Bestiaries

July 13, 2005 11:31 AM

Hedgehog: a beast that carries away grapes on its sharp quillsEverything you ever wanted to know about animals in the middle ages, courtesy of The Medieval Bestiary. The Aberdeen Bestiary is now online; see also images at Bestiaire (a French site; parts available in English and Spanish translation) and the Getty Museum.
posted by thomas j wise (12 comments total)

The illustrations from the Aberdeen Bestiary are magnificent.

Thanks for this post. It'll keep me busy for a while. :)
posted by taursir at 12:09 PM on July 13, 2005

*hires hedgehog to serve hors d'ouvres at next cocktail party*
posted by jonmc at 12:19 PM on July 13, 2005

"The beaver is hunted for its testicles, which are valued for making medicine. When the beaver sees that it cannot escape from the hunter, it bites off its testicles and throws them to the hunter, who the stops pursuing the beaver. If another hunter chases the beaver, it shows the hunter that it has already lost its testicles and so is spared.

"The beavers (castor) is so named from being castrated."
posted by sohcahtoa at 12:35 PM on July 13, 2005

*hires hedgehog to serve hors d'ouvres at next cocktail party*
posted by jonmc at 12:19 PM PST on July 13 [!]

Sorry Jonmc, there's no way I'd do that. Ron Jeremy's cool and all but he'd totally be trying to horndog all the girls.
posted by substrate at 1:38 PM on July 13, 2005

Bees are the smallest of birds. They are born from the bodies of oxen, or from the decaying flesh of slaughtered calves; worms form in the flesh and then turn into bees. Bees live in community, choose the most noble among them as king, have wars, and make honey. Their laws are based on custom, but the king does not enforce the law; rather the lawbreakers punish themselves by stinging themselves to death.

These descriptions are wonderful, crazy, poetic. Thanks for the link, thomas!
posted by maryh at 1:43 PM on July 13, 2005

Huwwo... My name is Wobert...
posted by WinnipegDragon at 2:18 PM on July 13, 2005

This is a fantastic link. Thank you!
posted by jennyb at 3:21 PM on July 13, 2005

The ancients used to place cypress branches near a funeral pyre, so that the stench of burning corpses would be smothered by their fragrance.

Well, yeah, it seems blindingly obvious now...

There are two kinds of geese, domestic and wild. Wild geese fly high, in a an orderly fashion, signifying those who, far away from earthly things, preserve a rule of virtuous conduct. Domestic geese live together in villages, they cackle together all the time and rend each other with their beaks; they signify those who, although they like conventual life, nevertheless find time to gossip and slander.

[Esto es bueno.]
posted by naomi at 4:21 PM on July 13, 2005

That was a fun link. Who made all that shit up??? Monks I guess.

Unlike most animals, lions mate face to face. The lioness give birth to five cubs the first time, then four the next, and three the next, until after the birth of a single cub in the fifth year, they become sterile.

Face to face?! Why say that?
posted by uncanny hengeman at 6:08 PM on July 13, 2005

Wonderful stuff. Thank you.
posted by picea at 8:26 PM on July 13, 2005

Were those monks just taking the piss because no-one else could read?

Or did they just copy old Greek sources (that may not have been very scientific, and more philosophical) without bothering to go outside?
posted by Harry at 1:28 AM on July 14, 2005

Harry—Bestiaries were indeed slavishly copied for the most part from older sources, and their lineage extends back to a book called the Physiologus, which was ‘written in Greek in Alexandria sometime between 140 and 410 CE.’

Many thanks for these links, tjw!
posted by misteraitch at 11:59 PM on July 14, 2005