Bestiary

Bestiary (Fr.), the name given to a class of written books of great popularity in the middle ages, describing all the animals of creation, real or fabled, composed partly in prose, partly in verse, and generally illustrated by drawings. But they were valuable for the moral allegories they contained, no less than as handbooks of zoological facts. The symbolism which was then so much in vogue fastened spiritual meanings upon the several animals, until every quality of good or evil in the soul of man had its type in the beast world. It is in this way to the bestiaries that we must look for explanation of the strange, grotesque creatures which are found sculptured on the churches and other buildings of the middle ages. The oldest Latin bestiaries had an early Greek original, the well-known Physiologus, under which name about fifty such allegories were grouped. The Greek text of this famous work is found only in MS. There are old Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopic, Arabic, Icelandic, and numerous Latin versions. Editions of the Latin have been issued—Mai, Heider, and Cahier. An Old High German version was made earlier than the 11th century; in the 12th century, versions in French were made by Philippe de Thaun and Guillaume, a priest of Normandy. The Bestiaire d'Amour of Richard de Fournival was rather a parody upon the earlier form of such books. The following is a characteristic extract from the Bestiaire Divin: 'The unicorn has but one horn in the middle of its forehead. It is the only animal that ventures to attack the elephant; and so sharp is the nail of its foot, that with one blow it rips up the belly of that most terrible of all beasts. The hunters can catch the unicorn only by placing a young virgin in the forest which it haunts. No sooner does this marvellous animal descry the damsel, than it runs towards her, lies down at her feet, and so suffers itself to be taken by the hunters. The unicorn represents our Lord Jesus Christ, who, taking our humanity upon him in the Virgin's womb, was betrayed by the wicked Jews, and delivered into the hands of Pilate. Its one horn signifies the gospel truth, that Christ is one with the Father,' &c.