Bestiary
A bestiary is a collection that describes animals, real or fabled, and lends each one a moral or spiritual meaning. The genre flourished in the Middle Ages out of the Physiologus, a Greek text of the early centuries where every creature becomes a lesson: the lion, the phoenix, the unicorn. These works set much of the Western animal symbolism still found today in heraldry, in folktales, and in the contemporary imagination.
From the Physiologus to illuminated manuscripts
It all begins with the Physiologus, an anonymous Greek text composed in the early centuries of our era, probably in Alexandria. Each chapter describes a creature, then draws a spiritual lesson from it. Copied, translated, and enriched throughout the Middle Ages, it gave rise to the great illuminated bestiaries, where the pelican, the unicorn, and the phoenix became moral figures that all of Europe learned to read.
Reading a bestiary today
When you meet a heraldic lion, a bookshop owl, or a phoenix in a novel, you are still reading from a bestiary without knowing it. Have fun tracing the thread back: which quality did that culture lend this animal, and why? It is a joyful way into animal symbolism, and a reminder that our imaginations are inherited libraries.
Sources
- , Physiologus
- , Bestiaires du Moyen Âge (2011)