Bestiary (Writer)

 

medieval literary genre

The bestiary is a literary genre of the European middle ages generally consisting of a collection of stories, each detailing the qualities of an animal, plant, or even stone. These stories were often presented in the form of Christian allegories for moral enlightenment.

The bestiaries are derived from the Greek text Physiologus, compiled between the second and fourth centuries by an unknown author and consisting of 48 sections, each linking a creature, plant, or stone to a Biblical text. Translations and adaptations of this and other bestiaries spread throughout Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries and were very popular in France.

Many of the medieval bestiaries, such as “The Panther” and “The Whale,” were also lavishly illustrated with pictures of sometimes-fabulous beasts. Creatures in other tales included a gryphon, a lion/eagle hybrid; a basilisk, a half-bird, half-reptile so poisonous that its glance could kill; and an aphibaena, a two-headed reptile. In addition, many traditional attributes of real and mythical creatures, such as the phoenix and the unicorn, derive from the bestiaries. These attributes, again intended to help teach a moral tale, have since been absorbed into folklore, literature, and art.

A 14th-century tale titled Bestiare d’amour applies the allegorical structure of a bestiary to courtly love, but the intent of most bestiaries was to elaborate on the virtues of abstinence and chastity and to warn against heresy. Some of the animals in the tales symbolize religious virtues or characters from the bible. The lion, for example, is portrayed in one bestiary as an animal that can revive its dead offspring, reminiscent of God’s resurrection of the Christ. In another tale, goats were used to symbolize sinners who strayed from God’s path.

The power of using animals to teach lessons about friendship and honesty can still be seen today in tales such as those about Winnie the Pooh and Hank the Cowdog. The ancient tales and their medieval translations and adaptations, however, found their place in world literature by illustrating how the written word was used to transfer religious teachings and concepts to the illiterate masses.

English Versions of Bestiaries

Bestiaries In Mediaeval Latin And French. Translated by Florence McCulloch. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1956.

The Book of Beasts. Edited by T. H. White. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 1984.

Medieval Latin and French Bestiaries. Translated by F. McCulloch. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960.

Works about Bestiaries

Baxter, Ron. Bestiaries and their Users in the Middle Ages. Phoenix Mill, U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 1998.


Davis, Norman. “Notes on the Middle English Bestiary.” Medium Aevum 19, Oxford, U.K.: The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature, 1950: 56-59.

Hallbeck, Einar S. The Language ofthe Middle English Bestiary. Cristianstad, Virg. Is.: Lanstidning Press, 1905.

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