Bestiaries: How the Middle Ages Saw Real and Mythical Animals
If you lived in Europe during the 12th century and wanted to learn about animals, you wouldnât consult a biology textbook or watch a nature documentary. You would read a Bestiary.
The medieval bestiary was one of the most popular and widely copied types of books, second only to the Bible. These beautifully illuminated manuscripts described the physical characteristics and habits of animals, birds, and rocks. However, their primary purpose was not scientific accuracy, but moral instruction.
To the medieval mind, the world was a book written by God, and every creature within it possessed a hidden, allegorical meaning meant to teach humanity how to live a righteous life.
Mixing the Real and the Fantastical
One of the most fascinating aspects of a bestiary is that it drew no distinction between the animals we know exist and the creatures we now classify as Folklore or Mythology. They were all treated with the same absolute seriousness.
A reader would turn a page detailing the habits of a stag or a dog, and on the very next page, find a detailed description of a Dragon, a Unicorn, or a Manticore. Because few Europeans had ever seen an elephant or a crocodile, descriptions of these real exotic animals sounded just as fantasticalâand were considered just as realâas descriptions of the Phoenix.
The Allegorical Lesson
Every entry in a bestiary followed a specific pattern: a description of the animal (often wildly inaccurate by modern standards) followed by its Christian moralization.
The Real Animals
- The Pelican: It was widely believed that a mother pelican would strike her own breast with her beak, shedding her blood to revive her dead chicks. This was interpreted as a powerful, direct allegory for Christ sacrificing his blood on the cross to save humanity.
- The Lion: Considered the king of beasts. The bestiary claimed that lion cubs were born dead and were brought to life on the third day when the father lion roared over them. This was seen as an obvious symbol of God the Father resurrecting Christ after three days in the tomb.
The Mythical Animals
The creatures of myth served equally important allegorical roles, often representing the devil, sin, or specific virtues.
- The Unicorn: Described as a fierce, untamable beast with a single horn that could purify poisoned water. The only way to capture it was to leave a pure virgin alone in the woods; the unicorn would approach and peacefully lay its head in her lap, allowing hunters to ambush it. This was universally interpreted as an allegory for the Incarnation: Christ (the unicorn) entering the womb of the Virgin Mary, and ultimately being betrayed and killed by men.
- The Sirens: These creatures (often depicted in bestiaries as Hybrids of women and birds or fish) represented the deadly allure of worldly temptations. Just as Sirens lured sailors to their deaths with sweet songs, worldly pleasures lured the souls of men to damnation.
The Legacy of the Bestiary
While the scientific revolution eventually replaced the allegorical worldview of the bestiary, its impact on Western culture was immense.
The bizarre, stylized depictions of animals found in these manuscripts heavily influenced the art of heraldry (coats of arms), the stone carvings (gargoyles) of Gothic cathedrals, and the enduring popularity of mythical beasts in modern fantasy literature. The bestiary reminds us of a time when the natural world was not just something to be studied, but a magical text to be decoded.