Bestiaries-lnks

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Bestiaries-lnks - 10/5/04

A set of web links to information on medieval bestiaries by Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon. Bestiaries were compiled books of animals both real and imaginary.

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From: mtnlion at ptd.net

Subject: Links: A Phsiologus: Medieval Bestiaries

Date: October 5, 2004 6:23:31 PM CDT

To: StefanliRous at austin.rr.com

Greetings, my faithful readers!

This week we are taking a look at medieval bestiaries: those compiled books

of animals both real and fantastic. In medieval art, the message is

everything, and thus the images of beasts came to mean many symbolical

things (and sometimes contradictory things). Paintings and illuminations,

therefore, can say a great deal without a single written word.

Regardless of the meanings of some of these beasties, we reap the rewards of

the recording of their attributes in beautiful books called Physiologus,

Bestiaries, or Beastiaries. Illuminators will no double love to look at some

of these notable works to decipher the message they wish to send with their

work. Heralds will surely take note of the names and meanings of the

symbolism when advising their patrons. Tellers of tall tales might like to

take a peek herein to find out how one might use animal husbandry to gain

the existence of a Pard! And just like people for ages past, many folk will

like to look at the pictures of these animals, and ponder the existence of

some of those rarer beasts. Who knows, perhaps someone will find a medieval

version of Big Foot herein! In this month that host All Hallows Eve,

anything is possible.

I have found it quite enjoyable to thumb through the animal listings, and to

notice that the imaginary animals are given equal seriousness as the real

ones. Please enjoy this Links list and pass it along, but please strip it of

my email address before doing so.

Cheers

Aoife

Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon

Canton of Riverouge

Barony of the Endless Hills

Kingdom of Aethelmarc

Medieval Bestiary --Search for the Unicorn (note: Turn down sound before

clicking link)

http://www.geocities.com/Paris/3963/bestiary.html">http://www.geocities.com/Paris/3963/bestiary.html

(Site Excerpt) Though the majority of our medieval friends were illiterate,

they were well-acquainted with the tales of fabulous beasts, partly from

word of mouth, but mainly because these wonderful creatures were common

illustrations in the church windows and common art of the period. Those

fortunate enough to be literate were treated to many an image of a mythical

beast, since the illuminators inserted them into the marginalia and

illustrations of the rich Books of Hours that were the prayerbooks of the

period.

The Medieval Bestiary

http://bestiary.ca/">http://bestiary.ca/

(Site Excerpt) This site is the long-term project of David Badke, an

independent scholar in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The goal is to

gather all (!) available information about the Medieval Bestiary and its

antecendants, as well as related information on the Medieval view of animals

in general, both fabulous and real. The end result will (hopefully) be a

resource that is of some use to the community of Medieval scholars and

anyone else with an interest in the Middle Ages.

SEE ALSO Medieval Bestiary Bibliography

http://bestiary.ca/biblios/biblioauthorfull.htm">http://bestiary.ca/biblios/biblioauthorfull.htm

Vice and Virtue

Symbolized in the Animal Kingdom

Marian Therese Horvat, Ph.D.

http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/f002rp.htm">http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/f002rp.htm

(Site Excerpt: PLease note that STRONG religious opinion is expressed within

this article) Illustrated beastiaries (books about animals) were among the

most popular and widely read books of the 12th and 13th centuries. Ours is

not the first age that has been fascinated by animals, although ours is the

first to provide restaurants and health spas for dogs and cats, and

psycho-therapy for owners to deal with grief over the loss of pets.

Images from Dante's inferno- The Beast Geryon & other creatures

http://altreligion.about.com/library/graphics/bl_inferno11.htm">http://altreligion.about.com/library/graphics/bl_inferno11.htm

A series of classic illustrations, and Inferno sources.

The Aberdeen Bestiary

http://www.clues.abdn.ac.uk:8080/besttest/firstpag.html">http://www.clues.abdn.ac.uk:8080/besttest/firstpag.html

(Site Excerpt) A Bestiary is a collection of short descriptions about all

sorts of animals, real and imaginary, birds and even rocks, accompanied by a

moralising explanation. Although it deals with the natural world it was

never meant to be a scientific text and should not be read as such. Some

observations may be quite accurate but they are given the same weight as

totally fabulous accounts. The Bestiary appeared in its present form in

England in the twelfth century, as a compilation of many earlier sources,

principally the Physiologus.

Mythology Clipart (people and beasts)

http://webclipart.about.com/od/msubmyth/index.htm">http://webclipart.about.com/od/msubmyth/index.htm

Medieval Bestiaries and the birth of Zoology

http://www.antlionpit.com/aura.html">http://www.antlionpit.com/aura.html

(Site Excerpt: Note that here again we have strong religious opinion) A

bestiary is, quite simply, a book of beasts. In medieval Europe, bestiaries

were extremely popular and respected by all who consulted it.1 After the

Church appropriated it for its own purposes around the 6th century, the

bestiary became a book of learning which used examples of animal lore to

teach Christian values. Mixing fact and fiction with a dab of moralization,

bestiaries became incarnations of the medieval mind which so preoccupied

itself with salvation that it could scarce look beyond its horizon without

seeing it through God-tainted glasses. See espescially the bibliography at:

http://www.antlionpit.com/aura.html#bibliography">http://www.antlionpit.com/aura.html#bibliography

The Bestiary Project

http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/TheBestiaryProject.htm">http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/TheBestiaryProject.htm

Please note that this site is a list of tall tales, some of them historical,

about weird creatures. I include it since this seems to be a noble and

historically precedented if somewhat misguided preoocupation :)

Medieval Bestiary Crayon Etching Lesson Plan

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/Lessons/6beast.htm">http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/Lessons/6beast.htm

An activity that can be for smaller kids, but is much better for larger ones

or even adults(very nice results)

TEACHERS SEE ALSO the evaluation form at

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/Lessons/6beastev.htm">http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/Lessons/6beastev.htm

The Medieval Bestiary

http://itsa.ucsf.edu/~snlrc/britannia/flowers/bestiary.html">http://itsa.ucsf.edu/~snlrc/britannia/flowers/bestiary.html

(Site Excerpt) Studies that attempt to identify the fabulous creatures

described in a medieval bestiary with their living counterparts, such as

equating the Bonnacon with the European bison, miss this point. Too, the

same creature might often represent both good and evil, Christ or the Devil,

depending upon its biblical reference, a dichotomy that often was subtle and

complex. Portrayed most often by the medieval artist, the lion is an example

of these seemingly contradictory connotations.

Physiologus: A Metrical Bestiary Of Twelve Chapters By Bishop Theobald

http://bestiary.ca/etexts/rendell1928/rendell1928.htm">http://bestiary.ca/etexts/rendell1928/rendell1928.htm

(Site Excerpt) This text is a translation and facsimile of a copy of the

Physiologus attributed to Bishop Theobald (Theobaldus) which was printed in

1492. The text of the 1492 edition is taken from an earlier (unidentified)

manuscript. The print edition of this text was published in London in 1928;

the digital edition was created from the original in 2003 by David Badke.

MEDIEVAL MONSTERS

http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/medieval.monsters.html">http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/medieval.monsters.html

(Site Excerpt) Perhaps even more so than in Classical times, it's not so

much a matter of monsters per se in the Middle Ages, but monstrosities

rather. We do have the blood-drinking, Geat-eating Grendel and his swampy

mother in Beowulf, emerging from folktale and given the properly improper

genealogy of belonging to the race of Cain by the vaguely Christianizing

narrative filter. For a perspective on dragons and reptiles, see the

Dinosaur-Dragon Abstract (or the article published in Popular Culture

Review). Arthurian knights encounter some bizarre spectacles, but no

"classic" monsters take hold of our consciousness in these romances, nor in

those of the better-travelled infidel-slayers and Mandevillian map-trotters.

WORLDCAT Find in a Library: A medieval bestiary.

. By: Thomas J Elliott

http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/ow/b489cb957cb16559.html">http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/ow/b489cb957cb16559.html

Use worldcat to track down bestiary and other books in a library near you,

world-wide.

Medieval Literature Annotated Bibliography

Symbolism in Christian Art

http://www.wheaton.edu/english/resources/medieval/all.html">http://www.wheaton.edu/english/resources/medieval/all.html

Monkeyfilter: The Medieval Bestiary: animals in the middle ages

http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/2721">http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/2721

(Site Excerpt) The Medieval Bestiary: animals in the middle ages. The

illustrations of beasts and the accompanying text on illustrations of bests

and accompanying text on this site are compiled from from various medieval

sources, and are not taken from any single manuscript. From such selections,

it's possible to savour the 'beasts', even as the medieval scholar and

scribes surely did.

White's Book of Beasts online

http://libtext.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistSciTech/HistSciTech-idx?type=article&;byte=953112&isize=M">http://libtext.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistSciTech/HistSciTech-idx?type=article&;byte=953112&isize=M

The Red Winged Lion

An Illuminated Page in the Style of Aberdeen

http://denevell/">http://denevell_books.home.insightbb.com/red_winged_lion.htm

(Site Excerpt) The Commissioning of a Medieval Manuscript Following the

rise of universities around 1200, the growth in both secular production and

consumer demand led to increased specialization and commercialization in

book production. A group of middlemen, known as stationers, emerged.

Stationers supplied materials to craftsmen and received and subcontracted

commissions from patrons, often with formal recognition of the universities.

This decentralization stimulated new techniques of book production, such as

the systematic marking up of leaves and quires for assembly by the stationer

and the provision of instruction. (Brown,118)

Bestiaries

http://www.medievalwriting.50megs.com/word/bestiary.htm">http://www.medievalwriting.50megs.com/word/bestiary.htm

(Site Excerpt) While some works of the Latin Classics were carefully and

accurately transcribed for their value as exemplars of the Latin language,

other works from the Classical era became incorporated into medieval

literature. Sometimes mistranscribed, mistranslated or misunderstood, they

were then adorned with various additions to become something completely

different and part of a living, growing literary tradition in the medieval

era. Possibly the most delightful of this genre is the category of works

known as the bestiary. This class of work is also a good example for

contemplation of the difference between medieval literary and practical

knowledge.

Getty Museum Bestiaries

http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/presentation/p42_299-1.html">http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/presentation/p42_299-1.html

(Site Excerpt) Are bestiaries secular or sacred literature? The genre

illustrates the problem of applying such modern-day distinctions to a period

like the Middle Ages, when the lines between secular and sacred were not

clear-cut. Lay brothers serving in cathedrals, for example, read bestiaries,

and preachers also looked to them for source material for their sermons. Yet

the wide distribution of vernacular translations also suggests they were

enormously popular with lay readers.

Medieval Latin Online: Week 8. Physiologus

http://www.mythfolklore.net/medieval_latin/08_physiologus/">http://www.mythfolklore.net/medieval_latin/08_physiologus/

(Site Excerpt) These European bestiaries are a mixture of traditional

stories and beliefs about the animals, some of them grounded in natural

history and others purely fantastic! The stories are often supplied with

allegorical interpretations. As we saw last week, these allegorical

interpretations fall into two broad categories: interpretations in bonum,

where the animals provide examples of faith and salvation, and also

interpretations in malum, where the animals are examples of temptation and

sin.

Monsters and Fabulous Beasts (Suite 101 online)

http://www.suite101.com/links.cfm/monsters">http://www.suite101.com/links.cfm/monsters

A Set of links to other works on the subject, from lycanthropy (werewolf,

anyone?) to Bestiaries. You can even adopt a Daemon.