- East Anglian bestiary of c. 1300 (How to hunt a unicorn, Crocodile)
- A dragon attacks its enemy, the elephant. (Morgan Library, MS M.81, Folio 78r)
- Richard de Fournival’s Bestiary of Love (13th century)
- A savage wild pig or hog. (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KB, KA 16, Folio 45v)
- Lion (British Library, Royal MS 12 C. xix, Folio 6r)
To finish with this MFA Boston spam, a beautiful German plaque with beasts. (Look at those lines and colors!)
(about 1185)
Two dog-like beasts crouch facing toward the center with noses to the ground and long tails tucked under their bodies. The central beast, resembling a ram, faces right.
Source: mfa.org
In Medieval folklore, the Ziphius, or “Water-Owl”, was a monstrous nautical creature said to attack ships in the northern seas. It possessed the body of a fish and the head of an owl, complete with massive eyes and a wedge-shaped beak. “Ziphius”, meaning “sword-like” in Latin, may refer to the beast’s fin, which was said to pierce the hulls of ships like a sword.
Today, the inspiration for the Ziphius is known as Cuvier’s Beaked Whale, a widespread species of beaked whale. Also known as the Goose-beaked whale, this creature is found as far north as the Shetland Islands and as south as Tierra Del Fuego at the tip of South America. It is the only member of the genus Ziphius, which bears the name of its legendary identity.
drawing by zuckerglider
Source: listverse.com
***Morgan Casket. Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
It’s a very interesting piece, because it has an entirely medieval body—you could go down to the Byzantine department and see caskets of a very similar shape and kind—but the figures on the corners wear turbans and robes that are clearly Arab.
When you look at the casket very closely, you see all kinds of fantastic beasts, evidence of a shared vocabulary between medieval Christian and Muslim imagery. You see that griffin there, whose wing turns into a bird’s head and whose tail turns into a kind of deer’s head? The furry one, with ears? He’s really an extraordinary character. But others are quite naturalistic. The ibex looks like the ibex we know.
review from here
Source: theparisreview.org
Aspidoceleon(also spelled Aspidochelone)—a sea-monster, much like a whale, but having a turtle-shell and a snake-like head. Cf. Leviathan. In various translations, rendered cethegrande (Middle English) Cetus (Latin for whale), a grande (literally a “large”), and even a “sea-pig” by one homilist.
Source: web.cn.edu
![General Attributes
A bat is not a noble bird. It is unlike other birds in that it gives birth to live young instead of laying eggs, and it has teeth. Bats gather together and hang from high places like a bunch of grapes; if one falls, all the rest also fall.
Pliny the Elder [1st century CE] (Natural History, Book 10, 81): The bat is the only flying creature that bears live young and feeds them with its milk; it also carries its children in its arms as it flies.
Isidore of Seville [7th century CE] (Etymologies, Book 12, 7:36): The bat, unlike other birds, is a flying quadruped, resembling a mouse. It has its name (vespertilio) from the time when it flies, after twilight. It flies about driven by precipitate motion, hangs from frgile branchs, and makes a sound like a squeak.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyeea8EuL01qfg4oyo1_1280.jpg)
General Attributes
A bat is not a noble bird. It is unlike other birds in that it gives birth to live young instead of laying eggs, and it has teeth. Bats gather together and hang from high places like a bunch of grapes; if one falls, all the rest also fall.
Pliny the Elder [1st century CE] (Natural History, Book 10, 81): The bat is the only flying creature that bears live young and feeds them with its milk; it also carries its children in its arms as it flies.
Isidore of Seville [7th century CE] (Etymologies, Book 12, 7:36): The bat, unlike other birds, is a flying quadruped, resembling a mouse. It has its name (vespertilio) from the time when it flies, after twilight. It flies about driven by precipitate motion, hangs from frgile branchs, and makes a sound like a squeak.
Source: bestiary.ca
Gospels of Henry the Lion
Unknown Miniaturist, German (active 1175-1188 in Helmarshausen)
Between 1175 and 1188
340mm x 245mm
***The gospel book, preserved completely intact, with 50 full page miniatures, is kept in the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, and for security reasons is displayed only once every two years.
Source: commons.wikimedia.org
A distinct creature amongst the dragons of European legendary tradition, the Wyvern is a reptilian monster sometimes referred to as a ’Dragonet’ due to the sense that they look like adolescent dragons.
Identified by the beakish jaw, a pair of expansive wings and the fact that they only have a set of hind-legs (their wings act as forelimbs) Wyverns are cited as being very individual entities and are prominent in medieval bestiaries, heraldry and iconography. Said to be smaller but more actively aggressive than the average dragon, Wyverns can also be picked out thanks to their sharp, pointed tail (possibly poisonous) and their angular heads.
Considered to inhabit cavern lairs just like conventional dragons, another distinctive feature of Wyvern nature is their lack of acute intelligence and thus it’s believed that their treasure hoards are most likely to be filled with worthless junk rather than real valuables.
Popular in the mythology of medieval Europe, the soaring serpentines were looked to as a symbol of strength, alchemical dabbling or as allegorical icons of Satan and the spread of pestilence. Altogether, Wyverns fly high as fantastic, enthralling mythical beings.
A picture of a white war elephant from 11th century Spain
The Ashmole Bestiary is a late 12th or early 13th century English illuminated manuscript Bestiary containing a creation story and detailed allegorical descriptions of over 100 animals. Rich color miniatures of the animals are also included.
XVI century map of Iceland
Bees are formed by the transformation through decay of the putrid flesh of calves.
image:
Lindorm dragon from the alchemical scrolls of Sir George Ripley, 15th century.
Lindorms were most often encountered in churchyards, where they fed on human corpses, and would sometimes invade churches.
The dragon’s strength is found in its tail, not in its teeth. Its lashing tail does great harm, and the dragon kills anything it catches in its coils. The dragon is the enemy of the elephant, and hides near paths where elephants walk so that it can catch them with its tail and kill them by suffocation. It is because of the threat of the dragon that elephants give birth in the water. The dragon’s venom is harmless. The dragon has a crest and a small mouth. When the dragon is drawn from its hole into the air, it stirs up the air and makes it shine. Dragons are found in India and Ethiopia. Dragons are afraid of the peridexion tree and stay out of its shadow, which will harm them. Doves roost in the tree to be safe from the dragon. Dragons cannot stand the sweet smell breathed out by the pantherand hide in a hole when the panther roars.
Allegory/Moral
The Devil is likened to a dragon because he is the worst of all serpents. As the dragon makes the air shine, so the Devil makes himself appear as the angel of light to deceive the foolish. The crest of the dragon represents the Devil crowned with pride. As the dragon’s strength is not in its teeth but in its tail, the Devil, deprived of his strength, deceives with lies. The way in which the dragon attacks elephants represents the way the Devil attacks people, lying in wait along their path to heaven, wrapping them in his coils, and suffocating them with sin.
Aberdeen Bestiary
The Aberdeen Bestiary is a 12th century English illuminated manuscript bestiary that was first listed in 1542 in the inventory of the Old Royal Library at the Palace of Westminster.
Information about its origins and patron are circumstantial. It probably comes from the 12th century and was owned by an ecclesiastical patron of the north or south province. The Aberdeen Bestiary is related to other bestiaries of the Middle Ages and especially the Ashmole Bestiary.
image: Folio 55 verso : Phoenix (Fenix) rising from its ashes.
