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35-404: The Rochester Bestiary ( London, British Library, Royal MS 12 F.xiii ) is a richly illuminated manuscript copy of a medieval bestiary , a book describing the appearance and habits of a large number of familiar and exotic animals, both real and legendary. The animals' characteristics are frequently allegorised, with the addition of a Christian moral. The medieval bestiary ultimately derives from

70-490: A 14th-century service book. It is illustrated with 55 finished miniatures of various animals, each at the end of the passage describing that animal. On some pages, instructions to the illuminator are visible, briefly describing what the planned picture should depict. About a third of the way through the manuscript (f. 52v and following, after the vulture), the illustrations cease: while spaces remain where they were intended to be placed, no illustrations were ever added. The style of

105-413: A bestiary, each fable in a collection, has a text and has a meaning. This lack of separation has often been associated with the assumption that people during this time believed in what the modern period classifies as nonexistent or " imaginary creatures ". However, this assumption is currently under debate, with various explanations being offered. Some scholars, such as Pamela Gravestock , have written on

140-522: A large number of stones, including the magnet, coral, carnelian, ceraunius (the "thunder-stone"), crystal, and many others. Bestiary The bestiary — the medieval book of beasts — was among the most popular illuminated texts in northern Europe during the Middle Ages (about 500–1500). Medieval Christians understood every element of the world as a manifestation of God, and bestiaries largely focused on each animal's religious meaning. Much of what

175-503: A literary novel called "The Bestiary" (Dial, 2007) that describes a lonely young man's efforts to track down the world's most complete bestiary. John Henry Fleming's Fearsome Creatures of Florida (Pocol Press, 2009) borrows from the medieval bestiary tradition to impart moral lessons about the environment. Caspar Henderson 's The Book of Barely Imagined Beings ( Granta 2012, University of Chicago Press 2013), subtitled "A 21st Century Bestiary", explores how humans imagine animals in

210-434: A sourcebook for preachers, which he finally completed in 1189. He became prior of Holy Trinity in 1197 and remained in office until his death on 7 July 1221. In 1210 Peter was one of two intermediaries between King John of England and Stephen Langton , Archbishop of Canterbury , during a series of negotiations which failed to achieve an end to the interdict. Peter dedicated his Liber disputationum contra Symonem Iudeum to

245-600: A time of rapid environmental change. In July 2014, Jonathan Scott wrote The Blessed Book of Beasts , Eastern Christian Publications, featuring 101 animals from the various translations of the Bible, in keeping with the tradition of the bestiary found in the writings of the Saints, including Saint John Chrysostom . In today's world there is a discipline called cryptozoology which is the study of unknown species. This discipline can be linked to medieval bestiaries because in many cases

280-460: Is a similar collection of the symbols of birds that is sometimes found in conjunction with bestiaries. The most widely known volucrary in the Renaissance was Johannes de Cuba 's Gart der Gesundheit which describes 122 birds and which was printed in 1485. The contents of medieval bestiaries were often obtained and created from combining older textual sources and accounts of animals, such as

315-487: Is fair to say that bestiaries and their contents gave fuel to the context behind the animals, whether real or myth, and their meanings. In modern times, artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Saul Steinberg have produced their own bestiaries. Jorge Luis Borges wrote a contemporary bestiary of sorts, the Book of Imaginary Beings , which collects imaginary beasts from bestiaries and fiction. Nicholas Christopher wrote

350-462: Is in the bestiary came from the ancient Greeks and their philosophers. The earliest bestiary in the form in which it was later popularized was an anonymous 2nd-century Greek volume called the Physiologus , which itself summarized ancient knowledge and wisdom about animals in the writings of classical authors such as Aristotle 's Historia Animalium and various works by Herodotus , Pliny

385-493: The Physiologus . Medieval bestiaries contained detailed descriptions and illustrations of species native to Western Europe, exotic animals and what in modern times are considered to be imaginary animals. Descriptions of the animals included the physical characteristics associated with the creature, although these were often physiologically incorrect, along with the Christian morals that the animal represented. The description

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420-665: The Greek-language Physiologus , a text whose precise date and place of origin is disputed, but which was most likely written in North Africa sometime in the second or third century. The Physiologus was translated into Latin several times, at least as far back as the eighth century, the date of the first extant manuscripts, and likely much earlier, perhaps the fourth century. While the earliest Latin translations were extremely faithful to their Greek source, later versions adapted more freely, particularly by

455-582: The Pantheologus by Peter of Aldgate . A complete copy of the Pantheologus , now extant as British Library, Royal MS. 7 E.viii, was located in Rochester in the early 13th century, and may have been the direct source for the bestiary additions. The bestiary features the following animals: A French-language lapidary follows directly on the Latin description of fire stones, giving further descriptions of

490-496: The 12th century and were mainly compilations of earlier texts. The Aberdeen Bestiary is one of the best known of over 50 manuscript bestiaries surviving today. Much influence comes from the Renaissance era and the general Middle Ages, as well as modern times. The Renaissance has been said to have started around the 14th century in Italy. Bestiaries influenced early heraldry in the Middle Ages, giving ideas for charges and also for

525-708: The Elder , Solinus , Aelian and other naturalists. Following the Physiologus , Saint Isidore of Seville (Book XII of the Etymologiae ) and Saint Ambrose expanded the religious message with reference to passages from the Bible and the Septuagint . They and other authors freely expanded or modified pre-existing models, constantly refining the moral content without interest or access to much more detail regarding

560-668: The artistic form. Bestiaries continue to give inspiration to coats of arms created in our time. Two illuminated Psalters , the Queen Mary Psalter ( British Library Ms. Royal 2B, vii) and the Isabella Psalter (State Library, Munich ), contain full Bestiary cycles. The bestiary in the Queen Mary Psalter is found in the "marginal" decorations that occupy about the bottom quarter of the page, and are unusually extensive and coherent in this work. In fact

595-524: The bestiary has been expanded beyond the source in the Norman bestiary of Guillaume le Clerc to ninety animals. Some are placed in the text to make correspondences with the psalm they are illustrating. Many decide to make their own bestiary with their own observations including knowledge from previous ones. These observations can be made in text form, as well as illustrated out. The Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci also made his own bestiary. A volucrary

630-461: The church can be during this time. Much of what is covered in the article talks about how the dragon that is mentioned in some of the bestiaries shows a glimpse of the religious significance in many of these tales. These bestiaries held much content in terms of religious significance. In almost every animal there is some way to connect it to a lesson from the church or a familiar religious story. With animals holding significance since ancient times, it

665-522: The correct morals they should display. All of the animals presented in the bestiaries show some sort of lesson or meaning when presented. Much of the symbolism shown of animals. Much of what is proposed by the bestiaries mentions much of paganism because of the religious significance and time period of the medieval ages. One of the main 'animals' mentioned in some of the bestiaries is dragons, which hold much significance in terms of religion and meaning. The unnatural part of dragon's history shows how important

700-414: The eagle. With animals being a part of religion before bestiaries and their lessons came out, they were influenced by past observations of meaning as well as older civilizations and their interpretations. As most of the students who read these bestiaries were monks and clerics, it is not impossible to say that there is a major religious significance within them. The bestiary was used to educate young men on

735-511: The exiled Stephen Langton. Peter also compiled the Liber revelationum ( Lambeth Palace Library, MS 51). This is a vast collection of visions relating to the next world, compiled between the years 1200 and 1206. The work includes several personal stories which provide much evidence for Peter's life and career, including the "Visions of Ailsi," Peter's grandfather. It also includes two important otherworld visions relating to St. Patrick's Purgatory ,

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770-541: The factual content. Nevertheless, the often fanciful accounts of these beasts were widely read and generally believed to be true. A few observations found in bestiaries, such as the migration of birds, were discounted by the natural philosophers of later centuries, only to be rediscovered in the modern scientific era. Medieval bestiaries are remarkably similar in sequence of the animals of which they treat. Bestiaries were particularly popular in England and France around

805-478: The inclusion of additional information from other sources, including Pliny's Historia naturalis , and, most significantly, Isidore of Seville's Etymologies . The most important of the Latin Physiologus translations — the one now known by scholars as the "B Version" — was expanded even further in the twelfth century (most likely in the 1160s or 1170s), with more additions from Isidore, to become

840-763: The miniatures shows some evidence that the illustrations were made as much as a decade or more after the initial production of the text, and it is possible that the artist did not fully understand the projected plan envisioned by the scribe: by adding a fourth picture of a lion, instead of the planned three, he forced subsequent illustrations to be placed after the animals they described, instead of before. Three other extant manuscripts feature illuminations by this artist: Cambridge, University Library, MS. Ee.2.23 (a Bible), Peterborough, Cathedral Library, MS. 10 (a Bible), and Stockholm, National Museum, MS. B. 2010 (a psalter). A fourth manuscript (Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale, Cod. L.IV.25) contained two full-page miniatures from this artist, but

875-435: The natural world. The significance shown between animals and religion started much before bestiaries came into play.  In many ancient civilizations there are references to animals and their meaning within that specific religion or mythology that we know of today. These civilizations included Egypt and their gods with the faces of animals or Greece which had symbolic animals for their godly beings, an example being Zeus and

910-472: The nature and ages of man. Manuscripts from this most familiar version of the bestiary were produced from the twelfth to sixteenth centuries, with most dating from the thirteenth century. The Rochester Bestiary is a parchment manuscript dating from c. 1230–1240. Its principle contents are a bestiary, but it also contains a short lapidary (a treatise on stones) in French prose and, as the flyleaves, two leaves of

945-458: The so-called "Second Family" standard form of what now may be properly termed as the bestiary. This text was much longer than the original Physiologus and included in its typical format over 100 sections, distributed among nine major divisions of varying size. The first division included 44 animals or beasts and the second 35 birds, followed by a large division on different varieties of snakes, and divisions on worms, fish, trees, precious stones, and

980-400: The texts gave no distinction between existing and imaginary animals. Descriptions of creatures such as dragons , unicorns , basilisk , griffin and caladrius were common in such works and found intermingled amongst accounts of bears , boars , deer , lions , and elephants . In one source, the author explains how fables and bestiaries are closely linked to one another as “each chapter of

1015-473: The theory that medieval people did not actually think such creatures existed but instead focused on the belief in the importance of the Christian morals these creatures represented, and that the importance of the moral did not change regardless if the animal existed or not. The historian of science David C. Lindberg pointed out that medieval bestiaries were rich in symbolism and allegory, so as to teach moral lessons and entertain, rather than to convey knowledge of

1050-456: The unknown animals can be the same, as well as having meaning or significance behind them. The lists of monsters to be found in video games (such as NetHack , Dragon Quest , and Monster Hunter ), as well as some tabletop role-playing games such as Pathfinder , are often termed bestiaries. Peter of Cornwall Peter of Cornwall (1139/1140– July 7, 1221) was a medieval scholar and prior of Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate . He

1085-465: The well-known Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii , which is provisionally dated to between 1135 and 1154, and another work related directly to Peter by a monk from Mellifont Abbey , who heard second-hand of this other vision, which took place c. 1170. Peter was buried in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin at Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate . The priory was dissolved in 1532, and nothing of

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1120-549: Was born near Launceston, Cornwall , the son of Jordan of Trecarrel (died c. 1180). He studied in London under Master Henry of Northampton , a canon of St Paul's. He was received as an Augustinian canon sometime after 1170 at Holy Trinity, Aldgate. His first work was inspired by a synod in London where he heard the bishop of London, Gilbert Foliot, preach. This was the Pantheologus , a collection of biblical material assembled as

1155-416: Was destroyed in 1904. The manuscript is usually assumed to have been made at St. Andrew's Priory at Rochester Cathedral . An inscription places the book there with certainty in the fourteenth century. At some point, it appears that the book was stolen from the priory, as another fourteenth-century inscription notes its return by a "brother John Malling," who may have been the culprit: a man named John Malling

1190-706: Was excommunicated in 1387 as an apostate and thief. By 1542 it was in the possession of the king, as it is listed in an inventory of the royal library at Westminster in that year. King George II donated it, together with the rest of the Old Royal Library , to the British Museum in 1757, and it is now at the British Library . Additions to the standard bestiary text have been made in the Rochester Bestiary by drawing from Part IV of

1225-442: Was then often accompanied by an artistic illustration of the animal as described in the bestiary. For example, in one bestiary the eagle is depicted in an illustration and is said to be the “king of birds.” Bestiaries were organized in different ways based upon the sources they drew upon. The descriptions could be organized by animal groupings, such as terrestrial and marine creatures, or presented in an alphabetical manner. However,

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