This document summarizes a medieval bestiary manuscript from the early 13th century. It combines scientific descriptions of animals with Christian theological interpretations. Accounts of familiar European animals are usually accurate, while exotic animals include fantastical elements. All animals are connected to biblical stories and symbolism. The bestiary aims to reveal God's nature and lessons for Christians through the natural world.

1. Camille Zimmerman

2.  Art and literature based upon secular knowledge (such as
maps and encyclopedias) instead of ecclesiastical
knowledge (such as psalters and the gospels) were being
produced in greater numbers by the 13th-15th century. This
was due in part to the rediscovery of Classical texts during
the Crusades.
 Although most of their knowledge base came from
Antiquity, medieval scholars would always connect
scientific findings to Christian dogma in some ways.
 I will be focusing on bestiaries, which were collected
descriptions and images of plant and animal life. These
were used as tools which transmitted medieval knowledge
about the natural world and its place in Christian theology.

3.  “Most of these objects served piety, belief and
devotion, having been intended to
confirm, clarify, and ‘make visible’ Christian
doctrine…the pieces examined here, however, emanate
from, and functioned primarily within the mundane
sphere of medieval life. Within these societies such
distinctions between ecclesiastical and secular
jurisdictions were often vague, thus the materials they
produced…functioned in different spheres at different
times”
- Nancy Netzer Secular Sacred

7.  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness: and let them have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over the cattle, and over all the earth and over
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Genesis, 1. 26
 In the middle ages, it was believed that God gave
mankind two revelations of His divinity. The first
was the Bible. The second was nature itself.

11.  Early 13th century English
manuscript.
 Includes information about
countless
animals, plants, minerals, and
even the nature of humans.
 This manuscript clearly
combines scientific study
with theological information.
This is clear in the opening
pages, which reference the
creation of the animals in
Genesis. This image suggests
that while medieval scholars
largely understood the
biological workings of the
animal kingdom, they still
attributed life to divine
power.

12.  These are animals which would have been quite
familiar to the writers and readers of this manuscript.
 As such, the accounts of the animal’s behavior and
appearance is usually very detailed, correct, and
observant.
 These animals are still connected to Christian
beliefs, and their common behaviors are often
attributed to a divine connection. However, these
attributes are usually more general than
fantastical, possibly because the writers would have
been intimately familiar with the realistically humble
nature of most of the animals.

13.  “No creature is more intelligent than the dog, for dogs have more
understanding than other animals; they alone recognise their names and
love their masters. Finally, their nature is that they cannot exist without
man. In some ways preachers are like dogs: by their admonitions and
righteous ways they are always driving off the ambushes laid by the
Devil, lest he seize and carry off God's treasure - Christian souls. As the
dog's tongue, licking a wound, heals it, the wounds of sinners, laid bare
in confession, are cleansed by the correction of the priest. As the dog's
tongue heals man's internal wounds, the secrets of his heart are often
purified by the deeds and discourse of the Church's teachers. As the dog
is said to be temperate in its ways, the man who is set over others
diligently studies wisdom and must avoid drunkenness and gluttony in
every way, for Sodom perished in a surfeit of food. Indeed, there is no
quicker way for the Devil, his enemy, to take possession of man than
through his greedy gullet. The dog returning to its vomit signifies those
who, after making their confession, heedlessly return to wrongdoing.
The dog leaving its meat behind in the river, out of desire for its
shadow, signifies foolish men who often forsake what is theirs by right
out of desire for some unknown object; with the result that, while they
are unable to obtain the object of their desire, they needlessly lose what
they have given up”.

14. ‘Dogs and their Habits’

15.  “It is fleet-footed and never runs
in a straight line but twists and
turns. It is a clever, crafty animal.
When it is hungry and can find
nothing to eat, it rolls itself in red
earth so that it seems to be
stained with blood, lies on the
ground and holds it breath, so
that it seems scarcely alive. When
birds see that it is not
breathing, that it is flecked with
blood and that its tongue is
sticking out of its mouth, they
think that it is dead and descend
to perch on it. Thus it seizes them
and devours them. The Devil is of
a similar nature. For to all who
live by the flesh he represents
himself as dead until he has them
in his gullet and punishes them.
But to spiritual men, living in the
faith, he is truly dead and reduced
to nothing”.

16.  “The silver-covered dove is the
Church, instructed by the
teaching of the holy word. The
dove has a right and a left
eye, signifying moral and mystic
perception. With the left eye the
dove regards itself, but with the
right, it contemplates God. It has
two wings, signifying the active
and the contemplative life. At
rest, it is covered by them; in
flight, it is raised by them to
heavenly things. We are in
flight, when we are in a state of
ecstasy. We are at rest when we
are among our brothers in a sober
state of mind. Feathers are set in
these wings. They are
teachers, fixed in the wings of
righteous behaviour and the
contemplation of God”.

17.  Birds always held a
special significance in
the medieval world.
Birds were thought to
have a special
knowledge of God
because they flew in the
sky (the
‘heavens’), which is
unlike any other type of
animal.
 Image is late 13th
cent., of St. Francis
preaching to birds.
Many believed that
birds could learn from
preaching and the
Scriptures because of
the ‘special knowledge’
they had.

18.  These were animals that both the Western medieval
writer and reader would most likely not have ever seen
in person. These animals were, however, well
documented in other academic manuscripts or first-
hand accounts.
 Unsurprisingly, many of these accounts were
exaggerated or misinterpreted. As a result, much of the
biological information given about the animals are
incorrect. This also leads to even more fantastic
Biblical connections, as readers would not have been
familiar enough with the animals to contest such
claims.

19.  “There is an animal called the panther, multi-coloured, very beautiful and
extremely gentle. Physiologus says of it, that it has only the dragon as an enemy.
When it has fed and is full, it hides in its den and sleeps. After three days it
awakes from its sleep and gives a great roar, and from its mouth comes a very
sweet odour, as if it were a mixture of every perfume. When other animals hear
its voice, they follow wherever it goes, because of the sweetness of its scent.
Only the dragon, hearing its voice, is seized by fear and flees into the caves
beneath the earth”.

20.  “There is an animal called the
hyena, which inhabits the tombs of
the dead and feeds on their bodies.
Its nature is that it is sometimes
male, sometimes female, and it is
therefore an unclean animal. It
stalks the sheepfolds of shepherds
and circles their houses by
night, and by listening carefully
learns their speech, so that it can
imitate the human voice, in order
to fall on any man whom it has
lured out at night. The sons of
Israel resemble the hyena. At the
beginning they served the living
God. Later, addicted to wealth and
luxury, they worshipped idols. For
this reason the prophet compared
the synagogue to an unclean
animal”.

21.  “Apes are called simie in Latin because the similarity between
their mentality and that of humans is felt to be great. The ape
does not have a tail. The Devil has the form of an ape, with a head
but no tail. The Devil began as an angel in heaven. But inside he
was a hypocrite and a deceiver, and he lost his tail, because he will
perish totally at the end”.

22. Initial H from Moralia in Job.
Image in Dale’s
Monsters, Corporeal
Deformities, and Phantasms
in the Cloister of St-Michel-
de-Cuxa

23.  These are mythical animals. While these are
sometimes openly discussed as ‘imaginary’, most were
believed to truly exist, just in a very exotic location.
 This type of animal was usually attributed the most
fantastical Biblical connections, and many of their
habits are compared to actions in the life of Christ.

24.  “When it observes that it has grown
old, it erects a funeral pyre for itself
from small branches of aromatic
plants, and having turned to face the
rays of the sun, beating its wings, it
deliberately fans the flames for itself
and is consumed in the fire. But on the
ninth day after that, the bird rises from
its own ashes.
Our Lord Jesus Christ displays the
features of this bird, saying: 'I have the
power to lay down my life and to take it
again' (see John, 10:18).
If, therefore, the phoenix has the power
to destroy and revive itself, why do
fools grow angry at the word of
God, who is the true son of God, who
says: 'I have the power to lay down my
life and to take it again'? For it is a fact
that our Saviour descended from
heaven; he filled his wings with the
fragrance of the Old and New
Testaments; he offered himself to God
his father for our sake on the altar of
the cross; and on the third he day he
rose again”.

25.  “The bird called caladrius, as Physiologus tells us, is white all over; it has no black parts. If anyone is
sick, he will learn from the caladrius if he is to live or die. If, therefore, a man's illness is fatal, the
caladrius will turn its head away from the sick man as soon as it sees him, and everyone knows that the
man is going to die. But if the man's sickness is one from which he will recover, the bird looks him in the
face and takes the entire illness upon itself; it flies up into the air, towards the sun, burns off the sickness
and scatters it, and the sick man is cured. The caladrius represents our Saviour. Our Lord is pure white
without a trace of black, 'who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth' (1 Peter, 2:22). The
Lord, moreover, coming from on high, turned his face from the Jews, because they did not believe, and
turned to us, Gentiles, taking away our weakness and carrying our sins; raised up on the wood of the
cross and ascending on high, 'he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men, (Ephesians, 4:8). Each day
Christ, like the caladrius, attends us in our sickness, examines our mind when we confess, and heals
those to whom he shows the grace of repentance. But he turns his face away from those whose heart he
knows to be unrepentant. These he casts off; but those to whom he turns his face, he makes whole
again”.

26.  “The Devil is like the dragon; he is
the most monstrous serpent of all; he
is often aroused from his cave and
causes the air to shine
because, emerging from the
depths, he transforms himself into
the angel of light and deceives the
foolish with hopes of vainglory and
worldly pleasure. The dragon is said
to be crested, as the Devil wears the
crown of the king of pride. The
dragon's strength lies not in its teeth
but its tail, as the Devil, deprived of
his strength, deceives with lies those
whom he draws to him. The dragon
lurks around paths along which
elephants pass, as the Devil entangles
with the knots of sin the way of those
bound for heaven and, like the
dragon, kills them by suffocation;
because anyone who dies fettered in
the chains of his offences is
condemned without doubt to hell”