Bestiaries

    Medieval bestiaries - much like modern day almanacs or encyclopedias - are a compendium of all animals believed to be in existence during the Middle Ages. Though not wholly scientific or based on fact, these manuscripts combine elements of religion, folklore, and myth to create a fantastical amalgamation of animals, plant-life, rocks, and what we today consider mythological creatures. While some of the creatures found throughout the various bestiaries of the time are based within reality, it's important to note that these manuscripts are most certainly not based on true scientific observation and by no means were a reliable source of any information. Rather, bestiaries were used as a method to advance the agenda of Christianity by finding spiritual and metaphysical meaning and justification of the physical world. 2 Despite these truths, bestiaries are proof of a real attempt for society to better understand and cope with the natural world around them. 

   Despite bestiaries massive growth in popularity and total information during the Medieval era, the original collection can be traced back to the days of ancient Greece and Rome. Plutarch, the Greek moralist and biographer "was the first to write on animal symbolism in a theological context," and even he based this idea upon the ancient Egyptians belief that the physical world contained insight into the truths of gods. 5  Bestiaries were originally "based on a Greek text of the second century called the Physiologus." 3 This text only contained a small number of descriptions for plants and rocks in addition to animals. However, similar to the bestiaries of Medieval times, the Physiologus provided a means for interpreting the physical world as it relates to the Christian faith. In addition to the Physiologus, those assembling bestiaries also took information directly from "the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville." 2 This text was of a similar fashion, although it focused more directly on the meaning of names of animals, as the name suggests. Interstingly, there is no direct author or person which can be attributed to the creation and rise in popularity of these bestiaries, but rather they arose through a collective effort among religious acolytes. 5 The bestiaries of the Middle Ages and their wild illuminations rose to popularity during the 12th and 13th centuries as monks laboriously copied them by hand during these times, until their decline in use around 1300. 5  

God creates animals in
Aberdeen Bestiary 1

Adam names animals 1

    Bestiaries were largely used as a digestible delivery system for the morals and ideals propagated by the Christian faith. With each animal, fantastical or based in reality, came a moral lesson to be learned, and provided perspective on humanity's place within the world. Within The Aberdeen Bestiary, one of the most famous and extensive bestiaries still in existence today, there are numerous images of God and Jesus as they create animals and beasts, as well as "Adam, clothed and on a throne, giv[ing] names to the animals." 1 The images shown to the right from the Aberdeen Bestiary are accompanied by excerpts from the Book of Genesis, which further supports that religion and faith played a massively important role within the formation and interpretation of bestiaries. Additionally, each animal is assumed to be either "sympathetic or antipathetic." 5 These two sides of animals work as combatant forces for good and evil. For example, the lion is portrayed as a sympathetic animal whereas the snake has the role of antipathetic. The purpose for these classifications is to convince the reader that "God has provided solutions to every threat or contingency." 5 

Lion breathes life into its cub 2

    To better understand the Christian morals and ideals attached to these animals, it's useful to take a look at some specific examples and their translations/interpretations. The aforementioned lion - which was one of the first animals cataloged in the Physiologus - was described as covering it tracks with its tail, sleeping with its eyes open, and that the cubs are stillborn until life is breathed on them on their third day. 2 These characteristics are believed to represent Jesus as he "conceals his divine nature," keeps divine watch even in sleep, and the cubs are symbolic of the Resurrection of Jesus. 2 To provide some insight into the more ridiculous and impressively inaccurate information presented in bestiaries, the beaver has a rather noteworthy entry. Taken from the Aberdeen Bestiary, beavers are said to have medicinally valuable testicles, and if a beaver feels it is being hunted, it will bite off its testicles and give them to the hunter, or show the hunter it has no testicles left to be taken. 4  As preposterous as this entry is, it still remains closely tied to Christian morals. The moral lesson being that any man who "wishes to live chastely should cut off all his vices and shameless acts, and cast them from him into the face of the devil." 4 These are just a couple of the endless examples of bestiary entries which are not only factually incorrect, but also that tie themselves directly to a Christian moral lesson. Additionally, it is worth noting that many people never actually saw most of the animals within bestiaries. There were no images to see what animals looked like, people had to rely on exaggerated stories from travelers to base their information on. Thus, "animals familiar to us today such as the whale and the ostrich were then as exotic and unknown as the unicorn." 5   Click on the video below to learn about the bestiary entry for whales. 

Image of phoenix 
in  Aberdeen Bestiary 1

    While even animals we all think of as normal today are given fantastical descriptions and traits, bestiaries also contained equally as many mythological creatures such as the unicorn and phoenix. The phoenix, believed to be a real bird at the time hailing from Arabia, is described in the Aberdeen Bestiary as a justification for the Resurrection of Jesus. The entry states, "if, therefore, the phoenix has the power to destroy and revive itself, why do fools grow angry at the word of God." 1 Obviously, if a bird is capable of destroying and reviving itself as it pleases, then it would make perfect sense for the son of God to be able to do the same. Therefore, everyone who denies the Christian faith has no sense of the real world and what is possible. The unicorn also serves as a justification for another Christian story. According to a bestiary, unicorns willingly come to lay their heads down in the lap of a virgin who sits alone in the forest. This tale is believed to signify Jesus's "vulnerability as a human at the hands of men." 3 It's apparent that these manuscripts were not solely used for information about animals or plants, but rather served as a way to explain and cope with the mysteries of the natural world and within the Middle Ages.

Unicorn laying its head on a virgin in an early 
12th century bestiary 3

    While Medieval bestiaries are rooted in Christian morality and are home to wild imagery and inaccuracies, they provide immense insight into Medieval society. The culture, beliefs, and morals of this seemingly ancient lifestyle are heavily prevalent throughout these manuscripts. Bestiaries also account for a large amount of inspiration within fictional world creation. From basilisks and manticores to unicorns and centaurs, these mythological creatures have been and are still used in nearly every fantastical fictional world. 

1 “The Aberdeen Bestiary - MS 24.” The Aberdeen Bestiary, University of Aberdeen, www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/. Accessed 6 Sept. 2023. 

2 Grout, James. “The Medieval Bestiary.” Encyclopaedia Romana, penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/anglo-saxon/flowers/bestiary.html. Accessed 7 Sept. 2023. 

3 Morrison, Elizabeth. “Beastly Tales from the Medieval Bestiary.” British Library, The Polonsky Foundation, www.bl.uk/medieval-english-french-manuscripts/articles/beastly-tales-from-the-medieval-bestiary. Accessed 6 Sept. 2023. 

4 Ross, Dr. Nancy. “The Bestiary.” Smarthistory, 8 Aug. 2015, smarthistory.org/the-bestiary/. Accessed 6 Sept. 2023.

5 Schrader, J. L. “A Medieval Bestiary.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 44, no. 1, 1986, pp. 1–60, https://doi.org/10.2307/3258963.