Internet Archive)

The Rhind Lectures in Archaeology for 1885.

Lecture 5 (Norman Sculpture in the Architectural Details of Churches) deals with the changes in sculptural style brought to Britain by the Normans after 1066. There is some reference to animals on stone sculptures and carvings in churches.

Lecture 6 (The Medieval Bestiaries) deals in general with bestiary subjects, and in particular with bestiary images found in the sculptures and carvings in Norman churches and on pre-Norman sculpted stones. It also discusses the various version of the Physiologus.

Language: English
LCCN: 62-2407; LC: BR133.G6; OCLC: 14453521

On the Norman Doorway at Alne in Yorkshire (London: Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 1886; Series: Volume XLII)

Digital resource 1  (Digital Text Library)
Digital resource 2  (Google Books)

A description of the bestiary subjects carved on the Norman doorway of Alne Church in Yorkshire. Illustrated.

Language: English

Norman Sculpture and the Medieval Bestiaries (Dyfed, Wales: Llanerch Publishers, 1990; Series: Rhind lectures in archaeology for 1885)

Facsimile edition of Lectures 5 and 6 (pages 236 - 395) of Allen's Early Christian Symbolism in Great Britain and Ireland Before the Thirteenth Century (the Rhind Lectures in Archeology for 1885). Originally published by Whiting & Co., London in 1887.

Lecture 5 (Norman Sculpture in the Architechtural Details of Churches) deals with the changes in sculptural style brought to Britain by the Normans after 1066. There is some reference to animals on stone sculptures and carvings in churches.

Lecture 6 (The Medieval Bestiaries) deals in general with bestiary subjects, and in particulr with beastiary images found in the sculptures and carvings in Norman churches and on pre-Norman sculpted stones.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-947992-96-0; LCCN: 94119128; LC: NB1280.A451990z; DDC: 730/.941/090220; OCLC: 27768920

The Book of the Dragon (Secaus, NJ: Chartwell Books, 1979)

...this ilustrated history of the dragon ... includes stories, quotations, speculations and tentative suggestions which show the dragon through the differing interpretations from ancient Greece to Mexico, from Hinduism to the pagan cults, in classical art and stonemasonary. - [Publisher]

Language: English
ISBN: 0-89009-241-9; LCCN: 79-51123

An analysis of the medieval French bestiaries (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1935)

MA dissertation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Language: English
OCLC: 39362109

Bestiary (Winnipeg: St. John's College Press, University of Manitoba, 1984)

A loose verse translation by Margaret Allen of the Middle English Bestiary (British Library Arundel MS 292), with and introduction and bibliography by Beryl Rowland and line drawings by Arthur Adamson.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-920291-00-7; LC: PR1836.A241984; DDC: 821'.1

Turteltaube (Modern Language Notes, 19:6 (June), 1904, page 175-177)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

Some notes on the use of the tutledove theme in German poetry, and its sources.

Language: English

Three early Christian interpretations of nature and scripture: the Physiologus, Origen, and Basil (Princeton: Princeton Theological Seminary, 1984)

M. Div. dissertation at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Language: English
OCLC: 22782229

Waterhorse Legends (MLSIT 4086 & 4086B): The Case for and against a Connection between Irish and Nordic Tradition (An Cumann Le Béaloideas Éireann/Folklore of Ireland Society, 1991; Series: Iml. 59, The Fairy Hill Is on Fire! Proceedings of the Symposium on the Supernatural in Irish and Scottish Migratory Legends)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

The belief that certain lakes and rivers are inhabited by supernatural horses is age-old and widespread. Not least frequently it is met with in Ireland, Scotland and the Nordic countries. Such waterhorses, or eachanna uisce as they are called in Irish, also figure in many narratives, some of which are in the form of short but fairly close-knit and well- constructed tales of the type folklorists term fabulates or migratory legends. Two such legends in particular - the one which has often been referred to as respectively The Waterhorse as Riding Horse and The Waterhorse as Work- Horse (or alternatively The Waterhorse as Plough Horse) - have been considered by several scholars - notably C.W. von Sydow and Brita Egardt - to be of ‘Celtic’ origin.’ This assumption rests mainly on certain similarities between Nordic and Scottish forms of the respective legend types, while, until recently, little attention has been paid to the Irish material. This is understandable, since but a fraction of the Irish source material had appeared in print and since the manuscript material was inaccessible at the time the above- mentioned studies were undertaken. - [Author]

Language: English
DOI: 10.2307/20522380

Untersuchungen zum griechischen Physiologus und den Kyraniden (Hamburg: Friedrich Wittig Verlag, 1984)

"Sonderdruck aus 'All Geschopf ist Zung' und Mund' : Vestigia Bibliae 6."

92 p., bibliography.

Language: German
DDC: 881A; OCLC: 16931513

Reinaert de vos : de middeleeuwse satire (Doesburg: Lalito, 2014)

Digital resource

This translation by Ernst van Altena of the medieval animal epic Van den Vos Reynaerde hardly needs a recommendation. She is, in a word, masterful. While Jan Frans Willems had provided an edited translation in the 19th century, Van Altena closely follows the original text. The medieval levy verse has made way for a four-legged trochee and the text is full of unusually clever rhymes. The illustrated edition of 1979, albeit without illustrations, is now within everyone's reach for a reasonable price. Every Dutch teacher who can read a little has a text in his hands that can also make today's high school student admire one of the highlights of our medieval literature. There is an explanation of the proper names at the back of the publication. Opinions may differ on this: a more scabrous one is also possible and perhaps more obvious, given the satirical nature of the text. - [Abstract]

Language: Dutch
ISBN: 978-90-818875-4-0

Hexameron, Paradise, and Cain and Abel (New York: Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1961; Series: The Fathers of the Church, 42)

Digital resource  (Internet Archive)

An English translation of the Hexameron by Ambrose, homilies on the first six days of the Genesis story of creation. The homilies for the fifth and sixth day describe many beasts which are found in the bestiary.

Language: English
LC: BR60F3A56

Hexaemeron (Vienna: Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, 1937; Series: Vol XXXII, Part 1)

Language: Latin

Miniature sacre e profane dell'anno 1023, illustranti l'enciclopedia medioevale di Rabano Mauro, riprodotte in 133 tavole cromolitografiche da un codice di Montecassino [no 132] (Montecassino: Tipo-litografia di Montecassino, 1896; Series: Documenti per la storia della miniatura e dell'iconografia)

The manuscript of De rerum naturis or De universo of Hrababus Mauris at Montecassino (Cod. 132).

Language: Italian
LCCN: 03-6649; LC: ND3399.H8; DDC: 745; OCLC: 10186313

Note su una fonte minore del Liber de exemplis et similitudinibus rerum di Giovanni da San Gimignano: il Physiologus (RursuSpicae, 2019; Series: Volume 2)

Digital resource 

{p> The Dominican preacher Giovanni da San Gimignano was born between 1260 and 1270 and died after 1333. He wrote mainly sermons. Four collections are attributed to him without doubt: Sermones de mortuis, Sermones de tempore, Sermones de Sanctis and a Quadragesimale. However, the Liber de exemplis et similitudinibus rerum, a moralized encyclopedia in 10 books, reached the largest diffusion. The aim of this paper is to identify the quotations of the Physiologus B in this work and to point out the intermediary source through which they were probably quoted in the De proprietatibus rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus. Books IV and V are dedicated to the zoological matters, but only Book v presents some quotations from the Physiologus ; therefore, it is the only one considered here. - [Abstract]

Language: Italian
DOI: 10.4000/rursuspicae.423

A Fox Is Not Always a Fox! Or How Not to Be a Renart in Marie de France's "Fables" (Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, 51:1, 1997, page 9-20)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

In her fable collection known as the Esope, the first French female poet departs from the typological literature of her contemporaries and rejects the univocal and fixed animal symbolism of her period in order to create something new. I have chosen to focus on the representation of the fox since he, perhaps more than any other animal in the twelfth century, had a well established and well known symbolism, both in the vernacular and in the more didactic literatures. A study of the portrayal of the fox in Marie de France's Fables will thereby allow us to understand more fully the poet's innovation and her daring subversion of available models. However, the example of the fox is but one among many in Marie's recueil, and my conclusions apply to other animals and other aspects of the Esope. In other words, the example of the fox serves only as a prolegomenon to a more extended study of the representation of characters in Marie's Fables, as well as of the symbol-ism in her text, and of Marie's poetic craft in general. - [Author]

Language: English

Le bestiaire des sceaux de l'ancien Orient (in Pierre Dehaye, ed., Volume 51, Le bestiaire: des monnaies des sceaux et des médailles, Paris: Syria: Revue d'Art Oriental et d'Archéologie, 1974, page 1-11)

In this catalogue a part is devoted to the Ancient East. Introduction to this section by Pierre Amiet (pp. 1-11). Pierre Dehaye. Director of Coins and Medals, and to whom we owe the foreword, evokes that "from the fifth day of the Bible", the animal "is at the beginning or almost". Here is the "obscure drama of origins, the long and complex history of the relations between animals and man", which will soon "fully ensure the royal priesthood with which the Book has invested him". The Director of the Mint was right to insist on the pages entitled "Man, Art and Animals" and Jean Dorst, member of the Institute, singularly elevates the debate, pages from which we have much to learn and meditate. Rarely has the problem been so broadened. An exhibition like this should give food for thought, well beyond the "coldness of metal" of a vast iconography. A gathering that we owe to many collaborators who see their efforts largely rewarded. - [Review]

Language: French

In search of traces of the mandrake myth: the historical, and ethnobotanical roots of its vernacular names (Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 2021; Series: 17:68)

Digital resource 

Mandrake (Mandragora spp.) is one of the most famous medicinal plant in western cultures since Biblical times and throughout written history. In many cultures, mandrake is related to magic and witchcraft, which is said to have a psychosomatic effect (especially when mandrake contains narcotic compounds) in addition to the pharmacological influence, as occurs with other narcotic magical plants. Due to its unique properties and related myths, it is not surprising that this plant has many names in many languages.This paper presents an attempt to reconstruct the historical, ethnobotanical, and folkloristic roots of 292 vernacular names of Mandragora spp. in forty-one languages. We used the plant’s morphological data, philology, myths and legends, medicinal properties and uses, as well as historical evidence and folkloric data, to explain meaning, origin, migration, and history of the plant’s names.

Language: English
DOI: 10.1186/s13002-021-00494-5

Animal Carvings in British Churches (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1938)

99 pp. bibliography, illustrations, index.

Language: English
LCCN: 39027575; LC: NA3680.A6; OCLC: 640043

History and Imagery in British Churches (London: John Murray, 1971)

308 p., 49 plates (1 fold), illustrations, map.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-7195-2232-3; LCCN: 70873898; LC: BR744.A58; DDC: 247

The Imagery of British Churches (London: John Murray, 1955)

An extensive survey of the symbols, emblems and attributes depicted in the sculpture and woodwork of medieval British churches. There are many animal references, and one chapter entirely on "The Mirror of Nature". An appendix gives a "List of Animals Identifiable in Churches" with references to the text.

It is therefore the popular understanding of medieval imagery, rather than its doctrinal or aesthetic aspects, that forms the theme of this book which aims at helping its readers to look at the structure and decoraion of medieval churches through the eyes of people like themselves who lived when these churches were being built; to become in imagination those for whom the the picture books of the ecclesiatical arts were designed. ... Since, even if we disregard extremes, we cannot see the whole picture through one pair of eyes, let us attempt a sythesis of three points of view: those of the parson who served an ordinary parish church, the craftsman who built or adorned it, and the parishioner who general paid for the work. I will first try to show the ways in which such men were likely to have affected church-building and the design of religious imagery. Then we must consider the choice and arrangement of subjects according to principles evolved by scholarly theologians... Finally, I will describe the individual subjects included in a normal cycle of illustrations to this Picture Book... - [Author]

Language: English
LCCN: 55002979; LC: BR133.G6A56; OCLC: 3330793

The Medieval Carver (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1935)

A discussion of stone and wood carving in Britain, mostly in churches. Chapter 7 deals specifically with beast and bestiary-related carvings, though there are scattered references to bestiary themes throughout. Chapters: The Masons; Contemporary Scenes; The Bible; Life of the Virgin, Saints and Angels; Allegory, Romance and Satire; Bestiaries and Beasts; Folliage Sculpture.

Language: English
LCCN: 35017483; LC: NB463.A5; DDC: 734.0942; OCLC: 1223271

Misericords: Medieval Life in English Woodcarving (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1954)

Services were long and frequent in the Middle Ages, and monks and canons had to stand upright longer than they liked. So, comiserating with them, the carpenters made small seats on the underside of the tip-up seats in chancell stalls on which one could sit, or against which at least one could lean while apparently standing. The function and position being what it was, no strict control seems to have been kept over what the carver wished to represent to decorate these miserere or misericord seats. The author of this book tells illuminatingly and entertainingly of the many types of subjects which appear on these seats, from saints and biblical scenes to the romances of Alexander the Great and tristram and Iseult, and from the records of everyday life: boat building, football, and so on, to birds and beasts and monsters. [Publisher]

Includes a discussion of the craftsmen who did the carving, dating of the works, stylistic development and sources.

Language: English
LCCN: 55004523; LC: NA5075.A5; OCLC: 648854

Mirrors and Fears: Humans in the Bestiary (Arizona State University, 2004)

The medieval bestiary is often simply described as a moralized "encyclopedia of animals," however, these so-called "books of beasts" were made for humans, by humans, about humans. It is therefore surprising that one common pictorial subject of the bestiary has been left unexamined: humans. By viewing bestiary images through this lens, one may easily see man's underlying and unresolved struggle to maintain dominance over the beasts, and the Others projected onto them, thereby ensuring that "the (hu)man" remains a discrete definition. ... Just as in life, the human figures in the bestiary struggle to establish unquestioned dominion, only to be constantly undercut by the abject. By using a psychoanalytic approach to the human bodies of the bestiary, this study will explore how this imagery reflects the ambiguous position and definition of the human. - [Publisher]

Language: English

The noble lyfe & nature of man, Of bestes, serpentys, fowles & fisshes y be moste knowen (1894; Series: The Boke of Nurture)

Digital resource

A very rare black-letter book, without date, and hitherto undescribed, except perhaps incorrectly by Ames (vol. 1, p. 412, and vol. 3, p. 1531), has been lent to me by Mr. Algernon Swinburne. Its title is given above: 'The noble lyfe and natures of man' is in large red letters, and the rest in smaller black ones, all surrounded by woodcuts of the wonderul animals, mermaids, serpents, birds, quadrupeds with men's and women's heads, a stork with its neck tied in a knot, and each other beatss 'y be most knowen.' The illustrations to each chapter are wonderfully quaint. The author of it says in his Prologus: 'In the name of ower sauiour criste Iesu, maker & redemour of al mankynd, I Lawrens Andrewe of the towne of Calis haue translated for Johannes does-borrowe, booke prenter in the cite of Andwarpe, this present volume deuyded in thre partes, which were neuer before in no maternall langage prentyd tyl now .'

As it is doubtful whether another copy of the book is known, I extract from from the Third Part of this incomplete one such notices of the fish mentioned by Russell or Wynkyn de Worde, as it contains, with a few others for curiousity's sake. - [Review]

Language: English

Fantastic Fish of the Middle Ages (Godecookery.com)

Digital resource

A translation of Lawrens Andrewe's "The noble lyfe & nature of man, Of bestes, serpentys, fowles & fisshes y be moste knowen". A late-medieval manuscript translated into modern English, with period illustrations. Here are the fantastic and incredible fish of the Middle Ages, which populated both the waters and the imagination of the Medieval world. Real creatures still familar to us, such as the salmon and the crayfish will be found here, but you will also read of such fabulous specimens as the Abremon, which propagated without intercourse, the Ezox, so large that a four-horsed cart could not carry one away, and the Nereydes, sea monsters that cried whenever one of them died.

Fantastic Fish of the Middle Ages is from Lawrens Andrewe's "The noble lyfe & nature of man, Of bestes, serpentys, fowles & fisshes y be moste knowen" as reprinted in The Boke of Nurture by Frederick J. Furnivall, 1894. Andrewe's original work was printed sometime between 1400 & 1550.

Language: English

Beasts in Heraldry: Twenty Heraldic Creatures in Full Color (USA: The Stephen Greene Press, 1974)

Twenty heraldic creatures in full color, introduced by the Richmond Herald of Arms.

Language: English

Le combat du guerrier contre un animal fantastique: a propos de trois chapiteaux de Vezelay (Bulletin monumental, 152:3, 1994, page 245-256)

Romanesque sculpture on capitals in Vezelay, France.

Language: French

A Book of Creatures (A Book of Creatures, 2023)

Digital resource

This web site appears to be the work of one (unnamed) person. It is a blog with numerous articles on real, mythical and fabulous creatures. The articles seem to be carefully researched and include references. The creatures come from all over the world.

Our imagination has always been our greatest ally, and our worst enemy. In the face of the unknown, we populated it with creatures of all shapes and sizes, from minuscule spirits to gigantic cosmic monsters. These entities have shared our world ever since we earned the capacity to wonder. Their stories are told here. - [Author]

Language: English

The comical history and tragical end of Reynard the Fox (London: Houlston & Stoneman, 1852; Series: Story Books for Young People by "Aunt Mary", 1)

Digital resource 

A retelling of some of the stories of Reynard the Fox. Illustrated with engravings by George Measom.

The following Tales and Illustration. have been suggested by the curious and entertaining groups of stuffed animals lately exhibited in the Crystal Palace, the production of the ingenious Hermann Plouequet, of the Royal Museum of Stuttgart, the capital of Wurtemberg. These figure. were of very general interest, especially to the young, who will now have an opportunity of perpetuating them in their memories; for the engravings here presented have been carefully copied from the stuffed specimens, and the text has, of course, been made subservient to them. The story of Reynard the Fox is of German origin, and has been for many years popular in that country. We have adapted it, with many essential variations and additions, from an old copy, printed in England, in 1756. - [Introduction]

Language: English

The crafty courtier; or, The fable of Reinard the fox: newly done into English verse, from the antient Latin iambics of Hartm. Schopperus (London: Printed for J. Nutt, 1706)

Digital resource 

Schopper's version of Reynard the Fox, in Latin, was published in 1567, with title: Opus poeticum de admirabili fallacia et astutia Vulpeculae Reinikes libros quatuor ... Later editions, beginning with 1574, have title: Speculum vitae anlicae. This is an English translation based on Schopper's edition.

Language: English

Dialogus creaturarum moralizatus (in J.G.Th. Grässe, L.A.J.R. Houwen, ed., Die beiden ältesten lateinischen Fabelbücher des Mittelalters, Tübingen: Litterarischer verein in Stuttgart, 1880, page 125-280)

Digital resource 1  (Internet Archive)
Digital resource 2  (Google Books)
Digital resource 3  (Google Books)

A series of moralized dialogs between pairs of natural beings and/or objects, in Latin. The beings and objects include astronomical objects, the four elements, geographical features of the Earth, plants, stones and animals.

A digital edition published by Onderzoekschool Medievistiek (Netherlands Research School for Medieval Studies), 1998.

Facsimile (a printed edition with colored drawings) is available from the Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent.

Language: Latin
LCCN: 49030818

Liber Amaratis : Physiologus (Liber Amaratis)

Digital resource

The Armenian Physiologus from the edition by Marr with an English translation by Bedrosian.

Language: English/Armenian

The most delectable history of Reynard the fox (London: Richard Oplien, 1640)

Digital resource 1  (Internet Archive)
Digital resource 2 
Digital resource 3 

An early printed English adaption of some of the Reynard the Fox stories. "Newly corrected and purged from all grossness, in Phrase and matter. Also augmented and inlarged with sundry excellent Morals and Expositions upon every severall Chapter." With several illustrations. Low quality scans from microfilm. More legible editions were printed in 1846, 1895 and 1920. There is also a transcribed and proofed version; see Digital Resource 2 and 3 above.

Language: English

The Most Delectable History of Reynard the Fox, and of His Son Reynardine: A Revised Version of an Old Romance (London: John W. Parker, 1844)

Digital resource 1  (Google Books)
Digital resource 2  (Internet Archive)

A revision of the English version of Reynard the Fox. Includes The History of Reynard the Fox and The History of Reynardine.

The History of Reynard the Fox is one of the most remarkable books of the middle ages: Germany, France, Belgium, and Holland, have contended for its authorship, and the conflicting claims appear to be hardly yet decided . Within these twenty years, libraries have been ransacked for old copies, and very large sums have been expended in the purchase of manuscripts discovered in private collections; a considerable number of editions of ancient versions have been printed, and all this research has been accompanied by much controversy and criticism, in which some of the greatest writers in Germany and Holland have taken part. We do not propose to enter into this discussion, but only to state the uncertainty that exists, and to set down our own opinions. ... It is not unlikely that translations exist of originals long since destroyed; and the edition of 1701, which forms the basis of our publication, may have been such a one. Of this edition, we shall only say that it contains less of the coarseness of the old time than preceding versions; but that it retained enough of them to render the work inadmissible to the general reader. This has undoubtedly operated to check the popularity of the work in modern times, when a more careful selection of matter is demanded than our ancestors thought necessary. The present publication boasts of being the first that may be read without offence by the most scrupulous, and we trust that in the castigation which it has undergone under our care, none of the real excellence of the tale has evaporated. We have appended to our history an abridgement of The Second Part of the History of Reynard, published in 1681, which carries on the history to the death of the Fox, and long after. This part, which is wholly English, and found in no other version, is of very inferior merit to the original work, and runs out to a tedious length. In our publication it is considerably condensed , and we venture to say it has gained much by its curtailment. We have added an abridgement of the Shifts of Reynardine, the Son of Reynard, which was published in London in 1684, and intended as a supplement to Reynard. - [Introduction]

Language: English

The most pleasant history of Reynard the fox. Entered according to order (London: J. Conyers, 1700)

Digital resource

This is a transcribed text version of an early printed edition of some of the stories of Reynard the Fox. "Printed for J. Conyers, and are to be sold by J. Blare at the Looking-glass on London-Bridge".

Language: English

The most pleasing and delightful history of Reynard the fox, and Reynardine his son (London: Printed by and for T. Norris, at the Looking-glass on London-bridge, 1706, 1723)

Digital resource 1  (Internet Archive)
Digital resource 2  (Internet Archive)
Digital resource 3 

From the title page: The history of Reynard the Fox, and Reynardine his son In two parts. With morals to each chapter, explaining what appears doubtful or allegorical: and every chapter illustrated with a curious device, or picture, representing to the eye all the material passages. To which is added, The history of Cawood the rook: Or, The Assembly of Birds: With the several Speeches they made to the Eagle, in Hopes to have the Government in his Absence: How the Rook was banish'd; with the Reason why Crafty Fellows are called Rooks. Together with Morals and Expositions on every Chapter.

An early English printed edition of some of Reynard the Fox stories, with an added moralization for each chapter, and many woodcut illustrations.

Language: English

The Pleasant and Entertaining History of Reynard the Fox; Represented in a Moral Light ... Embellished with 17 Copper Plates Elegantly Engraved (London: Edward Ryland, 1755)

Digital resource  (Google Books)

An early print edition of some of the stories of Reynard the Fox. With engraved illustrations. Full title is The Pleasant and Entertaining History of Reynard the Fox; Represented in a Moral Light; Fabulously shewing the various Devices which cunning Men pursue, And exciting the Innocent & Ignorant to guarding against them, a Work equally humorous and instructive to the Young & Mature. Embellished with 17 Copper Plates Elegantly Engraved.

Language: English

Reynard the Fox : a burlesque poem from the Low-German original of the fifteenth century (Boston. New York: De Vries, Ibarra & Co. / Charles Scribner, 1865)

Digital resource 

An English translation of an edition of Reyneke de Vos published in 1498.

The Fable of the Fox is of a very ancient origin; for it may be traced in several languages, particularly in the German and French, up to the thirteenth Century, and probably it existed even before that period. ... Last of all a Poem, written in the Low- German dialect, and entitled Reyneke de Vos, was published at Lubeck in the year 1498. ... It has been thought expedient to transplant the scene of action from Germany to England, imagining that this would adapt the subject more to the taste of the English reader. Another alteration, which has been adopted, respects the outward form of the work. - [Preface]

Language: English
LCCN: 17027609

The Story of Reynard the Fox (New York: Leavitt & Allen, 1861)

Digital resource 

A retelling of part of the Reynard the Fox cycle, with color illustrations based on designs by Wilhelm von Kaulbach.

Language: English

Reynier le Renard. Reprint of the Plantinian edition of 1566 (Antwerp: Museum Plantin-Moretus Groote Boekhandel N. V., 1924)

Digital resource  (Internet Archive)

A facsimile of the 1566 printing by Plantin of the Dutch Van den vos Reynaerde. Illustrated with woodcuts by Jehan de Gourmont after the drawings of Geoffroy Ballain, of Paris.

Given its remarkable rarity, its undeniable interest from the point of view of the study of the Fox novel, its particularly beautiful illustrations and its original typographical aspect, we believed that a facsimile of this remarkable book deserved to enter the series of editions of the Plantin-Moretus Museum. The present edition was therefore made from the Munich copy that the director of the State Library was kind enough to make available to us. It is not an anastatic reproduction. The layout and format have been preserved as much as possible and the characters, although not belonging to the collections of the Plantin Museum, are very similar to those used by the illustrious architographer. - [Introduction]

Language: French, Dutch

Simbolikata na 'Fiziologot' i naseto narodno tvorestvo (Midwest Folklore, 4 (7-8), 1971, page 47-67)

Symbols in the Physiologus and Macedonian folklore.

Language: Macedonian

Bestiár: bájná zvírata, zivlové bytosti, monstra, obludy a nestvury v knizní ilustraci konce stredoveké Evropy (Praha: Pudorys, 2003; Series: Tsurah)

Mythical animals in art.

Language: Czech
ISBN: 80-86018-17-2; LCCN: 2003477689; LC: N7745.A5; OCLC: 52972846

The Image of Evil in Romanesque Art of the Way of Saint James in Navarra (Navarra: Universidad de Navarra, 1994)

PhD dissertation at the Universidad de Navarra, Spain.

This Ph.D. dissertation is a study of the images of evil in the Way of Saint James of Navarra and the Romanesque period (XI and XII centuries). These representations are compared with those located in other points of the Romanesque style in Navarra, in Spanish and European churches: especially Romanesque churches in France located in the Pilgrim's Road to Santiago. Some representations are compared with images that belong to other artistic periods; for example, pre-Romanesque images from Beatos and illuminated books from X and XII centuries or Gothic images from Spanish or French churches, are included. This study is organized in five chapters, which include in a thematic way the group of evil images in Navarra. The first one is dedicated to the devil's image in Biblical scenes: the devil in the Old Testament, New Testament and Apocalypse. We also try to study the devil in the hagiographic scenes: Saint Michael and Saint George slaying the dragon and the devil in Saint Andrew's life. Finally we discuss isolated images of the devil located in corbels of religious buildings. The second chapter refers to the image of Hell in the Romanesque art, sculpted as the cauldron and the mouth of Leviathan or a monster's mouth. Third chapter is about the deadly sins Lust, Avarice, Gluttony, Sloth, Pride and Wrath. We have not found any representations of Envy. In the fourth chapter we refer to the negative bestiaries that include beasts with evil significance, not only fantastic but also real animals. Finally, in the fifth chapter we study profane music and its negative significance. In the conclusion we summarize the main characteristics of the dissertation and we expose influences of classical art, and Jewish and Islamic scatology influences on the Way of Saint James in Navarra. Finally we prove that those artistic forms are influenced by the customs, folklore and popular culture." - [Abstract]

Language: Spanish

Bestiari ed erbari dal manoscritto alla stampa (in Henri Zerner, ed., Le stampe e la diffusione delle immagini e degli stili, Bologna: CLUEB, 1983, page 17-22)

Uses as models the illustrations of some herbals and bestiaries from the 13th century to the 16th century (Theriaca, MS arabe 2964, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; herbal, Cod. Pal. 586, Biblioteca Nazionale, Florence; MS it. 1108, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Herbarium of Apuleius, incun. 794, Biblioteca Marciana, Venice; and herbal, Passau 1486, incun. 915, Biblioteca Marciana, Venice) to test the hypothesis that images played an important role in linking various cultures through the centuries.

Comite international d'histoire de l'art. Atti del XXIV Congresso internazionale di storia dell'arte, 8.

Language: Italian

Dal "Fisiologo" al "Bestiario" di Leonardo (Rivista di storia della miniatura, 1:2 (1996-97), 1998, page 239-248)

From the 'Physiologus' to the 'bestiary' of Leonardo da Vinci.

Language: French

Fonti figurative del Bestiario di Leonardo (Arte lombarda: Rivista di storia dell'arte, Nuova Serie, No. 62 (2), 1982, page 151-160)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

The particularly defined aspect of Leonardo's text known as the "Bestiary" has already been noted ... I believe that arguments derived from philological considerations concerning the image can be added to the considerations of the eminent Vincian philologist. The certainty of the written text has a figurative component: Leonardo's habit of representing real or imaginary animals. It is certainly not possible to establish with precision which illuminated manuscripts Leonardo had in his hands, but it is possible to formulate some hypotheses on the figurative typologies that are at the basis of both his images and his words, on the basis of the most evident verifiable solicitations. The hypotheses that we will formulate here are aimed above all at clarifying the line of transmission to be sought rather than at recognising a specific manuscript. [Author]

Language: Italian

Der bunte Söller von Schloss Streversdorp/Château Graaf : Überlegungen zu einem spätmittelalterlichen Raumprogramm (in Burg- und Schlosskapellen, Stuttgart: K. Theiss, 1995, page 109-117)

Research on the iconographic program of the murals of the principal room of the Graaf Castle in Montzen: the mixture of Christian scenes and allegorical representations related to the text of Physiologus, the symbols of the love and the virtues. A certain number of scenes are accompanied by inscriptions.

Language: German

Aristotle's History of Animals in Ten Books (London: George Bell, 1887)

Digital resource (Project Gutenberg)

An English translation of De animalibus by Aristotle.

The following Translation of Aristotle's History of Animals has been made from the text of Schneider. In a work of considerable difficulty it is hardly possible entirely to avoid errors; but it is hoped that those which have escaped are neither numerous nor important. The notes of Schneider have been consulted throughout; and in places of difficulty the English translation by Taylor, the French of Camus, and the German of Strack, have been severally referred to. - [Translator's preface]

Language: English

The History of Animals (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910)

Digital resource 1
Digital resource 2
Digital resource 3

An English translation of Aristotle's De animalibus.

Language: English

The Middle English Physiologus: A Critical Translation and Commentary (Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and University, 2001)

Digital resource 

Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Literature, April 12, 2001, Blacksburg, Virginia.

Considering the vast importance of the Physiologus tradition in the Middle Ages, one would expect to find that scholars have edited, translated, and studied all of the various versions of the Physiologus. While most of the Latin bestiaries and versions of the Physiologus have been edited, translated, studied, and glossed, the Middle English (ME) Physiologusthe only surviving version of the Physiologus in Middle Englishhas neither been translated nor strictly studied as a literary text. In light of the Physiologus traditions importance, it would seem that the only version of the Physiologus that was translated into Middle English would be quite significant to the study of medieval literature and to the study of English literature as a whole. Thus, in light of this discovery, the current edition attempts to spotlight this frequently overlooked text by providing an accurate translation of the ME Physiologus, critical commentary, and historical background. Such efforts are put forth with the sincere hope that such a critical translation may win this significant version of the Physiologus its due critical and literary attention. - [Author]

Language: English

Griffins (in John Cherry, ed., Mythical Beasts, London: British Museum Press/Pomegranite Artbooks, 1995, page 72-103)

A discussion of the griffin from antiquity through the Middle Ages. Illustrated in color and black & white.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-87654-606-8

The Illustration of Pliny's Historia naturalis: Manuscripts before 1430 (Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 46, 1983, page 19-39)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

The Historia naturalis of Pliny the Elder has been characterized by one historian of science as 'perhaps the most important single source extant for the history of ancient civilization'. That it was also important for the history of the later Middle Ages can now be gathered from three hitherto unpublished illuminated manuscripts of the Historia naturalis from the Gothic period which are the subject of the following discussion. The sources and nature of the iconographic cycle in their miniatures are the primary concern of this study, but the historical and artistic characteristics of the manuscripts must also be explored in order to appreciate fully their significance. - [Author]

The manuscripts described are:

• Madrid, Biblioteca Real de San Lorenzo del Escorial, MS R.I.5
• Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, MSS 1.1.24-1.1.25
• Parma, Biblioteca Palatina, MS Parm. 1278 (H. H. 1.62)
• Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS E. 24 inf.

The article includes 10 pages of plates illustrating the manuscripts.

Language: English

Reynard the Fox: After the German Version of Goethe (London, New York: Trübner amd Company / Theo. Stroefer, 1860, 1870)

Digital resource 1  (Google Books)
Digital resource 2  (Google Books)
Digital resource 3 

A translation into English verse of the German version of some of the stories of Reynard the Fox, based on the version by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Numerous engraved illustrations.

Language: English

Die Encyklopädie des Arnoldus Saxo, zum ersten Mal nach einem Erfurter Codex herausgegeben von Professor Dr. Emil Stange (Erfurt, Germany: Druck von Fr. Bartholomäus, 1907)

Digital resource  (Internet Archive)

An edition of De floribus rerum naturalium, an encyclopedia by Arnoldus Saxo, with a Latin transcription and notes in German, based on manuscript Universitätsbibliothek Erfurt, Dep. Erf. CA. 8° 77.

Language: Latin, German

The Aberdeen Bestiary: an Online Medieval Text (Computers & Texts [CTI Textual Studies Newsletter], 11, 1996)

Digital resource

The prime objectives of the project (now well underway) are to mount the Aberdeen Bestiary (text and images) on the WWW, at the same time providing a surrogate for use by a wider, though still broadly academic, constituency. This is being achieved by supplying accompanying sets of commentaries, a transcription and a translation of the Latin text.

A description of an early stage of the project and its methodology.

Language: English

Birds in the Ancient World from A to Z (New York: Routledge, 2012)

Digital resource

Birds in the Ancient World from A to Z gathers together the ancient information available, listing all the names that ancient Greeks gave their birds and all their descriptions and analyses. W. Geoffrey Arnott identifies as many of them as possible in the light of modern ornithological studies. The ancient Greek bird names are transliterated into English script, and all that the ancients said about birds is presented in English. This book is accordingly the first complete discussion of ancient bird names that will be accessible to readers without ancient Greek. The only large-scale examination of ancient birds for seventy years, the book has an exhaustive bibliography (partly classical scholarship and partly ornithological) to encourage further study, and provides students and ornithologists with the definitive study of ancient birds. - [Publisher]

Language: English
ISBN: 978-0-415-54088-9

El Physiologus como fuente gráfico-textual de la emblemática animalística de la Edad Moderna (Janus, 2014; Series: Volume 3)

Digital resource 

The Physiologus, a collection of Christian allegories drawn from the natural properties attributed to certain animals and plants, real or fantastic, composed in Greek language somewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean -Alexandria or Syria- between the second and fourth centuries of our era, has generated a vast literature since the late 19th century around its origin, authorship and versions in different languages. However, except for a few honorable exceptions, had not yet been addressed in depth the influence that this booklet was able to exert on the literary-visual genre of books of emblems from the 16th century on. Usually considered by critics as major source of the bookish Emblematics animalistic side, in this paper we aim to address in detail the true impact of the Physiologus reached both in pictures and allegorical interpretations of the emblems which, a priori, seem to keep some kind of thematic relationship with the primitive Christian text. - [Abstract]

Language: Spanish

L'Acerba (Intangible Press, 2010)

Digital resource

This is a transcription of L'Acerba, a fourteenth century compendium of natural science in Italian by Cecco d’Ascoli.

Language: Italian

L'Acerba (Wentworth Press, 2016)

Digital resource

This is a transcription of L'Acerba, a fourteenth century compendium of natural science in Italian by Cecco d’Ascoli.

Language: Italian
978-1363907410

L'Acerba (Biblioteca dei Classici Italiani di Giuseppe Bonghi, 1996)

Digital resource (Internet Archive)

An online edition of L'Acerba by Cecco d’Ascoli. Note: The original site hosting the edition seems to no longer exist; the linked site is on Web Archive.

Language: Italian

Acerba età (La Finestra editrice, 2002)

Digital resource (Google Books)

An edition of L'Acerba by Cecco d’Ascoli, with commentary.

Language: Italian
ISBN: 978-88-88097-21-3

L'Acerba (La Vita Felice, 2011)

Digital resource

Considered the masterpiece of Cecco d’Ascoli, "L'Acerba" is a poem in sixth rhyme, left unfinished at the beginning of the fifth canto after Cecco was condemned to the stake "for errors against the faith". It brings together astronomical, astrological, alchemical and naturalistic data, mostly of Arab origin, which Cecco contrasts with the "false" science of Dante's Commedia and above all with the totalizing need of Thomistic derivation, which that work animates and pervades. - [Publisher]

Language: Italian
ISBN: 978-88-7799-383-0

L'Acerba (Un Passo avanti, 2019)

Digital resource

The poem L'Acerba together with Dante's Commedia is the best-known work of the Middle Ages. However, unlike Dante's work, it has had very contrasting and controversial opinions. There were those who praised it, recognizing in it the precursor seeds of scientific disciplines, which then had their full development in the modern era, and those who outraged it by even condemning it to the stake together with its author. This is the edition that was read in its entirety on 27 April in Piazza del Popolo in Ascoli Piceno as part of the events Ascoli celebrates Cecco for the 750th anniversary of the birth of the illustrious fellow citizen. Francesco Stabili - Cecco d’Ascoli was convicted of heresy and burned alive in Florence on 16 September 1327. - [Publisher]

Language: Italian
ISBN: 978-88-942631-2-1

The Bitter Age (Ascoli Piceno, Italy: Capponi Editore, 2015)

Digital resource

An English translation of Cecco d’Ascoli's L'Acerba with commentary.

Language: English, Italian
ISBN: 978-88-970666-8-2

L'Acerba etas (Lanciano, 1916)

Digital resource 

An edition of L'Acera etas with introduction, notes and bibliography.

Language: Italian

Les Fables de Marie de France: Essai de Grammaire Narrative (in Gabriel Bianciotto & Michel Salvat, ed., Epopee Animale, Fable, Fabliau: Actes du IVe Colloque de la Societe Internationale Renardienne, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984, page 13-28)

Dans les recherches sur la narration, [A. J.] Greimas essaie de decouvrir les regles qui sous-tendent divers genres litteraires et populaires, et par la, les regles de tout recit. Nous nous proposons d'appliquer ses theories de la grammaire narrative a l'Esope de Marie de France. Par une serie d'exercices pratiques nous esperons decouvrir les regles qui regissent quelques fables de Marie. Une telle grammaire, quand elle sera complete, nous appredra non seulement comment fonctionne la fable de Marie mais egalement comment fonctionne la fable comme genre. Puisque le present travail n'est qu'un premier pas vers la formulation d'une grammaire narrative des Fables de Marie, quatre fables seulement retiendront notre attention: "De Cane et umbra" (V), "De Vulpe et umbra lunae" (LVIII), "De Lupo et agno" (II), et "De Cane et ove" (IV). Nous passons sous silence la question de savoir s'il existe une grammaire de base de toutes les Fables de Marie." - [Author]

Language: French

Curious Creatures in Zoology (New York: Cassel Publishing, 1890)

Digital resource  (Project Gutenberg)

Our ancestors were content with what was given them, and being, as a rule, a stay-athome race, they could not confute the stories they read in books. That age of faith must have had its comforts, for no man could deny the truth of what he was told. But now that modern travel has subdued the globe, and inquisitive strangers have poked their noses into every portion of the world, the old order changeth, giving place to new, and, gradually, the old stories are forgotten. It is to rescue some of them from the oblivion into which they were fast falling, that I have written, or compiled, this book. It is not given to every one to be able to consult the old Naturalists; and, besides, most of them are written in Latin, and to read them through is partly unprofitable work, as they copy so largely one from another. But, for the general reader, selections can be made, and, if assisted by accurate reproductions of the very quaint wood engravings, a book may be produced which, I venture to think, will not prove tiring, even to a superficial reader. ... All the old Naturalists copied from one another, and thus compiled their writings. Pliny took from Aristotle, others quote Pliny, and so on; but it was reserved for the age of printing to render their writings available to the many, as well as to represent the creatures they describe by pictures (the books of the unlearned), which add so much piquancy to the text. Mine is not a learned disquisition. It is simply a collection of zoological curiosities, put together to suit the popular taste of to-day, and as such only should it be critically judged." - introduction

Contents include: Amazons; Pygmies; Giants; Wild Men; The Sphynx; Animal Lore; The Manticora; The Centaur; The Gorgon; The Unicorn; Were-Wolves; The Leontophonus; Cattle Feeding Backwards; Animal Medicine; The Hoopoe; The Halcyon; Woolly Hens; Four-Footed Duck Fish; Senses of Fishes; Wormes and Dragons; etc.

Language: English

Early English Translation (Cambrideg: Cambridge University Press, 1907; Series: Cambridge History of English Literature, Volume 1)

Digital resource  (Google Books)

Includes some information on the Middle English Bestiary in British Library, Arundel MS 292.

Language: English

Theoi Project: a Guide to the Ancient Greek Pantheon of Gods (Aaron Atsma, 2000-03)

Digital resource

Here you will find individual entries the various divinities & monsters containing quotes sourced from a wide and growing variety of Classical Texts. Many are also illustrated with pictures from C5th BC Greek Vase Painting."

On the Bestiary page: "Greek mythology was filled with a wide variety of monsters ranging from Dragons, Giants, Demons and Ghosts, to the multiformed Centaurs, Sphinxes and Griffins. There were also fabulous wild beasts - such as the Nemean Lion, the golden-fleeced Ram and the winged horse Pegasus. Even mankind was not exempt with fabulous tribes like the Libyan Umbrella-Foots, one-eyed Arimaspians, African Dog-Heads, and puny African Pygmies. = [Author]

Language: English

St. Augustine's City of God and Christian Doctrine (Buffalo, NY: The Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1897; Series: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Volume 2)

Digital resource

Augustine's City of God was highly regarded and influential in the Middle Ages. This is an English translation, combined with Augustine's On Christian Doctrine. Augustine's discussion of animals in several chapters on City of God were quoted in some of the bestiaries.

Language: English

Reynard the Fox (Oxford: Bodleian Library Publishing, 2020)

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Reynard was once the most popular and beloved character in European folklore, as familiar as Robin Hood, King Arthur or Cinderella. His character spoke eloquently for the unvoiced and disenfranchised, but also amused and delighted the elite, capturing hearts and minds across borders and societal classes for centuries. Based on William Caxton’s bestselling 1481 English translation of the Middle Dutch, but expanded with new interpretations, innovative language and characterisation, this edition is an imaginative retelling of the Reynard story. With its themes of protest, resistance and duplicity fronted by a personable, anti-heroic Fox making his way in a dangerous and cruel world, this gripping tale is as relevant and controversial today as it was in the fifteenth century. - [Publisher]

Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-85124-555-0

The Syriac Tradition of the Physiologus (Turnhout: Brepols, 2021; Series: The Multilingual Physiologus. Studies in the Oldest Greek Recension and Its Translations)

Digital resource 

Presentation of the Syriac versions of the Physiologus, description of the extant manuscripts, and the reception of the Physiologus in the Syriac tradition. Edition and translation of the chapters on pelican and panther. - [Abstract]

Language: English

El fisiologo; bestiario medieval (Buenos Aires: Editorial Universitaria de Beunos Aires, 1971; Series: Coleccion los fundamentales)

Para realizar la presente edicion se ha utilizado: Physiologus latinus. Versio Y. Editado por Francis J. Carmody. Traducido por Marino Ayerra Redin y Nilda Guglielmi. Introduccion y notas de Nilda Guglielmi.

Language: Spanish
LC: PA4273.P8; OCLC: 26271932

Medieval English Figurative Roundels (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003; Series: Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi, Great Britain, Summary Catalogue)

This is a comprehensive catalogue of the large numbers of stained glass roundels produced in England between the late thirteenth century and the mid sixteenth centuries. The majority are decorated with religious images. However, roundels were commonly used in medieval homes and many of the designs provide glimpses of contemporary life and humour - including hybrid creatures.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-19-726251-1

The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997)

In this new, lavishly illustrated survey drawn from the collections of the British Library, Janet Backhouse provides a comprehensive introduction to an exciting and colourful subject, ranging from the breathtaking intricacies of the 7th-century Lindifarne Gospels to the virtuoso pages of Renaissance and later artists." - publisher

Includes images from and descriptions of several bestiary-related manuscripts.

Janet Backhouse is Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-8020-4346-1

Medieval Birds in the Sherborne Missal (Toronto / London: University of Toronto Press / British Library, 2001)

The Sherborne Missal [early 15th century, British Library Additional MS 74326], one of the most important surviving medieval English manuscripts, contains a wealth of marginal illustrations of wild birds, painted with skill and vivacity. Some of the birds are imaginary creations of the artist but the majority are evidently real birds, although not all of these can be identified with certainty. All forty-eight are reproduced here and most are well observed and readily recognizable. The majority are accompanied by their names, written out in middle English, offering and almost unparalleled source of vernacular bird names in common use during the generation after Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales. This is the first time that all birds from the Sherborne Missal have been reproduced together in sequence and this beautifully illustrated book provides an insight into a fascinating aspect of England's natural history in the middle ages." - [Publisher]

Language: English
ISBN: 0-8020-8434-6; LC: ND3375.S44B2952001; DDC: 745.6'7'0942

The Bestiary of Anne Walshe (David Badke, 2001)

Digital resource

A discussion of the codicology, paleography and imagery of the Bestiary of Anne Walshe, Copenhagen Gl. kgl. S. 1633 4*.

Language: English

The Old English Physiologus in the Exeter Book (David Badke, 2002)

Digital resource

A discussion of the three-episode Phyiologus poem found in the Exeter Book manuscript (Exeter Dean and Chapter MS 3501).

Language: English

Animal passions: animal behavior and human sexual morality in medieval bestiaries and mid-nineteenth-century periodicals (Baltimore: University of Maryland, 1996)

MA dissertation at the University of Maryland.

268 p.

Language: English
OCLC: 47901168

Christus gallinaceus: A Chaucerian Enigma; or the Cock as Symbol for Christ in the Middle Ages (Studies in Iconography, 9, 1983, page 19-39)

Language: English

The Role of the Cock in Fertility and Eroticism in Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Studies in Iconography, 7-8, 1981-2, page 81-112)

Language: English

The Aviary and British Library, MS Additional 24097 (Academia, 2017)

Digital resource 

A book solely concerned with birds, the Aviary was written by Hugh of Fouilloy, a French cleric from Amiens, in the first half of the twelfth century. Consisting of sixty chapters divided into two parts, his work contains twenty-seven birds allegorically discussed. The Bible constitutes the main bulk of Hugh’s sources that include St. Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Job, St. Isidore’s Etymologiae and Hrabanus Maurus’s De rerum naturis (also known as De universo). An unillustrated manuscript from the thirteenth century, British Library, Additional MS 24097, contains Latin moral treatises, the Aviary and bestiary extracts. As Clark notes, it is not at all uncommon to find texts of theological nature (and bestiary material) accompanying the Aviary.

Language: English

Le Bestiaire, Version longue attribuée à Pierre de Beauvais (Paris: Librairie Honoré Champion, 2010; Series: Classiques français du Moyen Age, N°163.1 vol.)

An edition of the of Pierre de Beauvais (long version).

Language: French

Etude et edition critique de la version longue du 'Bestiaire' attribuee a Pierre de Beauvais (Paris: Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2004)

Digital resource

According to its prologue, the Long Version of the Bestiary is the work of Pierre de Beauvais. Through the study of texts that can be surely attributed to Pierre, one may determine his period of activity with relative precision (1180-1218) and identify certain characteristic work habits. Chronological indications and the relationship between the two versions of the Bestiary indicate that the Short Version dates from before 1206 and is surely by Pierre. A careful examination of the sources of the Long Version (Le Lucidaire, The Letter of Priester John, and Gossouin de Metz's Image du monde) and the manner in which they are treated, on the other hand, leads to conclude that the second redaction dates from 1246-1260 and is not by Pierre. This conclusion is confirmed by the comparative study of the two works, which reveals important differences. While focusing on the two versions of the Bestiary, I have also sought to situate the bestiary with regards to the other branches of medieval learning, especially the encyclopedia and biblical exegesis. Although close to these two genres, the bestiary possesses its own specificity and cannot be assimilated to either. The present edition constitutes the first critical edition of this version of the text. It is based on the five known and accessible manuscript witnesses, as well as on an indepth study of the manuscript tradition, from the Physiologus and the Short Version to the Bestiary of Love by Richard de Fournival. The edition is followed by copious textual notes, indices of animals and proper names, and a glossary. A transcription of the Malines manuscript, the best witness of the Short Version, is provided in an appendix. My new edition and study of the text are intended to allow for a better understanding of this important work and of its place in the intellectual and artistic evolutions that marked the 13th century. - [Abstract]

PhD dissertation, 2004. 816 p.

Language: French
PQDD: AAT3117592

De la paternité de la Version longue du Bestiaire attribué à Pierre de Beauvais (in Bestiaires médiévaux. Nouvelles perspectives sur les manuscrits et les traditions textuelles, Louvain-la-Neuve: Institut d’études médiévales, 2005, page 1-29)

Digital resource 

After many centuries, the name Pierre was rescued from oblivion in the mid-19th century thanks to the work of Father Charles Cahier. By publishing his important dossier on Latin and French bestiaries in his Mélanges d’archéologie, d’histoire et de littérature, Father Cahier revived the man he nicknamed “Pierre le Picard” and whom we know, since the note dedicated to him by Gaston Paris, under the name Pierre de Beauvais. And it is precisely the “Long Version” of the Bestiary, the version that will be discussed here, that Father Cahier made known to the scholarly community. From the outset, therefore, the name Pierre is inextricably linked to this version of the work. Now, there are two very distinct versions of Pierre de Beauvais's Bestiaire: one, called the "Short Version," which contains thirty-eight chapters, and the other, the "Long Version," which contains seventy-two. With rare exceptions, critics have been inclined to believe that the Short Version, which remains very close to the Latin Physiologus both in the number and in the order and content of the chapters, was written first. A careful study of the two versions confirms this hypothesis: the combined evidence of internal and external clues leaves no room for doubt. In passing from the Short Version to the Long Version, the text was completely reworked: not only did thirty-four new chapters appear, but also the order and content of the original thirty-eight chapters were often modified. - [Author]

Language: French

Retour sur la Filiation des Bestiaires de Richard de Fournival et eu Pseudo-Pierre de Beauvais (Romania, 2009; Series: Vol. 127, No. 505/506 (1/2))

Digital resource 1  (JSTOR)
Digital resource 2 

Sans doute le plus original des bestiaires médiévaux de langue française, le Bestiaire d'amour de Richard de Fournival reprend la tradition issue du Physiologus, dont il détourne l’allégorie spirituelle pour en faire le véhicule d’une requéte amoureuse qu'il adresse a sa Dame. Si, au milieu du 13th siécle, un tel mélange d’érudition et de galanterie n’était pas absolument inédit — des poétes lyriques comme Rigaut de Barbezieux et Thibaut de Champagne avaient déja emprunteé cette voie en intégrant dans leurs poémes des images animales et une démarche symbolique qui renvoient au bestiaire traditionnel —, la nouveauté de Richard de Fournival consiste a abandonner le chant pour la prose et a donner a son ceuvre allure d’un véritable traité, la rapprochant ainsi davantage du discours savant qui lui sert de modéle. Cette proximité avec la tradition du bestiaire moralisé parait d’autant plus remarquable que, selon la critique moderne, Pauteur ne s'est pas contenté d’adapter la démarche herméneutique qui caractérise le genre dans son ensemble, mais se serait directement inspiré, en de nombreux passages, d’un texte précis : la version longue du Bestiaire attribuée a Pierre de Beauvais. - [Author]

Language: French

De la Version courte à la Version longue du Bestiaire de Pierre de Beauvais: Nature et rôle de la citation (Le Moyen Français, 2005; Series: Volume 55-56)

Digital resource 

Any reworking of an earlier literary text with a view to augmenting it — whether it is a continuation, a sequel or a revamp — necessarily involves two opposing practices: |imitation and |innovation. If it did not create a sense of continuity, relying on a unity of tone, style or subject, the text of the second author would seem completely foreign to the original work instead of forming its complement. But by the very nature of the intervention, and whatever its fidelity to the spirit of the original, the reworker necessarily modifies the work in a way more or less profound and imparts to it a structure, an orientation, a new sense. The relationship between a hypertext and its hypotext is characterized by a tension between resemblance and difference, between continuity and rupture. It is the tension between these two poles—or at least one of the manifestations of this tension — which we would like to examine here in both versions of the Bestiaire of Pierre de Beauvais. - [Author]

Language: French
0226-0174; DOI: 10.1484/J.LMFR.2.303050

Le Miroir de Renart : pour une redécouverte de ‘Renart le Contrefait’ (Louvain-la-Neuve: Brepolis, 2014; Series: Textes, Etudes, Congres, vol. 27)

Digital resource

At the beginning of his vast Renardian compilation, the author of Renart le Contrefait declares that on Regnart we can gloss, / think, study, muse / more than on anything that exists. Having reached the end of the work, the reader cannot but subscribe to this opinion, since the adventures of the fox effectively provide the cleric of Troyes with the opportunity—or the pretext—to make comments and to approach the most diverse subjects, from the creation of the world to the torture of Pierre Rémy, passing by the eating habits of Charlemagne, the circumference of the earth, the trial of the Templars and the amorous misadventures of Virgil, among others. Around the known episodes of the old Roman de Renart, moral and satirical reflections, allegorical, comic and historical stories, theological and scientific expositions follow one another and combine. This great diversity of subject is matched only by the number of sources that the author exploits and the variety of earlier texts that he integrates into his work... Renart le Contrefait has yet been little studied until now and if the renewed interest in this text that we have seen in recent years has made it possible to make notable progress, the resources offered by the work are still far from being exhausted.It is from this observation that the project of which this volume is the result was born. The contributions it brings together mainly come from the scientific meeting held in Brussels in the spring of 2011. Designed as an invitation to rediscover this work, which is both disconcerting and fascinating, the conference gave rise to various investigations which, if they certainly do not exhaust its richness, provide new literary, linguistic, codicological and philological insights and allow us to better appreciate the intellectual complexity of the creation of the cleric of Troyes and the interest to continue its study. - [Abstract]

Language: French
978-2-9600769-6-7

Le Developement des Structures Narratives du Fabliau a la Nouvelle (Presses Universitaires de France, Epopee Animale, Fable, Fabliau: Actes du IVe Colloque de la Societe Internationale Renardienne, 1984, page 29-37)

Dans ce bref expose, on procede a une comparison differenciatrice de quelques structures narratives des fabliaux et des plus anciennes nouvelles parues a l'origine du genre, structures liees a tel ou tel sujet. On n'etudie pas l'histoire du developpement des sujets avec toutes les circonstances concretes possibles, mais on confronte seulement deux niveaux: celui du fabliau et celui de la nouvelle a ses debuts." - [Author]

Language: French

Reynardus vulpes (Utrecht: Nicolaus Ketelaer and Gerardus de Leempt, 1474)

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Digital resource 3
Digital resource 4

The Latin text of Reynardus Vulpes is only known from this book printed by Nicolaus Ketelaer and Gerardus de Leempt in 1473-1474. It was translated from the Dutch Van den vos Reynaerde by Balduinus Iuvenis (Boudewijn de Jonghe) around 1278 from an unidentified manuscript. There are only two known copies of the book; one was discovered in the mid-nineteenth century in the Athenaeum Library, Deventer, Netherlands (shelfmark 111 C 8 KL); the other, an identical copy, was found in 1967 in Mainz (Martinus-Bibliothek, Hs 165).

The Reynardus Vulpes text begins Incipit Reynardus vulpes feliciter. There are 1851 lines of Latin verse.

In the Athenaeum Library copy of the book, the Reynardus Vulpes is bound with four other printed works. The texts are:

1. Dialogus Creaturarum. Gouda, Geraert Leeu, 1481
2. Vita et Fabulae Latine van Aesopus. [Straatsburg : Henricus Knoblochtzer, ca. 1481]
3. Speculum Stultorum. [Utrecht, Nicolaus Ketelaer en Gerardus de Leempt, 1474]
4. Reynardus vulpes. [Utrecht, Nicolaus Ketelaer en Gerardus de Leempt, 1474]
5. Historia destructionis Troiae. Deventer, Richardus Pafraet, [1480-1485]

In the Martinus-Bibliothek copy, the Reynardus Vulpes is bound with a manuscript and two other printed works. The Reynardus Vulpes is on page 479-539.

1. A Psalter, works by Seneca, a Chrysostom homily [Manuscript, ca. 1581]
2. Bernardus Claraevallensis: De consideratione ad Eugenium papam [Printed, 1474]
3. Works by Pseudo-Gregorius [Printed, 1474]
4. Reynardus vulpes [Printed, 1473]

Language: Latin
ISTC: ir00136700; : 

Reynardus vulpes, poëma ante annum 1280 a quodam Baldwino ea lingua Teutonica (Nijhoff, 1859)

Digital resource  (Google Books)

I approached the Curators and Prefects of the Universities and Athenaeums [ and] they lent me the books I had requested for inspection from the library of the Athenaeum of Daventry. The one that I had received for inspection in the catalogue of the year 1832 has the number 1082 and contains the Speculum Stultorum ["Mirror of Fools"] by Nigellus Wireker, from the workshop of Ketelaer and Leempt, printed in Utrecht around 1473. After the Speculum I found another poem which the catalogue refers to in these words: "Reynard the fox in Latin. Without any indication." In this poem I was happy to recognize a new and as yet unknown printed work from the same Utrecht workshop, by which the complete description of the ancient printed works is now significantly increased. ... But as I looked more carefully from contemplating the printed work, my mind gradually turned to reading the poem itself. Then I realized that I had stumbled upon a completely unknown version of one of our oldest animal fables. Then, considering that perhaps those who work on the literary subject of Reinard the Fox would be interested, I transcribed the poem, which I have now, with permission from the Curators of the Daventry Athenaeum, published in print. - [Editor]

Language: Latin

Reynardus vulpes (Leiden: Leiden University)

Digital resource

A transcript of the text of Reynardus Vulpes. (Ultrecht, Nicolaus Ketelaer en Gerardus de Leempt, 1474).

Published by Dr. Aje Harmsen, Leiden University, with the support of the diplomatic edition of W.GS Hellinga (Zwolle, 1952, with the manuscripts of Van den Vos Reynaerde) and the critical edition of RBC Huygens (Zwolle, 1968; text, comment and translation). In turn, Hellinga and Huygens have used the editions of MFAG Campbell (1859) and of W. Knorr (1860), and other literature. We have followed the spelling and punctuation of the original, apart from typing errors and from the use of you and V , as faithfully as possible; That is why the printed edition of Huygens is more usable as a reading text. Used copy: Athenaeum library Deventer, 111 C 8: 4. Facsimile at Athenaeum collections. - [Introduction]

Language: Dutch

Reynardus Vulpes. De Latijnse Reinaert-vertaling van Balduinus Iuvenis (Zwolle: W.E.J. Tjeenk Willink, 1968)

Digital resource

A critical edition of Reynardus Vulpes by Balduinus Iuvenis, as printed in 1474.

Language: Latin, Dutch

Reinardus Vulpes: emendavit et adnotavit (Utini: Petri Voelckersii, 1860)

Digital resource 1  (Google Books)
Digital resource 2 

About six months ago a book came into my hands thus inscribed: Reynardus Vulpes, a poem translated from the Teutonic language before the year 1280 by a certain Baldwin. From the only surviving example which was printed around the year 1473 by Nic. Ketelaer and Ger. de Leempt in the public library of Dauntry, M. F. A. G. Campbell, librarian of the royal library of which the Count of The Hague is the librarian, The Hague, published by Martin Nijhoff. 1839. When I examined the Flemish version of Reynard, such as exists here in the Coburg codex, I found it to be corrupted by many errors, either by booksellers or printers, but so much so that I could persuade myself that, in most places where I had some trouble with some errors, especially if the Flemish copy were constantly being compared, I could easily find a remedy. And so I proposed to myself to take the risk of correcting this poem. Which attempt I hoped would succeed all the more, because that book, printed in the fifteenth century by Campbell, appeared at first sight to be as accurately described in print as possible. But when I had made such progress in criticizing Baldwin's poem that I had the text cleansed of the most obvious and foulest defects, there remained some passages about which I was very much in doubt. - [Editor]

Language: Latin

Genre and Meaning in the Old English Phoenix (The Bulletin of the West Virginia Association of College English Teachers, Spring; 6:1-2, 1981, page 2-12)

Language: English
ISSN: 0887-4409

Fictions of Judaism in England before 1290 (in The Jews in Medieval Britain: Historical, Literary and Archaeological Perspectives, 2003, page 129-144)

Discusses the fictionalisation of medieval Anglo-Jewry by examining blood libel allegations and their use in hagiography (such as Thomas of Monmouth's life of Wiliam of Norwich) and historiography (such as Matthew Paris's Cronica Majora) as well as the portrayal of Jews in bestiaries.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-85115-931-1

The Outer Limits: Border Characters In Medieval Manuscript Illuminations And Middle English Mystery Plays (Cincinnati: University Of Cincinnati, 1989)

PhD dissertation at the University Of Cincinnati.

Marginal figures of medieval manuscript pages and border characters in Middle English mystery plays are similar in that they provide a frame for their respective centers, which usually profess or emphasize Christianity. Border characters of manuscripts, drawn in minute detail in the margins, are usually found in overtly devotional texts such as Psalters and Books of Hours; the marginal figures border the text and/or central miniature visually and metaphorically. Border characters in mystery plays, that is to say, characters who are peripheral in terms of the central action of the biblical story, or who do not appear in Scripture or Apocrypha but are created by the dramatist, also frame in some way the central action. These border characters, then, do have a purpose beyond that of mere comic relief or mindless doodling: they enhance devotion and meditation on that which is central. Marginal figures in manuscripts fit into three main categories, according to art historian Lilian Randall: sacred themes, bestiary themes, and drolleries. Border figures of sacred themes point the reader back to the message of the central text or miniature by reflecting and/or reinforcing it. Bestiary themes figures are revelatory of God in that they are His creations or subcreations; they are also used symbolically to reinforce the message of the text. Marginal characters designated as drolleries either extend the message of the central text, contrast with it, or provide delectatio through mental and spiritual recreation. Border characters in mystery plays function similarly. Most, such as Lightbourne, Pikeharnes, Mrs. Noah, the detractors, the midwives, and the Jews, provide recreation through comedy while at the same time presenting a negative example. Thus they provide an effective contrast for the holy characters in the play, and emphasize right action through their wrong action. Christian devotion, then, is at the center of devotional manuscripts and mystery plays. The center is always God; His creatures border Him, but they must choose whether to direct their attention toward Him and serve Him, or turn away and serve themselves. The example which the border characters provide helps the viewer to make his/her own choice. - [Abstract]

Language: English
PQDD: AAT9019873

Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore (McFarland, 2016)

Digital resource (Google Books)

"Here there be dragons"--this notation was often made on ancient maps to indicate the edges of the known world and what lay beyond. Heroes who ventured there were only as great as the beasts they encountered. This encyclopedia contains more than 2,200 monsters of myth and folklore, who both made life difficult for humans and fought by their side. Entries describe the appearance, behavior, and cultural origin of mythic creatures well-known and obscure, collected from traditions around the world. - [Publisher]

Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-4766-2268-2

Birds and Magic: 1. The Eagle-Stone; 2. The Vulture Epistle (Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 13, 1950, page 316-322)

Digital resource 1 (JSTOR)
Digital resource 2 (JSTOR)

A discussion of two beast-related items used in medieval medicine: the eagle-stone, said to be kept by eagles in their nests, and used to treat problems of pregnancy; and the 'Epistula Vulturis", containing medical recipes using parts of the vulture. The origin and history of both items is traced from Antiquity.

Language: English

The Aslake World Map (Imago Mundi, Volume 44, 1992, page 24-44)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

The map consists of two large fragments.

At the extreme West (bottom) and lining the Atlantic coastline of Africa several fantasy islands (e.g. the Hesperides, Gorgades, Membriona, Fortunate Isles) and the Canaries are shown-twice in the case of Membriona and the Fortunate Islands. The centre and Southern (right) parts of the map are almost entirely taken up with notes describing animals-real and imaginary-and the fabulous Marvels of the East which, in this map, are firmly placed in the inhospitable and near-hellish deserts of Ethiopia. - [Authors]

Language: English

Bestiary: Being an English Version of the Bodleian Library, Oxford MS Bodley 764 (London: Folio Society, 1992)

An English translation of Bodleian Library, Oxford MS Bodley 764 with all of the illustrations.

From the outset, it was intended that this edition should use the layout of the original manuscript; the miniatures are reproduced to their original size and in their original positions on the page, so that what appears in the following pages was designed by a thirteenth-century scribe and his illuminator, the only change being that the text is in a modern typeface rather than a highly abbreviated formal Gothic book-hand. As a result, and because the English equivalent comes out longer than the Latin text, discreet cutting of the text has been necessary... In identifying the beasts, which is often very difficult, I have in general followed the modern equivalents set out by Wilma George and Brunsdon Yapp in ... The Naming of the Beasts. ... I have settled for a [style] which is straightforward, with perhaps an echo of the language of the Authorised Version, rather than a colloquial rendering, because this seems closer to the spirit of the work. - - [Author]

Language: English
ISBN: 0-85115-329-1; LCCN: 93002466; LC: PA8275.B4E51993; DDC: 878/.0308083620

A Dictionary of Fabulous Beasts (London: Boydell Press, 1996)

Digital resource 1
Digital resource 2 (Internet Archive)

A glossary of beast names drawn from nature, literature and the mythology of many cultures. There are over 600 entries, most a paragraph or two, though some are much longer. Line drawings by Rosalind Dease.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-85115-685-1

Cecco d'Ascoli e l'Acerba. Saggio (Florence: Tipographia della Gazzetta d'Italia, 1879)

Digital resource  (Google Books)

A description and analysis of the text of L'Acerba, an encyclopedia by Cecco d’Ascoli, with a biography of Ascoli.

Language: Italian

Two East Anglian Picture Books: A Facsimile of the Helmingham Herbal and Bestiary and Bodleian MS Ashmole 1504 (London: Roxburghe Club, 1988)

The two manuscripts discussed are twin works of East Anglian origin. The Helmingham herbal and bestiary, formerly housed at Helmingham Hall, Suffolk, is now in Paul Mellon's collection at the Yale Center for British Art. The other is Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 1504.

Language: English
OCLC: 22225329

Das Basler Münster, der 'Reinhart Fuchs‘ des Elsässers Heinrich und die mittelalterliche Literatur des deutschsprachigen Südwestens (Alemannisches Jahrbuch, 1999)

Digital resource 

Some carved sandstone friezes showing scenes from the Reinhart Fuchs stories, particularly "the sick lion". Includes images of the carvings.

In the crypt of Basel Minster, several pillars contain parts of sandstone friezes decorated with images, which most likely date back to the late 12th century. ... If, according to the art historian's judgment, the "completeness of the fable of the sick lion" is an exception in the midst of the apparently chaotic variety, one would think that this part of the crypt frieze is the starting point for a first indicative approach. ... The first picture field shows a lion lying in bed wearing a head covering. A blanket covering the animal's body reaches from the foot end to the chin. It appears that the lion is intended to be depicted as a bedridden patient. - [Author]

Language: German
DOI: 10.57962/regionalia-18925

Le Bestiaire vieil-anglais : étude et traduction de textes animaliers dans la poésie vieil-anglaise (Paris: Association des médiévistes anglicistes de l'enseignement supérieur, 2001; Series: Publications de l'Association des médiévistes anglicistes de l'enseignement supérieur; Hors série 7)

Critical material in French; includes Old English texts with translation and notes in French.

Language: French
ISBN: 2-901198-30-9; LC: PR203; DDC: 809; OCLC: 56200103

Edition critique et étude littéraire du manuscrit O du Roman de Renart : f. fr. 12583 (Lyon: Université Jean Moulin (Lyon), 2005)

Digital resource 

This thesis contains the critical edition of manuscript O [Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 12583] of the Roman de Renart, accompanied by a philological, linguistic and literary introduction, a series of notes on the text, an index of proper names, a lexicon and a bestiary of anonymous animals present in the Roman. Compared to the other manuscripts that make up the Renardian tradition, this late text shows a certain originality since the scribe mixes the multiple manuscript sources. It also offers many independent lessons: interpolations. Their study allows us to grasp the strong variation of medieval stories, the inscription of writing in an essential fluctuation. -[Abstract]

Language: French

L'image du texte: L'enluminure au seuil du manuscrit O (Reinardus. Yearbook of the International Reynard Society, 2002; Series: Volume 15, Issue 1)

Digital resource 

On the second flyleaf of manuscript O [Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 12583], there is a miniature illustrating branch XVII of the Roman de Renart: ‘The death and procession of Renart’. At the threshold of this manuscript, opening the Renardian text, the miniature is surprising: offset, it refers to a branch other than ‘The judgment of Renart’ which immediately follows it; deceptive at the same time as ironic, it announces to the reader the end of the fox who nevertheless returns once again from death: finally emblematic, metonymic and metaphorical of the Renardian text, the illumination is read and interpreted as a reading pact and affirms the immortality of the hero. The text of the Roman de Renart has become an image, a condensed representation decorated with gold leaf, but this image is itself a subtle and profound discourse on the text. - [Abstract]

Language: French
DOI: 10.1075/rein.15.03bar

Marges ou marginalia dans le manuscrit D (Douce 360) du Roman de Renart (Textimage: Revue d'etude du dialogue text-image, 2007; Series: Number 1)

Digital resource 

The very narrative margins of Douce [Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 360] illustrate the main stages of branch I: "The Judgment of Renart". Renart, as usual, is absent from the plenary Court assembled by Noble while everyone accuses him, and in particular the rooster Chantecler. The story is that of his arrival at Court. However, these drawings are not only an image of the text, of one of the major episodes of the Renardian tale. Their presence in the margins also tends to bring them closer to the marginalia, which have become so frequent, particularly in manuscripts of the Gothic period. Alongside the text, they constitute another discourse, more marginal, sometimes disordered. But above all, the margins of manuscript D constitute the metonymy and metaphor of the character, a rebellious, dissident baron, and of the Renardian story, apart from serious or official stories. ... The margins of manuscript D are not comparable to its miniatures which open most of the branches and illuminate them. More naive than the standard miniatures of the manuscripts, these drawings, almost children's drawings, are also of lesser value: the brown wash and ink contrast with the rich vignettes of the manuscript decorated with gold leaf and bursting with color. In the marginal drawings of Douce, the dignity of the protagonists is at the same time clearly attenuated; their animality is regularly privileged. - [Author]

Language: French

Petite introduction au manuscrit O du Roman de Renart. Ce que murmure le texte (Le Moyen Age, 2009; Series: Volume 1)

Digital resource 1 
Digital resource 2 

The O manuscript [Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 12583] brings together the oldest and most widespread stories of the Roman de Renart. It is a mixed text, borrowing its lessons in turn from other manuscripts of the Reynard tradition, which leads to the opinion that the scribe had many other collections. But it is also an original piece, enriched by lessons unknown elsewhere: the O manuscript presents quite a number of interpolations that the critics judged severely. Recollections of older tales, parodies of epic or courtly topoï (commonplaces), these inserted verses are nevertheless an example in the text of the poetic activity of the copyists, of the constant development of appropriation, rewriting and creation. - [Abstract]

Language: French

Le renard de Rutebeuf (Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes, 2007; Series: 14)

Digital resource 

Rutebeuf looks at the world: the architectures are in ruins and the objects are broken, the trees are losing their leaves and winter is setting in. The poet’s “Li vers” evoke this “diverse” world, both changing and bad, and “l’ivers”, the cold season of destitution and death. New values ??then govern behavior: money has replaced generosity; Avarice, Cruelty and Envy have undermined Humility, Charity, Nobility of Soul. While cities and universities are developing, a new theology permeates the streets and minds. The universe described by Rutebeuf is unstable and perverted; the agents of this “bestourné” world are the mendicant brothers. In the poet’s imagination, they are regularly assimilated to the fox, symbol of cunning and hypocrisy. The poet's activity finds its origin in this world that is breaking with ancient, courteous and epic values... And, in many poetic forms, with all the resources of rhetoric, Rutebeuf's words reveal, denounce, threaten, in a tone of lamentation or satire. The poet's writing in turn attempts to turn the inverted world around, to put it back the right way up, in the sense of religious and moral rules and values. And since the world is turned upside down, he will give it a literal image and "turn it into a beast": hypocritical men are foxes. Thus, despite their gray frocks girded with a rope, behind their masks, the mendicants are called Renart. - [Author]

Language: French
1955-2424; DOI: 10.4000/crm.2685

Le roman de Renart : Edité d'après le manuscrit 0 (f. fr. 12583) (Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 2011)

Digital resource

This book provides a critical edition of the 'O' manuscript [Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 12583] (beginning of the 14th century) of the Roman de Renart. It is supplemented by a varia lectio which takes into account the different readings of the most important 'branches' or short texts of the Roman de Renart. The edition includes an introduction of the work from the perspective of literary studies and philology and explores in detail the main linguistic characteristics of the manuscript. Furthermore, the introduction emphasizes the adaptability within the Renart tradition and documents the creativity of a scribe who added some verses of his own to the text he copied. - [Publisher]

Language: French
ISBN: 978-3-11-023343-8; DOI: 10.1515/9783110233438

The Bunyip And Other Mythical Monsters And Legends (Melbourne: Reed & Harris, 1946)

With material on the Myndie Snake, the Seal Theory, and ancient & modern dragons.

120 pp. Illustrated with black & white photographic plates.

Language: English

Walruses on the Dnieper: new evidence for the intercontinental trade of Greenlandic ivory in the Middle Ages (Proceedings of the Royal Society, 2022; Series: Volume 289, Issue 1972)

Digital resource

Mediaeval walrus hunting in Iceland and Greenland—driven by Western European demand for ivory and walrus hide ropes—has been identified as an important pre-modern example of ecological globalization. By contrast, the main origin of walrus ivory destined for eastern European markets, and then onward trade to Asia, is assumed to have been Arctic Russia. Here, we investigate the geographical origin of nine twelfth-century CE walrus specimens discovered in Kyiv, Ukraine—combining archaeological typology (based on chaîne opératoire assessment), ancient DNA (aDNA) and stable isotope analysis. We show that five of seven specimens tested using aDNA can be genetically assigned to a western Greenland origin. Moreover, six of the Kyiv rostra had been sculpted in a way typical of Greenlandic imports to Western Europe, and seven are tentatively consistent with a Greenland origin based on stable isotope analysis. Our results suggest that demand for the products of Norse Greenland's walrus hunt stretched not only to Western Europe but included Ukraine and, by implication given linked trade routes, also Russia, Byzantium and Asia. These observations illuminate the surprising scale of mediaeval ecological globalization and help explain the pressure this process exerted on distant wildlife populations and those who harvested. - [Abstract]

Language: English
1471-2954; DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2773

Bartholomaei Anglici De genuinis rerum coelestium, terrestrium et inferarum proprietatibus: libri XVIII (Frankfort: W. Richter for N. Stein, 1601, 1609)

Digital resource 1  (Google Books)
Digital resource 2 

Full title: Bartholomaei Anglici De genuinis rerum coelestium, terrestrium et inferarum proprietatibus: libri XVIII. ; opus incomparabile, theologis, iureconsultis, medicis, omniumque disciplinarum & artium alumnis, utilissimum futurum ; cui accessit liber XIX de variarum rerum accidentibus

An early printed edition of the Latin version of De proprietatibus rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus. Includes the full text, plus an introduction and notes. Scanned page images.

Language: Latin

Liber de propriatibus rerum Bartholomei Anglici Ordinis Minorum (Strasbourg: Georg Husner, 1491, 1505)

Digital resource 1  (Google Books)
Digital resource 2 
Digital resource 3 

An early Latin printed edition of the Liber de proprietatibus rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus. The text in this copy is quite readable. Includes a table of contents listing the topics of each book and chapter. Scanned page images.

Language: Latin

Liber de proprietatibus rerum Bartholomei anglici (Drucker des Jordanus de Quedlinburg, 1483)

Digital resource  (Google Books)

An early printed edition of the Latin De proprietatibus rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus. Includes a table listing the content of each book and chapter. Scanned page images.

Language: Latin

Proprietates rerum domini bartholomei anglici (Heinrich Knoblochtzer, 1488)

Digital resource 1  (Google Books)
Digital resource 2 
Digital resource 3 

An early printed edition of the Latin De proprietatibus rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus. Includes a table listing the content of each book and chapter. Scanned page images.

Language: Latin

De proprietatibus rerum (Lugduni: Nicolaus Philippi (Pistoris) et Marcus Reinhardi, 1482)

Digital resource 1 
Digital resource 2 

An early printed edition of the De proprietatibus rerum, an encyclopedia by Bartholomaeus Anglicus.

Language: Latin

De proprietatibus rerum (Antonius Koberger, 1492)

Digital resource 1 
Digital resource 2  (Google Books)
Digital resource 3 

An early printed edition of the Latin De proprietatibus rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus. Includes a table listing the content of each book and chapter. Scanned page images.

Language: Latin

De proprietatibus rerum (Basel: Berthold Ruppel, 1470)

Digital resource 1 
Digital resource 2 

An early printed edition of the Latin De proprietatibus rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus. Scanned page images.

Language: Latin

Van den proprieteyten der dinghen (Haarlem: Jacob Bellaert, 1485)

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Digital resource 4 

An early printed edition of De proprietatibus rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus, in a Middle Dutch translation. The translator is unknown. Scanned page images.There is also a modern edition and trascription of the book; see Digital Resource 2 and 3 above.

Language: Middle Dutch
OCLC: 644305038

Tractatus de proprietatibus rerum (Lyon: Nicolaus Philippi; Markus Reinhart, 1480)

Digital resource 

An early printed edition of the De proprietatibus rerum, an encyclopedia by Bartholomaeus Anglicus.

Language: Latin

Tractatus de proprietatibus rerum (Köln: Johann Koelhoff, 1481)

Digital resource 

An early printed edition of the De proprietatibus rerum, an encyclopedia by Bartholomaeus Anglicus.

Language: Latin

Batman uppon Bartholome, his booke, De proprietatibus rerum, newly corrected, enlarged and ammended: with such additions as are requisite (London: Thomas East, 1582)

Digital resource 1 
Digital resource 2  (Internet Archive)
Digital resource 3 
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Full title: Batman uppon Bartholome, his booke, De proprietatibus rerum, newly corrected, enlarged and ammended: with such additions as are requisite, unto every severall booke: taken foorth of the most approved authors, the like heretofore not translated in English. Profitable for all estates, as well for the benefite of the mind as the bodie

An edition of the English translation of De proprietatibus rerum, a thirteenth-century encyclopedia by Bartholomaeus Anglicus. This is probably based on the English translation by John Trevisa, though this is not explicitly stated. With notes and additions by Batman.

There are digital scans of various edition of the book; there is also a full transcription online from Early English Books.

Language: English

El libro de proprietatibus rerum (Heirich Meyer, 1494)

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Digital resource 4  (Google Books)
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A printed translation of De proprietatibus rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus. Late fifteenth century Spanish translation by Vinçente de Burgos. Scanned page images.

Language: Spanish

Livre de proprietes des choses (Lyon, France: Guillaume Le Roy, 1487)

Digital resource 

The De proprietatibus rerum, an encyclopedia by Bartholomaeus Anglicus, in the French translation by Jean Corbechon (Livre de proprietes des choses). Scanned page images. With engraved illustrations.

Language: Middle French

Le propriétaire des choses (Jean Siber, 1495)

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The Le Propriétaire des choses, the De proprietatibus rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus in the French translation by Jean Corbechon. Scanned page images of the printed edition. With 19 engravings, one for the prologue and one for each book. The book on birds starts on page 244, fish on page 271, and animals on page 410.

Language: French

Le proprietaire des choses (Lyon: Matthias Huss, 1485)

Digital resource 

An early printed edition of the De proprietatibus rerum, an encyclopedia by Bartholomaeus Anglicus in the French translation by Jean Corbechon. With engraved illustrations.

Language: French

Le Propriétaire des choses, tresutile et prouffitable aux corps humains... (Paris: Jehan Petit et Michel Le Noir, 1518)

Digital resource 

Full title: Le Propriétaire des choses , tresutile et prouffitable aux corps humains, avec aucunes additions nouvellement adjoustées, c'est assavoir : les vertus et propriétez des eaues artificielles et des herbes, les nativitez des hommes et des femmes selon les douze signes, et plusieurs receptes contre aulcunes maladies. Item ung remède tres-utile contre fièvre pestilentieuse et autre manière.

An early printed edition of the De proprietatibus rerum, an encyclopedia by Bartholomaeus Anglicus in the French translation by Jean Corbechon. With engraved illustrations.

Language: French

Le propriétaire en françoys (Paris: Antoine Vérard, 1493, 1499)

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An early printed edition of the De proprietatibus rerum, an encyclopedia by Bartholomaeus Anglicus in the French translation by Jean Corbechon. With engraved illustrations.

Language: French

Le livre des propriétés des choses: une encyclopédie au XIVe siècle (Stock, 1999)

Digital resource (Google Books)

In 1372, on the orders of King Charles V, the monk Jean Corbechon of the order of Saint Augustine translated into French the encyclopedic work written a century earlier by the Franciscan Barthélemy the Englishman, De proprietatibus rerum. A sum of knowledge on nature and science, it is very successful, at a time when the desire to understand the universe is spreading among an increasingly wide audience. We learn that angels are always represented with long curly hair because their desires arise from the root of thought as hair arises from the head; we also discover there all the properties of the sky and those of the articular drop, and we know everything about the intelligence of the elephant as well as the perfections of divine persons. Following Jean Corbechon, Bernard Ribémont offers us here, put in modern French, a series of extracts from the Livre des propriétés des choses, which plunge us not only into the heart of medieval scientific thought but also into the heart of the imagination of the time, a source of wonderful images. - [Publisher]

Language: French
ISBN: 978-2-234-05189-8

On the properties of things : John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus De proprietatibus rerum : a critical text (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975-1988)

A critical edition of John Trevisa's English translation of the De proprietatibus rerum of Bartholomaeus Anglicus. Volume 1 contains an introduction and notes on the text and its author and translator, plus Books 1 to 13 of the encyclopedia; Volume 2 contains Books 14 to 19 of the encyclopedia; Volume 3 contains an introduction, descriptions of the manuscripts used in the edition, textual commentary, a glossary, an index of authorities, and an index of persons.

Language: English
LC: AE2B2931975

Medieval Animals On The Move: Between Body And Mind (Springer Nature (Palgrave Macmillan), 2021)

Digital resource 

The volume offers a review of Medieval and Early Modern Age cultural attitudes toward animals, reflecting diversity in social life. It is aimed, not only at researchers and students exploring the history of animals, but also at a broader readership interested in how our attitudes toward the animal world have evolved over centuries in a variety of cultural contexts. The chapters included contribute to integrating three basic branches in medieval studies: archaeology, history (comprising both documentary and literary sources), as well as iconography. These differing sources have traditionally been studied using different paradigms. The integrated approach in this book is meant to strengthen awareness of the complex interplay between the histories of nature and culture in scholarship. In addition to being multi-disciplinary, the volume is emphatically international, with authors representing research in Austria, China, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Serbia, Sweden, and Switzerland. - [Editors] >/p>

Language: English
ISBN: 978-3-030-63888-7; DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-63888-7

Provenzalisches Lesebuch / Chrestomathie provençale (Eberfeld: R. L. Frederichs, 1855, 1868)

Digital resource 1  (Google Books)
Digital resource 2  (Internet Archive)

Texts in the Provençale dialect of Old French, including on column 326-330 an abridged version of Richard de Fournival's Bestiaire d'amour, titled Aiso son las naturas d'alcus auzels e d'alcunas bestias.

Chrestomathie provençale is the French edition of the original German Provenzalisches Lesebuch.

Language: French (Provençale)

Hexaemeron (Christian Literature Publishing Co, 1895; Series: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Volume 8)

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A Translation into English of the Hexaemeron of Basil the Great. The Hexaemeron is a series of homilies, some of which describe animals.

Language: English

Animalite et Typologie Sociale: Quelques Paralleles Medievaux (in Gabriel Bianciotto & Michel Salvat, ed., Epopee Animale, Fable, Fabliau: Actes du IVe Colloque de la Societe Internationale Renardienne, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984, page 39-54)

Totem, totemisme: voila les mots qui viennent a l'esprit quand on pense a un classement des hommes mis en rapport avec le classement des especes animals. Mais ces termes designent, dans le modele assez artificiel dresse par l'anthropologie traditionnelle, un syseme de division des hommes en "clans", definis par leur parente reelle ou mythique, en non par leur fonction sociale, les differences de vie entre ces groupes etant plutot d'ordre rituel que socio-professionel. ... A priori, on pourrait esper trouver, dans ces images animales symboliques, des ensembles structures correspondant aux riches typologies de l'ordre ecclesiologique et socio-professionel qu'a elaborees le Moyen Ages. - [Author]

Language: French

The Serpent-Eating Stag in the Renaissance (in Gabriel Bianciotto & Michel Salvat, ed., Épopée Animale, Fable, Fabliau: Actes du IVe Colloque de la Société Internationale Renardienne, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984, page 55-69)

My purpose in this paper is to show something of what happens to a particular piece of medieval animal symbolism when it is taken up by the writers and emblematists of the Renaissance. The belief that stags eat snakes was sanctioned by classical writers on natural history such as Pliny, Aelian and Oppian. ... Physiologus was among the earliest writers to give this process an allegorical explanation, in which he was followed by the early fathers and by Psalm commentaries throughout the Middle Ages... Thus allegorized it found its way into monumental art ... and we find it regularly in encyclopaedias and Bestiaries. ... In the Renaissance it was perpetuated in three different types of source: firstly by writers of natural history, who are the continuators of the medieval Bestiaries and encyclopaedias; secondly in emblem books; and thirdly in association with a number of literary tropoi featuring the stag which at first sight look quite unconnected. - [Author]

Language: English

How Medieval Bestiary Images promoted Theological, Social and Political Messages in The Queen Mary Psalter (1310-1320) (Academia Letters, 2021)

Digital resource 

The Medieval Bestiary linked the everyday activities of animals with aspects of Christian life, reflecting the belief that all of creation was made to instruct humankind.1 Bestiary illustrations also adorned other medieval manuscripts, in particular the fourteenth century Psalter. The Queen Mary Psalter (QMP) [British Library, Royal MS 2 B VII] of 1310 contains a complete bestiary cycle on every page of the psalms. In this essay I use the example of the QMP to, firstly, explain why bestiary images were highly effective in the psalter at conveying meaning and then to elucidate some specific theological, social and political messages that were promoted to the contemporary reader through the bestiary images. - [Author]

Language: English
DOI: 10.20935/AL2575

The Comic Spirit of Renart, the Trickster, in Chaucer's "Nun's Priest's Tale" (Boca Raton: Florida Atlantic University, 1986)

Digital resource 

The Renart cycle, which originated in France in the last years of the twelfth century in a series of "branches," am o ng them in particular Branch II-Va of Pierre de Saint-Cloud, eventually appeared in England in Chaucer's "Nun's Priest's Tale." Nineteenth-century criticism of the Roman de Renart, emphasizing true-to-life detail, has been rejected by twentieth-century critics who defend especially the satiric elements in the story. There is, however, another dimension to the Renart cycle, that is, the disruptive yet attractive force of the fox, which Chaucer allows to emerge in the "Nun's Priest's Tale," although Chaucer criticism has generally neglected the importance of daun Russell in the tale. He is glorified throughout the "fable section," and his presence is felt indirectly throughout the whole tale. The fox-trickster represents the comic and "accidental" view of life developed by Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales. - [Abstract]

Language: English

Bestiarium Humanum: Mensch-Tier-Vergleich in Kunst u. Karikatur (Munich: Heinz Moos Verlag, 1974)

A revision of the author's thesis, Cologne, 1973, which was presented under the title: Der Mensch-Tier-Vergleich und die Mensch-Tier-Karikatur.

164 p., numerous illustrations, bibliography, index.

Language: English
LCCN: 75555972; LC: N7745.A5B381974

The Lark in Chaucer and Some Later Poets (Yearbook of English Studies, 2, 1972, page 5-12)

Language: English

A baronial bestiary. Heraldic evidence for the patronage of MS. Bodley 764 (Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 50, 1987, page 196-200)

Heraldic images in the bestiary. Roger de Monhaut, the Clares and the Berkeleys in relation to Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 764.

...Bodley 764 appears to be the only surviving English bestiary to show genuine, recognizable shields of arms. If these coats can be read as evidence of patronage, then Bodley 764 is among the earliest extant English manuscripts in which heraldry is used as a mark of ownership. ... Evidence of wide-spread baronial book patronage has not been found before the end of the [13th] century... the books concerned are chiefly psalters. No other English Latin bestiary can be unequivocally ascribed to lay patronage, and no indication at all of original ownership has been found on any English bestiary as costly as this one. Other luxury bestiaries of the thirteenth century - the Ashmole Bestiary, the Aberdeen Bestiary... and British Library MS Royal 12.C.XIX - remain tantalisingly empty of any indication of patronage, but the evidence of Roger de Monhaut's Bestiary at least admits the possibility that such books were made for aristocratic lay patrons. - [Author]

Language: English
http: //links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0075-4390%281987%2950%3C196%3AABBHEF%3E2.0.CO%3

Bestiaries and their Users in the Middle Ages (Phoenix Mill, UK: Sutton Publishing, 1998)

Digital resource 

Previous studies on Bestiaries have centred on these luxury books, with their colourful illustrations and diverting stories of animal behavious, and Bestiaries have been represented either as keys to the iconography of medieval animal sculpture in stone and wood, or as early and inept attempts at zoology. Ron Baxter's exhaustive research has shown these conclusions to be at best simplistic and at worst quite wrong. This book enables to closer than ever before to the true purpose, use and meaning of the Bestiary. Dr. Baxter, employing a completely fresh and comprehensive approach, has undertaken extensive new research into a large corpus of Bestiaries, applying modern narrative theory to their texts and images to reveal the messages encoded in them... By applying the results of this analysis to medieval library records he has been able to identify important centres of Bestiary use, and to present a radically different picture of what Bestiaries were to their medieval users. - [Publisher]

Includes tables of chapter orders and surviving Latin bestiaries, as well as a revision to the established system of Bestiary Families, building on the work of M. R. James and Florence McCulloch. A very valuable book.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-7509-1853-5; LCCN: 98211645; LC: PA8275.B4Z541998; DDC: 809/.9336221; OCLC: 39718250

Learning from Nature: Lessons in Virtue and Vice in the Physiologus and Bestiaries (in Colum Hourihane, ed., Virtue & vice: the personifications in the Index of Christian art, Prionceton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000, page 29-41)

A discussion of the virtues and vices in the Physiologus, with a list of the animals associated with them.

The Physiologus is not an allegorical treatise on virture and vice; nowhere do virtues and vices actually appear appear as personifications either in the text or in the miniatures of any illustrated Physiologus or bestiary. ...the Physiologus uses examples from the natural world to convey lessons in Christian behaviour. The point, of course, is not that birds, beasts, and stones are more virtuous than humans, but that God has provided them as lessons and as warnings for the attentive human to read. ... Of the thirty-six chapters of the Physiologus B-text, most deal, some broadly, some more specifically, with virtue and vice. - [Author]

Language: English
ISBN: 0-691-05036-8

A study of the Latin bestiary in England: structure and use (London: University of London (Courtauld Institute of Art), 1990)

Digital resource

PhD thesis on the structure of English bestiaries.

Language: English
OCLC: 940326560

Medieval Bestiaries and the Birth of Zoology (The Antlion Pit, 1996)

Digital resource

Although bestiaries and zoological treatises shared a common interest and subject matter, they did not appear to have any real effect on one another beyond what general influences are common to all who share a same environment and mentality. The similarities they shared in dealing with animals is due to a common outlook on nature. Furthermore, while zoology showed an interest in acquiring scientific knowledge, the bestiary showed no such inclination since it was more concerned with moral education than natural history... Fundamentally, zoological treatises and bestiaries were different. Whereas the bestiary fed upon man's dependence on religon, zoology depended on his break with it... - [Author]

Language: English

Physiologus for Grownups (RobertBedrosian, 2018)

Digital resource (Internet Archive)

The work known as Physiologus is a collection of tales taken from various sources. The stories, which are usually very short, describe the supposed characteristics of real and imaginary animals, precious stones, plants, and unusual places. Originally Physiologus was compiled in Greek, probably in the second century A.D. Some time in the early fifth century it was translated into Ethiopic, Classical Armenian, Syriac, and Latin — and, subsequently, from Latin into all the major languages of Europe. Elements of some of these tales are known from the works of much earlier writers, such as Herodotus and Aristotle. Others probably were written by Church Fathers (or at least attributed to them). ... The present English translation omits the morals. This circumstance arose from my initial interest in the stories, which was solely for their Classical Armenian vocabulary. At the time, I translated only a few of the tales, never intending to publish them. Years later, rereading the translation, I was struck by the delightful strangeness of the stories minus their protective garments, and thus the present edition was born. My interest is in the animals themselves—just the naked animals, if I may put it that way. As for the morals, quite a few did not seem to fit the tales, and even amounted to distractions, at least to this reader. Nonetheless, without a doubt, these morals — apt or not — are what saved Physiologus and got this unusual text copied repeatedly by monks in the Middle Ages. ... The present translation was made from the Classical Armenian text published by N. Marr in Sborniki pritch Vardana [Collections of Fables by Vardan], vol. 3 (Saint Petersburg, 1894), pp. 131-175. - [Author]

Language: English

Beasts of Love: Richard de Fournival's Bestiaire d'amour and a Woman's Response (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003)

Digital resource 1
Digital resource 2 (Google Books)

The first gendered prose debate in a European vernacular, Le Bestiaire d'amour and subsequent Response constitute a clash of opposites: a medieval chancellor's erotic bestiary to a woman is countered by the woman's passionate protest against the cleric's misogynistic presuppositions. Jeanette Beer presents a close, linear reading of the two literary texts, examining the context that led to the love-bestiary's production in the thirteenth century, especially an influential version of the Physiologus by Pierre de Beauvais, the suggestiveness of the animal symbolism, and the aftermath of the debate. In her exploration of Le Bestiaire d'amour and the Response, Beer analyzes the disparity of their sexual, philosophical, and theological orientations, and considers, animal by animal, this gendered duelling of the two bestiaries, the symbolism of the one calqued upon the symbolism of the other. - [Publisher]

Language: English
ISBN: 0-8020-3612-0; LC: PQ1461.F64B432003; DDC: 844'.1

Le Bestiaire d'amour en vers (in Medieval Translators and Their Craft, Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University, Medieval Institute Publications, 1989, page 285-296)

Translation of verse into prose was not unusual in the Middle Ages. ... The reverse process, prose to verse, was more unusual. ... A conversion of Richard de Fournival's Le Bestiaire d'amour to rhyming octosyllabic couplets has survived on folios 89-92 of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 25545 ... the fragment, now entitled Le Bestiaire d'amour en vers, states in both title and text that it is Richard's own translation... Le Bestiaire en vers courts those of Richard's contemporaries who prefer the entertainment of love literature to Aristotelian exposes. In imagery that is curiously modern Richard compares his bestiary to a consumer product whose presentation is variable. His main concern is, of course the content, which cannot fail to please when its different packaging caters to all tastes. Thus the determining factor in all formal aspects of the work is the translator's public. - [Author]

Language: English

Le Bestiaire d'amour in Lombardy (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007; Series: Florilegium Volume 24, Number 1)

Digital resource 

In the early fourteenth century, a time when enthusiasm for French epics, lyricpoetry, and romance was at its peak in Italy, Richard's bestiary was “translated” (in thegeographical sense) to Lombardy. The manuscript to be examined here is Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.459.The manuscript, on vellum, was written and illuminated in northern Italy in the first half of the fourteenth century. The 32 folios contain 115 miniatures and 3 historiated initials. ... “The scribe” took it upon himself to make available on hisside of the Alps a work that had proved popular on the other. To this end he used theprerogatives that any scribe might exercise over “his” manuscript — and more, as will be seen! - [Author]

Language: English
0709-5201; DOI: 10.3138/flor.24.004

Duel of bestiaries. On Le Bestiaire d'amour by Richard de Fournival, and the anonymous Response appended to it in several manuscripts (in Willene B. Clark & Meradith T. McMunn, ed., Beasts and Birds of the Middle Ages. The Bestiary and its Legacy, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989, page 96-105)

...explores the transformation of the bestiary into a work with secular symbolism in the Bestiaire d'amour and Reponse de la Dame of Richard de Fournival, using the cock to illustrate her arguments. - [Introduction]

The traditions of the bestiary underwent unexpected transformation in Richard de Fournival's Le Bestiaire d'amour. A genre that had been devoted to Christian moralizing now became affiliated with the profane literature of love. The process involved more than a mere transposition of metaphors. The juxtaposition of the two known traditions was a provocation to both, for Le Bestiaire d'amour transcended all conventions by its ambivalence. - [Author]

Language: English

A Fourteenth Century Bestiaire d'Amour (Reinardus: Yearbook of the International Reynard Society, 4, 1991, page 19-26)

Digital resource

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.459, written and illuminated in northern Italy, probably Lombardy.

The manuscript to be examined here is Pierpont Morgan 459 which was written and iJluminatecd in Northern Italy, most probably in Lombardy. Because it postdates Richard de Fournival’s original Bestiatre d’amour by about one hundred years* and represents a deviant development whose archetype has been lost, it might seem of less interest than the bestiary’s more conventional derivatives. There are, however, interesting conclusions to be drawn from the modifications of a seribe who brought to his task uo knowledge of the context which produced the work and, it would seem, no knowledge of its original author. - [Author]

Language: English
0925-4757; DOI: 10.1075/rein.4.03bee

Gendered discourse in two thirteenth-century bestiary texts (Journal of the Institute of Romance Studies, 3 for 1994-1995, 1995, page 119-128)

Discusses the exchange between Richard de Fournival (in Le Bestiaire d'amour) and his lady (in La Response de la dame au bestiaire de Ricard de Fournival).

Language: English

Medieval Translators and Their Craft (Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University, 1989; Series: Studies in Medieval Culture 25)

A series of essays on translation in the Middle Ages, including Le Bestiaire d'Amour en Vers (Beer) and The Old English Phoenix (Shaw).

Language: English
ISBN: 0-918720-95-8; LCCN: 89-2535; LC: CB351.S83v.25; DDC: 940.1'7s-dc19

The New Naturalism of Le Bestiaire d'Amour (Reinardus. Yearbook of the International Reynard Society, 1988; Series: Volume 1, Issue 1)

Digital resource 

Richard de Fourniva'sl Le Bestiaire d'amour appeared shortly after the middle of the thirteenth century. It was no ordinary bestiary, and its radical manipulation of two established traditions marked the beginning of a new naturalism that would eventually receive full expression in Jean de Meun's Le Roman de la rose. The iconoclastic nature of Le Bestiaire d'amour is, however, frequently overlooked, perhaps because of the blandness of its original editor. His description of it as "ces fleurs de l'histoire naturelle rassemblées en bouquets a Chloris" [p. 4] is even less apt than it would have been as a description of Le Roman de le rose. Conversely, it is to Le Bestiaire d'amour before Le Roman de la rose that Paré’s description of "une composition systématiquement ordonnée a ridiculiser les théories de l'amour coutois" is most appropriate. - [Author]

Language: English
DOI: 10.1075/rein.1.04bee

Richard de Fournival’s Anonymous Lady: The Character of the Response to the Bestiaire d’amour (Romance Philology, 1989; Series: 42:3)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

An anonymous response is appended to Richard de Fournival's Bestiaire d'amour in four of the extant MSS. The hypothesis that Richard himself might have been its author is unacceptable. Major stylistic differences and the neglect of all but one theme from Richard’s contrapuntal bestiary would be sufficient evidence even without the Response’s specific criticisms of Richard, which at times verge upon insult.

The MSS provide little information. While several name “maistre Richart/ Ricars de Fourniual” as the author of the Bestiatre d’amour (some, e.g., Bibl. mun. Dijon 526, adding the further title “canceliers d’ Amiens”), none contains any other designation than “la dame” for the author of the Response. The dating of the MSS, at best imprecise, is of little help. A terminus ante quem of 1252 can be posited for the Bestiaire d’amour since a version of the Miroir des dames (dedicated to Blanche of Castile, who died in 1252) contains a citation from it. The Response poses more problems, but it is established that the extant MSS which first contained it originated in the last two decades of the 13th century, and that they are merely derivatives of a lost original. - [Author]

Language: English
0035-8002

Woman, authority and the book in the Middle Ages (in Women, the Book and the Worldly: Selected Proceedings of the St Hilda's Conference, 1993, Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1995, page 61-69)

Discusses the Response produced by a woman to counter Richard de Fournival's Bestiaire d'amour.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-85991-479-8

Unicorn: Myth and Reality (New York: Mason/Charter, 1977)

The author traces the unicorn's first appearances in Europe, centuries before the birth of Christ... Its image is brought to life in references to the literature of East and West, through the use of ancient illustrated manuscripts, tapestries, sculptures, woodcuts, engravings, church decorations and architectural bas-reliefs. - [Cover copy]

Originally published in German as Einhorn: Fabelwelt und Wirklichkeit, 1972 (Callwey, Munchen).

Language: English
ISBN: 0-88405-583-3

Bruun de beer op pad. Een iconografische verkenning (Tiecelijn, 1994; Series: Volume 7, Number 1)

Digital resource

In this contribution I want to briefly discuss the iconographic tradition of Bruun the bear in various editions of den vos Reynaerde. I will mainly limit myself to Dutch editions. This article is only a preliminary study and therefore has limited scientific pretensions. A large number of illustrations should illustrate the attractiveness of the subject. They are usually not shown at actual size. - [Author]

Language: Dutch
0775-9770

Els bestiaris medievals : llibres d'animals i símbols (Barcelona: Rafael Dalmau, 2004; Series: Episodis de la història)

70 p., illustrations, bibiliography

Language: Catalan
ISBN: 84-232-0662-9; LC: PA8275.B4; OCLC: 55060634

Il Physiologus : L'ermetismo attraverso i simboli degli animali (Milano: Editrice Kemi, 1991)

Digital resource

In the Description of animals and stones, highlights a series of figures hermetic and initiatory steps that date back to the highest Egyptian antiquity, which the author illustrates in full light. - [Publisher]

Language: Italian

Une création originale: La fame Renart, ou le personnage d'Hermeline dans le Roman de Renart (Reinardus, 1993; Series: Volume 6, Issue si)

Digital resource 1 
Digital resource 2 

The character of Hermeline has long interested the small world of the Renardiens: at the end of the 19th century, while the controversy over the origins of the RdR [Roman de Renart] was in full swing, people were interested in the character of the famous Renart, not for himself, but for the support that the presence of Hermeline in this or that branch could bring to the thesis that was being defended. It all began with an observation, quite innocent after all, by the editor of the Ysengrimus: E. Voigt notes in fact that in Ysengrimus, an early stage of the animal epic, Renart (Reinardus, one should say), who is not the main character, has neither wife nor children. Based on this remark and noting for his part that Hermeline is present in the br. III, C. Voretzsch draws an argument in favor of his thesis: br. III is therefore a very recent story and can only be a reworking. L. Foulet protests against such a deduction which he considers naive and emphasizes that the character of Hermeline is a creation of those he calls "the French troubadours"; enlisting Hermeline under his banner to defend the thesis that we know, L. Foulet affirms that it is in branch III that Hermeline appears for the first time and that this branch dates from around 1180. - [Abstract]

Language: French

La Parodie Epique dans les Premieres Branches du Roman de Renart (in Epopee Animale, Fable, Fabliau: Actes du IVe Colloque de la Societe Internationale Renardienne, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984, page 71-94)

If there is one point on which critics are unanimous, it is in recognizing that the different authors of the Roman de Renart frequently indulge in parody of the literary genres in vogue at their time, the Chanson de Geste and the Roman Courtois. Wanting to determine the place that epic parody holds in the whole of the Roman de Renart would be to open a long and meticulous investigation; this is why the present study necessarily falls within a more limited framework: we are only interested in the "first poem in French of Renart and Isengrin" according to Foulet's expression, that is to say branches II and Va as published by Martin. - [Author]

Language: French

« Renart empereur» : Le Roman de Renart, ms. H, branche XVI :une réécriture renardienne de La Mort le roi Artu? (Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes, 2008; Series: Volume 15)

Digital resource 

The branch (story?) entitled Renart Empereur has often put off critics, and many have judged it «the longest and least appealing» of the whole collection. The present study looks at the question in terms of intertextuality. It aims to show that it is a parodic rewrite of the Mordret episode in La Mort le roi Artu. - [Abstract]

Language: French
DOI: 10.4000/crm.5523

Trickery as an Element of the Character of Renart (Forum for Modern Language Studies, January; 22:1, 1986, page 34-52)

If trickery is defined as a 'means of obtaining from others that which cannot be obtained by force, work or right', it clearly emerges from the full text of the Roman de Renart that trickery is vitally important to Renart, both as animal and man... It should be noted that the Old French term enging has two senses: it is both a trick, wile or dodge, and in a more abstract sense an attitude of mind, a rule of conduct, and an approach to life. A detailed moral and intellectual portrait of Renart can therefore be drawn; in P. Jonin's study Renart is described as cruel, knavish and perverse from a moral viewpoint, but his intellectual qualities can be summed up in one word: Renart is a trickster. The distinction between moral and intellectual characteristics surely fades into insignificance when set against one essential truth: like other heroes of medieval literature, Renart pocesses a teche (l'enging), and all Renart's other characteristics are subordinated to his inate and unfailing trickery. - [Author]

Language: English
ISSN: 0015-8518

Slavianskii bestiarii: slovar’ nazvanii i simvoliki (Moscow: Izd-vo "Indrik", 2000)

Russian with a summary in English. At head of title: Rossiiskaia akademiia nauk. Institut slavianovedeniia. Slavic bestiary--dictionary of appelations and symbolism.

318 pp., illustrations, bibliography.

Language: Russian
ISBN: 5-85759-100-7; LCCN: 2001425448; LC: GR825.B452000; OCLC: 44618162

The Trial of the Fox: Translated from Goethe's "Reineke Fuchs" (Southern literary messenger, 1854; Series: Volume 20, Issue 8)

Digital resource

An English translation of the German Reineke Fuchs from the edition by Goethe.

Language: English

Cambridge University Library L1 1 14, F. 46r-v: A Late Medieval Natural Scientist at Work (Neophilologus, 86:2 (April), 2002, page 171-177)

Many catalogues of animals and sounds exist in medieval glossaries, poems, or other types of text. Most descend from a list associated with Polemius Silvius, one associated with Phocas, one associated with Aldhelm, or one associated with the poem De Philomela. Some are mixtures, editions even, of lists from multiple sources. One such text in Cambridge University Library shows a 'scientist' using scientific methods to classify and organize linguistic material. - [Abstract]

Language: English
ISSN: 0028-2677

Early Middle English Text and Prose (Oxford: Clarendon Press (Oxford University Press), 1968, 1982)

Digital resource 1 
Digital resource 2  (Internet Archive)

A transcript of the Middle English The Vox and the Wolf is on page 65-76. It is based on the manuscript Bodleian Library, MS. Digby 86.

Language: English
ISBN: 978-0-19-871101-8

Some Doctrinal Implications of the Comput and Bestiaire of Philippe de Thaun (in Gabriel Bianciotto & Michel Salvat, ed., Épopée Animale, Fable, Fabliau: Actes du IVe Colloque de la Société Internationale Renardienne, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984, page 95-105)

While investigating Robert Biket's use of the hexasyllable, I was inevitably led to analyse Philippe de Thaun's handling of the same medium. I soon became struck by certain features of the Norman's allegorical expositions, particularly in those excurses which he makes beyond the traditional allegorical explanations into the formulation of doctrine concerning the person of Christ, his birth and death, baptism and the importance of the Church as a corporate body. I wish to return here to consider in more detail the nature of Philippe's formulations and their possible import. ...as we will see, some of the most extended expositions in Philippe's work have no counterpart, either in the most immediately adduceable Latin sources, or in later vernacular authors. It will therefore be appropriate to consider Philippe's relationship to his sources, and to try to determine the extent of his personal contribution, in terms of style and rhetoric as well as content, before considering the implications of that content. - [Author]

Language: English

Survivances païennes à Hildesheim autour de l'an Mil (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 110:1427, 1987, page 191-202)

Study highlighting the persistence of iconographic themes belonging to Germanic mythology in the works executed between 993 and 1022 under the episcopate of Bernward at Hildesheim Cathedral, in particular in the bestiary developed, both in the sculpture and in the goldwork pieces: persistence directly linked to the efforts of the bishop to Christianize Saxony.

Language: French

Man and nature in the Middle Ages (Sewanee, Tenn.: University of the South Press, 1995; Series: Sewanee mediaeval studies no. 6)

Contents: Natura ridens ; Natura lachrymosa / John V. Fleming -- Nature as light in Eriugena and Grosseteste ; Nature and finality in Aquinas / James McEvoy -- The Bifurcation of creation : Augustine's attitudes toward nature / Frederick H. Russell -- Some effects of the Judeo-Christian concept of Deity on medieval treatments of classical problems / Richard C. Dales -- Necessity, fate and a science of experience in Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas and Roger Bacon / Jeremiah Hackett -- Nature's moral eye : Peter of Limoges' Tractatus moralis de Oculo / Richard Newhauser. The materialization of nature and of quaternary man in the early twelfth century / Paul Edward Dutton -- Celestial reason : the development of Latin planetary astronomy to the twelfth century / Bruce S. Eastwood -- The subjugation of nature in the development of the medieval hunt and tourney / Everett U. Crosby -- Chaucer's "Kynde nature" / William Provost -- Gawain in the wilderness / Edward Vasta -- Zoology in the medieval Latin bestiary / Willene B. Clark.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-918769-37-X; LCCN: 82-50575; LC: CB351/BD581; OCLC: 35778979

Gargoyles: Animal Imagery and Artistic Individuality in Medieval Art (in Nona C. Flores, ed., Animals in the Middle Ages: A Book of Essays, New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1996, page 147-165)

Animals, like so many other subjects in the art of the Middle Ages, were often used as didactic devices in the teaching of Christianity. ... The need for readily intelligible imagery fostered, understandably, conformity and convention rather than individuality and invention -- open expression of personal artistic style cannot be considered a characteristic of medieval art. ... But eqo, and the need for its visual assertion, seem to be innate components of the human animal. Certain types of animal imagery offered medieval artists rare opportunities for individual expression -- opportunities that seem to have been seized and relished. This eassay is not concerned with readily recognized animals that play well-understood and conspicuous roles in Christian art, such as the lion, lamb, or fish. Rather, the focus is on the unusual or imaginary animals that play questionable roles, often in inconspicuous locations, specifically, as gargoyles. - [Author]

Language: English

Medieval Menagerie: Animals in the Art of the Middle Ages (New York: Abbeville Press, 1992)

An examination of how images of animals were used in the Middle Ages. The book is in three sections: Ancestors - Fantastic Fauna and the Medieval Attitude Toward the Past; Science - Information and Imagery in the Medieval Bestiary; and Symbolism - The Meaning of Animals in Medieval Art. Illustrated with hundreds of examples of animal imagery from manuscripts, carvings and sculpture, paintings, and tapestries. The illustrations are of very high quality.

Language: English
ISBN: 1-55859-133-8

Konrad von Megenbergs "Buch der Natur" (1350) : schriftsprachliche Varianten im Deutsch des 14. Jahrhunderts als Ausdruck für regionales Sprachbewußtsein und dessen Reflexion (Das Frühneuhochdeutsche als sprachgeschichtliche Epoche : Werner Besch zum 70. Geburtstag, 1999)

Digital resource 

Konrad von Megenberg's “Book of Nature” (1350): Written language variants in 14th century German as an expression of regional language awareness and its Reflection

The topic is of course particularly important in the context of the German language history of the late Middle Ages in the transition to the early New High German period. Important questions include, for example, how the dialect situation should be assessed at this time, whether there are tendencies to expand language use beyond dialect boundaries, what these tendencies look like, and how they should be assessed from today's linguistic-historical perspective. Are there already clear indications of nationwide standardization of language use, and how should these indications be interpreted? When dealing with such questions, one must of course stick to the written tradition of the time; We know almost nothing from the sources about how people actually spoke in the late Middle Ages. I would like to address Konrad von Megenberg's “Book of Nature” and deal with this text under the guiding questions that I have suggested. - [Author]

Language: German

Sur la filiation entre le Bestiaire d’amour de Richard de Fournival et la version longue du bestiaire de Pierre de Beauvais (Academia)

Digital resource 

Critics have long defended the hypothesis that Richard de Fournival copied word for word entire passages from the long version of Pierre de Beauvais's Bestiaire... - [Author]

Language: French

Violences et douleurs corporelles dans le Roman de Renart : hypothèses d'interprétation (Camenulae, 2017; Series: 17)

Digital resource 

The Roman de Renart is a composite collection written between 1174 and 1250. The work, as it is presented to us today, consists of a collection of branches, which are as many episodes derived from the same narrative framework, that of a playful fight between animals, according to a principle similar, according to some, to what can be observed in our modern equivalent: the animal cartoon. Whether in the oldest or most recent branches, the body is often considered in all its fundamental aspects: it is a sexed and sexual body (the rape of the she-wolf by Renart is thus the casus belli of several branches), which almost constantly gives rise to scatological humor. But above all, it is a body in pain, subject to pain as well as violence. In fact, research has long focused on the nature of these bodies, on the imaginary anthropomorphism that governs this universe, in order to know whether these bodies are of human or animal nature: but in the light of our problem, which relates to physical violence, this question of anthropomorphism has little importance. Indeed, bodies are all the object of physical violence, whether they are of human or animal nature. If research has studied the nature of these bodies at length, their function, on the other hand, has not been sufficiently questioned. - [Author]

Language: French

Pierre de Beauvais: An Introduction to His Works (Romance Philology, 1965; Series: Vol. 18, No. 4)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

A short introduction the works of Pierre de Beauvais, including but not limited to the Bestiaire. With a history of the scholarly study of Pierre's text, from the mid-nineteenth century.

Language: English

Le convers et les oiseaux. Monde animal, morale et milieu monastique: le De avibus d'Hugues de Fouilloy (XIIe siecle) (in Rémy Cordonnier, L'homme-animal, histoire d'un face à face, Strasbourg: Adam Biro / Musées de Strasbourg, 2004)

Catalogue de l'exposition des musées de Strasbourg (Galerie Heitz, Musée Archéologique - Palais Rohan -, Musée de l'œuvre Notre-Dame, Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain, 8 avril - 4 juillet 2004).

Language: French

L'animal exemplaire au Moyen Âge (Ve - XVe siècles) (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 1999)

Language: French

Il fisiologo di Smirne: le miniature del perduto codice B. 8 della Biblioteca della Scuola evangelica di Smirne (Tavarnuzze-Firenze: SISMEL edizioni del Galluzzo, 1998; Series: Millennio medievale 7 (Società internazionale per lo studio del Medioevo latino))

Digital resource

Of the precious codex of Smyrna, reduced to ashes in the fire that devastated the city in 1922 and witness, among other works, of the Physiologus, the author reconstructs the surviving iconographic material (dating to the 14th century) by publishing 89 photographs of the miniatures, taken between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century and now found in various archives around the world. The careful study of the manuscript, which constitutes the only illuminated oriental testimony of the Physiologus, explains the importance of such a recovery for the history of both Byzantine illumination and the naturalistic and exegetical knowledge of the Eastern Middle Ages. The miniatures reproduced here in fact depict the physical nature of the animals described in the text, as well as the moral hermeneia that follows from the parallel established between the behaviors of animals and those of men, interpreted in the light of the Scriptures. The Physiologist's investigation of zoological sources places emphasis on naturalistic treatises and other works of antiquity. Other depictions were instead introduced into the illuminated cycle from different iconographic sources, probably in the Palaeologan era. - [Abstract]

Language: Italian
ISBN: 88-87027-24-2; LC: PA4273.P9; OCLC: 40624656

Bestiario en pedra : animais fabulosos na arte medieval galega (Vigo: Nigra Trea, 2004)

Relief sculpture of bestiary subjects in the Galicia region of Spain.

249 p., illustrations (some color), bibliography.

Language: Spanish (Galician)
ISBN: 84-95364-27-1; LCCN: 2005-420824; LC: N7745.A5; OCLC: 60543179

Wild Men in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass.: 1952)

Language: English

Sancti Geronis columna. Zu Ysengrimus II 179 ff. un IV 25f. (in Aspects of the Medieval Animal Epic, Louvain: Leuven University Press, 1975, page 105-112)

The special charm of satire lies in the precision and sharpness with which the satirist grasps the detail, in the boldness with which he takes up realities that are otherwise largely inaccessible to literature. I would like to address such a detail with a few comments on two passages in Ysengrimus in which the author of Ysengrimus - one manuscript calls him Nivardus magister - invokes the "pillar of Saint Gereon" in Cologne.

Language: German

Jacob van Maerlant, Der Naturen Bloeme: Introduction to the literary history and description (Codices illuminati medii aevi (CIMA), 1999; Series: CIMA 56)

Digital resource 1 
Digital resource 2 

This article is the introduction and notes that accompanied a microfiche facsimile of manuscript Lippische Landesbibliothek, Ms. 70 (designated D), the Der Naturen Bloeme of Jacob van Maerlant. It includes:

• biography of Jacob
• notes on his works
• description of the text of the Der Naturen Bloeme
• annotated list of surviving manuscripts (with the standard letter designations)
• extensive codicological descriptions of Ms. 70
• list of editions
• complete list of all of the illustrations with notes explaining them and corrected annimal names
• bibliography

Language: German
ISBN: 3-89219-056-9

Jacob van Maerlant's 'Der naturen bloeme' und das Umfeld: Vorläufer, Redaktionen, Rezeption (Münster; New York: Waxmann, 2001; Series: Niederlande-Studien 23)

Digital resource  (Google Books)

Papers presented at an international colloquium held by the Lippische Landesbibliothek, Oct. 29-30, 1999. Articles in German and Dutch.

The manuscript Detmold, Lippische Landesbibliothek, Mscr 70 is the oldest completely preserved source of Jacob van Maerlant's natural encyclopedia Der naturen bloeme. In 1999, the unique importance of this precious manuscript was recognized in two ways. After the text had already been published in an exemplary manner by Maurits Gysseling in 1981, the appearance of a color microfiche edition - a pioneer in Dutch philology - made the text, together with its unique pictorial decoration, accessible to the public for the first time. In addition, on October 29th and 30th, 1999, in the Lippe State Library, under the title "The blossoms of nature and the environment. Forerunner - Editorials - Reception" held an international colloquium in which the Detmold manuscript was the focus of interest. The present volume in the Netherlands Studies series, the first to be published jointly by the Center for Dutch Studies and the Institute for Dutch Philology at the Westphalian Wilhelms University, bears the same title as the Detmold Colloquium and brings together all the lectures that held by the German, Dutch and Flemish participants. - [Foreword]

Language: German
ISBN: 3-8309-1034-7; LCCN: 2001-422252; LC: PT5570.D48J332001; OCLC: 48847572

A környezo táj állatvilágának megjelenése a középkori magyar címerekben" (in Táj és történelem. Tanulmányok a történeti ökológia világából (in Táj és történelem. Tanulmányok a történeti ökológia világából, Budapest: Osiris, 2000, page 187-193)

The appearance of animals from the local environment in medieval Hungarian coats of arms. Analyses several Hungarian family coats of arms from the point of view of the illustrated animals on them.

Language: Magyar
ISBN: 963-389-055-1

Eine Geschichte des Physiologus auf einem Madonnenbild der Brera (Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte, 15:4, 1963, page 313-330)

Language: German
ISSN: 0044-3441

Multilingualism in Van den vos Reynaerde and its Reception in Reynardus Vulpes (Cambridge: Brewer, 2022; Series: Medieval English and Dutch Literatures: The European Context. Essays in Honour of David F. Johnson)

Digital resource 

Multilingualism is one of the textual features that contribute to the beast epic’s humour, the author of Van den vos Reynaerde clearly used French and Latin elements for comic purposes. This multilingualism was addressed by the author who translated the Middle Dutch beast epic into Latin. His adaptation of the French and Latin passages demonstrates his moralising intentions in writing Reynardus Vulpes. - [Author]

Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-84384-634-5

Reynard the Fox (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1983; Series: Twayne's World Authors Series 673)

Digital resource 1 (Internet Archive)
Digital resource 2 (Google Books)

I have written the present book as an introduction to the major Reynard poems, which form a definite progression. The Latin Ysengrimus influenced many parts of the French Roman de Renart [Romance of Reynard], out of which the Dutch Van den Vos Reynaerde [Of Reynard the Fox] developed. With further help from the Roman de Renart, Van den Vos Reynaerde was expanded into the Dutch Reinaerts Historie [Reynard's History], which was reworked in Low German as Reynke de Vos [Reynard the Fox]. My book presumes no prior knowledge of medieval beast epics, being descriptive as well as analytical, but it also offers new interpretations. Rather than a summary of previous research, it is a statement of my own opinions, as grounded in previous research. - [Preface]

Language: English
ISBN: 978-0-8057-6520-5; LCCN: 82-13095; LC: PN690.R5B41983; DDC: 809'.9336

Lamberti Floridus, nach der Genter Handschrift (Serapeum, 1845; Series: 6)

Digital resource 

A study of the Liber Floridus by Lambert of Saint-Omer, based on the Universiteitsbibliotheek Ghent, MS 92 manuscript.

Language: German

Giving Birth: Stories of Weasels and Women, Mothers and Heroes (Web, 1998)

In 1998, Maurizio Bettini published his much-awaited book about weasels in ancient Greece and Rome: Nascere. Storie di donnole, donne, madre ed eroi. This webpage has been created to share the basic contents of the book with English-speaking readers.

Includes a large bibliography of weasel lore.

Language: English

Nascere. Storie di donnole, donne, madre ed eroi (Torino Italy: Einaudi Press, 1998)

Weasel lore in Greece and Rome.

See also Giving Birth: Stories of Weasels and Women, Mothers and Heroes for a partial English edition.

Language: Italian

Bestiaires du Moyen Age (Paris: Stock, 1980; Series: Serie "Moyen âge"; 35)

Includes a short introduction to the bestiary genre and a brief biography of each author, with bibliographies. "mis en Francais moderne et presente par Gabriel Bianciotto".

Contents: Bestiaire - Pierre de Beauvais; Bestiaire divin (extracts) - Guillaume le Clerc de Normandie; Bestiaire d'un poete - Thibaut de Champagne; Bestiaire d'amour - Richard de Fournival; Livre du Tresor - Brunetto Latini; Livre des proprietes des choses (livre XVIII) - Jean Corbechon.

Language: French
ISBN: 2-234-01217-1; LC: PQ1327.B4; DDC: 398.245; OCLC: 27747241

Renart et son Cheval (Paris: Honoré Champion, 1973; Series: Études de langue et de littérature du Moyen-âge : offertes à Félix Lecoy par ses collègues, ses élèves et ses amis)

Digital resource 

"Renart and his Horse".

Renart, stuffed with eels and herrings, jumps to the ground from the cart where the merchants have imprudently thrown him, a necklace of fish around his neck, and as a farewell throws a gab at his victims who try to pursue him ... A providential and ghostly mount, born at the hour of peril and vanished as soon as Renart is out of reach, comes to lend in need the speed of its race to the fox, at the end of an episode yet apart from the convention of language, the animal nature of the hero has never been denied. Sporadic throughout the Novel, with variable characters according to the storytellers, the evocation of animals mounted in the posture of knights is present. ... By common feeling, the mounts of our heroes have usually been classified among the elements of feudal transposition, even considering them undoubtedly as one of the most pertinent or at least the most visible in the evocation of the chivalric setting, although sometimes the curiously evanescent nature of such horses whose role is limited to the metaphorical illustration of a long race or a rapid escape is emphasized. - [Author]

Language: French

Sur le Bestiaire d'amour de Richart de Fournival (in Gabriel Bianciotto & Michel Salvat, ed., Épopée Animale, Fable, Fabliau: Actes du IVe Colloque de la Société Internationale Renardienne, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984, page 107-119)

It does not seem paradoxical to me to affirm that the Bestiaire d'Amour by Richard de Fournival is a little-known work, and on which one has generally made only judgments that are all the more peremptory because they were superficial and ill-founded. The preface of Cesare Segre to his edition of the Bestiaire d'Amour still constitutes the only informed approach to the work, and despite its richness, one cannot consider that it has exhausted all critical perspectives. The commentaries generally situate the Bestiary quite clearly in relation to its upstream and downstream in the thread of literary history, but without characterizing otherwise its role as a hinge, and the transmutation that it subjected to the themes and images of courtly lyricism, to the metaphors of the traditional bestiary, before transmitting them to its epigones of the Dit de la Panthere d'Amour or the Fiore di Virtu: it is probably not enough to posit that the Bestiaire d'Amour systematized the emblematic use of animals in the illustration of amorous rhetoric to define the originality of Richart de Fournival's writing style, and the author's contribution to the literature of his time - [Author]

Language: French

Des trois oiseaux symboliques dans des textes anciens; aux sources du bestiaire roman (Reinardus: Yearbook of the International Reynard Society, 8, 1995, page 3-23)

Discusses religious symbolism in the Vie de Saint Alexis, Sainte Foy d'Agen, and the Physiologus Latinus.

Language: French

Épopée Animale, Fable, Fabliau (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984; Series: Actes du IVe Colloque de la Société Internationale Renardienne)

Actes du IVe Colloque de la Society International Renardienne, Evreux, 7-11 Sept. 1981. A series of essays relating to animal fables of the Middle Ages, including several on Reynard the Fox; others discuss the Bestiaire d'amour of Richard de Fournival, the French fabliaux genre, bestiaries, etc. Articles in English, French and German.

Language: French/German/English
ISBN: 2-13-038255-X; LC: CB351.C2

La Biblioteca in mostra: animali fantastici (Firenze: Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, 2007)

Digital resource

The Library on display: imaginary creatures

Imaginary creatures is the first of a series of expositions that the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana will organize beginning from Spring 2007. The aim is to make the general public aware of the richness, variety and the interest of the Library’s book collections, both manuscript and printed. By choosing to illustrate a different theme each time, the Library will ‘show off’ its treasures and reveal the details of many of its most curious and splendid heirlooms. Imaginary creatures, in particular, is a representative selection consisting of 19 manuscripts and 9 printed books dating from the end of the 12th to the 18th century. They are in Latin, Greek, the Italian vernacular and Persian, and were originally produced in Italy, France, Holland and Iran. Picked out from different collections belonging to the Library, they have been chosen for the astonishing range of imaginary creatures depicted in them. A feast for the eyes, a divertissement somehow, this exposition calls everybody, young or old alike, to dive into the world of the imaginary and to enjoy the boisterous vitality of these creatures, both mysterious and familiar.

Language: Italian

Bestiaire de Moyen Âge (Bibliotheque Nationale de France, 2004)

Digital resource

The online catalog of an exhibition on the medieval bestiary, with samples from several bestiary manuscripts at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. A printed catalogue is also available.

Language: French

Bestiaire médiéval : Enluminures (Paris: Nationale de France, 2005)

Catalogue de l'exposition presentee a la bibliotheque nationale de France du 11 octobre 2005 au 8 janvier 2006. An online catalog is also available.

Language: French
ISBN: 2-7177-2337-4; DDS: 091; OCLC: 62130576

Portraits d`oiseaux illustrant le De avibus d`Hugues de Fouilly, manuscrit de Clairvaux Troyes 177 (in B. Chauvin, ed., Mélanges à la mémoire du Père Anselme Dimier, Abbayes: Beernem / Histoire Cistercienne, 4, 1984, page 409-447)

Language: French

L'animal dans la littérature française aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles (Lille: 1976)

Language: French

Reynard the Fox as Anti-Hero (in Leo Carruthers, ed., Heroes and Heroines in Medieval English Literature, Cambridge: Brewer, 1994, page 119-123)

Digital resource 

It may sound somewhat strange, even paradoxical, to speak of Reynard as anti-hero. Most of the time, he is considered as the hero of the fables and the tales in which he appears. Hero is then taken in its wider and weaker meaning, i.e. main protagonist, chief personage. Reynard is described as a manipulator, an instigator, a trickster, and, as such, he is very often called a hero. Moreover, the anti-hero is a modern notion, not to be applied to medieval literature. The anti-hero, in modern fiction, is characterized by absence: absence of heroic qualities, absence of reaction, sometimes even absence of personality. The anti-hero, more often than not, is a shadow, an outsider, a nobody, moving in a world full of absurdity he is quite incapable of either understanding or controlling. If we can say that Reynard is also characterized by a complete absence of heroic qualities, we cannot speak of his absence of reaction. He is no passive witness: on the contrary, he is the one who pulls the strings. Moreover, he perfectly understands and controls the world he lives in and that world is not full of absurdity but fraught with meaning. To draw a comparison between Reynard and modern anti-heroes would be a total absurdity. What I will try to show in this paper is that Reynard is an anti-hero in so far as he gives an inverted image of what a medieval hero was supposed to be. One could even call him a counter-hero. - [Author]

Language: English
ISBN: 0-85991-415-1

The Eschatological Conclusion of the Old English Physiologus (Medium Aevum, 58:2, 1989, page 286-297)

Much of the criticism of the Old English Physiologus has quite properly focused on the final fragmentary sections - conveniently called 'The Partridge' - since the differing interpretations of these lines provide strikingly different views of the shape of the entire work. The textual problem at this point in the Exeter Book is straightforward: after the opening phrases that identify the subject as a bird, the poem breaks off in mid-sentence at the bottom of folio 97b; the following folio begins mid-sentence, but does not explicitly mention a bird. ...it now seems likely that a single leaf, and not an entire gathering, has been lost at this point ... the two passages either may be or may not be part of the same poem. In this essay, I should like to strengthen the claim that they are part of a single poem about the partridge, by arguing that the final fragment differs from the moral gloss of the Latin source because the Anglo-Saxon poet has included eschatological motifs, and thus makes the conclusion of the work similar to other Old English poems that end with references to the Last Judgement. - [Author]

Language: English
ISSN: 0025-8385

The Anatomy of a Dragon (London: British Library, Medieval manuscripts blog, 2014; Series: 23 April 2014)

Digital resource

Dragons are near-ubiquitious in medieval manuscripts. They take pride of place in bestiaries and herbals, books of history and legend, and Apocalypse texts, to name a few. They serve as symbols, heraldic devices, and even as ‘just’ decoration, and their physical characteristics can vary widely. Cinematic and literary depictions of dragons today are fairly consistent; they are almost always shown as reptilian, winged, fire-breathing creatures (in a word, Smaug). But this was by no means constant in the medieval period. - [Author]

Language: English

Bugs in Books (London: British Library, Medieval manuscripts blog, 2014; Series: 26 August 2014)

Digital resource

Even the most cursory glance over the pages of medieval manuscripts will reveal a plethora of insects. Bugs are everywhere – although we hasten to add that we are extremely vigilant about avoiding the presence of any actual living insects within the pages of our books. But there has been little comprehensive scholarship about the appearance of such creatures in medieval manuscripts. Insects usually live literally in the margins, often not even appearing in catalogue entries despite their profusion. Whilst undertaking this very short exploration of the subject, therefore, we would do well to remember the words of one of the earliest writers about these minute creatures. As Pliny the Elder reminds us in the introduction to his book about insects: ‘Nature is nowhere to be seen in greater perfection than in the very smallest of her works. For this reason then, I must beg of my readers, notwithstanding the contempt they feel for many of these objects, not to feel a similar disdain for the information I am about to give relative thereto, seeing that, in the study of Nature, there are none of her works that are unworthy of our consideration.’ - [Author]

Language: English

Not Always Bad News Birds: The Caladrius (British Library, Medieval manuscripts blog, 2013; Series: 12 April 2013)

Digital resource

Although they are little-known today, caladrius birds were common features in medieval bestiaries. The caladrius, we are told in the bestiary text, makes its home in the courts of kings, and is pure white 'like the swan'. The dung of the caladrius was believed to cure blindness, but this remedy was rather a mixed blessing since it required the direct application of guano in the eyes of the afflicted. But the real value of the caladrius was in its infallible prognostic abilities. If it was brought into a sickroom and turned away from the man or woman within, that person would surely die. If, however, the caladrius kept his gaze on the ill person and 'directed itself towards his face', it was a different story. After staring down the sick man or woman, the caladrius would fly into the air, taking the illness with it, and the patient was destined to make a full recovery. - [Author]

Language: English

The Monstrous Middle Ages (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004)

The figure of the monster in medieval culture functions as a vehicle for a range of intellectual and spiritual inquiries, from questions of language and representation to issues of moral, theological, and cultural value. Monstrosity is bound up with questions of body image and deformity, nature and knowledge, hybridity and horror. To explore a culture's attitudes to the monstrous is to comprehend one of its most important symbolic tools.

The Monstrous Middle Ages looks at both the representation of literal monsters and the consumption and exploitation of monstrous metaphors in a wide variety of high and late-medieval cultural productions, from travel writings and mystical texts to sermons, manuscript illuminations and maps. Individual essays explore the ways in which monstrosity shaped the construction of gender and sexual identity, religious symbolism, and social prejudice in the Middle Ages.

Reading the Middle Ages through its monsters provides an opportunity to view medieval culture from fresh perspectives. The Monstrous Middle Ages will be essential reading for anyone interested in the concept of monstrosity and its significance for both medieval cultural production and contemporary critical practice. - [Publisher]

Language: English

The Cheval fol of Lyon and other asses (in Clifford Davidson, ed., Fools and Folly, Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1996, page 9-33)

Discusses the relevance of appearance of horses and asses in literature, with particular reference to mystery plays.

Language: English
ISBN: 1-879288-70-2

Pre-Modern Encyclopaedic Texts (Leiden: Brill, 1997; Series: Proceedings of the Second COMERS Congress, Groningen, 1-4 July 1996)

Pre-Modern Encyclopaedic Texts presents the proceedings of the second COMERS congress, the successor to Centres of Learning (Brill, 1995). Like its predecessor it contains in ancient, medieval and renaissance Europe and the Near East. Although the genre of encyclopaedia was defined and named only in modern times, texts that aspire to the encyclopaedic ideals of utility and comprehensiveness are found throughout recorded history. They respond to and shape ideas about the natural world, human history, and the nature and limits of human knowledge. The present volume comprises five extended essays on the problems and opportunities facing researchers into encyclopaedic texts, and 21 research papers on specific topics. It will be of interest to a general university audience as an interdisciplinary project, as well as to specialists in the various disciplines covered. - [Publisher]

Language: English
ISBN: 90-04-10830-0

"Quare, messire, me audite!" Le choix du chameau comme légat papal dans le "Roman de Renart" (Reinardus, 2014; Series: Volume 26)

Digital resource 

Musart is one of the two camels in the "Roman de Renart", the papal legate whom Noble seeks advice when Ysengrin pleads justice in the Va branch. We want to show, in the light of the sources, that in the imagination of the 12th century the camel was predestined for this role. An overview of the sources will show that the camel was little known, except through fables and religious texts. Embodying the ambivalence between the material and the celestial, it can represent both the humility of Christ and the arrogance of the Pharisees. Moreover, scientific tradition describes this camelid, which embodies the papal legate and should therefore represent the law of the Church, as a sexually virulent animal. Against the backdrop of all these ambivalences, the poet of the "Roman de Renart" has every right to ridicule the papal legate. We will show that he uses three means to do this: speech (from a linguistic and legal point of view), the choice of the animal which embodies him, and his name (Musart), heavy with meaning. - [Author]

Language: French
0925–4757; DOI: 10.1075/rein.26.02bir

Medieval Hunting Scenes (Miller Graphics, 1978)

Illustrations from "The Hunting Book" by Gaston Phoebus.

108 p.

Language: English

Physiologus und Bestiarien im englischen Mittelalter (Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch: Internationale Zeitschrift für Mediävistik / International Journal of Medieval Studies, 40:2, 2005, page 153-170)

Discusses manuscripts:

• Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 764
• London, British Library, Royal 12.F.XIII
• Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 16
• London, British Library, Royal 2.B.VII
• Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ashmole 1511

Language: German
ISSN: 0076-9762

Zur Quelle des Middle English Bestiary, 649-667 (Anglia: Zeitschrift für englische Philologie, 94:1-2, 1976, page 166-169)

Language: German

Animals of the imagination and the bestiary (Aldeburgh: Britten-Pears Library, 1994; Series: The Prince of Hesse and the Rhine memorial lecture, 1994)

Given at the Jubilee Hall Aldeburgh, on Tuesday 14 June 1994, during the 46th Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-9511939-4-5

The Literary Development of the Reynard Story in England (SELIM. Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature, 1998; Series: Volume 8, Issue 1)

Digital resource 

The most significant aspect of Reynard the fox in medieval England is what little impact his story had on the literature of the period; and even in the art field the Reynard story is hardly a frequent feature in manuscript illumination or carving. It is only with the publication of William Caxton’s Reynard the Fox in 1481 that a full version of his story is found in Middle English. However, there are indications that Reynard’s exploits were known in England, and it is appropriate to consider first those few traces that he left before Caxton’s time. In what follows it should be borne in mind that parts of the Reynard story may have been known in French or Latin versions in medieval England and that representations of foxes and other animals which owe their symbolism to the Reynard stories are found in various forms. - [Author]

Language: English

The Phoenix (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1964)

The Phoenix is an allegorical poem which has been preserved in the Exeter Book, an anthology compiled towards the end of the tenth century and given to Exeter Cathedral by Leofric, the first Bishop of Exeter. A picture of a terrestrial heavenly paradise, allegorical interpretations are linked with the story of the phoenix. Blake discusses the manuscript, the language of the poem and its sources, authorship and date. Illustrated with b/w frontispiece of Phoenix from Bestiaries.

Language: English

A Possible Seventh Copy of Caxton's Reynard the Fox (1481)? (Notes and Queries, 10, 1963, page 287-288)

Language: English
ISSN: 0029-3970

Reflections on William Caxton's 'Reynard the Fox' (Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies/Revue, May; 4 (1), 1983, page 69-76)

Notes on William Caxton's English language translation of "Reynard the Fox" from Die Hystorie van Reynaert de Vos. Netherlandic literature.

Language: English
ISSN: 0225-0500

Reynard the Fox in England (in E. Rombauts, A. Welkenhuysen & G. Verbeke, ed., Aspects of the Medieval Animal Epic, Louvain: Leuven University Press, 1975, page 53-66)

The Roman de Renart is such an important text in medieval French literature and exerted such an influence on several other medieval vernacular literatures that it has usually been assumed it was also known in medieval England and influenced Middle English writers. Two attempts have been made to document this influence: one by F. Mosse and the other by J. Flinn. Since both scholars were intent on tracing the influence of the Roman de Renart, their surveys excluded some Middle English works containing stories of foxes in which the fox is not called Reynard. The omission of these works distorts the general picture of fox literature in England for it suggests that only those stories which have some connexion with the Roman de Renart were found. It is therefore worthwhile reopening the question of whether the Roman de Renart was known in England, partly to investigate the occurrences of the fox in a wider context, and partly to consider to what ends the English poets used their material since this may provide us with a clue as to the possible sources they used. My investigation will be concerned principally with works written in Middle English, though it should not be forgotten that the fox is frequently portrayed in he art of the later Middle English period and that stories about the fox were composed also in Latin and French in England. - [Author]

Language: English

William Caxton’s ‘Reynard the fox’ and his Dutch original (Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 1964; Series: Volume 46, Issue 2)

Digital resource 

...as is well known, Caxton translated a version of Reynaert into English which he printed in 1481. Consequently Caxton’s translation has been seized upon by Dutch scholars as an important witness in their attempt to elucidate the textual history of Van den Vos Reynaert. The results so achieved, which have important bearings on such problems as when Caxton started translating and how he went about his translations, have perhaps been accepted too readily by other scholars both in England and elsewhere. In my opinion the reasoning behind Muller’s arguments has not always been fully appreciated and it is time that the whole problem of Caxton’s source was reexamined. But before a start is made on a discussion of this sort, it is well to be clear about the relationship and probable dates of the various manuscript and printed versions of the Reynard story in the Low Countries. - [Author]

Language: English
DOI: 10.7227/BJRL.46.2.3

Of 'Briddes and Beestes': Chaucer's Use of Animal Imagery as a Means of Audience Influence in Four Major Poetic Works (Los Angeles: University Of Southern California, 1994)

PhD dissertation at the University Of Southern California.

This dissertation is an analysis of Geoffrey Chaucer's use of animal imagery in The House of Fame, The Parlement of Foules, 'The Nun's Priest's Tale' in The Canterbury Tales, and Troilus and Criseyde. Chaucer used animal imagery extensively in these works, either portraying animals acting like humans or humans exhibiting bestial behavior. The paper explores how Chaucer deliberately employed these animal portrayals to influence and to manipulate his audience. Chaucer's medieval audience was familiar with animal lore through numerous sources: daily agricultural interaction with animals, bestiary lore, religious sermons containing animal lore, folklore, and biblical allusions. For each work, I analyze the various references to animals in terms of historical usage and importance to the work. Also, I examine recent Chaucerian scholarship which discusses Chaucer's relationship with his audience. I argue that Chaucer's use of animal imagery is deliberate and calculated in its goal of imparting social and religious values to his audience. He enlightened and entertained his audience through the animal imagery, always with the specific intent of manipulating them to accept his own themes and commentaries. In The House of Fame, Chaucer uses the eagle animal figure to discuss medieval theories of science and rhetoric and to analyze the art of poetry itself. In The Parlement of Foules, extensive bird imagery enhances Chaucer's lament about the decline of chivalry and changes occurring in his social milieu. In 'The Nun's Priest's Tale,' the animal imagery enables Chaucer to indulge in humorous social class depictions, a means of audience manipulation and social control. And his greatest work involving animal imagery, Troilus and Criseyde, is Chaucer's most blatant and brilliant use of Christian oriented animal imagery. In this paper, I show that Chaucer's creative and successful use of animal imagery enables him to interact more cogently on philosophical, spiritual, intellectual, and humorous levels with both his medieval and modern audiences. - [Abstract]

Language: English

Bell the Cat and Gnaw the Bone: Animals and Proverbs on Misericords (Reinardus. Yearbook of the International Reynard Society, 1991; Series: Volume 4, Issue 1)

Digital resource 

Misericords with secular themes adorned the Catholic churches of Europe froin the thirteenth century until they were banned by counter-Reformation edicts in the mid-sixteenth century. Most of the animals on these misericords can be classified as fabulous monsters. The amorphous forms at Chichester, the scaly monsters created by Andre Sulpice at Rodez and Villefranche-de-Rouergue, and the glaring creatures at Aarschot in Belgium are more typical than exceptional. Their aberrations from the norm and their frightening details signify evil. These monsters provide a logical base for the living statues: the monk, canon, or bishop who sits upon them - a columnar figure who conquers evil by crushing the sins depicted below. When we see a realistic animai on a misericord, one that does not necessarily connote evil, we may ask why it ts there, for it does not suit the misericord as theme or statue base. Why are these animals here? What do they signify? How do they relate to the evil monsters we usually see on misericords? I propose that one must search for symbolic meanings in realistic animal carvings. Some represent the seasons; some represent specific vices. An intriguing possibility is that these animals are actors in proverbs, proverbs that show not the great sins of the world - the cardinal or theological sins - but the small evils, the everyday sins, the character traits and behaviour destructive to work and to interpersonal relationships. - [Author]

Language: English
0925-4757; DOI: 10.1075/rein.4.05blo

Corpus of Medieval Misericords in France (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepolis, 2003)

The Corpus of Medieval Misericords (XIII-XXVI) consists of five volumes; the first four focus on the misericords and related choir stall carvings in specific regions of Europe. The fifth includes an extensive iconographic index of themes common to various countries as well as themes that are unique to a single country.

Volume I of this series, Medieval Misericords in France, covers approximately 300 churches that still contain gothic misericords with carved figures and narratives inspired by oral traditions suh as proverbs and folk tales, as well as by manuscript marginalia, romanesque capitals, illustrated bibles, engravings, playing cards... A vast portrayal of medieval life - rural activities, urban occupations, conjugal relationships, monastic life -- is displayed in these carvings under the seats of choir stalls along with costumes of the times, town and collegiate architecture, mechanical devices. Puns and rebuses are often intertwined with these themes to produce comic and, to twenty-first century eyes, mysterious puzzles. The global view of misericord carvings, generally ignored in studies of medieval art, is here presented as a multidisciplinary basis for further research by sociologists, historians, archeologists and other medieval scholars.

Following volumes include misericords in Iberia, Flemish and borthen Europe, Great Britain." - [Publisher]

Language: English
ISBN: 2-503-51239-9

Choir-Stall Carvings of Reynard and Other Foxes (Berghahn Books, 2000; Series: Reynard the Fox: Cultural Metamorphoses and Social Engagement in the Beast Epic from the Middle Ages to the Present)

In this essay we explore the appearance of scenes from the Beast Epic alongside images from fox lore and other fox motifs in one particular kind of sculpture, namely, the carvings in wood on the underside of the hinged choir-stall seats called misericords. An examination of these carvings in this study is justified by the fact that parts of two of the earliest and best known Reynardian stories, masterpieces of medieval literary art, are to be seen on quite a few misericords alongside other scenes representing episodes in other kinds of fox lore. Furthermore, the scenes chosen by the wood-carvers or their patrons, and their particular forms, reveal interesting variations as they cross linguistic and cultural boundaries, in spite of the fact that they were all housed within the Church’s domain and meant primarily for the eyes of men in holy orders whose lives were dedicated to the Catholic Church. - [Authors]

Language: English
ISBN: 1-57181-737-9

The "Egg" of the Pala Montefeltro by Piero della Francesca and its symbolic meaning (Heidelberg: Universität Heidelberg / Zentrale und Sonstige Einrichtungen, 2003)

Digital resource 

The hanging ovoid object in Piero della Francesca's Montefeltro Altarpiece has long been the subject of controversies with regard to its identification and symbolic meaning. The present article argues that it can only be an ostrich egg (or imitation thereof), intended as an admonitory example. This is supported by further representations as well as by the interpretation of the "Rationale Divinorum Officorum" and a late version of the Greek "Physiologus". It is also born out by the widespread practice of suspending ostrich eggs among Coptic, Armenian, Greek-Orthodox, Latin and Nestorian Christians as well as in Islam. The eggs, often in the context of hanging lamps or lamp crowns, always served as warning or admonitory examples. Their varying emblematic significance is almost always related to the ostrich's behavior towards its eggs, attested in post-classical natural-history tales with allegorical interpretations, which is interpreted as a symbol of man's relationship to God or to religious ideas. - [Author]

Language: English

Animals as Symbolic Devices in Llull and Turmeda (in Antonio Torres-Alcala & Victorio Aguera, ed., Josep Maria Sola-Sole: Homage, homenaje, homenatge: Miscelanea de estudios de amigos y discipulos, Barcelona: Puvill Libros, 1984, page 205-216)

Language: English

Zur Textüberlieferung von Thomas von Cantimpratensis Liber de natura rerum (Archivium Fratrum Praedicatorum, 39, 1969, page 53-68)

Language: German

Silence's Beasts (in Debra Hassig, ed., The Mark of the Beast: The Medieval Bestiary in Art, Life, and Literature, New York: Garland, 1999, page 185-209)

Digital resource 

Examines the influence of bestiaries on Le Roman de Silence.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-8153-2952-0

La tradizione manoscritta del Liber monstrorum de diversis generibus (appunti per l'edizione critica) (in 34:3-4Cultura neolatina: Bollettino dell'Istituto di filologia romanza, 1974, page 337-346)

Details of five Liber monstrorum manuscripts at Leiden, London (B.L.), St. Gallen, Wolfenbuttel and the private library of the Marquis of Rosanbo.

Manuscripts discussed: Wolfenbuttel, Herzog-August-Bibliothek, 4452 Weissenburg; Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, Voss.Lat.8*.60; London, British Library, Royal 15 B XIX; St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, 237; Rosanbo, private library of the Marquis, no shelfmark.

Language: Italian

Le malizie della volpe. Parola letteraria e motivi etnici nel «Roman de Renart» (Rome: Carocci editore, 2006)

Digital resource 1 
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The Roman de Renart is a fundamental building site for those who wish to study and learn about medieval literature in its plurality of aspects: from the history of the production and transmission of texts to their critical and aesthetic interpretation, from the historical, social and intellectual context to the legendary and mythical heritage that seems to date back to a remote age. The reader will find in this book - for the first time in Italian - both an introduction to the knowledge of the most significant parts of this work and a discussion of some of the crucial points in my opinion in its interpretation. For this reason, I have divided the volume into two parts, the first in which the analysis of the texts guides the discourse and provides it with solid anchoring points: these are the first six chapters, in which I focus on some branches in particular, so as to ideally draw a small profile of the eponymous hero, that fox around whose exploits the numerous and anonymous writers have labored, who, in the space of approximately a century, from 1500 to 1505, have given shape and delivered to the memory of French and European literature the genre of zooepic literature. In the textual path I have accompanied the quotations from the originals in Old French with translations into Italian, whenever necessary and in any case with a certain abundance, so that even the reader not initiated to Romance philology would not feel excluded from grasping all the nuances... - [Author]

Language: Italian
ISBN: 978-88-430-3719-3

Vita e morte avventurose di Renart la volpe (Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, 2012)

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Digital resource 2 

«If you allow me, / I will tell you without lies / the life of Renart the fox, / who is the author of so many deceptions, / and who has deceived so many men, / both by cunning and by force: / there is no one he cannot deceive.» This is how the medieval writer presents his hero in one of the stories included in this anthology, which continues on other branches the trunk of the first Romance of Renart the fox published in this series; four of Renart's adventures are reproduced here, branches 24, 12, 7 and 17 according to the classical numbering, from his coming into the world, a parody of the biblical Genesis, to his burlesque and tripled death, therefore fake, as befits a transgressive hero such as ours. And transgression characterizes these stories more than others, because here religion is mocked, its rites, its institutions and genres of discourse: the mass, confessions, funerals; but the target is also the hypocritical religious and the black and white monks whose conduct is satirically depicted by Renart. The theme of the world upside down, the often deliberately obscene language, the constant affirmation of a character, the fox, who seems to embody all the disvalues ??of feudal society, including individualism and exasperated materialism of which he is the unwitting standard-bearer, set the tone for these adventures; the apparatus of notes has been deliberately reduced almost entirely, so that the reader first of all rediscovers the pleasure of knowing these medieval texts, for the first time faithfully translated into Italian from the originals in old French. - [Publisher]

Language: Italian
ISBN: 978-88-6274-390-7

Wood Carvings in English Churches: Misericords (London: Oxford University Press, 1910; Series: Church Art in England)

Digital resource  (Google Books)

An extensive survey of misericords in English churches. Part 1 covers animal images (eastern mythology, classical mythology, the Physiologus and bestiary subjects); Part 2 covers traveller's tales, romances, Aesop, scenes of everyday life, agriculture and trades, sports, seasons, Bible subjects, miracle plays, symbolism and satire; Part 3 covers the use, design and chronology of misericords.

Language: English
LC: NA5050.W6v.1

L'art bestiaire de la cathédrale Saint-Jean de Lyon (Lyons: Impr. Bosc, 1959)

Language: French
LC: NA5551.L9B6

The Aloe-bird in the Coptic Tradition (Aula Orientalis, 2019; Series: 40/2)

Digital resource 

There is a bird in the Coptic tradition whose name is "aloe”. At least three Coptic texts mention the existence of this legendary species of bird of oriental origin whose main feature is the good smell that emanates. These texts state that, by its smell, this bird is capable of attracting other animals towards it. Its smell is also the main reason why it is coveted by kings and, therefore, searched and hunted. The aloe-bird was introduced in the Coptic version of the Physiologus as a manifestation of Christ, with features taken partly from the panther and the phoenix that appear in the original literary work. The allegorical meaning of the bird is to represent Christ. The origin and later fate of this symbol can only be conjectural due to the lack of sources. There are some hints to suggest that it has been the result of a confluence of information from different origins that sparked the imagination of the people. The identification of the aloe in the Coptic art is again hypothetical because of the lack of a description of its physical appearance and the absence of captions identifying it. - [Abstract]

Language: English
0212-5730

The Budapest Concordantiae Caritatis. The Medieval Universe of a Cistercian Abbot in the Picture Book of a Viennese Councilman (Gyula Schöck, 2017)

Digital resource

This book is the commentary volume to the facsimile edition of the Budapest Concordantiae caritatis manuscript from 1413 (Central Library of the Hungarian Province of the Piarist Order, CX 2).

The Budapest Concordantiae caritatis possesses an almost inexhaustible wealth of images created by a collective of seven artists whose personal styles represent at least two distinct regions of medieval Europe and who used a great variety of models originating from both the 14th and the early 15th centuries. The manuscript thus provides an extraordinary opportunity for studying the circulation of visual ideas between ages and among artists. Allowing insight into the workshop of seven painters, the manuscript invites us to study the conception of images, and, as a result, to glimpse art works in their complete, multi-layered historicity. ... Addressing his work to poor clerics having no access to well equipped libraries and compiling it for the benefit of simple laymen, Ulrich von Lilienfeld aimed to cover a whole universe of knowledge: everything that seemed to be important for the understanding of the divine plan of salvation. - [Author]

Language: English
978-963-12-9121-6

A Description of Three Hundred Animals,: Viz. Beasts, Birds, Fishes, Serpents and Insects (London: H Woodall, 1769)

Digital resource  (Google Books)

A description of many animals, both real and mythical, with many references to Bestiary attributes. Illustrated with copper plate engravings.

Language: English

The Book Of Imaginary Beings (London: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1969)

Borges draws on sources ranging from Chinese legends to the works of Kafka and C. S. Lewis. The 1970 edition of the book describes about 120 "beings", some of which are from the bestiary.

Originally published as Libro de los seres imaginarios. Revised, enlarged and translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni in collaboration with the author.

Republished: Cape, 1970; Avon, 1970; Penguin, 1984.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-14-003709-8; LC: GR825; DDC: 398/.469; LCCN: 78-87180; OCLC: 12511080

Thomas de Cantimpré : indiqué comme une des sources où Albert-le-Grand et surtout Maerlant ont puisé les matériaux de leurs écrits sur l'histoire naturelle (Brussels: Academie Royale de Belgique, 1800s)

Digital resource (Google Books)

Thomas de Cantimpre as a source for the natural histories of Albertus Magnus and Jacob van Maerlant.

"Academie Royale de Belgique. Extr. du t. XIX, no. 1, des Bulletins." 30 p.

Language: French
OCLC: 43153611

Cynocephali and Blemmyae. Congenital anomalies and medieval exotic races (Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd, December, 1999, page 143-151)

In the mediaeval Dutch manuscript ('On the flowers of nature') by Jacob van Maerlant (circa 1230-circa 1296), an encyclopaedia of descriptions of people, animals, plants and minerals dating from about 1270, many illustrations refer to the text. An intriguing part of the book is called 'Vreemde volkeren' ('Exotic people'). In another manuscript of Van Maerlant, Dit is die istory van Troyen ('The history of Troyes') in the chapter 'De wonderen van het Verre Oosten' ('The miracles of the Far East') the exotic people are also described. These exotic people have many features similar to congenital malformations. 'Hippopodes' are probably based on the lobster claw syndrome, 'Cynocephali' on anencephaly, 'Arimaspi' on cyclopia, 'Blemmyae' on acardiacus, the double-faced on diprosopus, 'Sciopods' on polydactyly and 'Antipodes' on the sirenomelia sequence.

Language: Dutch

Le Roman de Renart (Paris: Hatier-Boivin, 1957; Series: Connaissance des lettres, 49)

Digital resource 

A series of pleasant tales composed from about 1175 to the middle of the 11th century and artificially grouped, this is what has been agreed to call the Roman de Renard. The word "novel", which then designates long organized poems, like the Roman de Brut or the Roman de Trove, applies here to a collection of disparate stories, written independently of each other, at different dates and by different authors; and if it is permissible to speak of a novel, it must be understood in the broader sense of narration in the vulgar language, whatever its nature and extent. As the tales thus collected put the character of Renard in the foreground, it follows that the novel to which it gave its name is nothing other than a collection of stories of which the fox is the hero. If it was possible, from the end of the twelfth century, to conceive of a Fox Novel as a coherent whole, it is because there existed between the tales in which the fox appears an indelible kinship. Apart from a few late epigones, which moreover offer only a derisory reflection of the primitive themes, it is always Fox who leads the game, alone or almost alone against his adversaries, all the animals leagued against him. His name, of Germanic origin, feginhart or Reinhart, does not appear in French before the first traces of our novel, and it is thanks to the rapid and prodigious diffusion of the latter that it was substituted early, in everyday language, for the generic term fox. It is around him that the other characters evolve and, placed at the center of all the adventures, which he often prepares and directs in the direction that suits him, he has quite naturally become the eponymous hero of the animal epic. - [Author]

Chapters: The Manuscript Tradition; Branches of the Renard; Precursors of Roman de Renard; Origin and Sources; Painting the Characters; Parody and Satire; Art and Style; Survival of Renard.

Language: French

Hildegarde de Bingen et l’encyclopédisme médiéval. Le cas des livres animaliers de la Physica (Médiévales, 2016; Series: Volume 70, Issue 1)

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Hildegard of Bingen and Encyclopaedism. The Case of the Books on Animals from the Physica.

Hildegard von Bingen, the German nun of the twelfth century, is nowadays known for her theological works as well as her musical writings or the lingua ignota. However, Hildegard is also the author of a scientific writing : a primary Liber subtilitatum, today known as the Physica, due to the 1533 edition by Jean Schott, in Strasbourg, focuses on the presentation of the natural world, according to the elemental theory. The Physica is an eight books composition dealing with plants, herbs, rocks and animals by series of short notices focusing on peculiar species. In spite of this formal composition, this organization and the thematic subject, the hildegardian opus has been very little linked with the encyclopaedic texts of the twelfth and thirteen centuries and never described according to the problematical features of this medieval genre, in Latin or in vernacular languages. The zoological section of the Physica, from book VI to VIII, will be the medium through which we want to describe this text as concerned in natural philosophy. Dealing with encyclopaedic goals, topics and literary organization, the Physica could actually be considered as a new spot to study how medieval texts could write knowledge. How then the Physica manages to order, classify and name the diversity of the living animals in a determinate section of the nun’s project?

Language: French
HALId: hal-02067259; DOI: 10.4000/medievales.7736

La philosophe à la licorne. Savoir de l’animal et savoir de l’homme dans la Physica de Hildegarde de Bingen (RursuSpicae: Transmission des textes et savoirs de l’Antiquité à la fin du Moyen Âge, 2020; Series: 3 (La conversation des encyclopédistes))

Digital resource 

The Woman Philosopher with the Unicorn. Animal Knowledge and Human Knowledge in Hildegard of Bingen’s Physica

Hildegard of Bingen, abbess and mystic of the twelfth century, devotes a significant part of her scientific writings to the animal world. Through the many records of the last four books of her Physica, she studies the fauna according to traditional criteria of presentation. To some extant, she follows informations that could also be found in encyclopaedias and bestiaries, composed and wide spread in Europe through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. These texts share the same classic and late antique authoritative sources on animals, such as Aristotle, Pliny the Elder, Isidore of Seville and the Physiologus. However, Hildegard seems to take distance from these genres. This article aims to outline her peculiar and personal choices. We show that Hildegard builds for herself an innovative and visionnary autorship figure while recomposing the traditional medieval discourse about fauna in order to reach her own philosophical goal. For example, she tends to leave out the injunctive tone and catechetical purpose of the allegorical writings, as comparisons with the Latin bestiaries could illustrate. Hildegard rather aims for the “subtilities”, invisible and underlying links established between forms of the living world in the universe. In order to do so, the abbess often recomposes the zoological information that was accessible to her. She gives original notices so as to propose to man a way to achieve the knowledge of the natural world which man is not the only owner. Thereby, she draws attention to the role of sight and proposes original models of knowledge throughout the text of the Physica. - [Abstract]

Language: French
2557-8839; DOI: 10.4000/rursuspicae.1321

Aux seuils du monde animal : le bestiaire médiéval du péritexte au métatexte (Perspectives médiévales, 2021; Series: 42)

Digital resource

The peritextual apparatus described by Gérard Genette is an integral part of medieval book production and medieval studies are equiped to treat these productions in the manuscripts they study, whatever the genres are transmitted by them. However, the genettian terminology is not exactly new to medieval studies and the description of “page layout”, or mise en page is often prefered so as to describe the particularity of pre-print culture. This paper would like to measure the relevance of Genette’s theory through the example of French bestiaries production in order to understand the benefit of the use of peritext as a concept. - [Abstract]

Language: English/French/Italian
2262-5534; DOI: 10.4000/peme.36348

Le Roman de Renart est-il une épopée? (Romania, 2008; Series: Volume 126, Number 503/504)

Digital resource 1  (JSTOR)
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The Romance of Renart has often been described as an "animal epic," and Jacques Le Goff saw it as an "epic of hunger." However, the term epic is used in a broad sense, to evoke a kind of fresco with multiple episodes, and in no way claims to offer a generic characterization. We will obviously not dwell on this usage. Another classic connection with the epic lies in this novel's use of themes and techniques from chansons de geste, whose offbeat use has led to its being considered as epic parody. Thus Michéle Gally can write, summarizing the doxa: "Compared to the epic, the Roman de Renart constitutes an anti-song, a song degraded in its stakes, despite the epic theme of feudal wars between barons and between the rebellious baron and the king, from which all religious and national horizon has been evacuated". Jauss already considered that the attitude of the authors was fundamentally parodic with regard to the epic and courtly codes, which they sought to shatter without proposing a replacement structure *. All this is well known, and perhaps too well known. The question we are asking is indeed an idle question if it is a question of determining a generic affiliation, or of saying that there is in the Roman de Renart a "parody" of the chanson de geste. We know that in the Middle Ages the terminology of literary forms was confused and variable, and that the very relevance of the notion of genre was problematic for this literature; the very word epic was also unknown to it, since it only appeared in French in 1675, in a theoretical treatise by Father Le Bossu. - [Author]

Language: French

Reinaert en Renart. Het dierenepos Van den vos Reynaerde vergeleken met de Oudfranse Roman de Renart (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Prometheus, 1991; Series: Nederlandse literatuur en cultuur in de Middeleeuwen, 3)

Digital resource 

The animal epic Van den vos Reynaerde compared to the Old French Roman de Renart.

It is not known exactly when the Old French stories about the fox Renart originated. The written tradition, which is inspired by the Middle Latin Ysengrimus (ca. 1150), is usually said to begin with Pierre de Saint-Cloud. Around 1175 he is said to have described in ‘branche II-Va’ - against the background of the contemporary knightly epic - how the feud between the two barons, Renart the fox and Ysengrin the wolf, began. This first literary Renart story was soon imitated: various authors wrote six other stories up to 1180, and another eleven up to 1205. In the first half of the thirteenth century, ten more appeared. These Renart stories or ‘branches’ initially functioned independently (even though they refer to each other), but were eventually collected in compilations. From the thirteenth century onwards, they have been handed down in a large number of manuscripts and as a whole they form the Roman de Renart. - [Author]

Language: Dutch
ISBN: 978-90-5333-037-1

Taaldaden. Over intertekstualiteit in “Van den vos Reynaerde” (Amsterdam: Prometheus; Series: Op avontuur. Middeleeuwse epiek in de Lage Landen)

Digital resource 

Since the 1980s, intertextuality has been a common concept in literary studies. It indicates that a text is in principle seen as a node in a network of other texts, not as an autonomous artistic expression.Go to footnote1 The meaning of a text is seen in this way not only a result of connections that the text components enter into with each other (parallelism, mirroring, contrasting effects and the like) or of references to the social reality, but also of relationships that can be discerned with one or more other texts. Because medieval literature is largely traditional - the originality of a text consists largely of the new positioning with respect to known texts from the same genre - an intertextual approach has proven to be appropriate and fruitful there. - [Author]

Language: Dutch
ISBN: 978-90-5333-675-5

Van den vos reynaerde and branch I of the Roman de renart tradition and originality in a Middle Dutch beast epic ( Neophilologus, 1992; Series: Volume 76, Issue 4)

Digital resource 

It is important that Romance scholars from other countries become acquainted with this research, not only as an addition to the reception history of Old French texts, but also as a correction of their often outdated views on Middle Dutch adaptations. Since these Romance scholars often have insufficient knowledge of the Dutch language, Netherlandists more and more often take the trouble to present their findings in English or in French at conferences of international societies like the Société Rencesvals (for the chanson de geste) and the Société Internationale Arthurienne (for Arthurian literature), and to publish them in these languages. A similar intention lies behind this contribution, in which I will give an account of my comparison between the Middle Dutch beast epic Van den vos Reynaerde and its Old French source, the Roman de Renart. Van den vos Reynaerde is one of the highlights of Middle Dutch literature and has therefore been translated several times, even recently. Every non-Dutch comparatist can therefore become acquainted with it, but a short summary of the text would seem to be useful at this point. - [Author]

Language: English

Van den vos Reynaerde and Branch VIII of the Roman de Renart (Reinardus,, 1992; Series: Volume 5, Issue 1)

Digital resource 

it is generally known that the plot of the Middle Dutch animal epic Van den vos Reynaerde derives from Le Jugement, the Branch that most manuscripts of the Roman de Renart open with. Both the French fox and his Dutch counterpart are accused by the wolf and the cock at King Lion’s court. And just like Renart, Reinaert is arraigned three times, first by the bear, then by the cat, and finally by the badger, who leads him to court. They are both sentenced to death but manage to reconcile themselves with the king. Both leave the court dressed up as a pilgrim, beat up the hare and mock the king. In spite of these similarities the Dutch poet, a certain Willem, reshaped Branch I quite freely. This appears mainly, but certainly not exclusively, from the new way in which the fox escapes his execution. In Branch I Renart begs the king to allow him to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The king grants his permission. In the Dutch poem Reinaert escapes not through royal mercy but through his own rhetorical talents, put to use in a speech of several hundred verses. - [Author]

Language: English
0925-4757; DOI: 10.1075/rein.5.04bou

Of Reynaert the Fox : Text and Facing Translation of the Middle Dutch Beast Epic Van den vos Reynaerde (Amsterdam University Press, 2009)

Digital resource 

The present edition of Van den vos Reynaerde with its translation into English on facing pages hopes to bridge the gap between this thirteenth-century text and non-Dutch readers. They are likely to find it as fresh and entertaining as it was when it was first written. It will enable them to get acquainted with, for example, the author’s composition technique, his lively style, his preference for striking descriptive details, his wit and his deeply cynical outlook on life. Text and translation are accompanied by explanatory notes (to be found at the bottom of the page). A glossary, short introduction to Middle Dutch and suggestions for further reading conclude this volume. First, however, this introduction will discuss the literary tradition of the medieval beast epic and facts known about the author. It will also provide a brief summary and note major features of the tale, the implied audience and the transmission and reception of the work. - [Authors]

Based on manuscript Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Cod.poet. et phil.fol.22.

Language: English

Medieval Monsters (London: British Library, 2015)

Digital resource

An online exhibition of some of the British Library manuscripts that show the monstrous human races and other monstrous beasts.

Language: English

Monsters and Grotesques in Medieval Manuscripts (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002)

...describes the rich and varied symbolism of mosters, as depicted in an extensive range of medieval manuscripts from the British Library's collections, and lends a special insight into the medieval imagination. ... Alixe Bovey was a curator in the Department of Manuscripts at the Biritish Library [now Head of Research at The Courtauld Institute of Art]. - [Publisher]

Language: English
ISBN: 0-8020-8512-1

A Letter from Prester John (ca. 1165-1170) (Black Central European Studies Network)

Digital resource

A brief description of Prester John and his letter, with an English translation of version of the letter, including the original text and some of the additions.

Language: English

'All's Fowl in Love and War': Birds in Medieval Literature (Furman Studies, 30, 1984, page 1-17)

Language: English

Walters Ms. W.199, Gossouin of Metz, Image du Monde (From the Page, 2021)

Digital resource

An incomplete transcription of L'Image du Monde by Gossuin de Metz from manuscript Walters Art Museum, Ms. W.199.

Language: English/French

The Lure of Creatures True and Legendary (Canada: Davis & Henderson Limited, 1978)

A series of stories, based partly on Chinese folklore. Two stories involve the fox-trickster character of Yakan, messenger of Inari, goddess of the rice harvest.

Also includes an essay, "The Mythic Panther", comparing the Panther of the Physiologus with the panther in the writings of Aristotle, Pliny the Elder, and Aelian, with reference to other classical and medieval writers.

Language: English

Castoreum en bevergeil (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 2003)

A short article on the castration theme represented by the beaver.

Language: Dutch

De Ouderliefde van de pelikaan (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 2003)

A short article on the bestiary pelican theme, with illustrations.

Language: Dutch

Fragments d'un Ms. du "Roman de Renart" Conservé aux Archives de l'État a Namur (Romania, 1961; Series: Volume 82, Number 397 (3))

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

A transcription of and commentary on two manuscript fragments of the Roman de Renart in manuscript Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België, Ms. IV 852 / 4, formerly kept at the Archives de l'Etat à Namur in Belgium. Brayer designates this text as manuscript q. The two leaves were used as covers for files.

Language: French

An Encyclopedist of the Dark Arges: Isidore of Seville (New York: Columbia University Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, 1912; Series: 48)

Digital resource  (Digital Text Library)

A biography of Isidore of Seville, followed by an English translation of selections of the Etymologies. The introduction includes: Isidore's life and writings; Isidore's relation to previous culture.

Reprinted in 1972 by Burt Franklin Reprints, New York.

Language: English

The Career of the Cockatrice (Isis, 70:1 (March), 1979, page 30-47)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

The author traces the changes in the name cockatrice, relating it to the crocodile, regulus and basilisk through references to various classical and medieval writers. The use of the cockatrice in alchemy is also examined.

Language: English

Old Georgian phrases and sentences 67 (Physiologus § 13) (hmmlorientalia Blog, 2015; Series: September 18, 2015)

Digital resource

The text this time is longer than others in the series, but here is the whole of Physiologus in Georgian. The Georgian version was published by Marr (in asomtavruli, with Armenian) and later by Gigineišvili and E. Giunašvili. - [Author]

Language: English/Georgian

The Cambridge Reinaert Fragments (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)

Digital resource 

The Reinaert Fragments are a collection of seven pages of a Middle Dutch poem attributed to the fifteenth-century Flemish writer Hinrek van Alckmer, and printed in Antwerp in about 1487. This book, originally published in 1927, contains photographic reproductions of the pages, alongside clear transcriptions of the text and three beautiful woodcut illustrations. Karl Breul's detailed introduction sketches the history and development of the story of Reynard the Fox, from its origins in oral tradition and the medieval beast epic to Goethe's famous 'Reinecke Fuchs', indicating the place of the Reinaert poem amongst the various verse and prose versions. The book also includes a corrected version of the van Alckmer fragments, and examines their relationship with the Reinaert II and Reinke texts. The book will be useful to those studying Middle Dutch and Middle Low German literature or printing history, and others interested in the Reynard story. - [Publisher]

The purpose of the present book is to make the unique ‘Culemann Fragments’ (preserved for more than half a century among the treasures of our University Library) accessible to students of Old Netherlandish and Old German literature by an exact photographic reproduction of the seven precious leaves. A brief account of the rise and development of the Medieval Beast Epic has been added in order to indicate the place they hold among the various verse and prose versions of the Reinaert story. The juxta- position of the Netherlandish and the Lubeck texts makes it evident that Hinrek van Alckmer’s ‘Reinaert’ is the immediate source of the famous Low German ‘Reinke de Vos’ from which nearly all subsequent versions are either translated or adapted. - [Author, 1927]

Language: English
ISBN: 978-0-511-70764-3; DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511707643

Talking wolves, golden fish, and lion sex: The alterations to gerald of wales's topographia hibernica as evidence of audience disbelief? (Parergon, 2020; Series: Volume 37, Issue 1)

Digital resource

In his Topographia Hibernica, Gerald of Wales describes many Irish wonders, including talking werewolves, animal-human hybrids, and bestiality. Version III, written c. 1189-93 (after a recitation in Oxford in 1188/9), defends the truth of these particular wonders. Gerald's reactive revisions endorse the reality of the unnamed critic he attacks in the Expugnatio Hibernica (first written in 1189), whose objections seem to concern hexameral categories. The Oxford recitation of 1188/9 was probably where the critic raised these objections. A later critic, William de Montibus, bemoaned Gerald's consideration of bestiality as a legitimate object of ethnological discourse.

Language: English
ISSN: 0313-6221; DOI: 10.1353/PGN.2020.0057

Prester John: The Legend and its Sources (Routledge, 2019)

Digital resource

The legend of Prester John has received much scholarly attention over the last hundred years, but never before have the sources been collected and coherently presented to readers. This book now brings together a fully-representative set of texts setting out the many and various sources from which we get our knowledge of the legend. These texts, spanning a time period from the Crusades to the Enlightenment, are presented in their original languages and in English translation (for many it is the first time they have been available in English). ... In order to orient the reader, each of these iterations is explained in the comprehensive introduction, and in the introductions to texts and sections. ... The book is completed with three valuable appendices: a list of all known references to Prester John in medieval and early modern sources, a thorough description of the manuscript traditions of the all-important Prester John Letter, and a brief description of Prester John in the history of cartography. - [Publisher]

Language: English
ISBN: 978-0-367-87904-4

Bestiare taurin: Symbole et mythe (Liege: University de Liege, 1985)

"Bull Bestiary: Symbol and Myth." Degree dissertation at the University de Liege.

Language: French
PQDD: 3163C

Gargoyles, Chimeres, and the Grotesque in French Gothic Sculpture (New York: Da Capo Press, 1969; Series: Architecture and Decorative Art 21)

A survey of French stone and wood sculpture in the 12th and 13th centuries. There are some animal images in the plates.

Language: English
LCCN: 68-27724; LC: NB543.B71969

Love Letters to Bare Bones: A Comparison of Two Types of Evidence for the Use of Animals in Medieval Novgorod (in Mark Maltby, Medieval Animals, Cambridge: Archaeological Review from Cambridge 18, 2002, page 100-118)

Language: English

Books of Beasts in the British Library: the Medieval Bestiary and its context (London: British Library)

Digital resource

A virtual tour of the Bestiary manuscripts in the British Library, with many illustrations. Sections: The origins of the medieval bestiary; English bestiaries and their beasts; Beast studies and beast stories; Beasts in the margins; Further reading.

Language: English

Medieval Bestiary: The Crane (London: British Library)

Collections of animal legends helped to explain the living world. Inspired by a story in an early medieval illustrated bestiary (Harley MS 4751), this animation explores the life of the crane.

Video, 2:20 minutes, animated, with transcription

Language: English

Medieval Bestiary: The Whale (London: British Library)

Digital resource

The Whale was the terror of the seas, a danger to sailors who often mistook it for an island and anchored their ships on its back. Inspired by a tale from an illustrated medieval bestiary (Harley MS 4751), this animation explores the life of the sea-creature beneath the waves.

Video, 1:37 minutes, animated

Language: English

The Myth of the Phoenix According to Classical and Early Christian Tradition (Leiden: Brill, 1972)

Language: English

Reinhart Fuchs (Kassel: Johannes Stauda Verlag, 1985; Series: Kasseler Handschriftenschätze)

Digital resource

A description on the manuscript fragment of Reineke Fuchs in manuscript Universitätsbibliothek Kassel, 8° Ms. poet. et roman. 1. With notes on the author (Heinrich) and on Reineke Fuchs.

...the epic can be found in the author's lexicon under the heading Heinrich, author of "Reinhart Fuchs." Nothing is known about this Heinrich, who probably lived in Alsace. He is outlined exclusively through this work, but also through allusions to contemporary criticism and an obvious anti-Staufen attitude. He must have been well-read and well-versed in legal matters, otherwise he would not have been able to describe the trial against Reinhart Fuchs so precisely. In terms of content, the 2266-verse work is based on fables that are already known from antiquity; However, it is not certain whether it goes back directly to the Old French Roman de Renart (12th century), a collection of animal anecdotes, or to older models, as Jacob Grimm and later many others assumed. - [Author]

Language: German

Bestiary lessons on pride and lust (in Debra Hassig, ed., The Mark of the Beast: The Medieval Bestiary in Art, Life, and Literature, New York: Garland, 1999, page 53-70)

Digital resource 

Investigates the animals associated with the most deadly sin of pride, as part of bestiary instruction.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-8153-2952-0

The Vernacular Universe: Gossuin de Metz’s Image du Monde, Translatio Studii, and Vernacular Narrative (Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2013; Series: Volume 44, Issue 2)

Digital resource 

This article argues that Gossuin de Metz's Image du monde is indebted to both the Latin encyclopedic tradition and vernacular narrative, particularly the romances of Chrétien de Troyes. As the first vernacular encyclopedia, the Image du monde forges space as a new genre by combining these previous forms through the key notion of translatio studii. Not only is the medieval encyclopedia dependent on the transfer of knowledge from one language and culture to another, but Gossuin’s deployment of the translatio topos throughout his work evokes vernacular narratives. In this way, the Image du monde performs a transmission of learning from Latin to the vernacular as well as a transfer of scientific knowledge from a clerical audience to a broader audience familiar with narrative. The three different redactions of the Image du monde, although not all attributed to Gossuin, relate to Old French narratives particularly through the prosification of romance. - [Abstract]

Language: English
2031-0234; : 

Gerald of Wales and the "Topography of Ireland": Authorial Agendas in Word and Image (Journal of Irish Studies , 2005; Series: Volume 20)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

Gerald composed the Topography in 1186-8, after his travels in Ireland in 1183 and with Prince John in 1185. He produced a second edition before Henry II's death in 1189, followed by a third, fourth and various ‘late’ editions before his death in 1223. I shall suggest that his sojourn in Lincoln from 1196-8 may well have witnessed the formulation of an illustrative programme by Gerald or under his supervision, or that he may already have formulated it and have introduced it to the Lincoln Cathedral scriptorium. Of the surviving early manuscript copies, that in the National Library of Ireland in Dublin is closest to the original core of this programme, whilst that in the British Library in London probably represents a visual and textual elaboration by those who knew the author at Lincoln, probably conducted under his personal supervision, either during his stay there in 1196-8 or following his retirement to Lincoln from 1207 / 1208. - [Author]

Language: English

Marvels of the West: Giraldus Cambrensis and the Role of the Author in the Development of Marginal Illustration (English Manuscript Studies (British Library), 10, 2002, page 34-59)

The manuscripts of the Topographia Hibernica and other works by Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) are examined, with particular focus on the marginal illustrations. The author proposes that Giraldus was involved in the program of marginal illustrations for the manuscripts of his works. The author also makes comparisons to the illustrations and text of the bestiary manuscripts. - [Abstract]

Language: English
ISBN: 0-7123-4732-1; LC: Z115E5E55

The Unicorn: A Mythological Investigation (London: Longmans Green & Co., 1881)

Digital resource  (Google Books)

This little brochure is a contribution, however humble, to the science of psychology; not merely a notice of curious, still less of idle, fancies. The study of man to be successful must commence with his earlier, that is to say, simpler, phases. The 'solar myth,' vaguely so called, is often ridiculed but never by anyone who has carefully examined it; and the history of the Lion and the Unicorn exhibits one aspect of the ideas of Time and Kosmic Order as shown in the most obvious divisions of period - Day and Night. The indirect influence of our present civilization and the repetition of phenomena produce a sadly deadening effect upon the vast majority of minds as regards appreciation of the external world, and render it extremely difficult for us to place ourselves near the mental standpoint of primitive, or even of archaic, man. We do not wonder at the sun, or at the genius which has contrived by the use of only ten signs to express any number, or indeed at anything which, though marvellous in itself, is somewhat familiar to the senses and ordinary apprehension. Even scientific research often resolves itself into an anatomical dissection, which is equivalent to the knowledge of the way about a cathedral, combined with an appreciation of the principles of masonry, but accompanied by total ignorance of, or utter indifference to, the real forces which produced the building. With respect to the evidence adduced in the particular case, its combined weight is specially to be considered; the various points are not links in a chain, the failure in any one of which is fatal, but items in a description. - [Author]

Pseudodoxia Epidemica: Or, Enquiries into very many Received Tenents and commonly presumed Truths (1646, 1672)

Digital resource

Also known as "Vulgar Errors", this seventeenth-century text is an attempt to correct the many "errors" in earlier texts. Book 3, "Of divers popular and received Tenents concerning Animals, which examined, prove either false or dubious" describes and debunks many of the fabulous stories told about animals in the Middle Ages.

Language: English

Barthelemy of England (Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge (ARLIMA), 2023)

Digital resource

Information on Bartholomaeus Anglicus and his encyclopedia, De proprietatbus rerum. Includes a (partial) list of manuscripts, and lists of editions and studies.

Language: French

Le couronnement de Renart (Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge (ARLIMA), 3035)

Digital resource

Lists of manuscripts and editions, and a bibliography, of the Reynard the Fox variant Le couronnement de Renart.

Language: French

Gerald of Wales (Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge (ARLIMA), 2022)

Digital resource

Reference page for the works of Gerald of Wales. Lists of works, manuscripts, bibliography.

Language: French

Gossuin de Metz (Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge (ARLIMA), 2022)

Digital resource

A list of the manuscripts of L'Image du Monde by Gossuin de Metz, plus references to editions, studies and translations of the work.

Language: French

Jacob van Maerlant (Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge (ARLIMA), 2022)

Digital resource

Information on the works of Jacob van Maerlant, including Der Naturen Bloems. With bibliographies, lists of manuscripts, and references to editions.

Language: French

Pierre de Beauvais (Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge (ARLIMA), 2021)

Digital resource

A listing of all the known works by Pierre de Beauvais (including the Bestiaire, with references to manuscripts and a bibliography.

Language: French

Reinhart Fuchs (Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge (ARLIMA), 2020)

Digital resource 

Lists of manuscripts and editions, and a bibliography, of the Reynard the Fox variant Reinhart Fuchs.

Language: French

Renart le bestourné (Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge (ARLIMA), 2024)

Digital resource

Lists of manuscripts and editions, and a bibliography, of the Reynard the Fox variant Renart le bestourné.

Language: French

Renart le contrefait (Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge (ARLIMA), 2025)

Digital resource

Lists of manuscripts and editions, and an extensive bibliography, of the Reynard the Fox variant Renart le contrefait.

Language: French

Renart le nouvel (Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge (ARLIMA), 2024)

Digital resource

Lists of manuscripts and editions, and a bibliography, of the Reynard the Fox variant Renart le nouvel.

Language: French

Richard de Fournival (Archives de Littérature du Moyen Age (ARLIMA), 2022)

Digital resource

A list of the works of Richard de Fournival, including extensive bibliographies and lists of manuscripts with links to descriptions.

Language: French

Le roman de Renart (Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge (ARLIMA), 2025)

Digital resource

An extensive list of resources for the study of Le Roman de Renart, including manuscripts, editions and other works.

Language: French

Van den vos Reynaerde (Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge (ARLIMA), 2025)

Digital resource

Lists of manuscripts and editions, and a bibliography, of the Reynard the Fox variant Van den vos Reynaerde.

Language: French

Ysengrimus (Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge (ARLIMA), 2025)

Digital resource

A reference to materials about the Ysengrimus. Bibliography, editions, translations and studies.

Language: French

Agyptische Mythen im Physiologus (zu Kapitel 26, 25 und 11) (in Wolfgang Helck, ed., Festschrift für Siegfried Schott zu Seinem 70. Geburtstag am 20. August 1967, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1968, page 13-44)

A discussion of Egyptian myths found in the Physiologus, with references (including hieroglyphics) from many manuscripts and other sources.

Language: German
LC: PJ1026.S3

The Isopo Laurenziano (Columbus, OH: Lawrence Press, 1899)

Digital resource  (Google Books)

The Italian versions of the Fables of Aesop and other Italian fable collections. Includes a list of manuscripts.

Includes a transcription of Aesop's fables (in Italian) from Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut.42.30. "Edited with notes and an introduction treating of the interrelation of the Italian fable collection".

Language: English

De Illuminerede Haandskrifter fra Middelalderen i Det Store Kongelige Bibliothek (Copenhagen: Kongelige Bibliothek, 1890)

Digital resource 

A catalog of manuscripts held by the Kongelige Bibliotek (Copenhagen), including two bestiaries:

Bestiary of Ann Walsh (Gl. kgl. S. 1633 4*) - Page 117-118.

Bestiare (Gl. kgl. S. 3466 8*) - Page 93.

Language: Danish

The New Reynard: Three Satires: Renart le Bestourné, Le Couronnement de Renart, Renart le Nouvel (Boydell & Brewer, 2023)

Digital resource 

A translation of three works from the second half of the 13th century: Rutebeuf's Renart le Bestourné, the anonymous Le Couronnement de Renart and Jacquemart Gielée's Renart le Nouvel. These savage and highly entertaining satires are in a league of their own, and Renart le Nouvel contains important music which is reproduced in the text. Rarely can a medieval work have resonated with the mood of the present as uncannily as do these three satires. Acerbic, raging and finally apocalyptic, these poems from the second half of the thirteenth century, richly entertaining and wickedly comic though they are, express a vision of the world and its descent into corruption and disaster which mirrors our own state of rampant alarm. The animal tales of the 12th- and 13th-century Roman de Renart - the Romance of Reynard the Fox - were immensely popular. Any satire in those original tales was generally light of touch, but the characters created in them, fox and wolf and ass and lion to name but four, were an open invitation to anyone of a more scathing satirical bent. The poet Rutebeuf, in his short but startling Renart le Bestourné ('Reynard Transformed'), deploys the beasts to make a venomous attack on the mendicant orders and on 'Saint' Louis IX of France. The anonymous Le Couronnement de Renart ('Reynard Crowned') then has the Fox crowned king, establishing a reign of every vice. And most ambitiously of all, Jacquemart Gielée in his Renart le Nouvel ('The New Reynard'), gripped by an increasingly pervasive sense of apocalypse, ends his poem with the Fox, the epitome of deceit and lying, not merely crowned king, but seated in permanent, malign control of the world atop a chocked, unturning Fortune's Wheel. The New Reynard is of special interest not only to students of medieval literature but also to musicologists. Music, in the form of numerous songs, plays an important part in Renart le Nouvel's satirical and apocalyptic message, and the poem is renowned as the most abundant source of late medieval refrains. The notations have survived, and the music is edited in this volume by Matthew P. Thomson. - [Publisher]

Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-80010-989-6

Sirenas, monstruos y leyendas: bestiario marítimo (Segovia: Sociedad Estatal Lisboa, 1998; Series: Coleccion Los narradores y el mar 6)

Introduccion de Rafael de Cozar.

120 p.

Language: Spanish
ISBN: 84-95152-02-9; LCCN: 00296420

Megenberg aus zweiter Hand : uberlieferungsgeschichtliche Studien zur Redaktion B des Buchs von den naturlichen Dingen (Hildesheim ; New York: Olms, 1993; Series: Germanistische Texte und Studien, Bd. 42)

Redaction B of Das Buch der Natur by Konrad von Megenberg.

Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral) - Katholische Universitat Eichstatt, 1990.

Language: German
ISBN: 3-487-09733-8; LCCN: 93-194631; LC: QH41.K753; DDC: 508; OCLC: 28801502

The Virgin Phoenix (Mediaeval Studies, 38, 1976, page 332-350)

Language: English

Studies in the Early Editions of the "Fiore di virtù" (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1958; Series: The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America Vol. 49, No. 4 (Fourth Quarter, 1955))

Digital resource (JSTOR)

Research on the Fiore di virtù, a fifteenth century Italian book of animal fables and moralizations.

Language: English

Figurations renardiennes et moralités dans les épigones du Roman de Renart (Mosaïque, revue de jeunes chercheurs en SHS, 2016; Series: Number 13)

Digital resource 

This paper deals with the representation given in the late Reynard the fox cycle of adventures. It tackles the manuscripts of Renart le Nouvel and Le Roman de Renart le Contrefait. This cycle stands out from traditional fox’s adventures because it introduces allegory as well as a strong tendency to satire and raising of moral standards. The iconography concerning Reynard particularly holds our attention. The wish is clearly to move away from tradition and to present new episodes, including allegorical ones. Our analysis concerns the way the iconography accompanies these profound changes. - [Abstract]

Language: French
DOI: 10.54563/mosaique.2099

Fantasticheskii bestiarii (Sankt-Peterburg: Izd-vo KN, 1995; Series: Antologiia tain, chudes i zagadok)

258 p., illustrations.

Language: Russian
ISBN: 5-88756-013-4; LCCN: 96174761; LC: GR825.B851995

"Bieste à chief d’oliphant”. L’anabulla dans la Chevalerie Judas Maccabée (Paris, BnF, Fr. 15104) inspirée du Liber de natura rerum de Thomas de Cantimpré (Reinardus, 2019; Series: 30)

Digital resource 

The Chivalry of Judas Maccabee and His Noble Brothers, a verse novel dated 1285, repeatedly uses animals as symbolic narrative motifs. Certain animals (including the anabulla, one of the names for the giraffe in the 13th century) are borrowed from the Liber de natura rerum (LDNR) by Thomas de Cantimpré. The analysis of the text of La Chevalerie and the illustration of its only manuscript witness (Paris, BnF Fr. 15104) shows that the author was not inspired by the text of Thomas de Cantimpré, but by the illustration of the manuscript 320 of Valenciennes (witness of the LDNR), whose iconographic program (of which the instructions for the illuminator have been preserved in the marginal notes) presents deviations from the textual content – ??errors which will be transmitted in later illuminated witnesses of the LDNR. Thus, the anabulla and the aloy are represented there as elephants, whereas it is respectively a giraffe and an elk. The author of La Chevalerie describes these two animals as elephants in his novel, thereby showing that his source is not the Latin text of the LDNR, but “faulty” illustrations of a particular handwritten witness. - [Abstract]

Language: French
DOI: 10.1075/rein.00013.buq; HALId: halshs-02106597

Décrire les couleurs de la girafe (Presses universitaires François Rabelais, 2021; Series: Dans l’atelier de Michel Pastoureau. Hommages de nombreux amis et collègues)

Digital resource 

In his Liber de natura rerum, Thomas de Cantimpré says of the giraffe (oraflus) that it is impossible to convey the variety of colors with which it is marked (pellem vero ita diversimode notatam omnium colorum generibus, ut frustra homo temptet artificio naturalem eius pulcritudinem imitari). The image illustrates a handwritten witness to the versified translation into Middle Dutch by Jacob van Maerlant of Thomas1's Liber de natura rerum. This translation is faithful to the Latin original for the passage that interests us; the miniaturist (who had probably never seen a giraffe) tried to take literally what the text says, and represented the multi-colored appearance of the quadruped with distinct bands, blue, yellow, green and red. This difficulty in describing and representing the color and structure of the giraffe's coat was common in medieval times.

Language: French
978-2-86906-788-2; HALId: halshs-03437206

Dyrin, un programme de recherche sur la faune du Grand Nord (University of Caen Normandy, 2017; Series: Les Échos du Craham, 24/01/2017)

Digital resource

Dyrin is not an acronym: it is a word from the Scandinavian languages, the plural of dyr , which means "animal". The Dyrin project aims to create a corpus of texts relating to the knowledge of Arctic and subarctic fauna from Late Antiquity up to 1600. The main axis will be the transmission of zoological knowledge on this fauna which was still poorly known before explorations of the modern era. As a counterpoint to the research carried out on the history of exotic African and Asian fauna, work on the fauna of the Far North will make it possible to better understand a zoological exoticism coming from the cold, for animals even less well known than the fauna of the south, the ancient zoology having transmitted very little information about them. - [Author]

Language: French
2552-3139

De l'écume au sperme: Hypothèses médiévales sur l’ambre de baleine (Médiévales, 2021; Series: 80)

Digital resource 

From Foam to Sperm. Medieval Hypotheses on the Origins of Ambergris

The origin of ambergris has been debated for a long time, from the Middle Ages to modern times. The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of Arabic scholarship on knowledge about ambergris in the medieval West, particularly as transmitted by the medical literature produced in the Salerno school of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Persian and Arabic texts written from the ninth century CE included many hypotheses on the origin of this substance: it was seen as a bitumen, a plant, some kind of solidified sea foam or the excrement of a sea animal; in fact, in each of these cases, the actual process of its transformation was not fully understood (it was not before the eighteenth century). In the Latin world, these explanations were spread by various translations of medical literature, as ambergris was used in perfumes and in medication. Beginning in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a new conjecture spread in Europe, without any reference to Arabic sources, describing ambergris as the sperm of the whale. Here we try to understand the origin of this legend, in relation to medieval knowledge on organic matters extracted from whales (spermaceti, oil), and possibly linked to other hypotheses mentioned by Arabic authors. - [Abstract]

Language: French
DOI: 10.4000/medievales.11290

Fact Checking: Can Ostriches Digest Iron? (Medieval Animal Data Network (blog on Hypotheses.org), 2013)

Digital resource 1 
Digital resource 2 

One of the most striking imaginary properties about an animal in the Middle Ages concerns the ostrich's ability to eat and digest iron. The paper presents several experiments which took place both in Islamic and Christian areas, from the tenth to the sixteenth century, trying to check if this legend was true or not, even if the result was the killing of the animal.

Language: English
HALId: halshs-00905413

La faune exotique dans le Liber de natura rerum de Thomas de Cantimpré. Quels nouveaux apports? (Louvain-la-Neuve: CRAHAM - Centre Michel de Boüard - Centre de recherches archéologiques et historiques anciennes et médiévales, 2022; Series: Bilan et perspectives des études sur les encyclopédies médiévales : Orient-Occident, le ciel, l’homme, le verbe, l’animal (Textes, Études, Congrès (33))

Digital resource

Speculum Arabicum Intersecting Perspectives on Medieval Encyclopaedism. Proceedings of the International Conference at Louvain-la-Neuve and Cambron-Casteau, 22-24 May 2017.

In the Middle Ages, the knowledge of exotic foreign fauna (African and Indian) owes much to the transmission of ancient authors (Aristotle, Pliny, Solin) and the first Christian authors (Physiologus, Isidore of Seville, Fathers of the Church). Yet we observe, especially in the 13th century, the appearance of new knowledge in encyclopedias and other related natural history texts. This new knowledge owes little to ancient authorities and is the result of new contributions, linked to direct observation (animals in menageries) or to vernacular knowledge (travellers, merchants, hunters, fishermen, sailors, etc.). This is particularly the case for the little-known animals of northern Europe, highlighting an exoticism from the cold, in the context of increased exchanges with the Scandinavian world. The presentation will attempt to highlight these contributions, particularly in the introduction of new species or new zoonyms in the inventory of the living world, but also in the additional information provided on ancient knowledge. Our investigation will focus mainly on Thomas of Cantimpré and Albert the Great, with additions from Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Vincent of Beauvais and Alexander Neckam. We will try to highlight the fundamental contribution of Thomas de Cantimpré in this enrichment of the medieval exotic animal world, by comparing it with the approach of his contemporaries. - [Abstract]

Language: French
HAL: hal-02139436

La girafe moralisée (Zürich: XXIe congrès de la société internationale renardienne, 2015)

Digital resource

Isidore of Seville reports, according to Pliny, the existence of the camelopardalis, described as a spotted animal, reminiscent of the leopard, the camel, the horse and the ox. The Ordinary Gloss will take up and comment on this description in a list of animals from Deuteronomy. The Middle Ages were unaware for a long time that this “camel-leopard” referred to the giraffe, very rarely seen in Europe in medieval times. This “philological” animal, with its disparate forms, has sometimes given rise to allegorical comments, from Raban Maur to the moralized encyclopedias of the 13th and 14th centuries, based in particular on Isidore and the Gloss. Each element of the description of this animal will serve as support for moral exegesis: cloven hooves, spots, neck, as well as rumination, noted by Barthélemy l’Anglais by analogy with the camel and the biblical laws on clean animals. Between description inherited from Antiquity and presence in the Bible, the camelopardalis, despite its status as a philological animal, disconnected from any zoological reality, will give rise to a wide variety of moral interpretations.

Language: French
HALId: halshs-01308128

La girafe, belle inconnue des bibles médiévales. Camelopardalis : un animal philologique (Anthropozoologica, 2008; Series: 43 (2))

Digital resource 

The Bible, in its Latin version, contributed to call attention to the Christian Occident to the existence of the camelopardalis (camel-panther or camel-leopard), a term referring to the giraffe in Greek and Latin in the Antiquity, and which had been used to translate a misidentified Hebrew zoonym, the zemer. While the giraffe remained unknown in Europe for a long time, only a brief notice by Pliny transmitted to the Middle Ages some information on the camelopardalis, in a lacunar description, omitting for example the height of the animal and the characteristic size of its neck, preventing from recognizing there a “true” giraffe, in particular when some specimens were brought from Egypt to be offered to the king Alfonso X of Spain and to the emperor Frederic II in the XIIIth century. While at that time the modern name for giraffe is formed on the Arab zarâfa, no literary or zoological text, no translation, no exegesis manage to connect this new animal, with the new vernacular name, to the ancient camelopardalis. The giraffe and the “camel-leopard” seem to have became then perfectly distinct animals. The translations in vernacular languages of the Bible from the Latin fail to correctly interpret this obscure animal, dubious, which seems to have only a philological reality. When giraffes make their return at the end of XVth century in Italy, several humanists then recognize in the giraffa the kamelopardalis recently translated and published from Greek texts. The erudition then makes it possible to reconcile book learning with observation of a “true” animal. The “real” giraffe then makes its return in the biblical exegesis of the XVIth and XVIIth centuries, the question of the translation of the Hebrew zemer also stimulating the scientific investigations on the giraffe of Conrad Gesner, Ulysses Aldrovandi and Samuel Bochart, transforming an exceptional exotic animal into a philological animal par excellence. - [Abstract]

Language: French
HALId: halshs-00352040

Le guépard médiéval, ou comment reconnaître un animal sans nom (Reinardus. Yearbook of the International Reynard Society, 2011; Series: Volume 23, Issue 1)

Digital resource 

The cheetah, used as a hunting aid in the Iranian-Persian and Arab worlds for millennia, and as such well known and identified in these cultural areas, has long remained a more uncertain animal in the West, still remaining today difficult to locate in medieval sources. Its name “cheetah” appearing in French only in the 17th century, it does not previously seem to have had a name of its own and bears the same zoonym as the panther: that of “leopard”. Likewise, in images, it is sometimes difficult to differentiate the two animals. This contribution therefore attempts to take stock of these confusions by providing some elements helping to identify this unnamed animal in texts and images. The article provides information relating to the literary or documentary context, mainly at the end of the Middle Ages, where the cheetah was part of princely hunting crews, particularly in Italy, as noble as the falcon, but sought after as a luxury and of exotic prestige. - [Abstract]

Language: French
DOI: 10.1075/rein.23.02buq

The Gyrfalcon in the Middle Ages, an Exotic Bird of Prey (Western Europe and Near East) (CRAHAM - Centre Michel de Boüard - Centre de recherches archéologiques et historiques anciennes et médiévales, 2021)

Digital resource 

This paper will consider the medieval trade of the Gyrfalcon as an exotic animal. The exoticism the gyrfalcon is considered from two geographical points of view, Western Europe and Islamic lands. The bird was imported in Muslim countries form Northern Europe (through diplomatic gifts or from Italian and Spanish merchants) of from Russia through Central Asia; Gyrfalcons were also popular in Europe, praised as one of the noblest birds of prey. This study emphasizes three main topics. First, the naming of a foreign animal, as the name “Sunkur” was borrowed in Arabic from Turk languages of Central Asia. The medieval Latin Gyrofalco has a German and Old Norse etymology. Second, the paper investigates the geographic origin of this bird (Scandinavia and Russia) according to medieval Latin, Arabic and Persian historians and geographers. Third, the trade of this rare and expensive raptor is studied upon Latin and Arabic sources; during Mamluk dynasty, possessing gyrfalcons have been rather common in Egypt, an elite’s fashion. - [Abstract]

Language: English
HALId: hal-02139381

Les informations relatives à la faune du Nord dans le Liber de natura rerum de Thomas de Cantimpré (RursuSpicae: Transmission des textes et savoirs de l’Antiquité à la fin du Moyen Âge, 2020; Series: 3 (La conversation des encyclopédistes))

Digital resource 

Information relating to Northern Fauna in the Liber de natura rerum by Thomas of Cantimpré.

The arctic fauna, very rarely mentioned in Classical texts, is progressively discovered by medieval scholars trough maritime and commercial contacts with Northern peoples. This new information sometimes allows Latin authors to enhance the sketchy data transmitted by Aristotle, Pliny or Solinus. This paper focuses on this kind of zoological information found in Thomas of Cantimpré's Liber de natura rerum (LDNR) through the geographical data given by the author, and through the zoological identification of the species. Thomas’ references on Northern fauna are compared to those found in books on animals written by Alexander Neckam, Vincent of Beauvais, Bartholomaeus Anglicus andAlbertus Magnus, to evaluate which information they share or not in their approach of Northern fauna. - [Abstract]

Language: French
2557-8839; DOI: 10.4000/rursuspicae.1445

Nouveaux apports des encyclopédies médiévales sur la connaissance de la faune exotique. Le cas de Thomas de Cantimpré (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgique: Université catholique de Louvain, 2017; Series: Bilan et perspectives des études sur les encyclopédies médiévales. Orient-Occident, le ciel, l’homme, le verbe, l’animal)

Digital resource

In the Middle Ages, knowledge of exotic foreign fauna (African and Indian) owed much to the transmission of ancient authors (Aristotle, Pliny, Solin) and the first Christian authors (Physiologus, Isidore of Seville, Fathers of the Church). However, we observe, particularly in the 13th century, the appearance of new knowledge in encyclopedias and other related natural history texts. This new knowledge owes little to ancient authorities and is the result of new contributions, linked to direct observation (menagerie animals) or vernacular knowledge (travelers, merchants, hunters, fishermen, sailors, etc.). This is particularly the case for little-known animals from Northern Europe, highlighting an exoticism coming from the cold, in the context of increased exchanges with the Scandinavian world. The presentation will attempt to highlight these contributions, particularly in the introduction of new species or new zoonyms into the inventory of the living world, but also in the additional information provided on ancient knowledge. Our investigation will mainly focus on Thomas de Cantimpré and Albert the Great, with additional information drawn from Barthélemy l’Anglais, Vincent de Beauvais and Alexander Neckam. We will try to highlight the fundamental contribution of Thomas de Cantimpré in this enrichment of the medieval exotic animal world, by comparing it with the approach of his contemporaries.

Language: French
HALId: halshs-01914290

Preventing “Monkey Business”. Fettered Apes in the Middle Ages (Medieval Animal Data Network (blog on Hypotheses.org), 2013, 2016)

Digital resource 1 
Digital resource 2 

The practice of keeping monkeys and apes in captivity during the Middle Ages, mainly as pets, is well known. ... This short paper aims to give some examples of the material aspects of keeping and controlling tamed but still savage animals, to prevent them from creating a mess in the home. - [Author]

Language: English
HALId: halshs-00845267

De proprietatibus quorundam animalium. Un bestiaire inédit dans un manuscrit composite contenant divers matériaux pour la prédication (Avranches MS. 28) (RursuSpicae, 2019; Series: 2)

Digital resource 1 
Digital resource 2 

De proprietatibus quorundam animalium. A bestiary in the ms. 28 of Avranches library. The manuscript 28 of Avranches is the result of the binding of two distinct codices in the seventeenth century. It consists of various short religious texts: commentaries and biblical glosses, distinctiones, treatises on vices and virtues, sermons, etc. Among this extensive textual material for the use of predication, we find, in the second part of the manuscript (dating from the 13th century) a bestiary entitled De proprietatibus quorundam animalium (f. 179-180). This is the unique text on animals kept from the library of the Mont Saint-Michel abbey. A short collection of exempla (partly involving animals) is added to the bestiary, and is entitled Ecce similitudines multe de diversis (f. 180-180v). The bestiary and the collection of similitudines seem to form a set which may have had the same use for the compiler. The bestiary is made of about 30 short chapters, from which ten are perfect copies of the B version of the Physiologus; other chapters can be sourced partly in B or Y, but are often summarized and contain original moralizations which differ from other versions of the Latin Physiologus. I am making the assumption that the author of the bestiary of Avranches may have worked from an incomplete witness of B such as in the codex of Bern, Bürgerbibliothek, Lat. 233, where the elephant and the dove are missing, and where ostrich (asida), panther and aspidochelon are found at the end of the text of the B version. The bestiary of Avranches is interesting from a twofold perspective: it is a new (partial) witness of the Physiologus B and an original creation in its composition and the redaction of some chapters which gives evidence of the reception and the use of old versions of the Physiologus among 13th century preachers. - [Abstract]

Language: French
DOI: 10.4000/rursuspicae.540; HALId: hal-02372123

Les "propriétés” des animaux et leur utilisation dans la création des images (Pau, France: University of Pau, 2016; Series: L’école des bêtes)

Digital resource

In medieval encyclopedias, a notice describing an animal can be defined as a succession of different properties (descriptive, behavioral, legendary, medicinal, moral, etc.) taking the form of an assembly of extracts chosen from the works of the Authorities ( Pliny, Isidore, Physiologus, Fathers of the Church, Aristotle, etc.). These properties can be used on the one hand by the illuminator to create an image of the animal, most of the time within the framework of a non-naturalistic representation; on the other hand by the man of the church to create exempla and moralizations, which can be used by the preacher to edify his audience, or by the prelate to write sermons on the basis of exemplary anecdotes taken from nature. In this context, we will focus on the Liber de natura rerum by Thomas de Cantimpré, a 13th century encyclopedia, particularly dedicated to natural history. Manuscript 320 from Valenciennes, dating from around 1290, is one of the oldest illuminated witnesses to the Liber de natura rerum. Each notice is illustrated with an image; the margins of the manuscript preserve a significant number of instructions for the illuminator, written in the vernacular. In a few words or a few lines, these instructions summarize the most significant elements of the instructions to indicate to the illuminator what he must draw. For the most common animals, a simple mention of the animal's common name is sufficient. More complex instructions are drawn from elements of the description, behavioral properties or synthesize an action or a short story, sometimes linked to a legendary property. Based on concrete examples taken from the Valenciennes manuscript – and in particular from the book on fish, which presents the most notes for the illuminator – we will try to understand how this image factory works, thus constituted in the form of a puzzle. from several properties transformed into figurative signs, which can often be presented in the form of well-known iconographic attributes, allowing us to recognize the animal with certainty (the tower on the back of the elephant, the sick man of the caladrius, the tiger's mirror, the camel's humps, etc.). Finally, it will be a question of seeing whether the behavioral or fictional elements taken from the notices to form the images are the same as those chosen by the authors of moralized bestiaries inspired by medieval encyclopedias. In this regard, we will take some examples taken from moralizations inspired by Thomas de Cantimpré, but also from texts using Barthélemy l’Anglais, the two authors sharing the same authorities on natural history and therefore numerous “properties” for each species described.

Language: French
HALId: halshs-01914276

Bestiario de Don Juan de Austria (Siloé, Spain: Siloé Arte y Bibliofilia, 1998)

Two volumes. Volume 1: facsimile reproduction of the original edition, 484 pags, 370 illustrations, text in (old) Spanish. Volume 2: (modern) Spanish transcription of the text and studies.

Limited edition of 696 numbered books.

Language: Spanish
ISBN: 84-923812-0-5

What is the "Experimentarius" of Bernardus Silvestris? A Preliminary Survey of the Material (Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Age, 1977; Series: Volume 44)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

The Experimenitarius has often been thought of as a witness to Bernardus Silvestris' attitude to astrology, and, therefore, as a potential key to the complex and apparently ambivalent status of the planets and stars in the Cosmographia. Bernardus is claimed to be the translator, rather than the author of the work, but we have no other evidence that he translated from, or was familiar with, Arabic. Hence Hermann of Carinthia has been summoned to his aid, on the grounds that both he and Bernardus had some connection with the School of Chartres, that Hermann addressed a work on the astrolabe to Bernardus, and that there is actually a picture of Hermann facing Euclid, and with his astrolabe in his hand, at the head of two MSS. of the Experimentarius. Of these three pieces of evidence, one is too tenuous and the other two are false. - [Author]

Language: English

Courtly Love: Who Needs It? Recent Feminist Work in the Medieval French Tradition (Signs, 27:1, 2001, page 23-57)

Digital resource (JSTOR)

Includes some notes on the Bestiaire d'amour of Richard de Fournival with relation to courtly love.

Language: English

The Hedgehog and the Apples (Illustrated London News, August 16, 1952, 264)

The author investigates the feasibility of the hedgehog gathering fruit on its spines.

Language: English

Codex and context : reading Old French verse narrative in manuscript (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2002)

Digital resource 1
Digital resource 2

Includes discussions of some relevant manuscripts containing French verse (e.g. Reynard the Fox).

This is a book about absence, the absence from medieval French literary studies of a codicological dimension. While scholars of post-medieval lterature are generally aware of the material nature of the printed book and the text it contains, my guess is that many of those who describe themselves as medievalists remain largely unaware in practice of the nature of the medieval book and its implications for the object of their study. The reasons for this state of affairs are multiple, but chief among them are a distaste for the minutia: of philology and an obsession with drawing grand revisionist conclusions about medieval culture, conclusions often predetermined by the nature of approaches to literature often applied all too hastily to medieval texts. If it is understandable that medievalists would wish, for political reasons, to be seen as being in the vanguard, and if such efforts have not been entirely fruitless, it is regrettable, if not unforgivable, that medieval literature has been made to conform to the paradigm of the modern and divested of its alterity. I believe that this is where we can be found wanting as medievalists, namely in our failure to exploit and rejoice in what makes our material unique. Where other areas have stressed cultural diversity and have even developed new specialisms in response, we have been content to hitch rides on other critical wagons, following lan1ely, sheepishly, and often apolo- getically, on the heels our modernist colleagues. The alterity of medieval literature is due in large part to its preservation and transmission in manuscript form, which necessarily remains our only direct means of context with the textual reality of the Middle Ages. - [Author]

Language: English
978-90-420-1399-5

The Labours of the Months and 'The Haunted Tanglewood': aspects of late twelfth-century sculpture in Yorkshire (in R. L. Thomson, ed., A Medieval Miscellany in Honour of Professor John Le Patourel, Leeds: Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, Proceedings vol. 18, 1982, page 79-95)

This article discusses the subject matter of doorway and capital carvings in Yorkshire churches. The scenes are mainly drawn from the Labours of the Month, the Signs of the Zodiac and the Bestiary, using mid twelfth-century manuscript sources. It is argued that the inspiration was not monastic scriptoria but the cathedral school at York as the majority of the churches were in the patronage of the archbishop Roger de Pont L'Eveque and the senior clergy of the cathedral chapter, most of whom had studied in Capetian France. - [Author]

Language: English

Studien zu dem Roman de Renart und dem Reinhart Fuchs (Strassburg: K.J. Trübner, 1891)

Digital resource 1  (Internet Archive)
Digital resource 2  (Internet Archive)

Two volumes:

1. Die Überlieferung des Roman de Renart und die Handschrift O (The tradition of the Roman de Renart and the manuscript O)
2. Der Reinhart Fuchs und seine franzosische Quelle (Reinhart Fuchs and the French source)

[Volume 1] The following work is a supplement to the publications by Prof. Dr. E. Martin concerning the textual criticism of the Roman de Renart. It was prompted by the collation of the manuscript O [Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 12583], which was carried out on Martin's behalf and which the editor of the Roman de Renart only became aware of after his work had been completed (see Le Roman de Renart, Vol. III p. VII and Observations sur le Roman de Renart p. 7). With the publication of this collation, I was also given the task of assigning the manuscript its place in the genealogy of the Renart manuscripts, a task whose solution was then followed by research into the other manuscripts. Prof. Martin has expressed his interest in my research in a particularly admirable way by making his entire handwritten notes available to me. - [Author]

[Volume 2] With the publication of Ernst Martin's Observations on the Roman de Renart (1887), the question of the relationship between the Old French Roman de Renart and the Old High German Reinhart Fuchs and the position of these two works in the development of German poetry entered a new stage. Until then, a generally accepted view prevailed on this question: that Reinhart Fuchs [of] Heinrich de Glîchezâre, with its short, simple, and unpretentious narrative style, represented an earlier stage of development in German poetry than the much more extensive and elaborate sections of the French collection; that the German poem, whose French origin is undoubted, is the translation of a lost French poem, in which the same brevity and simplicity the representational style prevailed, as it is characteristic of Reinhart Fuchs. This view is based on the general observation that the simplicity and artistic quality of the representation is a hallmark of the ancient history of a culture. - [Author]

Language: German

The illustrations to the early manuscripts of Jean Corbechon's French translation of Bartholemaeus Anglicus' De Proprietatibus rerum: 1372-c.1420 (University of Cambridge, 1981)

Digital resource 

In 1372 King Charles V of France received Le livre des propriétés des choses, the translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus' De proprietatibus rerum. The dissertation is a study of the illustrations of the manuscripts of this text in the period up to c.1420. In Chapter 1 the documentary evidence for copies of the Propriétés in the above period is reviewed, and this is related to the surviving copies. The result is used, along with the evidence of style which will be discussed in Chapter 5, to establish the "First Generation" of manuscripts (the original does not survive) in the period up to c.1410. Chapter 2 discusses the role of the encyclopedia and translation in the circle of Charles V, and relates this to the iconography of the Frontispieces of the First Generation copies. The rest of the iconographical cycles is the subject of Chapter 3, in which it is considered both in relation to the text and to other standard imagery. Chapter 4 offers a reconstruction of the pictorial cycle of the lost original, and looks at some sub-groupings within the First Generation copies. The style and date of the ten early copies is the subject of Chapter 5. Between c.1414 and 1420 five interrelated manuscripts were made which mark a new phase in the illustration of the text. These stem from the circles of the Boucicaut, Egerton, Rohan, and Berry Apocalypse Masters, and form the "Second Generation". They are treated in Chapter 6, whose main themes are patronage, the effects of patronage on iconography, now subjects, and the relationships between "workshops". The final chapter discusses a semi-independent manuscript made before 1420, and this is followed by a detailed Catalogue of the sixteen copies of the Propriétés discussed in the text. - [Abstract]

Language: English
DOI: 10.17863/CAM.31167

Rex imago dei: Charles V of France and the Livre des propriétés des choses (Journal of Medieval History, 1981; Series: Volume 7, Issue 1)

Digital resource 

The subject of this paper is the Livre des propriétés des choses, the fourteenth-century French translation [by Jean Corbechon] of the thirteenth-century encyclopedia De proprietatibus rerum [by Bartholomaeus Anglicus]. The translation was made for Charles V of France, and the original copy is lost. Here a reconstruction is offered of the appearance of the frontispiece of the royal exemplar. The textual additions of the translator and the iconography of this frontispiece reveal a new conception of the meaning and usage of the encyclopedia, as well as a concerted attempt to draw this authoritative work into the orbit of royal aims and aspirations. The reconstructed frontispiece also allows us to correct an error, which originates with Montfaucon, concerning the illustration of the original copy of the Livre des propriétés des choses. - [Abstract]

Language: English
DOI: 10.1016/0304-4181(81)90038-5

Two hitherto unidentified copies of the « Livre des Propriétés des choses », from the Royal Library of the Louvre and the Library of Jean de Berry (Scriptorium, 1977; Series: Volume 31, number 1)

Digital resource 

This brief notice is a portion of work in progress on the iconographical cycle of the last of the above-mentioned texts: the Livre des propriétés des choses, a French rendering of Bartholomaeus Anglicus' De proprietatibus rerum. The latter is a thirteenth-century ranging ontologically from God and the Angels, through Man, and down to the accidents of matter. For the most part it is, or was used as, a handy compendium of "physical" lore, a Herbal, Lapidary and Bestiary, to take but three examples. ... The proper bases for this study would be the original manuscript and a modern, critical edition of the text. The first has yet to be found, and the second has not yet been prepared. Thus, the of the cycle must begin part of the way into the story — by identifying, dating and grouping as many as possible of the early and using this basis to what came before and study what came after. As part of that work, the present notice has the limited aim of reviewing the earliest documentary to the Livre des propriétés des choses and some identifications of early copies which have been made, of two previously untraced copies and of taking a bird's-eye view of the ensuing picture. - [Author]

Language: English
DOI: 10.3406/scrip.1977.2818

La Fauna Monstruosa de las Catedrales Medievales. Estudio preliminar de Tibor Chaminaud y Juan Carlos Licastro (Buenos Aires: Enrique Rueda Editor, 1982; Series: Colección La Biblioteca de las Maravillas)

118 p., illustrations.

Language: Spanish

Melanges d'archeologie, d'histoire et de littérature, rediges ou recueillis (Paris: Mme Ve Poussielgue-Rusand, 1847-1856; Series: Volume 1-4)

Digital resource 1  (Digital Text Library)
Digital resource 2  (Google Books)

A massive collection of information on medieval archeology, history and literature.

• Bestiaries (Latin and French) in volumes 2, 3 and 4, with text from several authors and manuscripts
• Medieval art
• Church decoration and ornament

4 volumes, illustrations, plates.

Language: French
LCCN: 16-13417; LC: N5971.C2; OCLC: 23433906

Obscene Anglo-Norman in a Central French Mouth; or, How Renart the Fox Tricks Isengrin the Wolf, and Why It Is Important (Florilegium, 2001; Series: Volume 18, Number 1)

Digital resource 

In Branch Ib of the late twelfth-century Roman de Renart, Renart the Fox, believed to be dead, falls into a vat of dye colouring. This enables him to return home, in disguise, claiming to be an English jongleur. Upon encountering his old enemy, Isengrin the Wolf, Renart plays his role, uttering a broken French which, presumably, the medieval audience recognised as a caricatural version of Anglo-Norman, the French spoken in England, and/or as the imperfect speech of a foreigner only superficially versed in the language. - [Abstract]

Language: English

Una branche dimenticata: studio e traduzione di Renart Empereur (Macerata: Università degli Studi di Macerata, 2019)

Digital resource 

The Thesis proposes a comprehensive study and the complete translation of the most extensive branch of the Roman de Renart, better known as Renart Empereur. In the past, branch XI, according to Martin's numbering, has enjoyed considerable success, as demonstrated by the large manuscript tradition, consisting of twelve codices and two fragments, and by the revival of some fundamental themes of the war between King Noble and Renart and the coronation of the fox in the epigonal works Renart le Nouvel and Le Couronnement Renart; however, modern criticism has relegated this branch to a subordinate role, judging it to lack the heroic-comic character typical of the older branches, and to lack a harmonious and well-organized narrative architecture. This [thesis] works towards a general re-evaluation of the branch, believing that the negative judgments on it derive from two misunderstandings: the evaluation of a medieval literary product through modern aesthetic criteria, and the idea that the structural fragmentation of the branch derives from the poor ability of the author responsible for the entire text. - [Abstract]

Language: Italian

Renart imperatore (Academia, 2021; Series: Le metamorfosi di Renart la volpe)

Digital resource 

Discussion of Branch XI of the Roman de Renart (Renart Emperor), with a translation of the branch text into Italian.

Probably composed in the last decade of the 12th century, the branch "Renart imperatore", XI according to the numbering of the Martin edition, must have had a notable fortune in the history of the medieval tradition of the Roman de Renart: it is preserved in its entirety in twelve of the cyclical manuscripts: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N; and, in a fragmentary way, within two excerpts: h, containing 72 verses; , which reports 179 verses. In most of the cyclical codices (A, B, E, F, G, L), the branch "Renart Emperor" is placed in the final position, supporting the hypothesis that it was conceived as a natural conclusion to the cycle of Renardian adventures. - [Author]

Language: Italian

Le Bestiaire de l'antiquité classique (Paris: F. Lanore, 1955)

212 p.

Language: French
LCCN: 57002337; LC: GR825.C3

Le Bestiaire de la littérature francaise (Paris: F. Lanore, 1954)

247 pp., illustrations.

Language: French
LC: PQ145.3

Bestiary or biology? Aristotle's animals in Oxford, Merton College, MS 271 (in Carlos Steel, Guy Guldentops & Pieter Beullens, ed., Aristotle's Animals in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Mediaevalia Lovaniensia, Series 1: Studia 2), Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1999, page 355-396)

Digital resource (Google Books)

...animal representations in Latin manuscripts made for the new university audience, that are found in the treatises that comprise Aristotle's De animalibus remain relatively unknown. ... Starting from the question of whether the mode of animal illustrations in these radically different Latin texts conforms to their divergent philosophical positions, [this paper] will focus on one particularly important thirteenth-century illuminated copy of Aristotle's De animalibus. ... I want to examine the illustrations of ... Merton College Library (Oxford), MS. 271... - [Author]

Language: English
ISBN: 90-6186-973-0

Gothic Art, Glorious Visions (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1996)

A survey of Gothic art in Europe in the 12th to 14th century. Chapter 4, New Visions of Nature, looks at how nature was represented in sculpture, painting and manuscripts.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-8109-2701-2; LCCN: 96-3899; LC: N6310.C361996; DDC: 709.02'2-dc20

Hildegard of Bingen and Creation as Food (Food and History : Revue de l'Institut Européen d'Histoire de l'Alimentation, 2023; Series: Volume 21, Issue 2)

Digital resource 

The Liber subtilitatum of Hildegard von Bingen, structured as a nature encyclopedia, describes every component of creation – every member of the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms – and teaches how it can be used to cure illnesses and feed humankind. This article presents the work in general and explores this latter aspect – creation as food – in detail. As Hildegard herself explains, the backdrop to her writing is a divine design that enables human beings to cure and take care of their neighbours, be they ill or healthy. It is possible to assume that, at least in part, Hildegard owed the originality of her conception of nature precisely to the fact of her being a woman. Ultimately, curing illnesses and caring are often perceived as female prerogatives, and the perception still persists in the twenty-first century, in which Hildegard’s herbs and tips are enjoying new or renewed popularity. - [Abstract]

Language: French
2034-2101; DOI: 10.1484/J.FOOD.5.134739

Thematic Unity in the Old English Physiologus (Archiv fur das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, 215:130:1, 1978, page 73-79)

Language: English
ISSN: 0003-8970

Dragons (in John Cherry, ed., Mythical Beasts, London: British Museum Press/Pomegranite Artbooks, 1995, page 14-43)

A discussion of dragons from antiquity through the Middle Ages, with examples from Japan, China, India and Egypt, with additional references to dragons of Islamic and Christian tradition.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-87654-606-8

El bestiario medieval: Una clave para la interpretacion del Libro de los gatos (in Lillian von der Walde, Concepcion Company & Aurelio Gonzalez, ed., Caballeros, monjas y maestros en la Edad Media: Actas de las V Jornadas Medievales, Mexico City: University Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 1996, page 205-219)

The medieval bestiary a key to the interpretation of the "book of cats"

Language: Spanish
ISBN: 968-36-5374-X

El Libro de los gatos, un bestiario medieval (Instituto Cervantes, 2010)

Digital resource 

The Bestiary influence can be exemplified by the Libro de los Gatos. This last one is an anonymous compilation of exempla Castilian (1350-1400), which includes the observations of the animal life that coincide with those gathered from different medieval bestiaries. Such book is linked to the act of preaching, since it facilitates its use while lecturing. An allegoric explanation of each exemplum can be found in the Libro de los Gatos, just as it was done by some Bestiaries and the Physiologus. In this occasion, I conduct an analysis of the birds that appear in the «Enxienplo de la abobilla con el rruy-sennor» (XLII) from a symbolic oriental and occidental perspective. - [Abstract]

Language: Spanish

Fiore di virtù (Venice: Matteo Capcasa, 1493)

Digital resource

Alternate title: Questa sie una utilissima operetta acadauno fidel christiano chiamata Fio de virtu`

A popular introduction to medieval morality, the Flower of Virtue explored humanity’s virtues and vices by means of parallels within the animal kingdom. Full of lore derived from bestiaries, biblical stories, and classical literature, the book provided moral instruction and amusement for young Italian readers of both sexes. Much of the book’s popularity derived from its engaging woodcuts of characteristic animal behaviors, designed by the anonymous “Pico Master,” the leading Venetian book illuminator and woodcut illustrator. - [Princeton University Library catalog].

Probably based on a manuscript copy of Fior de virtu` by Guidotto da Bologna (Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli, XII.E.11).

Language: Italian
PrincetonUniversityLibrary: exi2017-0004N

Wild World: Visual Representation of Animals in Manuscripts and Early Printed Books (Cambridge: St John's College, University of Cambridge, 2020)

Digital resource

Animals have always lived alongside humans, and the species which currently populate the planet evolved in step with us. Human interactions with the natural world have long inspired elements in mythology, folklore, and art. Visual depictions of animals have served to decorate and illustrate written texts from early manuscripts, through the dawn of the printed book, and up to the present day. These illustrations are charming for their unusual art styles, and unconventional ideas about animals that we are now more familiar with seeing in zoos or on television screens. However, much of the natural world which has inspired human creativity throughout the centuries is now at risk of being destroyed through human interference. This exhibition showcases just some of the interesting examples of animal art that can be found in the manuscripts and early printed books held in the Special Collections of St John’s College Library, as well as presenting relevant facts about the animals themselves and the often sobering nature of their relationship to humans. - [Author]

Language: English

Imaginaire, savoir et nature: notes sur l'allegorie animale au Moyen Age (Annals of the Archive of "Ferran Valls i Taberner's Library", 9-10, 1991, page 235-247)

Language: French

Uomo e animale nell'emblematica rinascimentale (Esopo, 49 (March), 1991, page 17-29)

On animal symbolism in Renaissance book illustration, including bestiaries, hermetic treatises, hieroglyphica, and emblem books, 16th-17th centuries.

Language: Italian
ISSN: 0392-9752

De Bestiis et Aliis Rebus and the Latin Physiologus (Speculum, 13:2, 1938, page 153-159)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

A detailed analysis of the De Bestiis et Aliis Rebus, attributed to Hugh of St Victor, and its relationship to the Latin version of the Physiologus. Includes a list of the known (as of 1938) Physiologus manuscripts, and a comparison of the text of Bestiis with various Physiologus versions. Oddly, Carmody does not appear to recognize Book I of the De bestiis as being the De avibus by Hugh of Fouilloy; instead he calls it a version of the Physiologus.

Language: English
DOI: 10.2307/2848397

Brunetto Latini's Tresor: Latin Sources on Natural Science (in 12:3 (July)Speculum, 1937, page 359-366)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

Mediaeval science is well known to scholars through Latin works, but vulgarizations have commanded far less prestige. Dreyer, for example, mentioned Latini's Tresor (1268 A.D.) very superficially, and was obviously ill informed on the Image du Monde of Gossuinz (1245 A.D.). Langlois pointed out that vernacular works are of interest mainly to philologists, who find it difficult to delve into the technical intricacies of the various sciences. Vulgarizations, however, present a valuable picture of the subjects they treat. The Tresor is a compendium of material current in Paris in the active days of the 1260's, when astronomy was at its height, both in technical achievement and in speculative interpretation. Latini was a competent translator and compiler, and was guilty neither of the unorganized agglomeration of details found in the Livre de Sydrac and the translations of Adelard of Bath, nor the mistaken moralizing and theological zeal of Gossouin. One must turn to Vincent de Beauvais to find anything like the freedom from doctrine and the careful method and selection of the Tresor. Latini's manner was so objective that it annoyed many of the first copyists, who added doctrinal and moral references, present in most families of manuscripts. As a vulgarization, the Tresor makes no pretension to scholastic reasoning and deduction, nor to metaphysical subtlety, transmutations of elements, atomic theory, nor to mathematical discussion, elements which characterize so many thirteenth-century works. The material is of a simple nature, akin to Seneca, Bede, and Honorius, though there is no apparent affinity to other popular works like those of Chalcidius, Macrobius, and Pliny, nor to the classics, Aristotle, Plato, Plutarch, Lucretius, or Cicero. - [Author]

Language: English

Le Diable des Bestiaires (Cahiers de l'Association Internationale de Études françaises, Nos. 3-5, Juillet, 1953, page 79-85)

Digital resource 

The Physiologus, through the bestiaries both Latin and French which refer to it, constitutes one of the principal literary sources allowing us to make "the part of the Devil" in the European concerns of the Middle Ages. To recall the form and tone of the primitive text, let us cite, for example, the chapter on the fox: "The fox is very cunning. When he is hungry and finds nothing to eat, he looks for a place where there is red earth and, having rolled himself there, he lies down on his back; after which, holding his breath, he puffs up; the birds, believing him dead, come down from the sky to feed on him, but he then seizes them and devours them. It is the same with the Devil, deceitful in all his works." ... Here we have a good example of the binary form that characterizes each chapter: first the mention of the physical traits of the animal, then a moralization on the mystical secret symbolized by these traits. The teaching of the bestiaries is wrapped in a rich symbolism. Virtue is not recommended, nor innocence, the effectiveness of which remains uncertain; Man will avoid damnation only by certain gestures and according to certain rules of conduct; only foresight can guarantee his salvation. The Devil, the tireless provider of Hell, watches, watches, waits; the Physiologus was conceived only to offer us the formula that allows us to pass through the narrow gate. The fact that the work has at the same time the character of a treatise on natural history is of secondary importance. - [Author]

Language: French
DOI: 10.3406/caief.1953.2019

Latin Sources of Brunetto Latini's World History (Speculum, 11:3 (July), 1936, page 359-370)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

Originality or artistry in an encyclopedia are likely to defeat the purpose of science, which seeks accuracy, simplicity, and convenience. These last virtues are those of Vincent's Speculum Naturale and of Brunetto Latini's Tresor (1268 A.D.), at least in accordance with thirteenth-century standards. ... Li Tresors did not seek out controversial points, it desired merely to vulgarize as much and as varied knowledge as possible. Nevertheless, Li Tresors was carefully composed and based on standard source materials. Latini was a capable scholar, and his epitome is concise, clear, and not too detailed for the ordinary reader. He was not bound to reproduce his sources literally, so he added personal ideas and recollections from other reading, though never distorting the facts. Sermonizing and moralizing, whose bad effects are evident in the Image du Monde, do not find any place whatsoever in Latini's encyclopaedia. Latini's method of compilation is evident from a study of his sources. He had before him, at one time or another, a number of standard works; from these he made notes on special topics, such as the history of a certain country, limiting himself naturally to a single sufficient source for a given chapter. Thus it is that several sections have been derived in full from a single source, which may have been completely put aside in later pages. Other chapters, however, seemed insufficient as prepared from a single source, so Latini added further details from other works. - [Author]

Language: English

Physiologus Latinus Versio Y (University of California Press, University of California Publications in Classical Philology, Volume 12 (1933-1944), 1944, page 95-134)

Digital resource 1  (Digital Text Library)
Digital resource 2  (Internet Archive)
Digital resource 3 

An edition of the Physiologus 'Y' version. Introduction in English, text in Latin. Includes a bibliography.

Language: English
LCCN: 41002431; LC: PA25.C3; DDC: 880.8; OCLC: 3889664

Physiologus Latinus: Éditions préliminaires versio B (Paris: Librairie E. Droz, 1939)

Digital resource 

An edition of the Physiologus 'B' version.

Language: Latin
LCCN: 40000253; LC: PA4273.P8L31939; OCLC: 459089307

Physiologus, the very ancient book of beasts, plants and stones, translated from Greek and othe languages (San Francisco: Book Club of California, 1953; Series: Publication no. 85)

Digital resource

Translated from Greek and other languages, by Francis J. Carmody.

Three hundred & twenty-five copies of this book have been made by Vivien & Mallette Dean. The type is French Elzevier, hand-set; the paper is Arches mould-made; and the hand-colored illustrations have been engraved on and printed from linoleum blocks. Completed at Fairfax, California in the year of our Lord MCMLIII. - [Colophon]

Language: English
LCCN: 54027844; LC: GR820.P48; DDC: 398.3

Quotations in the Latin Physiologus from Latin Bibles earlier than the Vulgate (University of California Press, University of California Publications in Classical Philology 13:1, 1944, page 1-8)

An analysis of Bible quotations in the Physiologus.

Language: English
LCCN: 44000030; LC: PA25.C3; DDC: 878.9; OCLC: 9523977

La nature des animaus nel Tresor di Brunetti latini. Indagine sulle fonti (in Baudouin Van den Abeele, ed., Bestiaires médiévaux. Nouvelles perspectives sur les manuscrits et les traditions textuelles, Louvain-la-Neuve: Institut d’études médiévales, 2005, page 31-47)

Language: French

Some Early Sources of the Medieval Bestiary (New York: New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, 1964)

M.A. Thesis.

Language: English

Le Proprietà  degli animali (Genova: Costa & Nolan, 1983; Series: Testi della cultura italiana 5)

The Bestiario moralizzato by Bosone da Gubbio, died ca. 1349 (Annamaria Carrega, editor) and the Libellus de natura animalium (Paola Navone, editor). Texts in Italian and Latin, with introductory material in Italian.

521 pp., illustrations, bibliography.

Language: Italian
ISBN: 88-7648-011-0; LC: PQ4554.R15

Mermaids and Mastodons: A Book of Natural & Unnatural History (London: Chatto and Windus, 1957)

The first part of this book is devoted mainly to fabulous animals, whoes origin I have tried to trace in the real birds and beasts of the living world. - [Author]

Relevant chapters include: The Natural History of Mermaids; The Great Sea Serpent; The Kraken and other Sea Monsters; Dragons of East and West; Fabulous Ornithology.

Language: English

Lo diretano bando: Conforto et rimedio delli veraci e leali amadori ()

Digital resource

Italian language translation of Richard de Fournival, Le Bestiaire d' amour (The Bestiary of Love).

Language: Italian
ISBN: 88-87850-93-3

La vie d’Alexandre le Grand dans Renart le Contrefait et le Livre de la Mutacion de Fortune (Bien Dire et Bien Aprandre, 1999; Series: Volume 17)

Digital resource 

Indeed, the reasons why authors appropriate and exploit this prestigious royal figure are quite different. In "Renart the Counterfeit," the story of his life is attributed to the main hero, Renart, and introduced in a new scene of the trial of the fox at Noble's court. Having just been sentenced to death by the king, Renart chooses to develop a long, scholarly discourse. His mastery of a knowledge that claims to be truth and wisdom fascinates Noble so much that he forgets the trial and, despite Renart's more than established reputation as a virtuoso of cunning and lies, addresses him as a master of truth, an authority. He begins by questioning him about the origin of the fox and listens to his long lecture on biblical history, then urges him to reveal the whole truth about Alexander (v. 9231-9236). Renart then gives himself the stature of a serious author by retracing his search for and discovery of the best Latin source, which he would have translated into Romance and put into verse, so that he appears as a double of the Trojan cleric. - [Author]

Language: French
DOI: 10.54563/bdba.1507

The Tapestry of Creation (Cathedral of Girona)

Digital resource

The Tapestry of Creation is a eleventh- or twelfth-century work held by the treasury of the Cathedral of Gerona, Spain. Two sections of the tapestry are of interest: the creation of the animals, and Adam naming the animals. Both show various real and fabulous beasts in brilliant colors.

The Cathedral web site is difficult to navigate and has very little information on the tapestry, but it does have some good pictures.

Language: English

Scacchi amari: gioco e violenza nel Roman de Renart (Fillide, 2020; Series: Number 20)

Digital resource 

The present article analyses an episode contained in branch XVII of the Roman de Renart in which the fox and the wolf, whose antagonism is central to the whole narrative cycle, oppose each other in a game of chess. The wolf unexpectedly prevails over the fox, then celebrates his victory by nailing his opponent’s testicles to the chessboard. In this episode, the reversal of expectations and narrative conventions is particularly striking and highlights important evolutions in the Reynardian tradition. - [Abstract]

Language: Italian
2281-5007

De rerum naturis : Cod. Casin. 132, Archivio dell'Abbazia di Montecassino (Turino: Priuli & Verlucca, 1994)

Full-color facsimile of 11th-century manuscript (Archivio dell'Abbazia, Montecassino, MS 132) of De rerum naturis or De universo of Hrabanus Mauris, the oldest illustrated version extant, produced at Montecassino for Abbot Theobald. Commentary volume edited by Guglielmo Cavallo. Text in Latin, commentary in Italian; accompanied by summary in English (47 p.). Limited edition of 500 Arabic numbered copies.

Volume 1: 530 p., color illustrations (facsimile); Volume 2: commentary, 215 p., bibliography; Volume 3: 47p., English commentary.

Language: Italian / Latin
LC: ND3399.H79; OCLC: 54256169

L'Universo medievale : il manoscritto cassinese del De rerum naturis di Rabano Mauro (Ivrea: Priuli & Verlucca, 1996)

The manuscript of De rerum naturis or De universo of Hrababus Mauris at Montecassino.

63 p., color illustrations, bibliography.

Language: Italian
ISBN: 88-8068-048-X; LCCN: 97-125526; LC: AE2.H72; OCLC: 36047082

Spiders Behaving Badly in the Middle English Physiologus,the Bestiaire Attributed to Pierre de Beauvais and Odo of Cheriton’s Fables (Neophilologus, 2020; Series: 104)

Digital resource 

Two remarkably similar depictions of spiders survive in Middle English and French sources from the middle of the thirteenth century. Both of these vernacular versions of the Physiologus deviate so wildly from their sources when it comes to describing these creatures that their editors have declared these passages to be entirely original. And yet, the spiders who survive in the Middle English Physiologus and the long version of the Bestiaire attributed to Pierre de Beauvais perform such similar work that their originality may be called into question. The Physiologus’ and Bestiaire’s descriptions of spiders’ violent hunting methods were likely informed by the burgeoning of natural history writing that accompanied the recovery of Aristotle’s History of Animals, but for these texts’ allegorical interpretations I argue that we should look to Odo of Cheriton’s Latin fables from earlier in the thirteenth century. There is an explicit link between Odo’s fables and the Middle English Physiologus and implicit connections with the French Bestiaire. Together, these analogues demonstrate a small but coherent tradition of emphasizing the diabolical violence of spiders in the multilingual environment of thirteenth-century England and France. - [Abstract]

Language: English
DOI: 10.1007/s11061-020-09645-7; ProQuestID: 2471553060

The The Medieval Bestiary in English: Texts and Translations of the Old and Middle English Physiologus (Guelph, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2022)

Digital resource

First written in Egypt between the second and fourth centuries, the Physiologus brought together poetic descriptions of animals and their Christian allegories. As the Physiologus was translated into a wide range of languages from across North Africa and much of Europe, each version adapted the text in culturally specific ways that yield fascinating insights for those who delve into this truly global tradition of representing and interpreting animals. This edition provides the original texts and facing-page modern translations of the only two surviving English versions—the Old English Physiologus from the late-tenth-century Exeter Book and the Middle English Physiologus from the mid-thirteenth-century British Library, Arundel MS 292—as well as translations of a range of Latin, French, and Old English sources and analogues. Underpinned by a commitment to the fields of medieval studies and animal studies, this edition provides an accessible introduction to the literary history of the Physiologus and the politics of animal representation. It asks the vital question: how can we understand humanity’s relationships with non-human animals and the environment today without understanding those relationships’ history?

Language: English/Old and Middle English
ISBN: 978-1-55481-518-0

The booke of Raynarde the Foxe (New York: Da Capo Press, 1969)

A facsimile of a 1550 edition of Hystorie van Reynaert die Vos, translated from the Dutch by William Caxton. Original title page reads: Here beginneth the booke of Raynarde the Foxe, conteining diuers goodlye historyes and parables, with other dyuers pointes necessarye tur al men to be marked ... Imprinted in London in Saint Martens by Thomas Gaultier, 1550.

Language: English
LC: PQ1508E5R4

The Hystorye of Reynard the Fox (Westminster: William Caxton, 1481)

Digital resource

Translated from the Dutch Van den vos Reynaerde by William Caxton. This is the original 1481 edition.

"Begin. [Sig. a 3 verso, preceded by a table:] Hyer begynneth thystorye of reynard the foxe. End. For I have not added ne mynusshed but have folowed as nyghe as I can my copye which was in dutche, and by me Willm Caxton translated in to this rude & symple englyssch in thabbey of Westmestre, fynysshed the vj daye of Juyn the yere of our lord M.CCCC. Lxxxj. [in] the xxj yere of the regne of kynge Edward the iiijth. Here endeth the historye of Reynard the foxe."

Language: English

The History of Reynard the Fox, Translated and Printed by William Caxton June 1481 (Westminster: Archibald Constable and Co., 1899; Series: The English Scholar's Library of Old and Modern Works)

Digital resource  (Internet Archive)

A reprint of the History of Reynard the Fox translated from Dutch to English and printed in 1481 by William Caxton. With an introduction, a list of the major characters, bibliography and notes.

Language: English

The History of Reynard the Fox translated from the Dutch Original (London: The Early English Text Society / Oxford University Press, 1970; Series: Number 263)

Because of its humorous animal portraits and satirical probing of medieval society, Reynard the Fox has remained William Caxton's most poplar translation. Although modernizations have been numerous, this is the first fully annotated edition of Caxton's original text. ... Reynard the Fox is unique among Caxton's translations in being made from a Dutch printed book and is therefore of the greatest importance in assessing the influence of Dutch on fifteenth-century English and in illuminating the literary relations between England and Burgundy in the late Middle Ages. These and similar problems are discussed by Mr. Blake in the introduction. - [Publisher]

Language: English
ISBN: 978-0-19-722267-6

The History of Reynard the Fox. Translated and printed by William Caxton, 1481 (Edinburgh: Privately Printed, 1884; Series: Bibliotheca Curiosa)

Digital resource 1  (Google Books)
Digital resource 2  (Internet Archive)
Digital resource 3  (Internet Archive)

A reprint of the History of Reynard the Fox translated from Dutch to English and printed in 1481 by William Caxton. With an introduction, bibliography and notes.

Language: English

The History of Reynard the Fox (George Routledge and Sons London, 1899; Series: Early Prose Romances)

Digital resource 1 (Digital Text Library)
Digital resource 2
Digital resource 3

This is a version of the stories of Reynard the Fox translated to English by William Caxton in the late 15th century. Caxton printed his translation himself on his own printing press, one of the first in England. In editing this edition in 1889, Morley modernized the spelling of words still in common use in his day, but did not attempt to modernize the style of the text.

Language: English

Caxton's Mirrour of the World (England: Kega Paul, Trech, Trubner & Co. / Oxford University Press, 1913; Series: The Early English Text Society)

Digital resource  (Internet Archive)

A transcription of Mirrour of the World, an early English translation by William Caxton from the French L'Image du monde by Gossuin de Metz, with an with introduction and notes by O.H. Prior. Caxton's translation was based on British Library, Royal MS 19 A IX.

Caxton's Mirrour has a double claim to the notice of all book-lovers and students of mediaeval literature: it is the first work printed in England with illustrations, and one of the earliest encyclopaedias in the English language. As Caxton himself tells us in his introduction, the Mirrour was translated in 1480 from the French... - [Prior]

A facsimile of the 1481 edition of Caxton's translation is available.

Language: English

The History of Reynard the Fox, from the Edition Published by Caxton in 1481 (London: Percy Society, 1844)

Digital resource 1  (Google Books)
Digital resource 2  (Internet Archive)

The following pages contain The Hystorye of Reynard the Foxe, as it was printed by Caxton in 1481, a work of considerable interest and literary merit; and one, moreover, of such excessive rarity, that the last copy exposed to public auction produced, at Mr. Inglis's sale, no less a sum than £184. 16s. This copy is now deposited in the matchless library of the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, a gentleman who, from the princely munificence with which he purchases books, and the liberality with which he permits students to make use of them, realizes Chaucer's admirable description of the true scholar - " Full gladly wold he lerne , and gladly teche." I beg publicly to return to him my best thanks and acknowledgments, for the readiness with which , at the request of my friend Mr. Amyot, he was kind enough to place in my hands his beautiful copy of the old Dutch Reynaert die Vos, printed by Gheraert de Leeu, from which Caxton's translation was made . Of the advantage that I thus enjoyed many proofs will be found in the following pages. The several republications of the History of Reynard the Fox, which appeared during the seventeenth century, professed to be "newly corrected and purged from all grossenesse in phrase and matter;" but notwithstanding such alleged purification, they still contain some most offensive passages. In the present edition, care has been taken, by the modification of some few words and sentences, which are as little essential to the conduct of the story, as consonant to our present notions of propriety, to lay before the members of the Percy Society a volume which may be perused, it is hoped, with pleasure, certainly without offence. How few and trifling have been the liberties necessary to produce this desirable result, I leave the curious enquirer to ascertain by comparing this reprint with Caxton's own edition: while to those who complain that such alterations or omissions destroy the value of the book, I reply, by denying that such is the case, and by answering that even if it were so, I am prepared to adopt the declaration of Dr. Johnson "that there are laws of higher authority than those of criticism." Would that I could defend my introduction and notes as confidently, as I can the reprint which they accompany. But I am too well aware of the errors of omission and commission which may be found in them, not to entertain some anxiety as to the feeling with which my slight illustrations of Caxton's language, and his allusions to the manners and custom of the olden times, may be received by those who are better skilled than myself in those branches of archaeological study. - [Editor]

Language: English

Appunti per la lettura di un bestiario medievale: il Bestiario valdese (Torino: G. Giappichelli, 1976; Series: Corsi universitari)

Includes text in the dialect of the Valley of Aosta (Vaudois) and Italian.

Language: Italian
LCCN: 76478931; LC: PQ4265.B3473B6; OCLC: 2598766

Le fonti letterarie della simbologia medievale: i bestiari (in Piero Sanpaolesi, ed., Il Romanico. Atti del Seminario di studi. Villa Monastero di Varenna 8-16 September 1973, Milano: Istituto per la Storia dell'Arte Lombarda, 1976, page 181-190)

Language: Italian

Le proprietà degli animali; Bestiario moralizzato di Gubbio; Libellus de natura animalium (Italy: Costa & Nolan, 1983; Series: Testi Della Cultura Italiana 5)

Texts in Italian and Latin, with introductory material in Italian. Contents: Bestiario moralizzato di Bosone da Gubbio (d. ca. 1349), a cura di Annamaria Carrega; Libellus de natura animalium, a cura di Paola Navone.

521 p., illustrations, bibliography.

Language: Italian
ISBN: 88-7648-011-0; LCCN: 85147951; LC: PA8275.B4I81983

El pecado en la capilla de San Andres de la catedral de Tui (Quintana, 1, 2002, page 197-209)

A study of the representation of sin in the chapel of St Andres in the cathedral of Tui. The sculptures constitute a rich bestiary mostly in the form of serpents and dragons, symbols of of redemption the struggle against sin.

Language: Spanish
ISSN: 1579-7414

La tradition manuscrite de l’Image du monde (Ecole nationale des Chartes, 2005)

Digital resource

The 13th century was defined by Jacques Le Goff as the “century of encyclopaedism”. It was indeed a period of incredible growth for Latin encyclopedias, but also saw at the same time the birth of vulgar encyclopedism. The foundation of the new genre, destined to spread during the second half of the century, is linked to the publication of the Image of the world , a text which enjoyed immense success in the Middle Ages and which circulated in several editorial offices. The original intention of the author [Gossuin de Metz] of l’Image du monde was to develop an instructional program that could adapt traditional clerical knowledge to a new, secular, unschooled audience. To understand the text, it is therefore fundamental to understand the relationship it maintained with its readers. - [Introduction]

Language: French

Animali, uomini, leggende: il bestiario del mito (Milan: Xenia, 1990)

240 pp., illustrations, bibliography.

Language: Italian
LCCN: 91-117874; LC: GR820.C461990; OCLC: 31754862

Le roman de Renart: supplément, variantes et corrections (Paris: Chez Silvestre, 1835)

Digital resource 1  (Google Books)
Digital resource 2  (Google Books)
Digital resource 3 

Shortly after the death of Mr. Méon, and at the sale of his books, Mr. Prince d'Essling, an enlightened friend of our ancient literature, acquired an unpublished branch of the Roman du Renart, a copy of which had been taken by Mr. Méon himself. We gladly undertook the publication of this branch on the proposal made to us by Mr. Silvestre. The copy bore no indication which could reveal the manuscript from which it was taken ... In any case, we have found not only the manuscript which contains the branch copied by Mr. Méon, but also another branch and several unpublished pieces which are connected to this famous novel. We had initially been content, and for our personal satisfaction, to load our copy of Le Renart with some of the variants which the collation of the manuscripts offered us; but soon the number, the extent and the importance of these variants allowed us to believe that the publication of the most remarkable ones would perhaps not be without interest for science. A careful revision also made us perceive in the printed matter some errors which we believed it necessary to note. The work which we are publishing today is therefore composed of unpublished pieces, variants and corrections; it is finished by a table of the branches, with an indication of the folios where they are found in the different manuscripts, and of the pages of Le Roman du Renart and of this Supplement. ... This is the branch of Mr. Méon; the title that we give it is composed according to the text itself; in the manuscript marked B. L. F. 195 B. [now Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms-3334], from the library of the Arsenal, from which it is taken ... the title of the second branch; is taken, as well as the first, from a manuscript in the library of the Arsenal (B. L. F. 195 C. [now Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms-3335]). ... Like almost all the other branches, those that we publish today are anonymous and offer no indication that could make their author known. - [Editor]

Language: French

Life in Medieval England as Portrayed on Church Misericords and Bench Ends (Oxfordshire: Teamband Ltd., 1998)

Written to interest those who would like to place the carvings in their contemporary context rather than to provide an exhaustive catalogue. Largely focusing on examples in East Anglia and the West Country, Challis explores the various genres of misericord subjects represented, including depictions of events from the Bible, early disciples, beasts and monsters, scenes from everyday life and merry-making. Not a comprehensive study but one which reflects the time spent by the author visiting and recording these carvings.

Language: English
ISBN: 1-898187-01-0

WhiteRose's Garden (WhiteRose (Heather Changeri), 1997-)

Digital resource

A web site on "comparative mythology", with sections on water creatures, dragons, unicorns, and other mythical beasts.

Language: English

The Bestiary of Christ (New York: Parabola Books, 1991)

Just before the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe, a little-known Roman Catholic scholar published a compendium of animal symbolism that ranks with the greatest of the classical and medieval bestiaries. Louis Charbonneau-Lassay's Le Bestiaire du Christ (The Bestiary of Christ) was a tour de force that brought together the findings of a lifetime of scholarship in religious symbols gleaned from sources as diverse as ancient Egypt, classical Greece and Rome, early and medieval Christianity, the Kabbalah, Gnosticism, and various spiritual schools of the Near and Far East. ... By bringing together various schools of esoteric wisdom with Catholic thought and the folk legends of the French countryside around Loudun, where he lived and died, Charbonneau-Lassay created a stirring and lively account of the rich - and often contradictory - metaphorical meanings of real and imaginary animals." - publisher

Originally published in France (as Le Bestiaire du Christ) in 1940, in an edition of 500 copies, almost all of which were destroyed during the war. An edition of 2000 copies was published in Milan, based on the few surviving copies of the original. This English edition was translated and abriged by D. M. Dooling.

Language: English
ISBN: 0-930407-18-0; LCCN: 91040422; LC: BV168.A5C48131992; DDC: 24620

Christ the Hunter & the Hunted. A dual symbol from The Bestiary of Christ (Parabola, 16:2 (May), 1991, page 23-25)

Language: English
ISSN: 0362-1596; OCLC: 2210234

Un Episode Original: La Mort du Loup dans le Livre VII de l'Ysengrimus (in Gabriel Bianciotto & Michel Salvat, ed., Épopée Animale, Fable, Fabliau: Actes du IVe Colloque de la Société Internationale Renardienne, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984, page 133-139)

In the Roman de Renart, the fox brushes with death several times, but at the last minute, miraculously, he is always spared. This is how branch I shows him condemned to death by the king and the court. However, a final subterfuge saves him: he declares that he wants to atone for his crimes by a pilgrimage, so that Noble forgives him and he can escape. Branch XVII also claims to bring the Romance to a definitive conclusion: Renart dies and his funeral is carried out. But at the moment when the groupil is buried, he leaps out of the grave and flees, taking Chanteclerc who was holding the censer. The same theme will be taken up again in a later branch, branch XXIII, where once again Renart escapes the sentence pronounced against him. In short, Renart is immortal. The hero of the animal epic, symbol as much as character, cannot die. - [Author]

Language: French

Poison-Detecting Birds (Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, 5:2, 1929, page 233-242)

Digital resource  (JSTOR)

Notes on poison-detecting birds, primarily from Eastern (Arabic, Indian) texts, but with some reference to Western bestiary texts.

Language: English

Le dragon me´die´val. "Physiologus", encyclope´dies et bestiaires enlumine´s (VIIIe-XVe s.) : Texte et Image (École doctorale de l’EHESS, 2020)

Digital resource 

The medieval dragon. “Physiologus”, illuminated encyclopedias and bestiaries (8th-15th centuries): Text and Image. Doctoral thesis in History and civilizations

The ubiquitous of the dragon in the geographical area of the Medieval West makes it a fundamentally complex figure. Faced with an unfathomable production, as immense as the dragon itself, the Latin bestiaries offer a corpus which, thanks to the text-image relationship, allows us to analyse its symbolism and iconography. The production of the bestiaries is a continuation of the Greek Physiologus (2nd/4th century) and its Latin translations, and predates the encyclopaedic revival of the 13th century. It will therefore be important for us to understand the formation and processes underlying the symbolic evolution and iconography of the dragon, to identify the different stages that mark its history and contributed to molding its image in medieval times. To do this, it is necessary to identify the different symbolic components of the biblical dragon, at the very origin of the medieval monster, through the Old Testament, the Revelation and Patristic. This analysis aims to identify the complex and intertwined networks that govern the symbolism of the dragon in the Physiologus and its Latin translations. The study of the vernacular translations of the Latin versions of the Physiologus allows us to highlight the permanence and mutations of the dragon which began during the 12th century. The Latin bestiaries allow us to understand the links that unite and distinguish the dragon from the various snakes. The 13th century encyclopaedias, by compiling ancient knowledge and medieval traditions, redefine the place of the dragon in Creation and its symbolism. The iconographic analysis of the bestiaries allows us to determine the criteria inherent to the physiognomy of the dragon, its singularity in relation to other snakes and to understand how its depiction participates in the exaltation of its diabolical nature. - [Abstract]

Language: French

Genèse, symbolique et iconographie du basilic au Moyen Âge. Exemple des bestiaires latins enluminés (xiie-xve siècle) (Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes, 2022; Series: Magikon zoon: Animal et magie dans l’Antiquité et au Moyen Âge)

Digital resource 

A small snake in Antiquity, a hybrid animal in the Middle Ages or a giant monster with a murderous gaze in contemporary fantasy, the basilisk continues to reinvent itself. These mutations bear witness to the evolutions and recreations of the visual and symbolic imagination which have marked its history throughout the centuries. Faced with the protean nature and unstable iconography of the basil, Latin bestiaries offer a corpus that allows us to understand its symbolism and iconography. Bestiaries enjoyed great success during the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, in the British Isles and on the European continent. This literary genre is heir to ancient zoology and the exegetical tradition of paleo-Christian writings, thus offering an original theological discourse rich in meaning. It will therefore be important for us to understand the formation and processes that underlie the symbolic evolution and iconography of the basil, to identify the different stages that mark its history and contributed to forging its image in the medieval period. To do this, it is necessary to identify the multiple symbolic components of the basil, at the very origin of the medieval monster, through ancient pagan literature, the Old Testament corpus and patristics. This analysis aims to identify the complex and tangled networks which govern the symbolism of the basil in the writings of the High Middle Ages in order to highlight the permanences and mutations which began during the twelfth century, in particular through the different families of Latin bestiaries. Finally, the iconographic analysis of the manuscripts will make it possible to determine the criteria inherent to the physiognomy of the basil and to define how its presentation contributes to the exaltation of its diabolical nature. - [Author]

Language:
978-2-493209-07-8; DOI: 10.4000/books.irht.802