Medieval Latin and French Bestiaries

INDIANA
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
STUDIES IN THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
Number 33
MEDIAEVAL LATIN AND

FRENCH BESTIARIES
MEDIAEVAL LATIN AND
FRENCH BESTIARIES
BY
FLORENCE McCULLOCH
CHAPEL HILL
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
6-HSZS
./v\2.5'
INDIANA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
Revised Edition
Copyright, 1962, by
The University of
North Carolina
-3
<*
PREFACE
The Latin Physiologus and its enlarged form, the bestiary, are
among the best known types of mediaeval didactic literature. They
are frequently cited today as examples of serious works of natural
history in an age which supposedly relied wholly on tradition from
the distant past, and also as illustrations of the naive credulity of
a people who could accept the tale of the capture of the Unicorn
as an allegorical representation of the Incarnation. Both statements
incline to err in the amount of emphasis and acceptance which they
place on each of the two parts of this picturesque compilation — the
fabulous description of the real or imaginary animal or bird and
the Christian moralization which is derived from it. No collection
which repeats the same animal tales in an unchanged form from
the earliest centuries of the Christian era down to and, in exceptional
cases, even through the Renaissance, can be called anything but
a long-lived, uncritical work recording popular tradition. Nor can
illustrations used by the Church Fathers to render subtle theological
concepts more intelligible and vivid to the unlettered people be
presumed to prove that mediaeval man actually believed such
examples as were perpetuated in the Physiologus and later the
bestiary. The present monograph, although treating the second
element, the religious, only in a very brief manner, is intended to
describe the nature of the contents of the Physiologus in the animal
realm and to clarify the complicated manuscript tradition.
Few general studies on the Physiologus exist in English, and
it is hoped that the results of some years of pleasurable research
which are presented here will be of help to future students who
enter the interesting world of the Phoenix, the Siren, and the watch
ful Lion. This survey in no way claims definitiveness ; it is to be
considered more as an interim guide, and its purpose will be un
fulfilled if within a short time it is not superseded by a more
comprehensive examination of manuscripts and contents. Because
8 MEDIAEVAL BESTIARIES
of a personalpreference for illustrated manuscripts I have largely

neglected those barren of pictures of any sort. Although there doubt
less remains something, and maybe even much, to be learned from
the large number of unillustrated Physiologus manuscripts in Europe,
at this point of investigation it appears that all observations based
on illustrated manuscripts apply equally well to the rest.
This examination of the origin and development of the Physio
logus begins with a short survey of the hypotheses regarding the
background of the Greek Physiologus from which the earliest Latin
versions were translated. Next the involved question of the various
families of Latin manuscripts is reviewed, and the establishment
of orderly though inevitably over-simplified groups of versions is
presented. Most of the Latin illustrated manuscripts of whose nature
I am certain, since they were seen either by means of microfilms
or in reality, have been listed in the appropriate place. The total
number and kind of extant manuscripts have not, however, been
recorded. Closely related to the Latin Physiologus are the four
principal French bestiaries of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
These have been viewed with particular reference to their Latin
antecedents with both similarities and differences pointed out though
not in every case explained because of the numerous puzzles that
still tantalizingly exist in this corner of research. A brief outline
of the appearance of illustrated manuscripts concludes the first part
of this study, which has largely been concerned with the external
form of the Physiologus. The second part, comprised of the long
Chapter Five, the Appendix, and the Plates, presents in alphabetical
order resumes of the contents of the Latin and French bestiaries
(this term being used to include all versions related to the Physio
logus) as well as some fifty-six line drawings to show the way in
which the often fantastic verbal descriptions were visually portrayed
by the mediaeval illustrator. Throughout the work full bibliogra
phical details are given at the first reference to a book or article.
Many people both known and unknown have helped in the
course of this research by their information freely shared and, quite
as important, by their interest and encouragement over a long period
of time. Nor can I forget the very real material aid afforded by
two grants from the Smith Research Fund of the University of
North Carolina and one from the Committee on Faculty Research
of Sweet Briar College for the purchase of microfilm, as well as a
Grant-in-Aid from the Southern Fellowships Fund which permitted a
summer's work at the Harvard University Library, and lastly a grant
from the Research Council of the University Center in Virginia for
PREFACE 9
assistance in publishing this study. For permission to reproduce

tracings made from manuscripts belonging to their collections I
wish to express my appreciation to the following libraries and
persons: the Pierpont Morgan Library, the Trustees of the British
Museum, the Bodleian Library, the Warden and Fellows of Merton
College, Oxford, the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge, the College Council of Sidney Sussex College, Cam
bridge, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the Dean and Chapter
of Canterbury, the Bibliotheque Nationale, the Bibliotheque de
I' Arsenal, the Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique, the Royal Library
of Denmark, the Burgerbibliothek, Bern, and the Bayerische Staats-
bibliothek, Munich. Finally, I wish to acknowledge my gratitude to
the teacher whose knowledge and joy in the Middle Ages first
opened this period to me, Urban T. Holmes, Jr.
With this book the author pays tribute to Vassar College on the
occasion of its Centennial.
Florence McCulloch
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
PREFACE 7
Chapter
I. THE GREEK PHYSIOLOGUS: ITS CHARACTER AND
ORIGIN 15
II, THE LATIN PHYSIOLOGUS AND THE BESTIARY 21
Oldest Latin Versions:

1. Y Version 22
2. A Version 23
3. C Version 24
4. Glossary of Ansileubus 24
5. B Version 25
First Family: 25
1. B-I6 Version 28
2. H - Book II of Pseudo - Hugo of Saint Victor and
the Aviarium 30
3. Transitional Manuscripts 33
Second Family - The Bestiary 34
Third and Fourth Families 38
Other Principal Versions:

1. TH - Metrical Physiologus of Theobaldus 40
2. DC - Dicta Chrysostomi 41
III. TRADITIONAL FRENCH BESTIARIES 45
Philippe de Thaon 47
Gervaise 55
Guillaume le Clerc 57
Pierre de Beauvais 62
Page
IV. ILLUSTRATED BESTIARIES 70
V. GENERAL ANALYSIS OF THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS

TREATED IN LATIN AND FRENCH BESTIARIES 78
ILLUSTRATIONS 193
APPENDIX
Non-Bestiary Material in Pierre de Beauvais 197
BIBLIOGRAPHY 205
MEDIAEVAL LATIN AND
FRENCH BESTIARIES
CHAPTER I
THE GREEK PHYSIOLOGUS: ITS CHARACTER

AND ORIGIN
From the early centuries of our era through the Middle Ages
the Physiologies and its later, expanded form, the bestiary, were
among the most popular and important of Christian didactic works.
Its importance was perhaps more quantitative than qualitative for )
its style is impoverished and the mode of thought extremely
simple; yet it succeeded in capturing the imagination and interest
of men until its understandable disappearance at the time of the
Renaissance.1 For an adequate understanding of the subject of this
study — the Latin Physiologus and its French translations — the
ultimate source of them all, the Greek Physiologus, must first be
described and its background briefly presented.
The Physiologus is a compilation of pseudo-science in which
the fantastic descriptions of real and imaginary animals, birds, and
even stones were used to illustrate points of Christian dogma and
morals. The forty-eight or forty-nine chapters which comprise the
Greek Physiologus usually follow a set form.2 A short example will
disclose the pattern of a rather typical Physiologus chapter. The
section on the Pelican begins with a quotation from Psalm 102:6
1 This remark applies more to Latin manuscripts whose period of greatest

diffusion was the twelfth and thirteenth centuries —to judge by available
manuscripts — and which by the fifteenth century were comparatively rare.
On the other hand, one of the most beautifully illuminated Greek manu
scripts is Paris, B. N., gr. 834, which was copied in 1585, ascribed to Epi-
phanius of Cyprus, and edited by Ponce de Leon in Rome in 1587, It is
reproduced in Migne, Patr. Gr., XLIII, Cols. 518-534.
2 All references to the Greek Physiologus will be based on the critical
edition of Francesco Sbordone entitled Physiologus (Milan, 1936). It will
hereafter be referred to as Sbordone.
Note: An asterisk (*) indicates that the text is referred to in the Addenda
and Corrigenda.
(Vulgate 101:7): "I of the wilderness", and

am like a pelican
continues with the customary expression, "Physiologus says" that
pelicans are very fond of their young. When the children begin to
grow, they strike their parents in the face; then they in turn are
struck and killed. On the third day their mother (or their father,
depending on the manuscript) pierces her side and spills her blood
on the dead offspring, thus reviving them. Following this, Isaiah
1 : 2 is quoted : "I have nourished and brought up children, and
they have rebelled against me", and the young pelicans' actions
toward their parents are compared to mankind's striking Christ.
The allegory continues with the statement that from the side of
the crucified Christ came the blood and water of salvation and
eternal life. After a further reference to the significance of water
and blood, the chapter on the Pelican ends. It might be added at
this time that many of the allegories have a far more tenuous
relationship to the animal description than the one presented here,
as when, for example, the Antelope's horns are equated with the
Old and New Testament.
The following list contains the subjects that are treated in the
Greek Physiologus in the order in which they appear in Sbordone's
first version. The English names are those under which each subject
appears in Chapter V of the present study.3
1. Lion 14. Hedgehog

2. Lizard IS. Fox
3. Caladrius 16. Panther
4.
5.
6.
Pelican
Owl
Eagle
J17.
19.
8.
Aspidochelone
Partridge
Vulture
7. Phoenix 20. Ant-Lion*
8. Hoopoe 21. Weasel
9. Onager 22, Unicorn
10. Viper 23. Beaver
11. Snake 24. Hyaena
12. Ant 25. Hydrus
13. Siren and Onocentaur 26. Ichneumon*
3There exists a translation into English of the Physiologus based on

the Greek and other versions, but the edition was limited to only 325 copies.
Francis J. Carmody, trans. Physiologus. The very ancient book of beasts,
plants and stones, translated from Greek and other languages (San Fran
cisco: Book Club of California, 1953). A translation from Greek to German
is that of Emil Peters, Der Physiologus (Munich, 1921).
* In Chapter V the Ant-Lion is included
in the discussion on the Ant.
5 In
Chapter V the Ichneumon is included in the discussion on the
Hydrus.
THE GREEK PHYSIOLOGUS 17
27. Crow 39. Sawfish

28. Turtle-Do ve 40. Ibis
29. Frog 41. Goat
30. Stag 42. Diamond
31. Salamander 43. Elephant
32. Diamond 44. Pearl and Agate
33. Swallow 45. Onager and Ape
34. Peridexion Tree 46. Indian Stone
35. Doves 47. Coot
36. Antelope 48. Amos and the Fig Tree
37. Fire Stones 49. Ostrich
38. Magnet6
knowledge as to the place and date of origin as well

Precise
as the identity of the author of the Christian Physiologus has been
lost in time. This has not, however, prevented many hypotheses
based on both internal and external evidence from being offered.
The reader who wishes more than the brief summary of the early
stages of the Greek Physiologus which will be presented here can
profitably consult the most recent studies in the field from which
this resume will be drawn: the extensive research by Wellmann;7
a reply to this in the form of a book by Sbordone ; 8 and the useful
article and bibliography in Pauly-Wissowa by Ben E. Perry.' Al
though any summary must be made at the risk of oversimplifying
numerous complex problems, the early history of the Physiologus,
as it appears today, is as follows. Alexandria in the second and
third centuries A. D. was an important center of crosscurrents of
learning. Here lived such renowned Christian theologians as Cle
ment and Origen; here flourished traditional lore of the ancient
East; and here also was accumulated the wealth of Greek know
ledge. A characteristic of scholarship at this period was its pre
ference for allegorical exegesis of the Scriptures, and in like manner
nature was interpreted mystically. Creatures of nature were to be
explored for what they revealed of the hidden power and wisdom
* In Chapter V the Magnet is included in the discussion on the Diamond.

7
Max Wellmann, "Der Physiologos: Eine Religionsgeschichtlich-Natur-
wissenschaftliche Untersuchung", Philologus, Supplementband XXII (1930),
1-116. All references to Wellmann will be to this article.
8 Francesco Sbordone, Ricerche sulle fonti e sulla composizione del
Physiologus greco (Naples, 1936). This work will be referred to as Sbordone,
Ricerche.
9 Ben
E. Perry, "Physiologus", Real-Encyclopiidie der classischen Alter-
tumswissenschaft, ed. Pauly-Wissowa, XXXIX Halbband (1941), 1074-1129.
PW will indicate references to this article.
of God. It was in this atmosphere of the symbolical study of zo

ology that the Physiologus is thought to have arisen. Hommel in
his edition of the Ethiopic Physiologus" exposed several reasons
(not all equally valid, however)" for locating the composition of
the Physiologus in Alexandria. Among these are: the inclusion of
animals characteristic of Egypt, like the Crocodile, the Ichneumon,
and the Ibis ; the account of the Phoenix, long an Egyptian symbol
of the rising sun and then of the resurrection; the description of
the Onager and the Ape where the Coptic names of the months
are given; and the existence in the Hieroglyphica of Horapollo
of similar accounts of birds and beasts.12
Wellmann, although he grants that Hellenistic Alexandria was
the "hatching place" for mysticism and dwells at length upon the
predilection of this region for finding in the world of nature elements
of sympathy and antipathy — a trait typical of many tales appear
ing in the Physiologus — proposes a different date and place of
origin. According to him the time of composition is more nearly
the fourth century and the location is in Syria. He believes that
the allegorical system of interpretation in existence there was
stimulated by Origen's teachings after he transferred his school
from Alexandria to Caesarea Stratonis in 230. 13
For well-founded
reasons Perry considers this supposition untenable."
The distant ancestor of the Physiologus and related works by
Hermes, Tatian, Timothy of Gaza, and Oppian, was in Wellmann's
opinion a work on the nature of animals, plants, and stones by
the Egyptian writer Bolos of Mendes living in the third or fourth
century B. C. For this book, called Ouaixi huvaptpd, Bolos prob
ably took material from Democritus15 as well as from oral tra
dition. As a more immediate source of the Physiologus, where he
perceives traces of Jewish influence in certain accounts, Wellmann
proposes a book believed to have circulated at an early date and
10 Fritz Hommel,
Die Aethiopische Uebersetzung des Physiologus (Leip
zig, pp. xv, xvi.
1877),
11 PW, p. 1104.
12 The evidence presented in the recent translation into English of this
work would seem to cast some doubt on the collection's authenticity as
an Egyptian (then Greek) production. Horapollo, The Hieroglyphics of
Horapollo, trans. George Boas (New York, 1950), pp. 29, 30.
13 Wellmann, pp. 12-14.
" PW, p. 1105.
15 For existing in antiquity between the literary
a study on the confusion
ownership of Bolos of Mendes and Democritus, see Wilhelm Kroll, "Bolos
und Demokritos", Hermes, LXIX (1934), 228-32.
THE GREEK "PHYSIOLOGUS" 19
attributed synonomous with wisdom,

to the man long considered
Pseudo-Solomon's Ouotxrf.1' Striking analogies between the Phy-
siologus and a work attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, the Koira-
niden or Cyranides,17 are pointed out by Wellmann, but these are
explained by Sbordone18 as being dependant upon rather than
contributing to the Physiologus. To name only a few other authors
in antiquity whose writings contain details similar to the work
that interests us, Herodotus, Aristotle, Plutarch, and Aelian may
be mentioned. Many of the Physiologus tales were the common
property of the ancient world.
The name Physiologus, OusioXdjos, "the naturalist", was prob
ably originally used to indicate the pagan author of a work in
which were found the characteristics (Ouosi;)of the various animals,
and only later was the name applied to the book itself. When the
allegories were added by a Christian writer they influenced both
the final choice and the description of the contents.19 This leads
naturally to the subject of authorship of the Christian Physiologus
—a question without any final solution but interesting in the di
versity of attributions. In the year 406 Rufinus composed the
Seventeenth Homily on Genesis,20 which is not, as had previously
been thought, a translation of Origen." An oft-cited passage on
the third nature of the Lion reads: "Nam physiologus de catulo
leonis haec scribit". But unfortunately Rufinus gives no specific
information as to the identity of Physiologus. Among the Greek
and Latin churchmen to whom authorship of the Physiologus has
been ascribed are: Peter of Alexandria, Epiphanius, Basil, John
Chrysostom, Athanasius, Ambrose, and Jerome.22 An important
16 Wellmann, p. 60.
17 F. de Mely and Ch.-Em. Ruelle, Les Lapidaires de Vantiquite et du
moyen age, Vol. II, Les Lapidaires grecs (Paris, 1898);
and Louis Delatte,
Textes latins et vieux francais relatifs aux Cyranides, "Bibliotheque de la
Faculte' de Philosophic et Lettres de l'Universite de Liege" (Paris, 1942).
18 Sbordone, Ricerche, pp.
67-75.
19 This is the opinion of Friedrich Lauchert, who wrote the
first general
study of the Physiologus entitled Geschichte des Physiologus (Strassburg,
1889), p. 4. It is supported by Wellmann, p. 5. Other works on the Physio
logus of a less broad nature than Lauchert's are: Karl Ahrens, Zur Ge
schichte des sogenannten Physiologus (Ploen, 1885), the same author's Buck
der Naturgegenstande (Kiel, 1892), and Max Goldstaub, "Der Physiologus
und seine Weiterbildung", Philologus, Supplementband VIII (1899-1901),
339-404.
20 Migne, Patr. Gr., XII, Col. 257.
21 PW, p. 1100.
22 This list is taken from Sbordone, Ricerche, p. 172.
notice concerning the existence of an early Latin Physiologus and its

alleged author is in the first list of books endorsed and prohibited
by the church, the famous Decretum Gelasianum of 494." The
notice says: "Liber physiologus ab hereticis conscriptus et beati
Ambrosii nomine praesignatus, apocryphus". Ambrose was doubt
less named here because in describing the fifth and sixth days of
Creation in his Hexaemeron™ he used material similar to that of
the Physiologus if not this work itself.
This introduces another thorny question which has caused de
bate among scholars — the knowledge and use of the Physiologus
by the Fathers of the Church. Lauchert would push familiarity with
the text back to Justin Martyr in the first half of the second cen
tury,25 while Wellmann would deny direct acquaintanceship to the
earliest exegetes, including Origen.26 In any case, toward the end
of the fourth century there are definite parallel passages in the
Physiologus and the Hexaemeron of Ambrose,27 in the Hexaemeron
wrongly attributed to Eustathius of Antioch,28 and in the writings
of Epiphanius, to cite only the best known.29
The fifth century was the period of translations of the Physio
logus into other languages of the Near East such as Ethiopic, Syriac,
Armenian.30 For us, however, it is the Latin translations that are
of prime interest, and it is to an examination of them that we
now turn.
23 Sbordone, Ricerche, pp. 168-69, accepts the date and authenticity of

the decretum, while the results of the research by Dobschiitz lead this latter
scholar to believe that it was the work of a learned individual in the first
half of the sixth century. Ernest von Dobschiitz, Das Decretum Gelasianum
de libris recipiendis et non recipiendis (Leipzig, 1912), p. 348. For a summary
of the theological outlook of the author of the Physiologus, who has been
accused of Gnosticism, see PW, pp. 1101-4.
2i That he actually used the Physiologus seems very probable because
of the identity of wording in part of his description of the Partridge
(Hexaemeron, vi.3.13) and the Physiologus chapter. See Wellmann, p. 10,
and Francis J. Carmody (ed.), Physiologus Latinus, Versio B (Paris, 1939),
page 7.
25 Lauchert,
op. cit., p. 68.
26 Wellmann, pp. 5-10.
27 Migne,
Patr. Lat., XIV, Cols. 134-288.
28 Migne,
Patr. Gr., XVIII, Cols. 707-794.
29
See Sbordone's chapter "La tradizione parallela dei 'luoghi comuni'
presso i Padri della Chiesa", Ricerche, pp. 107-138.
30
See PW, pp. 1116-19, for detailed information on these and other
less known translations.
CHAPTER II
THE LATIN PHYSIOLOGUS AND THE BESTIARY
It known when the first Latin translations of

is not definitely
the Greek Physiologus appeared, but since Ambrose apparently
copied from the Physiologus some of the description of the Par
tridge in his Hexaemeron (vi.3.13), which was composed between
386 and 388, this would seem to be evidence of the existence of
a Latin version at that early date.1 According to Lauchert the arche
type of the earliest Latin translations of the Physiologus existed
before 431. As evidence he cites an interpolated list of heretics in
the chapter on the Ant where the name of Nestor, whose teach
ings were condemned at the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus
in 431, is lacking.2 However, it has been pointed out that such a
conclusion cannot be drawn from this fact since the name of Nestor
might have been unintentionally omitted in the original list or left
out by a copyist.3 At present, the oldest extant Latin manuscripts
belong to the eighth century.
There are several versions of the Latin Physiologus. Most of
them contain in general the same material, but there are also im
portant differences which need to be clarified now and for the time
when some scholar will attempt to classify all of the Latin manu
scripts in existence.4 Anyone who delves even briefly into the sub
ject of the Latin Physiologus realizes the necessity of establishing
1 See Chapter I, n. 24.

2 Lauchert, op. cit.. p. 89.
3 PW,
p. 1120.
4
Sbordone has made beginnings in this direction, but the results have
not been as enlightening as one would hope. See Francesco Sbordone, "La
Tradizione manoscritta del Physiologus Latino", Athenaeum, Nuova Serie
XXVII (1949), 246-80.
some order out of the large number of manuscripts with variations

small and great in both the order of content and in the details
themselves. Families of manuscripts had to be founded and labeled.
A little over a hundred years ago Charles Cahier started with three
letters, A B and C, to designate the oldest manuscripts known at
that time; the rest of his arrangement was rather erratic. Today
we have gone through the whole alphabet with some letters carried
to the sixth superscription (B6 in Carmody's Versio B was formerly
Berlin, Hamilton 77 and is now New York, Morgan 81). To com
pound confusion, when Sbordone refers to manuscripts M N E,
he is indicating the same manuscripts Carmody letters Y
which
Y2 Y3. There is much to be said for the simplified Four Families
of that admirable scholar Montague Rhodes James,5 although he
was only classifying illustrated manuscripts found in England, and
his principal divisions are those adopted here. In this study the
emphasis — though not exclusively — will be upon major groups
of manuscripts. Prominence too will be given to the manuscripts
found in France and England and to those versions from which
French bestiaries were derived. A final limitation which should be
noted at this point is that the writer's main interest has been man
uscripts with illustrations, and that the majority of the remarks
and conclusions presented here are based on illustrated manuscripts,
although they can be applied equally to those with no pictures.
THE OLDEST LATIN VERSIONS.
I. Y Version.
The Latin Physiologus was translated more than once from

varying Greek versions. The early manuscripts follow the Greek
originals closely and betray their kinship by transcribing Greek
words. This relationship is apparent in two of the oldest versions,
Y and C. Y has been edited by Professor Carmody" from three
manuscripts: Y — Munich, Lat. 19417, IX cent.; Y2— Munich, Lat.
8 Montague Rhodes James, The Bestiary (Edited for the Roxburghe

Club. Oxford, 1928).
• Francis J.
Carmody (ed.), "Physiologus Latinus Versio Y", University
of California Publications in Classical Philology, XII (1933-44), 95-134.
THE LATIN "PHYSIOLOGUS" 23
14388, IX-X cent.; Y3— Bern, Lat. 611, VIIMX cent.7 Each of
these attributes the work to a different author : Y to Chrysostomus,
Y2 to St. John of Constantinople, Y3 to an orthodox bishop. The
Y version consists of forty-nine chapters (forty-eight by Sbordone's
count) closely related in order and content to the eleventh century
Codex Mosquensis graecus 432 which Sbordone designates as IT.8
Among its unusual chapters are Psycomora (Amos and the Fig
Tree), Mirmicoleon (Ant-Lion), Ichneumon (Pharoah's rat), and
Rana (Frog). There are also many Biblical citations which render
the Vetus Latina or the pre- Vulgate Bibles? Apart from certain
chapters which are common to Y, A, and C, this version evidently
disappeared from circulation after the eleventh century and had
no influence on other versions.
2. A— Brussels, Bibl. Roy. 10074, f. 140v.-156v. X cent.
This manuscript contains thirty-six chapters, and has been

shown by both Sbordone10 and Carmody11 to be of composite
origin, containing some of the chapters peculiar to Y." Its more
immediate interest for us is that although it is not the oldest illus
trated Latin Physiologus, as it was considered for many years, it
does contain some Carolingian drawings noteworthy for their de
piction of the text and, in certain cases, the allegory.
7
Sbordone (Athenaeum, p. 251) has added three more manuscripts to
this version although none contains the full number of chapters. Designated
by Sbordone's letters they are: G - Wolfenbiittel, Gudianus 131 (now 4435),
f. 159-168, XI cent.; P- Paris, B. N., n. a., lat. 455, f. 3-8v., X cent.;
S- Saint Gall 230, f. 510-518, IX cent.
8 Sbordone, pp. lxviii-lxx.
8
See Francis J. Carmody, "Quotations in the Latin Physiologus from
Latin Bibles earlier than the Vulgate", University of California Publications
in Classical Philology, XIII (1944-50), 1-8.
10 Sbordone,
p. lxxii.
11 Carmody, Versio Y, p. 98.
ls The unillustrated B.M., Royal 6 A. xi
(XII cent.) contains the same
order of chapters as A if the two halves of its contents are reserved. An
other manuscript having chapters common to Y and A is Lyon 125, f.189-
196v. (XV
cent. Unillustrated.)
13 A
is printed in a rather confused manner by Charles Cahier and
Arthur Martin in Melanges d'archeologie, d'histoire et de litterature (Paris,
1851-1856), Vols. II-IV. Its illustrations, f. 140v.-147, with the remaining
spaces for drawings left blank, appear in Richard Stettiner's Die illustrierten
Prudentiushandschriften (Berlin, 1905), Plates 172, 177, 178.
3. C—Bern, Burgerbibliothek, lat. 318, f. 7-22v. IX cent.™
C represents another translation, quite corrupt, from the Greek

with twenty-four of its twenty-six chapters resembling the Ethiopic
text.15 In the printing of this manuscript and in subsequent notices
two omissions have occurred — the final two chapters,
it,
about
those on the Cock and the Horse, have not been included.16 This
manuscript of importance artistically as the first illustrated Phy-
is
siologus, its miniatures showing traces of Alexandrian influence and
stylistic affinities with the Utrecht Psalter.17
Glossary Ansileubus.
of
4
Mention should perhaps of the Glossary of Ansileubus

be made
(or Fragments alphabetiques, as they are sometimes referred to),
if
only to rectify misstatement of the past. The Glossary col
is
a
a
lection of twenty-two short Physiologus descriptions, arranged al

phabetically, and lacking any allegorical interpretation.18 Lauchert
states that they are related to A and B,19 but will soon be apparent
that A and do not belong to the same version. The descriptionit
B
in the Glossary of the Viper with its unusual composite male and
female bust and its crocodile's tail stands closer to Y, A, and C
than to B.
14 of Bern,
This manuscript, formerly in the Stadtbibliothek now
is
in the Burgerbibliothek. Its text printed in Cahier, Melanges d'archeologie,
is
Vols, IMV.
15 Lauchert, p. 90.
16
After listing contents of the twenty-four chapters, Cahier writes:
the
"Ce qui suit ne dans aucun autre bestiaire vraiment ancien que
se trouve
connaisse. C'est 'Galli cantus' et 'Caballus', compilation sans valeur."
je
Ibid., II,95. The text of Galli cantus follows verbatim the notice on the
Cock in Ambrose's Hexaemeron (v.24.88) and that of Caballus copied
is
from Isidore's Etymologiae (xii. 1.42-48).

17 Helen Woodruff,
"The Physiologus of Bern", Art Bulletin, XII (1930),
226-253. See also Chapter IV of this study for the recent conclusions of
Professor Dimitri Tselos.
18The exerpts are printed in Angelo Mai's Classici Auctores (Rome,
1835), Vol. VII, pp. 589-596, and in B. Pitra's Spicilegium Solesmense
J.
(Paris, 1855), Vol. Ill, pp. 418, 419.

" Lauchert, p. 91.
5. B Version.
It
is from the complete Versio B,2" which takes its name and
part of its substance from manuscript B (Bern, Lat. 233, f. 1-13,
VIII-IX cent.), that the main Latin versions in England and France
were to develop in the Middle Ages. This particular version with
its usual incipit: "Etenim Iacob, benedicens filium suum Iudam,
ait: Catulus leonis Iudas, Alius de germine meo, quis suscitabit
eum?"21 and its thirty-six or thirty-seven22 chapters is perhaps, along
with the metrical Physiologus of Theobaldus, the most widespread
in existence.23 A typical full title of a manuscript of this kind is:
Incipit Liber Physiologus de Natura Animalium vel avium seu
bestiarum (Bodl., Auct. T.2.23, f. 127. IX cent.). I know of no
illustrated manuscripts belonging to this group, but it would be
surprising if none at all existed.
The tables on the following page list the contents of the oldest
Latin versions or manuscripts of the Physiologus.
FIRST FAMILY
Because it seems the clearest way in which to indicate the var

iations and growth of B, I intend to follow here the large divisions
into Four Families created by M. R. James, although the sub
divisions within the First Family are my own. These were estab
lished for the purpose of grouping similar manuscripts which had
not previously been clearly differentiated. Of course there are some
hybrid manuscripts which like the Siren do not fit anywhere with
ease, but others are Phoenix-like and follow the same pattern.
20 Francis J. Carmody (ed.), Physiologus Latinus, Versio B (Paris, 1939).

This edition will be referred to as B.
21 The italicized words are from the pre- Vulgate Bibles.
22
As the thirty-seventh and final chapter in his Versio B Professor
Carmody printed an account of the Lacerta (Lizard). This chapter is never
found in the B version, which in a complete manuscript ends with Amos
propheta (Amos), Adamas (Diamond), and Mermecolion (Pearl). Unfortun
ately Professor Carmody does not print these sections but sends the reader
to the text of B.M., Royal 2 C. xii, reproduced by Mann, to which we
shall soon return.
23 The rhymed version of Theobaldus and the prominent version ascribed
to John Chrysostom and known as the Dicta Chrysostomi, though they
both use B (and sometimes for the latter B-Is) material, will be discussed
in the final section of this chapter.
Versio Y
Munich, Lat. 19417, s.IX
Munich, Lat. 14388, s.IX-X
Bern Lat. 611, s. VIII-IX. Brussels 10074, s. X
1. Leo 1. Leo
2. Autolops 2. Autalops
3. Piroboli Lapides 3. Lapides Igniferi
4. Serra Marina 4. Serra
5. Charadrius 5. Caladrius
6. Pelicanus 6. Pellicanus
7. Nycticorax 7. Nycticorax
8. Aquila 8. Aquila
9. Phenix 9. Phenix
10. Epops 10. Formica
11. Onager 11. Syrene et Onocentauri
12. Vipera 12. Vulpis
13. Serpens 13. Unicornis
14. Formica 14. Castor
15. Syrena et Onocentaurus 15. Hyaena
16. Herinacius 16. Dorcas
17. Ibis 17. Onager
18. Vulpis 18. Hydrus
19. Arbor Peridexion et Columbis. 19. Simia
20. Elephas 20. Perdix
21. Dorchon (Caprea) 21. Structocamelon
22. AchatisLapis 22. Salamandra
23. (Ostrea) Sostoros Lapis et Mar 23. Turtur
garita 24. Columba
24. Adamantinus Lapis 25. Epopus
25. Onager et Simius 26. Onager
26. (Indicus) Senditicos Lapis 27. Vipera
27. Herodius id est Fulica 28. Serpens
28. Psycomora 29. Herinatius
29. Panther 30. Arbor Perindex
30. Cetus id est Aspisceleon 31. Eliphans
31. Perdix 32. Agates
32. Vultur 33. Adamans Lapis
33. Mirmicoleon 34. Lapis Sindicus
34. Mustela et Aspis 35. Herodius
35. Monoceras 36. Panthera
36. Castor
37. Hyena hoc est Belua
38. (Hydrus) Niluus
39. (Ichneumon) Echinemon
40. Cornicola
41. Turtur
42. Hyrundo
43. Cervus
44. Rana
45. Saura id est Salamandra
46. Magnis Lapis
47. Adamantinus Lapis
48. Columbae
49. Saura Eliace hoc est Anguilla
Solis
THE LATIN PHYSIOLOGUS 27
Versio B
Bern 233, s. VIIMX Bern 318, s. IX

1. Leo 1. Leo
2. Autolops 2. Aesaura
3. Lapides Igniferi 3. Calatrius
4. Serra 4. Pelicanus
5. Caladrius 5. Nocticorax
6. Pelicanus 6. Aquila
7. Nycticorax 7. Yppopus
8. Aquila 8. Vipera
9. Phoenix 9. Serpens
10. Upupa 10. Formica
11. Formica 11. Serena et Honocentaurus
12. Sirenae et Onocentauri 12. Yricius
13. Herinacius 13. Vulpis
14. Ibis -14. Panthera
15. Vulpis Aspidohelunes
16. Unicornis
/is.
\ 16. Unicornium
17. Castor 17. Cervus
18. Hyaena 18. Salamandra
19. Hydras _ 19. Peredixion
20. Caprea 20. Antelups
21. Onager et Simia 21. Serra
22. Fulica . 22. Elephas
'23. Panthera 23. Lapis Acatus et Margarita
I
25.
24.
26.
Aspis Chelone
Perdix
Mustela et Aspis
24.
25.
26.
Lapis Indicus
Galli Cantus
Caballus
27. Asida
28. Turtur
29. Cervus
30. Salamandra
31. Columbae
32. Peredixion
33. Elephas
34. Amos
35. Adamas
36. Margarita (Mermecolion)
The Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville was the work which ef

fected the first change in the content of the Physiologus.2* This
collection of twenty books, which was composed by the bishop of
Seville (j Mt), exerted
an influence far into the Middle Ages. It is
a type of dictionary where the words are arranged not alphabetically
but by subjects. Book XII, De animalibus, was the source of the
new additions to the Physiologus. The form taken in each of the
several divisions of this book is first to present an etymology of
the animal's name — it is almost always of fantastic composition
(as, for example, "Formica, eo quod ferat micas farris", 'The ant
is thus called because it carries bits of wheat') — followed by a
short description25 also of an imaginative nature. Many of Isidore's
passages already resemble the Physiologus, while Pliny's Historia
naturalis seems the ultimate source for others.26
The intermediary
through which some of this information descended was the well
known Collectanea rerum memorabilium or Polyhistor of Solinus,
who repeated much of Pliny's material on animals.27 These are only
a few of the strands that were pulled together by Isidore to reappear
in the growing Physiologus.
1. B-ls Version
In the hope that more confusion will not be caused by the

creation of yet another set of letters, the designation B-Is is pro
posed to describe those manuscripts which follow the order and
21 M. Lindsay (ed.), Etymologiarum sive originum libri XX. 2 vols.

W.
(Oxford, For a translation into English of parts of this work, see
1911).
Ernest Brehaut, "An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages: Isidore of Seville",
Columbia University Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, XL VIII
(1912), 7-274.
25 Many of Isidore's etymologies are taken from Varro's De lingua
latina.
26Pliny, Naturalis historiae libri XXXVII, ed. Carolus Mayhoff (5 vols.,
Leipzig, 1892-1909). An English translation with occasionally helpful foot
notes is that made by John Bostock and H. T. Riley (6 vols., Bohn Library,
London, 1855). A more recent translation is that in the Loeb Classical
Library by H. Rackham and W. H. S. Jones.
27 Solinus,
Collectanea rerum memorabilium, ed. Th. Mommsen (Berlin,
1864). See also Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental
Science (New York, 1929), Vol. I, pp. 326-28. A facsimile reproduction has
been published of Arthur Golding's 1587 translation of Solinus into English:
The Excellent and Pleasant Worke of Caius Julius Solinus (Gainesville,
Florida: Scholars' Facsimiles and Reprints, 1955).
content of B but which, except for seven chapters,28 contain ad

ditions from Isidore. Sometimes the added passages are not indicated
as such, but many manuscripts, after a description and allegory
identical with B, have rubrics reading Ethimologia ysidori (B. M.,
Laud Misc. 247) or a blank space where these words or Ethimologia
alone were intended. When the additions were first made is not
known, although the oldest manuscript that has been seen which
shows this change is Vatican, Palat. lat. 1074, f. 1-22, X cent.2'
The only printed example of this essential text was prepared
by an early student of the Latin Physiologus tradition, Max Friedrich
Mann, whose object at the time was to show the almost total
dependence of Guillaume le Clerc's Bestiaire on a version of this
type. The manuscript used by Mann was the unillustrated, early
thirteenth century B. M. Royal 2 C. xii, f. 133-145v.30 As will be
indicated later, the bestiaries of Philippe de Thaon and Pierre de
Beauvais were also largely based on the B-Is version.
In the following list, illustrated manuscripts of the B-Is version
are grouped according to iconographic resemblances, although these
are rather faint in some cases. Probably more of such illustrated
manuscripts exist.
Bodl., Laud Misc. 247, f. 139v.-166v. Early XII cent.

Bodl. 602, f. 1-36. Late XII cent. (Aviarium, f. 36-65).
Bodl., Douce 167, f. 1-12. Early XIII cent. (Adds chapter
on Lupus after Mermecolion).
28 The chapters containing no additions from Isidore are: Antalops,

Lapides Igniferi, Serra, Caladrius, Peridexion, Amos, and Mermecolion.
29 Willy Liidtke, "Zum armenischen und lateinischen Physiologus",
Huschardzan Festschrift (Vienna, 1911), p. 220. A point of particular
interest
in this manuscript is that it shows how the large Second Family bestiary
could first have been composed. At the end of the entire Physiologus with
its fixed passages from Isidore, the scribe has continued (f. 21 v.) De etimolo-
giarum libro, and has apparently aimlessly copied and somewhat elaborated
on Isidore's descriptions of the Psitacus, [sic], and Coturnix — birds
Ercine
totally unrelated to the old Physiologus contents. All that was then needed
was a more systematic borrowing from Isidore, which would result in the
highly organized Second Family bestiary to be discussed later.
30 Max Friedrich Mann, "Der Bestiaire Divin des Guillaume le Clerc",
Franzosische Studien, VI Band, 2 Heft (1888), 37-73.
40.2
London, Sion College L -y-rr-. *• 73-116. XIII cent.
(Aviarium, f. 1-54).
(Dyson) Perrins 26, f. 67-102v. XIII cent. (Aviarium, f. 1-
45).31
The next two manuscripts show the addition of new articles on

Lupus, Canis, Ibex, Noctua (with Nicticorax), and Cocodrillus
(separated from Hydrus). Their beginning chapters also differ in
following an order which resembles that of the following group,
Book II of Pseudo-Hugo.
B. M., Stowe 1067, f. l-15v. Early XII cent. (Illustrations

and script resemble Bodl., Laud Misc. 247.)
Camb., Corpus Christi Coll. 22, f. 162-169, XII cent.
2. H — Book II of Pseudo-Hugo of Saint Victor and the Aviarium.
The Physiologus printed in Migne as Book II of the De bestiis

et aliis rebus incorrectly attributed to Hugo of Saint Victor is a
composition of a rather special nature.32 Although much of the
material closely copies the B-Is version, with the Isidorean additions
31 This manuscript of French provenance was sold at Sotheby's in

London on December 9, 1958, for £36,500. The purchaser was Mr. H. P.
Kraus of New York.
32 One probably wonders how the Physiologus or bestiary, a work now
regarded as most certainly anonymous, came to be attributed to Hugo, the
noted twelfth century theologian and head of the famous monastery of Saint
Victor in Paris. An uncritical edition of Hugo's writings containing both
genuine and spurious works was published in 1648 in Rouen and was re
published in 1854 by Migne, who kept in Volume CLXXVII the four books
comprising the collection entitled De bestiis et aliis rebus. In the intro
duction to Hugo's works (CLXXV, cxviii) it is stated that the Benedictines
in naming authors of the different sections of the De bestiis assigned Book I
to Hugo of Folieto, Book II to Henry of Ghent, and Books III and IV
to Guillelmus Peraldus (the latter is no more than a list of short items
based on the previous books and will not be considered here). Apparently
the second of these statements is based on a misreading since the Histoire
litUraire de la France under Hugues de Fouilloi says, concerning Book II:
"on I'attribue communement a Alain de Lille, qui, selon Henri de Gand,
a compost un livre de la nature de quelques animaux, qu'on croit etre
celui-la." (HLF, XIII, 498). However, the French scholar B. Haureau exam
ined Alain de Lille's book on animals, Distinctiones, and found that it
often preceding rather than following the traditional account and

with Isidore and Solinus both named on occasion, the order is decid
edly different. Book II, which for the sake of convenience will be
called H, contains some of the added chapters that we have seen
before, as well as others, Ibex, Canis, Lupus, Vipera, Lacerta, and
Draco separated fron Panthera, but it is very different from B-Is
in only describing two birds.
To explain this peculiarity we must now digress and enter the
realm of the Aviarium. The first book of the De bestiis is a compi
lation limited to birds and is thus known as the Aviarium or, be
cause the first eleven chapters treat Doves and their characteristics,
the Columba deargentata, the "Silvered Dove" (Ps. 67:14, Vul
gate). After a prologue in the form of a letter to a certain Ray-
nerus, a convert, that sometimes precedes the text and begins "De-
siderii tui karissime...", the text itself starts: "Si dormiatis inter
medios cleros...". The moralizations in the Aviarum are greatly
expanded, and Rabanus Maurus and the Moralia of Gregory are
quoted. Although the Aviarium exists separately as well as before
or after at least two versions of the Physiologus, it is its close
relationship with H that concerns us here. Professor Carmody
glimpsed what has proved to be the explanation when he concluded
that the compiler of Book II had Book I before him and consciously
avoided duplicating the birds in Book II that he had treated in I.
bore no resemblance to a bestiary. The bestiary which Haureau used for

this comparison is in the Bibliotheque Mazarine, MS. 742, an unillustrated,
thirteenth century manuscript from the library of St. Victor (see Journal
des Savants, 1887, p. 33), and although it was not realized at the time, this
is a typical Second Family bestiary. The only explanation that I can find
for originally including manuscripts of two different versions of the bestiary
in the works of Hugo is the existence of one manuscript, though there are
probably others, mentioned in Manitius with a rubric in a contemporary
hand reading: "Incipit bestiarius hugonis de sancto victore" (apparently
this manuscript, Dresden A 198, f. 47-81, XIII cent., is a bestiary and
Aviarium. See Max Manitius, Geschichte der Lateinischen Literatur des
Mittelalters, III, 227). Thus an ancient error was perpetuated in Migne's
nineteenth century edition*
33 See S. Ives and H. Lehmann-Haupt, An English 13th Century Bestiary
(New York : H. P. Kraus, 1 942). The manuscript described in this interesting
study was at that time called the Kraus Bestiary. It is now in the possession
of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Hofer of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and will be
referred to as the Hofer Bestiary. Some of the manuscripts attributed to
Hugo of Folieto are listed in Manitius, op. cit., Ill, 227-28, and others in
Thorndike, op. cit., II, 17-18. A study of the various manuscripts of the
Aviarium has been undertaken in Paris by M. Yves Lefevre.
The Pelican and Caladrius are, however, found twice.34 M. R. James

was even closer when, in describing a manuscript of this group, he
said: "At least 4 leaves are gone, and, it is consequently difficult
to see exactly where the treatise addressed to Rainer ends, and
where the Bestiary begins — if indeed the whole be not one work."3"
And, to judge by two complete manuscripts, the whole is assuredly
one work.3' In both B. N., lat. 14429 and Valenciennes 101 there
is no break in the text between the Aviarium and the beginning of
the Physiologus other than a new paragraph. The former then
continues: "Leo ex greco vocabulo inflexum..." and the latter: "In-
cipit liber de naturis bestiarum qui phisiologus appellatur. bestiarum
autem vocabulum..."
The illustrated manuscripts known to exist are the following:
Camb., Sidney Sussex Coll. 100, f. 26-43. XIII cent. (Avia

rium, f. 1-26).
Valenciennes 101, f. 189-201. XIII cent. (Aviarium, f.
171-189).
B. N., lat. 14429, f. 109v.-118. XIII cent. (Aviarium, t.
96-109).
Chalon-sur-Saone 14, f. 55-89. XIII cent*
The table of contents, with some simplification in the titles for

Book I, is taken from Migne.
31 Francis J. Carmody, "De Bestiis et Aliis Rebus and the Latin Phy
siologus", Speculum, XIII (1938), 155.
Montague R. James, A Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts in the

35
Library of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1895), p. 116.

36 Whether Book II once existed as a Physiologus version independent
of the Aviarium as Ives and Lehmann-Haupt suggest (op. cit., p. 16), I do
not know. However, evidence that H was probably originally based on a
B version manuscript is the unexpected appearance in the moralization of
the Antelope (2) of two sentences on the Fire Stones (Lapides Igniferi), an
intrusion that precedes. It will be recalled that
quite unrelated to anything
the inevitable third chapter, following the Antelope, in a manuscript of
the B version is that on the Fire Stones. The same anomaly occurs in the
chapter on the Antelope (9) in the Dicta Chrysostomi which will be discussed
later.
Book I of De bestiis et aliis rebus : Book II of De bestiis et aliis rebus :
l.-ll. De columba 1. De leone

12. De aquilone et austro ventis 2. De antula
13.-22. De accipitre 3. De onocentauro
23.-25. De tijture 4. De herinaceo seu hericio
26.-32. De libano et cedro et pas- 5. De vulpe
seribis 6. De monocerote sive unicorni
33. De pelicano 7. De hydro et hydra
34. De nycticorace 8. De crocodili natura
35. De corvo 9. De castoris natura
36. De gallo 10. De hyaena
37. De struthione 11. De onagro
38. De vulture 12. De simiis
39. De grue 13. De capri natura
40. De milvo 14. De cervorum natura
41. De hirundine 15. De ibice
42. De ciconiis 16. De stellione et salamandra
43. De merula 17. De canibus
44. De bubone 18. De mustela et aspide
45. De graculo 19. De lapidis igniferis
46. De ansere 20. De luporum natura
47. De ardea 21. De viperae natura
48. De caladrio 22. De serra bellua marina
49. De phoenice 23. De pantherae natura
50. De perdice 24. De dracone
51. De coturnice 25. De elephantis natura
52. De upupa 26. De elephantis natura itenun
53. De olore 27. De pelicani natura
54. De classe Salomonis 28. De lacerto, stellione et lacerta
55. De pavone 29. De formicae natura
56 De aquila 30. De aspidis natura
57. De ibe seu ibide 31. De charadrio seu charadro
58. De fulica 32. De sirenarum seu sirenum na
tura
33. De onocentauro rursus
34. De adamantis virtute
35. De concha seu concha marga-
ritifera
36. De aspidochelone
3. Transitional manuscripts.
Transitional is the only name that adequately but dully describes

these manuscripts which in their appearance are of fine and imagin
ative execution. From the First Family they keep the first twenty-
four to forty chapters, following the order and text of either B-Is
or H. Then they continue with sections taken from Isidore's Etymo-
logia, starting with his second chapter on Beasts and describing in
order Tigris, Pardus, Linx, Grifes... Morgan 81 and its sister manu
scripts, grouped together below, have sections at the beginning from

Isidore which occur nowhere else. The entire contents are classified
into Beasts, Birds, Fish, and so on. This classification will be more
fully discussed when the characteristics of the Second Family are
enumerated.
The following are illustrated Transitional manuscripts:
Camb., Trinity Coll. R.14.9 (884), f. 89-106v. XIII cent.

(Beginning follows in general order of B to Amos, then
begins Tigris, etc.)
B. M., Royal 2 B. vii, f. 85-1 30v. Early XIV cent.37
(Marginal drawings. No Physiologus text. Follows with
a few exceptions order of B-Is through Elephant and
Mandrake, then adds nine birds and animals based, in
my opinion!/son a text by Pierre de Beauvais.)
New York, Morgan 81, f. 1-89. Late XII cent. (Formerly

Berlin, Hamilton 77. Beginning remotely follows order
of H before continuing with Tigris.)
Leningrad, Qu.V.1, f. 1-98. Late XII cent.38
B. M., Royal 12 C. xix, f. 1-94. Late XII cent.
Alnwick Bestiary, f. 1-73. Mid. XIII cent.3"
Munich., gall. 16 (Qu-een Isabella's Psalter),XIVcent?
SECOND FAMILY - THE BESTIARY
The nature of the old Physiologus changes sometime during the

twelfth century —not beyond recognition because the venerable B-Is
chapters can always be perceived within the mass of added material,
but the transformation is still very great. Though the analogy should
not be pushed too far, the change might be compared to the one
taking place in architecture at approximately the same time — from
the simpler Romanesque to the more highly developed Gothic. The
number of chapters in what is now properly called the bestiary is
far more than doubled, with most of the additions coming from
37 A facsimile reproduction of this manuscript exists: Queen Mary's

Psalter. Introduction by Sir George Warner (London: The British Mu
seum, 1912).
38 For a description of this manuscript see Alexandra Konstantinova,
"Ein englisches Bestiar des zwolften Jahrhunderts", Kunstwissenschaftliche
Sludien, IV (1929).
38a
This ms., almost identical with 12 C. xix, has been reproduced in
facsimile. See Bibliography, Millar.
Isidore. Among the characteristics of this family that James notes

are: the classification of the entire contents following the divisions
of Isidore's Book XII, the inclusion of many chapters with no
moral or spiritual exposition, the addition of material from Solinus,
long extracts from Ambrose's Hexaemeron, in some copies reflections
from Rabanus Maurus and from Peter of Cornwall's Pantheologus
(there is a certain amount of variation among the copies), and the
attachment "without rubric, rhyme, or reason" of a sermon begin
ning Quocienscumque peccator to the article on Canis." James
declares that the twenty illustrated manuscripts which he includes
in the Second Family are all of English origin. I am unable to say
whether all four of the examples that I have noted in France and
Belgium are English or not, but for evidence of certain similarities
that were found, see Chapter IV, note 17.
The bestiary printed as Book III of the De bestiis is not reliable
as a complete text because, as Professor Carmody has pointed out,
the manuscript used for Books I and II to which the editor refers
for all of the chapters repeated in Book III was a different one
from that partially printed in Book III.40 This means that for the
text in its entirety one must at present supplement Migne's Book III
with James's reproduction of Cambridge, University Library Ii.4.26.41
Before listing the contents which usually appear in a Second
Family manuscript, a few general remarks about the form of this
type of bestiary are needed. The incipit is one or both of two
phrases: "Leo fortissimus bestiarum ad nullius pavebit occursum"
(Proverbs 30:30 as cited in the De Universo [VIII. 1] of Rabanus
Maurus), or "Bestiarum vocabulum proprie convenit pardis..." (Isi
dore, xii.2.1). Apart from a few pictures in the section on Fish
(often only the Aspidochelone), the illustrations usually stop at the
Snake, with an occasional portrayal at the very end of the Fire
Stones. The long sections on Trees and the Ages of Man, both from
Isidore and forming the concluding divisions of many bestiaries, will
not be included in this study/2
39 James, Bestiary, p. 14.

40 Carmody, "De Bestiis...", p. 158.
41 This manuscript has been translated into English in a lively but not
always wholly accurate manner by T. H. White in a book entitled The
Book of Beasts (London, 1954). See the present writer's review in Speculum,
XXX (1955), 694-96.
42 Since certain limits in content had to be made in this study, many
of the topics described in a sentence or so in Isidore and consequently
in the Second Family bestiaries and thereafter are omitted in Chapter V
An attempt has been made to group the following illustrated

manuscripts of the Second Family according to iconographic resem
blances, but since for a few of them written descriptions alone had to
be relied upon, these groupings should not be judged as definitive.
B.M., Add. 11283, Early XII cent. (The earliest

f. 1-41.
Second Family manuscript known to me.)43
Brussels, Bibl. Roy. 8340, f. 183-215. XIV cent.
Aberdeen Univ. 24, f. 1-103. Late XII Cent.
Bodl., Ashmole 1511, f. 1-104. Late XII cent.44
Bodl., Douce 151, f. 1-90. XIV cent. (Poor copy of above.)
Oxford, Univ. Lib. 120, f. 1-70. XIII-XIV cent.
B.M., Harl. 4751, f. l-74v. Late XII cent.
Bodl. 764, f. 1-137. Late XII cent.
Camb., Univ. Lib. Ii.4.26, f. 1-74. XII cent.
Oxford, St. John's Coll. 61, f. 1-103. XIII cent.45
B.M., Harl. 3244, f. 36-71v. Early XIII cent.
Camb., Gonv. and Caius Coll. 109, f. 110-133. (Only 5
illustrations.) XIII cent.
B.N., lat. 3630, f. 75-96. XIV cent.
of this paper. Such is the fate of most of Isidore's Chapters III, V, VI, and
VIII of Book XII. Other articles are not mentioned when they exist in
only one or two of the Latin bestiaries which were examined since the
typical text was the object of research rather than the exceptional. This
accounts for the omission in Chapter V of the following subjects as found
in the unusually full manuscript Bodl. 764: Tragelaphus, Lepus, Vitulus,
Taxus, Glires, Aurifrigius, and Martineta. The account of these last two
birds, preceded in the manuscript by Bernaca (Barnacle Goose), would
appear to be drawn from the Topographica Hibernica, Dist. I, Chapters XVI
and XVII of Giraldus Cambrensis, since the three birds appear in that
order with a similar text in the Welshman's work. Many of the additions
such as Dama, Cuniculus, and Cirogrillus that appear in Third Family
manuscripts have not been treated here either.
43 The latest Second Family bestiary which I have found is Nimes 82
(13777), an unillustrated manuscript dating from the beginning of the sixteenth
century (see Catalogue general des manuscrits des bibliotheques publiques
des departements. Vol. VII (1885), p. 577).
41The Aberdeen, Ashmole, Leningrad and Alnwick manuscripts begin
with excellent scenes of the Creation of the World while those found in
Gonville and Caius 372 are much more modest in conception and execution.
These manuscripts, with the exception of those in Leningrad and Alnwick,
also largely follow the order of the Aviarium in the section devoted to Birds.
45 Iconographically these two manuscripts show some similarity to Mor
gan 81 and Leningrad Qu.V.l.
The following manuscripts are unrelated iconographically :
B.M., Royal 12 F. xiii, f. 1-141. XII-XIII cent. (Illus

trations end at f. 50.)
B.M., Sloane 3544, f. 1-44. XIII cent.
Camb., Gonv. and Caius Coll. 384, f. 167-199. XIII cent.
Camb., Gonv. and Caius Coll. 372, f. 1-64. XIII cent.
B.N., lat. 11207, f. 1-40. XIII cent.
Bodl. 533, f. l-29v. XIII cent.
Oxford, St. John's Coll. 178, f. 157-220. Late XIII cent.
Douai, Bibl. Mun. 711, f. l-60v. Late XIII cent.
Bodl., Douce 88 A, f. 5-29. Late XIII cent.
Canterbury, Cath. Lib. Lit. D 10. XIII-XIV cent.
Camb., Corpus Christi Coll. 53, f. 189-210. Early XIV
cent.4*
New York, Morgan 890, f. 1-18. XIV cent."
Copenhagen, Gl. Kgl. 1633 4°, f. l-76v. XIV cent.
The following table of contents illustrating a typical Second

Family manuscript is taken from the total list of chapters contained
in Book III of De bestiis et aliis rebus ascribed to Pseudo-Hugo
of Saint Victor. The principal divisions of the work are italicized.
De bestiis.
1. De leone 16. De capro

2. De tigride 17. De monocerote sive unicorni
3. De pardo et leopardo 18. De urso
4. De panthera 19. De leucrocuta
5. De antalope seu antula 20. De crocodilo
6. De unicorni 21. De manticora
7. De lynce 22. De tharando
8. De gryphe 23. De vulpe
9. De elephante 24. De eale animali
10. De castore 25. De lupo
11. De ibice 26. De cane
12. De hiena 27. De animalium in genere. "Om
13. De bonasa nibus animantibus Adam..."
14. De simiis 28. De ove
15. De cervis 29. De vervece
46 This manuscript has been reproduced with the following title: A

Peterborough Psalter and Bestiary of the Fourteenth Century. Description
by Montague Rhodes James (Oxford: Roxburghe Club, 1921).
47
Formerly belonging to Sir Sidney CockerelFs collection, this manu
script was given to the Morgan Library in 1958.
30. De agno 72. De turture

31. De hirco et haedo 73. De hirundine
32. De apro 74. De coturnice seu qualea
33. De juvenco et tauro 75. De pavone
34. De bove et uro 76. De upupa
35. De cameli natura 77. De gallo
36. De dromedario 78. De anate
37. De asino et asello 79. De ovis et ex eis natis
38. De onagro 80. De apibus
39. De equo 81. De arbore quadam in India
40. De cato seu musione 82. De serpentum generibus. "An-
41. De mure et sorice guis omnium serpentum..."
42. De mustela 83. De dracone
43. De talpa 84. De basilisco et sibilo
44. De formica 85. De vipera
45. De hericio seu herinaceo 86. De aspide
46. De avibus in genere. "Avium 87. De ceraste
unum quidem..." 88. De scitale
47. De aquila 89. De amphysibaena
48. De vulture 90. De boa serpente
49. De gruibus 91. De jaculo
50. De psittaco 92. De sirenis serpentibus
51. De caladrio 93. De sepe serpente
52. De ciconiis 94. De dypsade serpente
53. De holore 95. De lacerto et batracha
54. De ibide seu ibi 96. De salamandra
55. De assida seu struthione 97. De saura
56. De fulica 98. De stellione iterum et aliis ser
57. De halcyne pentibus
58. De phoenice 99. De serpentum varia natura
59. De cinnamulgo 100. De vermibus.
60. De herciniis 101. De piscium diversorum natu-
61. De epope ... upupa ris... et concharum.
62. De pelicano 102- De arboribus.
63. De noctua seu nycticorace 103. De margaritarum inventione
64. De syrenis 104. De lapidibus igniferis
65. De perdice 105. De duodecim lapidibus pretio-
66. De pica et pico sis
67. De accipitre 106. De natura hominis.
68. De luscinia 107. De hominis membris ac parti-
69. De vespertilione bus
70. De cornice et corvo 108. De aetatibus hominis.
71. De columba
THIRD AND FOURTH FAMILIES
These even larger bestiaries, all of the thirteenth century, will

be treated briefly here since they are less common and since they
have nothing that was carried over to the French translations. A
complete manuscript begins with the words "Cum voluntas con
ditoris", and the first section repeats Isidore's account of the Fabu
lous Nations who inhabit the remote parts of the earth (Isidore
xi.3.1-39)," followed by the discourse on animals beginning "Omni
bus animantibus...". Next come extracts from the Megacosmus or
De mundi universitate by Bernardus Silvestris, who is called Ber-
nardus francus here. The bestiary proper begins with the Domestic
Animals, Bos, Bubalus, Vacca..., and continues with the Wild
Beasts, Leo, Pardus, Linx, Panthera....The following sections are
on Fish, Snakes, and Insects. Another section from Isidore on
mythological monsters like Cerberus and the Chimaera is followed
by Lapides Igniferi. The composition of the last part of the book
varies in the few extant copies, but apparently the following items
included in Westminster 22 belong to it: the Wheel of Fortune, a
portion of Seneca's De remediis fortuitorum, the Seven Wonders
of the World, and a passage from the Policraticus of John of
Salisbury.
Of the five known manuscripts (James did not list Bodl. e
Museo 136 which might have been written in the Netherlands and
is ascribed to Hugo of Folieto) the illustrations in all except the
Westminster manuscript resemble one another markedly.
Camb., Fitzwilliam Museum 254, f. 1-48. Early XIII cent.

Camb., Univ. Lib. Kk.4.25, f. 48-86. XIII cent.
Bodl., Douce 88 E, f. 68-1 16v. Late XIII cent.
Bodl. e Museo 136, f. 1-47. XIII cent.
Westminster Abbey 22, 1-54. XIII cent.
The one manuscript belonging to the Fourth Family as described

by James is Camb., Univ. Lib. Gg.6.5, f. 1-100 (XV cent.) which
is based as much upon Bartholomeus Anglicus' De proprietatibus
rerum, named in the text as a source, as upon Isidore. The sensus
moralis is often omitted propter prolixitatem. The unfinished text
ends with a chapter on Trees.49
48 For illustrations and a discussion of these prodigies as they appear

on the Icelandic Physiologus, see Halldor Hermannson, "The Icelandic
Physiologus", lcelandica, XXVII (1938),12-14. Additional information may
be found in George C. Druce, "Some Abnormal and Composite Human
Forms in English Church Architecture", Archaeological Journal, LXXII
(1915), 135-86.
49 As noted in Chapter IV of this study, the large, careless pictures in
this manuscript look like poor relations of those found in Copenhagen,
Gl. Kgl. 1633 4° (a Second Family manuscript).
Thus conclude the successive changes undergone by one version

of the Physiologus from the bare, incomplete B manuscript of the
eighth or ninth century to the inflated and eclectic Fourth Family
manuscript of the fifteenth. There were also two other important
versions current during the Middle Ages which deserve attention
OTHER PRINCIPAL VERSIONS
I. TH - Metrical Physiologus of Theobaldus.
Numerous are the manuscripts with the title De naturis ipro-

prietatibus) animalium, or Bestiarius (sometimes Physiologus) seu
liber de naturis XII animalium with or without the name of Theo
baldus attached. This poem of about three hundred lines in mixed
meters is usually attributed to the Theobaldus who was abbot of
Monte Cassino from 1022 to 1035 and under whom studies of
natural science and medicine were pursued in the monastery.51
60Sbordone, manoscritta, pp. 277-79,

Tradizione lists some Vatican
manuscripts with uncommon additions which will not be discussed here.
Nor will the interesting, illustrated Berlin, Hamilton 390 described by
A. Tobler, "Lateinische Beispielsammlung mit Bildern", Zeitschrift fur Ro-
manische Philologie, XII (1888), 57-88. In reality only twelve of the forty-
four chapters in this manuscript are devoted to animals belonging strictly
to the Physiologus. Of this number, some of the moralizations are illustrated.
For the relationship of this manuscript with numerous fourteenth and fif
teenth century bestiaries in Italian, see Kenneth McKenzie, "Unpublished
Manuscripts of Italian Bestiaries", PMLA, XX (1905), 383.
51 Manitius, III, 731. A list of manuscripts
attributed to Theobaldus
is found on p. 734. Sbordone, Tradizione manoscritta, pp. 273-75, adds
more manuscripts to this list, although B.N., lat. 10448 should be removed.
The Italian scholar (p. 273) estimates that there are at least one hundred
manuscripts of this version dating from the twelfth to the fifteenth century
scattered in various libraries throughout Europe. The following manuscripts
of Theobaldus now at the Library of the University of Uppsala were not
mentioned by Sbordone: C 181, f. 321-325, XV cent.; C 218, f. 2-18, XV
cent.; C 226, f. 14v.-15, XV cent.; C 237, f. 112-132, XIV cent. The Latin
text of Theobaldus' poem is printed in the works of Hildebert of Tours or
Le Mans (Migne, Patr. Lat., CLXXI, Cols. 1217-1224), and in Richard
Morris, An Old English Miscellany (Early English Text Society. London,
1872), pp. 201-9. An English translation has been made by Alan W. Rendell,
Physiologus a Metrical Bestiary of Twelve Chapters by Bishop Theobald
(London, 1928).
After explaining the meaning of the word 'Physiologus' thus: "...et

dicitur a phisis grece, quod est natura latine, et olon, quod est
totum, et logos quod est sermo, quia sermo totus de natura", the
poem begins: "Tres leo naturas et tres habet inde figuras". The
animals described are:
l. De leone 7. De aranea <^ p v c -.^

2. De aquila 8. De balena -- vj t% -L*
3. De serpente 9. De sirenis et de onocentauris
4. De formica 10. De elephante
5- De vulpe 11. De turture
6. De cervo 4^ 12. De panthera
2. DC - Dicta Chrysostomi.
Differing in some details52 and in order from B is a work at

tributed to the early fifth century Patriarch of Constantinople, John
Chysostom, and circulating under the title Dicta Chrysostomi
(from the incipit which usually reads: "Incipiunt dicta Johannis
Crisostomi de naturis bestiarum").53 The principal characteristic of
this work is the division of the contents into Animals beginning
with Leo, and Birds starting with Aquila. Stones are omitted entirely.
Of special interest for this study is the fact that the place of origin
of the Dicta Chrysostomi is regarded as France ca. 1000.54 Because
Lauchert omitted any reference to it in his original study on the
Physiologus, some scholars have failed to note that there exists a
French rhymed bestiary largely resembling the Dicta. Its translator,
Gervaise, ascribes his original to John Chrysostom. Two French
52 TH and DC
are unique in their notice about the Eagle's beak grow
ing long with age ; they also differ somewhat in their chapter on the Stag.
53 The
most recent research on the Dicta Chrysostomi is that of Hermann
Menhardt, "Der Millstatter Physiologus und seine Verwandten", Karntner
Museumsschriften, XIV (1956), from which some details are taken. One
text of the Dicta Chrysostomi has been printed by Gustav Heider, "Physio
logus nach einer Handschrift des XI. Jahrhunderts", Archiv fur Kunde bster-
reichischer Geschichts-Quellen, Dritter Jahrgang, zweiter Band, 1850, pp. 541-
82. As his text Heider used what he termed the eleventh century Codex
Gottwicensis 101. This manuscript is now in the Pierpont Morgan Library,
MS. 832, and is assigned to the twelfth century. Heider reproduced a few
more than half of the illustrations in this interesting manuscript. A critical
edition is that of Friedrich Wilhelm, Miinchener Texte, Heft 8 B (Kommen-
tar), 1916, pp. 15-44.
54 Wilhelm,
op. cit., p. 16 and Menhardt, op. cit., p. 76.
manuscripts of the short bestiary of Pierre de Beauvais also name

the Greek churchman as their source.
The expected number of chapters included in the DC is twenty-
seven, although many copies have a variety of additions." One of
the most interesting manuscripts of DC artistically and textually is
the Hofer Bestiary.56 This manuscript, whose illustrations were used
as models, is unusual in that its text shows a relationship both to
the normal DC contents and to H (Book II
of Pseudo-Hugo). Al
most in the middle of this manuscript are added chapters that can
be divided into two groups (ch. 10-12, 11-15) which approximate
the order of these chapters in H." The contents of the normal DC
text (from Wilhelm's edition) and of the Hofer Bestiary will be
listed after an enumeration of the present known illustrated manu
scripts.88
Morgan 832, f. 2 - l0v. XII cent. (Formerly Gottweig 101.)

Vienna, lat. 1010, f. 65-73v. XII cent.
Munich, lat. 6908, f. 78-85v. XIV cent. (Ends with Sala-
mandra and Ceraste.)
Epinal 58 (209), f. 70v.-75. XII cent.
B.N., lat. f. 118v.-121v. XIII cent. (Small, crude
10448,
drawings. Moralizations often omitted, and several non-
Physiologus notices inserted throughout the text, but DC
order followed in general.)
B.M., Sloane 278, f. 44-57. XIII cent. (Preceded by Avia-
rium, f. l-43v. DC text treats no birds.)
Hofer Bestiary, f. 60-89. XIII cent. (Preceded by Avia-
rium, f. 17-60.)
65 One example of such additions is found in a thirteenth

century manu
script originating in France, Vienna, lat. 303, where the following chapters
are included : De mustela (et aspide), de pavone, de corvo, de sale (Men-
hardt, op. cit., p. 20).
58 See p. 31, n. 33.
57 The manuscript to which the Hofer Bestiary stands closest,
since both
are preceded by the Aviarium, is B.M., Sloane 278, but the latter manu
script does not contain all of the additions found in the former.
58 The following manuscripts are unillustrated, but I have seen no
mention of their belonging to the DC version.
Uppsala, Universitetsbibliotek C 415, f. l-15v. XIV cent. (Ex mo-
nas. Carthus. apud Erford.)
Arsenal, lat. 394, f. 172-174v. XIII cent. (Irregular order with
many chapters missing. Ascribed to Iohannis Crisostomis. Pre
ceded by one folio of the Aviarium.)
THE LATIN PHYSIOLOGUS 43
Contents of DC
WlLHELM EDITION Hofer Bestiary
1. De leone 1. Leo
2. De panthera 2. De panthera
3. De unicorni 3. De rinocerote
4. De ydro 4. De syrenis et onocentauris
5. De syrenis et onocentauris 5. De ydro et cocodrillo
6. De hyena 6. De hyena
7. De onagro et simia 7. De onagro et simia59
8. De elephante 8. De elephante
9. De autula 9. De aspide
10. De serra 10. De lupo
11. De vipera 11. De canibus
12. De lacerta 12. De cheroboles
13. De cervo 13. De adamante
14. De caprea 14. De concha
15. De vulpe 15. De cete
16. De castore 16. De antula
17. De formica 17. De lacerta
18. De ericeo 18. De serra
19. De aquila 19. De vipera
20. De pelicano 20. De cervis
21. De nicticorace 21. De capra
22. De fulica 22. De vulpe
23. De perdice 23. De assida
24. De assida 24. De castore
25. De upupa 25. De formica
26. De caladrio 26. De erinatio
27. De fenice 27. De salamandra
28. De mustela
29. De basilisco
30. De dracone
The list of contents of the double-natured Hofer Bestiary con

cludes this general survey of the different Latin versions which in
their various ways came from Greek originals or grew from basic
Latin texts that were either simplified as in the case of Theobaldus'
poem or elaborated as were the Second, Third, and Fourth Family
versions. Conscious now of the large number and the surprising
Although B.N., lat. 2780, f. 93-1 13v. (end XII cent.) is often listed as belong
ing to the DC version and it is indeed inscribed liber Johannis Crisostomi,
the order and text follow H to some extent, but there are also unusual
additions.
59 In reality these are two separate chapters, each with its own illustra
tion, but since Wilhelm numbers Onagro 7 and Simia 7 A, they are kept
together in this list.
variety of Latin manuscripts, of which only the oldest or later the

most common have been treated here at all, we probably wonder
why this work was so extraordinarily popular. In this connection
a recent book has named the Physiologus, though which version
is uncertain, as among the usual contents of an English mediaeval
library, and this is doubtless true of continental libraries also. In
answer to this question I would hazard the guess that it was the
concrete descriptive element, easily retainable because of its very
lack of subtlety, which then recalled the Christian dogma or moral
exhortation that the reader was summoned to heed. Thus two areas
of man's nature were appealed to by the Physiologus: the timeless
curiosity about the strange appearance and habits of animals both
familiar and unknown (though probably not considered fabulous
by many pre-Renaissance readers), and the more specifically me
diaeval concept of regarding the external world as a manifestation
of the eternal realm of the creator of all things, God. Realizing that
a work so attractive in conception and of already proven success
could interest an even larger public than those whose reading was
largely in Latin, some Anglo-Norman poets — though the word
rhymers better describes their talent — in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries translated the Physiologus into French.
CHAPTER III
TRADITIONAL FRENCH BESTIARIES
In the one hundred years following the first of the

quarter
twelfth century the already ancient tradition of the Latin Physiologus
entered the province of the French vernacular and thus found a far
wider audience. During this period were translated the four major
bestiaries with which we are concerned in this study: those of
Philippe de Thaon, Gervaise, Guillaume le Clerc, and the two
versions written in all probability by Pierre de Beauvais. The word
"bestiary" is not precisely the correct one to apply to these compo
sitions, since with one exception all were translated not from the
large bestiarius with its extensive borrowings from Isidore, but
rather from the older Physiologus of thirty-seven chapters with
fixed Isidorean additions. However, the word bestiaire is the only
term that has long been used to describe the French works. Philippe
de Thaon in the oldest French translation writes thus :
Philippes de Thaiin
En franceise raisun
At estrait Bestiaire
Un livre de gramaire, (1-4)
Apart from the relatively short work by Gervaise which is based

on the version known as the Dicta Chrysostomi, the three longer
bestiaries have as their immediate ancestor a Latin manuscript of
the B-Is version. Their close relationship is everywere evident — in
a translation which is at times almost literal and in the occasional
use of the Latin rather than the French name for an animal or bird.
Guillaume le Clerc more than once admits that the French equivalent
of a certain animal's name is unknown to him, as in the example
of the Ibis, which he wrongly calls Ibex as do many Latin manu

scripts :
Un oisel est, one ne fu tex,
Qui en latin a non ybex;

Son non en romanz ne sai mie, (1171-1173)
The appearance of the French manuscripts is generally though

not inevitably one of relative simplicity and even occasional care
lessness in comparison with the majority of Latin manuscripts. The
French versions were evidently made for a public less desirous or
demanding in the matter of elegant manuscripts, and as a result
the bestiary in translation was never a de luxe product like its
Latin predecessors or contemporaries.
Certain bestiaries composed in Mediaeval French or in the
dialects of Mediaeval France have been excluded from this study
for one main reason among many — their nature differed sufficiently
either as a whole or in detail to divert these tributaries from the
mainstream of the Physiologus tradition. It is felt, however, that
brief mention should at least be made of them, for each contains
something of interest to the student of the bestiary and individual
passages in one often help to explain obscure points in another.
Probably the most popular of all French bestiaries, to judge by
the number and quality of extant manuscripts, was the Bestiaire
J
Cd Amour composed in the mid-thirteenth century by Richard de
PFournival, who replaced Jhfijiabitvially pnndfroiis Christian moral-
lization bv a light and clever loyxrls plea fr>r hifi lady's attention '
Numerous affinities with the long version of Pierre de Beauvais'
bestiary indicate that this work was the principal but not the unique
source of the secular composition, and the latter in turn served as
the basis from which was drawn the bare C^mbmi^e^tiarj^where
frglij
^religious jlidactic__elements Of any snrt ace_a1mnsl entirely <;iip-
>
pressed/ Similar to the Cambrai Bestiary in content and in the
1
A complete critical edition of this work with full bibliographical details
has recently appeared: Cesare Segre (ed.), Li Besliaires d Amours di Maistre
l Richart de Fornival e li Response du Bestiaire (Milan, 1957). All allusions
in this present study to the Bestiaire d' Amour will be to this edition.
Previously the only reliable source available for consultation was a non-
critical edition by John Holmberg, Eine mittelniederfrankische Uberlragung
des Bestiaire d' Amour sprachlich untersucht und mit altfranzosischem Pa-
ralleltext herausgegeben, Uppsala Universitets Arsskrift (Uppsala, 1925).
Edward B. Ham "The Cambrai Bestiary", Modern Philology
(~2 (ed.),
<XXXVI (1939), 225-37. The manuscript is Cambrai 370, f. 176v.-178v.
TRADITIONAL FRENCH BESTIARIES 47
omission of allegorical interpretation is the Provencal version entitled

Aiso son las naturas d'alcus auzels e d'alcunas bestias.3 Preserved
in only one manuscript of the late thirteenth or early fourteenth
century (B.N., fr. 1951) and in one sixteenth century book is an
illustrated, rhymed Bestiaire d Amour of 3718 lines.* This anony
mous poem, although it has some elements found in Pierre de Beau-
vais and not in Richard de Fournival, seems to be for the most
part an imitation of the latter's Finally there exists in a
prose.5
single fifteenth century manuscript at Trinity College, Dublin (C.
5.21, f. 49-70) a moralized bestiary written in the Waldensian dialect
and entitled De las Propriotas de las animangas.* The fifty-four
chapters of this bestiary are divided into Birds, Beasts, Fish, and
Serpents. The last work to be noted is not properly a bestiary, but
knowledge of it is of great value in studying individual descriptions of
bestiary animals. The final seventy chapters of Book I of Brunetto
Latini's Li Livres dou Tresor treat Fish, Serpents, Birds, and Beasts.7
The closeness in wording in endless examples between the French
composition and the Latin of a manuscript of the Second Family
leads one to think that Brunetto in many instances did no more than
translate the expanded bestiary. But this work is taking us far in time
and space from the earliest French translation of the old Latin
Physiologus, that of Philippe de Thaon.
PHILIPPE DE THAON
The oldest French bestiary and the one closest to the Latin
Physiologus in some ways is the bestiaire of 3194 lines composed
3
Carl Appel, Provenzalische Chrestomathie (Leipzig, 1895), pp. 201-4.
*
Arvid Thordstein (ed.), "Le Bestiaire d'amour rimd: poeme inddit du
XIII" siecle", Etudes Romanes de Lund, II (1941).
5 Ibid., has listed parallel and dis
p. xxvi. On pp. xix-xxvi Thordstein
similar passages in this work and that of Richard de Fournival.
• Alfons Mayer (ed.), "Der waldensische Physiologus", Romanische For-
schungen, V (1890), 392-418. There has recently been published what is appar
ently the Latin source (with a few minor differences) of the Waldensian
Bestiary although this relationship is not mentioned in the Introduction by
J. I. Davis. This is a facsimile edition of a bestiary illustrated with woodcuts
and printed between 1508 and 1512 in the Piedmontese town of Mondovi;
it is entitled Libellus de Natura Animalium (London: Dawson's of Pall
Mall, 1958).
7 Francis J. Carmody (ed.), "Brunetto Latini, Li Livres dou Tresor",
California University Publications in Modern Philology, XXII (1938), 127-71.
by the Anglo-Norman poet, Philippe de Thaon.8 In the Latin pro

logue and in the corresponding opening lines in French, Philippe
dedicates this work to Aelis de Louvain, the second wife of Henry I
of England. Since their marriage took place in 1121, it is assumed
that the bestiary was written within a few years of this date.9 In
the manuscript located at Oxford the recipient of the dedication
has been changed to Alienor, Henry IPs wife; this second dedi
cation must date from shortly after 1152.10 The other known works
by Philippe are a Comput, an ecclesiastical calendar written around
1119, and one, if not two, lapidaries.11
Three manuscripts of Philippe's bestiary are in existence today:
L London, B.M., Cotton Nero A. V, f. 41-82v. This

manuscript dates from the second half of the twelfth
century, and was once in the possession of the Cister
cian monastery of Holmcultram in Cumberland.12
Spaces were left for illustrations which were never
filled in.
8 Emmanuel Walberg (ed.), Le Besliaire de Philippe de Thaiin (Paris

and Lund, 1900). The basis for this edition is B.M., Cotton Nero A.V.
9 Alexandre H. Krappe, "The Historical Background of Philippe de
Thaiin's Bestiaire", MLN, LIX (1944), 326. For information about the
family of Philippe de Thaon, see G. L. Hamilton's review of Ch.-V. Langlois'
La Vie en France au moyen age. Vol. Ill, La Connaissance de la nature
et du monde (Paris, 1927), which appeared in Speculum, IV (1929), 112-13.
10 Langlois'
hypothesis (op. cit., p. 4) that Pierre's bestiary might have
existed in two versions seems valid when the strange composition of the
end of the oldest and longest complete manuscript is considered. At line 2889
of the London manuscript the poet, after writing thus far in six-syllable
rhymed couplets, announces at the end of the section on Fire Stones that
he will change his meter; henceforth the verses have eight syllables. After
a gap the poem continues with a notice on the Diamond, the Twelve Stones
of the Apocalypse, and finishes with the Pearl, into which description some
verses on the Beryl have been mingled. The shorter Oxford manuscript,
dedicated to Alienor, after the section on the Owl concludes with sixteen
lines on the Pearl.
11 Langlois, op. cit., pp. 6-11.
12
In his description of this manuscript Walberg states that a note by
the copyist indicates that the manuscript was written in the monastery of
Holmcultram in Cumberland. It has recently been pointed out, however,
that the writing of the ex-libris on f. 82v., Liber sancte marie de holm-
coltrum, is not contemporary with the scribe's handwriting and might be
later by a century. See Fr. John Morson, OCR., "The English Cistercians
and the Bestiary", Bulletin of the John Rylands Library Manchester, Vol. 39,
No. 1 (September 1956), 168-69.
O Oxford, Merton College 249, f. 1-10. The manuscript

seems to have been written in England in the thirteenth
century.13 After the section on the Owl the text in
cludes sixteen lines on the Pearl (11. 3063-3079) and
ends apparently incomplete. Forty-eight drawings exist,
for the most part poorly executed.14
C Copenhagen, Royal Library 3466, f. 3-51.This un
finished manuscript stops at 1. 1928 in the section on
the Aspidochelone. It
contains twenty-eight interesting
drawings. Possibly this thirteenth or fourteenth century
manuscript was copied at the former Priory of Saint
Martin des Champs in Paris.
An unusual featureof the text is that all three manuscripts

contain not only a Latin prologue but also Latin rubrics which
either state the contents in a terse manner or give directions to the
illustrator,15 e. g., "Hie leo pingitur et quomodo capit animalia per
circulum". The French formula for this is:
Co mustre la peinture,
Si est dit par figure. (107-108)
The authorship of these rubrics

has puzzled scholars who have
examined them. Mann, one of the first to study the works of Philippe
de Thaon,16 and Langlois with him,17 thought they were not the
work of the poet ; but the editor of the bestiaire, Walberg, considered
that the question was not yet settled, and in particular could conceive
13 Walberg, op. cit., p. vi.

" The manuscript is written in double columns in the form of prose.
There seems to have been no cooperation between the copyist and the
illustrator since the former often did not leave sufficient space for the
drawings, which were consequently squeezed into the margins.
15 In both the Oxford and the Copenhagen
manuscripts it appears at
times that neither the copyist nor the illustrator understood Latin. In O the
Latin directions occasionally are buried in the French text with no room
at all left for the required illustration, and in C, after a drawing of the
Stag appears following the Hydrus allegory, the illustrations usually occur
one space before they correctly should. They are also poorly placed in
the large spaces allotted to them.
16 Max Friedrich Mann, "Der Physiologus des Philipp von Thaiin und
seine Quellen", Anglia, VII (1884), 435-37. Mann's study includes pp. 420-68
in Vol. VII, and pp. 391-434, 447-50 in Vol. IX.
17 Langlois, op. cit.,
p. 15, n. 3.
of no one other than the author writing the Latin prologue.18

as
Because of the close affinity between the brief Latin summaries
and the French text, I am inclined to think that Philippe composed
them both, although I can find no explanation for the author's
concerning himself with indications to the artist.
Philippe de Thaon's bestiary contains thirty-eight chapters,19
which are divided as the Latin prologue states:
Liber iste Bestiarius dicitur

Quia in primis de bestiis loquitur
Et secundario de avibus,
Ad ultimum autem de lapidibus.
Chapters 1-23treat of Beasts, beginning as always with the Lion.

The Ostrich is also included here — perhaps because the Latin
source reads "Item est animal quod dicitur asida". Chapters 24-34
describe Birds, but the Eagle, which usually introduces the section
on Birds, is preceded by the Partridge. Lauchert has rightly suggested
that this is possibly a remnant of the Latin order (as is seen in B)
where the Partridge follows the Aspidochelone.20 The final four
chapters present Stones, including the Twelve Stones of the Apoc
alypse, not found elsewhere in French but noted in at least two
Latin manuscripts of the Second Family. Since the order of chapters
within the three divisions of this work is unlike any other Latin
or French bestiary — it bears no resemblance to the Dicta Chrys-
ostomi — this might partially account for some of the startling
statements made about Philippe's composition in relation to its
obvious Latin prototype.21 Although a Latin manuscript with the
same arrangement as the French version might have existed, it seems
equally probable that Philippe created his own order. That the
notices were grouped so as to illustrate certain theological types
(Christ, the devil, man) is apparently not the explanation for the
18 Walberg, op. cit., p. ci.

19 Walberg combines Adamas (36) and Les douze pierres (37) to make
a total of thirty-seven.
20 Lauchert,
op. cit., p. 129.
21 One
of the last words, though already twenty years old, to be written
on this relationship is that of Carmody, "De Bestiis et Aliis Rebus and the
Latin Physiologus", Speculum, XUI (1938), 154, who writes in a critical
list of extant versions of the Physiologus, "Q - Philippe de Thaon, Bestiaire,
in T. Wright, Popular Treatises on Science (London, 1841), pp. 74-131; not
related to the Latin Physiologus" . Carmody sees this work as deriving from
the Greek, like Bern 318 (C).
unusual order, Philippe's allegories, although occasionally

since
showing a distinctly individual interpretation, on the whole do not
greatly differ from the traditional moralizations.22
As sources Philippe de Thaon cites Phisiologus fourteen times,
bestiaire or bestiaire, un livre de gramaire nine times, Ysidre eight,
and escripture often. Sometimes both bestiaire and Phisiologus are
mentioned in the same passage, as in the Phoenix where not only
does the name Ysidorus appear but
De lui dit Bestiaire

Chose ki mult est maire,
E Phisiologus
De lui dit uncor plus. (2247-2250)
Lauchert has explained this by the fact that the Latin book was
usually called Bestiarius, while the contents often begin with the
formula Physiologus dicet...23 These references to sources lead to
a question troubled early students of Philippe de Thaon,
which
although part of their difficulty can be attributed to lack of published
texts at the time they were writing : did the Latin work from which
Philippe drew his material already contain the citations from Book
XII of Isidore's Etymologiae, or did he consult this work directly?
Cahier believed in the existence of an already interpolated Latin
bestiary, although he had not seen one,24 whereas Lauchert declared
that such a hypothesis could be proved only by the discovery of
a manuscript containing Isidore's additions.25
As shown in Chapter II of this study, not a few manuscripts of
this type — called here B-Is — have been found. Bodl., Laud. Misc.
22 Although Walberg states that Pierre is "archaic" in his choice of

types and allegories (op. cit., pp. 18, 19), he was probably imitating his
model.
23 Lauchert, op. cit., pp. 132-33. However, in two of the three cases
where both Phisiologus and bestiaire are cited in the same article, the former
word corresponds exactly to its position in the Latin text, and the mention
of the bestiaire in the allegory is no more than a metrical filler (e.g., I. 1773
and 1. 2128). But the pattern in the above quoted passage on the Phoenix
is more revealing. Ysidorus is named in the middle of the description drawn
precisely from his work : the Isidorean account ends with the reference
to bestiaire 2247); and the true Physiologus text begins by quoting from
(1. (1.
Phisiologus 2249).
21 Cahier, op. cit., II,
97.
25 Lauchert, op. cit., p. 133, n. Mann erroneously linked this bestiary
1.
with both A (Brussels 10074) and (Bern 233), Anglia, IX, 433.
B
247, which James chose to illustrate the First Family, is one of

these, while the almost identical B.M., Royal 2 C. xii, which Mann
linked with the bestiary of Guillaume le Clerc, is another. Walberg
unobtrusively reached the conclusion of a relationship between
Philippe de Thaon's bestiaire and the latter Latin manuscript.26
Indeed, the contents correspond so closely on the whole, although
the internal order of the various chapters might at times differ, that
we can surely say a manuscript of the B-Is version served as
Philippe's model with the few exceptions that will be noted further
on. One example of the countless similarities that occur is found
in the chapter on the Ant. After recording the three natures of
the Formica, the Latin of Laud Misc. 247 says, "Ethimologia. For
mica dicta quod ferat micas farris." This Philippe renders, and not
correctly this time:27
Uncor de furmi dit

Ysidre en sun escrit
E bien mustre raisun
Pur quei furmi at nun:
Forz est e porte mie,... (1031-1035)
After a few sentences the Latin says, "dum pluit super frumentum
eius, totum eicit". Philippe writes,
S'il plot sur sun furment

Gete le fors al vent. (1047-1048)
When the Latin of the manuscript reads, "Dicuntur et in Ethiopia

esse formicas ad formam canis", Philippe says,
Uncor Ysidorus
D'altre furmi dit plus:
En Ethiopie en sunt
Ki del grant del chien sunt. (1053-1056)
His account of the Ethiopian Ant follows closely the Latin text,
which in this case is much more developed than Isidore's. The
2t Walberg, op. cit., p. xxx, n. 2.

27
The only other example discovered of Philippe's deviating in etymology
from Isidore is in the account of the Partridge:
Perdix d'oisel est num,

E pur co at tel num
Que pert sa nureture, (1959-1961)
existence of the extended version of the EthiopianAnt in both the

Latin and the French precludes a direct borrowing from Isidore on
the part of Philippe.
Another item points to a relationship — in this case artistic —
between one manuscript of Philippe's bestiary and a manuscript
similar to Laud Misc. 247. In the Latin section on the Hydrus,
after the Ethimologia is cited and passages quoted from Isidore,
the Crocodrillus (sic) is described as being "solus autem pre ani-
malibus superiora oris movet". This peculiarity is not mentioned
by Philippe, but in the illustration of the Copenhagen manuscript
(PL V, Fig. 2 a), the dog-like Crocodile's head is on upside-down
in a drawing similar to that of Laud Misc. 247.
There are obvious differences between the Latin B-Is
also
versions and the French which speak for Philippe's forgetfulness
or his fancy, or for a different source for certain details. Where,
for instance, did the author find the story of the Dog's pulling up
the Mandrake? The normal B-Is manuscript does not include the
important, early account of the Elephant's sleeping against a tree,
which Philippe records. In the Latin the Siren is not a heterogeneous
bird-fish as in the French, but only a bird; nor does Philippe's
puzzling first chapter on the Lion with its numerous illustrated traits
find an exact parallel in any Latin Physiologus now known. It is
thus evident that many points remain to be solved in this oldest
French bestiary.
In order to indicate the striking similarity of names and general
content, the chapters of Philippe de Thaon's bestiary are here listed
with the corresponding notices from Bodl., Laud Misc. 247:
1. Leun 1. Leo
2. Monosceros 16. Monoceros
3. Pantere (et Dragun) 24. Panthera (et Draco Maior)
4. Dorcon 20. Dorcon
5. Ydrus (et Cocodrille) 19. Hidrus (et Crocodrillus)
6. Cerf 31. Cervus
7. Aptalon 2. Antalops
8. Furmi 11. Formica
9. Onoscentaurus 12. Onocentaurus (et Syrena)
10. Castor 17. Castor
11. Hyena 18. Hiena
12. Mustele 27. Mustela
13. Assida 29. Assida
14. Sylio (Salamandre) 32. Salamandra
IS. Serena 12. Syrena (et Onocentaurus)
16. Elefant 35. Elephantus
17. Aspis 28. Aspis
18. Serra 4. Serra

19. Hericun 13. Herinacius
20. Gupil 15. Vulpis
21. Onager 21. Onager
22. Singe 22. Simia
23. Cetus 25. Aspidochelone (Cetus)
24. Perdix 26. Perdix
25. Aigle 8. Aquila
26. Caladrius 5. Caladrius
27. Fenix 9. Fenix
28. Pellicanus 6. Pelicanus
29. Colum (et Peredixion) 33. Columbe. (34). Peredixion
30. Turtre 30. Turtur
31. Huppe 10. Hupupa
32. Ibex 14. Ibex
33. Fullica 23. Fulica
34. Nicticorax 7. Nicticorax
35. Turrobolen 3. Terobolem
36. Adamas 37. Adamans
37. Douze pierres28
38. Union 38. Mermecolion
To conclude this brief survey of the first French bestiary, a

word in defense of the style and subject matter of Philippe de
Thaon's composition seems appropriate. From Mann, who called the
bestiaire "eine mussige anhaufung von ungeniessbaren naturwissen-
schaftlichen armseligkeiten, in denen sich das mittelalter so sehr
gefiel",29 through Paul Meyer, who states about Philippe, "Ses ecrits
ont une certaine importance pour l'histoire de la langue et de la
versification, mais c'est leur seul merite, car ils ne se distinguent
ni par l'originalite des idees, ni par la distinction du style",30 to a
verbose diatribe by Langlois,31 all contain a measure of truth. But
it should be remembered, as Paul Meyer did concede, that no more
than a translation was proposed, and that this is an early work
in a language still groping to express itself. All of these scholars
appear to miss the excitement inherent in the fact that a tradition
already ancient and rich had now entered the vernacular to become
widely read and known in the next century and a half.
28 For a discussion on the inclusion of these stones, see Langlois, op. cit.,
pp. 3-11. Philippe omits the traditional Latin chapter entitled Amos pro-
pheta which precedes Adamas.
29 Mann, Anglia, VII, 447.
30
Paul Meyer, "Les Bestiaires", Histoire litteraire de la France, XXXIV
(1914), 368.
31 Langlois, op. cit., pp. 12-13
GERVAISE
The short (1280 lines) rhymed Bestiaire of Gervaise is thought

to have been written at the beginning of the thirteenth century."
In the prologue the author states:
Gervases ...
livre en roman traite.
.1.
Vuet [r]
Li livres non Bestiaire.
a
A Barbarie est [en] l'armaire
Li latins qui mult est plaisanz;
De illuec fu estraiz roman/.
li
Celui qui les bestes descrist
Et qui lor natures escrit
Fu Johanz Boche d'or nommez,
Crisothomus rest apelez. (32-40)
The Barbarie mentioned in these lines thought to be Barberie is

or Barbery, Cistercian abbey of the diocese of Bayeux founded
a
in 1176, and although three men by the name of Gervasius have

been noted in this region, there nothing that with any certainty
is
connects one of them with this work.33 The bestiary exists in
a
single manuscript, B.M., Add. 28260, 84-100v., from the second
f.
half of the thirteenth century. There are small, crude drawings in

the margins up to that of the Raven, which within the body of
is
the text 93), but afterwards the spaces in the text are empty.
(f.
The attribution of this work to John Chrysostom would in

evitably lead to comparison of its contents with the version known
a
as the Dicta Chrysostomi.31 Lauchert, who unwittingly omitted any

reference to Gervaise in his standard work, belatedly made this
comparison and found decided similarity as well as some dif
a
ferences between Gervaise's composition and the various manu

scripts of the Dicta Chysostomi.3* At present none of the known
Latin manuscripts of this version contains exactly the same order
of contents as the French translation. The principal details in which
the two works diverge are that the Siren woman-fish in Gervaise
is
a
while retains the earlier form of woman-bird in the Latin the

it
father Pelican pierces itself in the French version, whereas the

is
it
52 Paul Meyer (ed.), "Le Bestiaire de Gervaise", Romania, (1872), 420-43.

I
33 Ibid., pp. 421-22.

34
See the section entitled Dicta Chrysostomi in Chapter II of this study.
35
F. Lauchert, "Nachtragliches zum Physiologus", Englische Studien,
XIV (1890), 128.
mother in the Latin; the fire that burns the Phoenix's nest comes
from stones in Gervaise, and from the sun in the Latin ; and finally
the odd description of the Saw Fish (Sarce) in the French. Both
the bestiary of Gervaise and the Dicta Chrysostomi have the same
unusual way of presenting the three characteristics of the Snake in
the same chapter with the Viper.
Lest it be thought that Gervaise changed or enlarged the manu
script which he was translating, let him vindicate himself:
Ici fenist li Bestiaires.

Plus n'en avoit en l'essenplare
Et de mentir seroit folic
Qui plus en set plus vos en die!
Gervaises qui le romain fit
Plus ne trova ne plus n'en dit.
CI FENIST LI LIVRE DES BESTES;
DEX NOS GART NOS BIENS ET NOS TESTES! (1273-1280)
The contents of the Bestiaire of Gervaise are listed below with

the typical chapters of the Dicta Chysostomi for comparison.
1. Lion 1. Leo
2. Pan there 2. Panthera
3. Unicorne 3. Unicornis
4. Idres et Cocadrile 4. Ydrus
5. Sereine. 6. Centaurus 5. Syrene et Onocentaurus
7. Hyene 6. Hyena
8. Singe 7. Onager et Simia
9. Elephant 8. Elephas
10. Antule 9. Autula
11. Serpent (et Vuivre) 10. Serra
12. Corbeau 11. Vipera
13. Vurpil 12. Lacerta
14. Castor 13. Cervus
15. Ericon 14. Capra
16. Formi 15. Vulpis
17. Aille 16. Castor
18. Caradrius 17. Formica
19. Pellicanus 18. Ericeus
20. Perdriz 19. Aquila
21. Chamoi 20. Pellicanus
22. Hupe 21. Nocticorax
23. Phenix 22. Fulica
24. Cerf 23. Perdix
25. Tortre 24. Assida
26. Sarce 25. Upupa
27. Belete 26. Caladrius
28. Aspis 27. Phoenix
29. Ibis
GUILLAUME LE CLERC
The most artistically composed and the longest (3426)36 of the

rhymed French bestiaries was written by another Norman, Guil-
laume, surnamed le Clerc or le Normand." The popularity of this
version is attested by the fact that there are extant some twenty-
three manuscripts copied in England and France, dating from the
thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, and of these the large majority
are carefully illustrated.38 The present state of the manuscripts is the
following (Reinsch's lettering is used):
A - B.M., Egerton f. 31-59. Illus. Mid-XIII cent.

613,
B - B.N., fr. 14969, f. l-72v. Illus. XIII cent.
C - B.N., fr. 2168, f. 188v.-209v. Unillus. Second-half XIII
cent.
D - B.N., fr. 25406, f. 1-30. Spaces unfilled. End XIII or
XIV cent.
E - B.N., fr. 14964, f. 118-18W. Illus. End XIII cent.
F - B.N., fr. 1444, f. 240-257. Illus. End XIII cent.
G - B.N., fr. 14970, f. l-34v. Illus. XIII cent.
H - B.N., fr. 24428, f. 53-78v. Illus. XIII cent.
I - B.N., fr. 25408, f. 70v.-106v. Unillus. XIII cent.
K - B.N., fr. 902, f. 137-159. Unillus. XIV cent.
L - B.N., fr. 20046, f. 1-36. Partially illus. XIV.
36 The Reinsch edition of Guillaume's bestiary (see below) contains a

total of 4174 lines. This length is explained by the fact that Reinsch used
as the basis for his edition B.M., Egerton 613, which, like several of the
manuscripts, goes on after the final bestiary chapter on the Diamond to
include additional compositions by Guillaume. These are the parables of
the talents and of the workers in the vineyard, and some brief reflections
on the three enemies of man (the devil, the world, and the flesh).
37
Robert Reinsch (ed.), Le Bestiaire, Das Thierbuch des normannischen
Dichters Guillaume le Clerc (Leipzig, 1890). An English translation of this
bestiary exists by George C. Druce, entitled The Bestiary of Guillaume le
Clerc. This book was printed for private circulation by Headley Brothers,
Invicta Press, 1936.
38
Paul Meyer's additions in his article "Les Bestiaires", op. cit., p. 375,
n. 5, to the manuscripts listed by Reinsch, op. cit., pp. 13-31, bring the
list to twenty-one; others have been added by George C. Druce, "The
Elephant in Medieval Legend and Art", Archaeological Journal, LXXVI
(1919), 18.
M - B.M., Royal 16 E. viii, f. 2-71v. Illus. XIII cent. Miss

ing since 1879.
N B.M., Cotton Vesp. A. vii, f. 4-33. Illus. XIV cent.
-
O - Barrois 11, formerly belonging to Lord Ashburnham.

Now B.N., Rothchild IV.2.24, f. 140-163. Unillus.
XIV cent.
P Bodl., Douce 132, f. 63-81v. Illus. XIV cent.
-
Q Vatican, Regina 1682, f. 4-26v. Unillus. XIV cent.

-
R - This designation appears to belong to B.N., fr. 25406.

S - Berlin, Hamilton 273. Now Camb., Fitzwilliam Mu
seum, J.20, f. 45-73. Illus. XIV cent.
T - Lyon, Palais des Arts 78, f. 36-58. Illus. XIII cent.
U - Phillipps 4156. XIII cent.
- Camb., Trinity Coll., 0.2.14(2), f. 32v.-61v. Illus. XIII
cent.
- Camb., Fitzwilliam, McLean 123, f. 20-66. Illus. ca.
1300.
- Bodl. 912, f. 1-12. Illus. Early XIV cent.
- Paris, Arsenal 2691, f. 62-95 v. Spaces unfilled. XV
cent.
The illustrations in Bodl. 912 seem in many instances to

be poor copies of B.M., Egerton 613, as do some of Fitz
william, McLean 123.
The Bestiaire, or Bestiaire divin as the title appears on some

manuscripts, was addressed to a certain Raoul, who remains un
known, around 1210 or 1211. The basis for this date is found in
the prologue where the author says:
Voelt Guillame en romanz escrire

De bon latin, ou il le troeve.
Ceste ovraigne fu fete noeve
El tens que Phelipe tint France,
El tens de la grant mesestance,
Qu'Engleterre fu entredite, (8-13)
Later (11. 2707 ff.) he adds that the work was written two years
after England was put under interdict (this had been ordered by
Pope Innocent III on March 23, 1208).
That the reader should profit from the moral lesson expounded
in his bestiary is Guillaume's stated aim;3' I wonder, however, if
it was not rather the accounts of the animals and the occasional
rather elegant illustrations on the manuscripts which proved more
attractive to the number of people who wished copies than the
"essample prendre / De ben faire e de ben aprendre". Guillaume's
allegories usually repeat with some embellishments the traditional
material found in the Latin of the B version, but on occasion he
will include a personal plea on the necessity of faith and good
works, and at one point, in the allegory of the Asp, there appears
an extended passage on the evils of wealth in the form of an
exemplum telling of a rich man who casts his gold into the sea.
Guillaume's preocupation with the moral import of his work found
an echo in two of the illustrators of his bestiary who, in the only
examples now known, consistently illustrated the allegory as well
as the animal or bird in question.40 However, without a knowledge
of the text, the allegorical scenes depicted would be quite difficult
to understand. The individual flavor which Guillaume imparted to
his bestiary, in contrast with Philippe de Thaon's impersonal com
position, is evident also in his introducing occasional literary and
contemporary allusions — rare as they are — as, for exemple, to
Arthur, Charlemagne, and Ogier 565), to Renart's stealing the
(1.
hens of Costans de Noes 1308), and the above-mentioned remarks

(1.
on England's being under interdict while the poet was rhyming his
work.41 In all, Guillaume's octosyllabic poem reads smoothly and
has certain picturesque quality about it.
a
today that the Latin source used by

incontestable
It
seems
Guillaume was none other than manuscript of the widely spread
a
version which called in this study B-Is.42 was the German

It
is
scholar Max Friedrich Mann who first showed the dependency of

Guillaume's Bestiaire on Latin version whose nature and word
a
ing have been preserved in the unillustrated thirteenth century manu

script which has already been referred to many times, B.M., Royal
C. xii.43 In 1914 Paul Meyer readily accepted the relationship
2
39 I1. 25-36.
40 These two manuscripts are B.N., fr. 24428 and 14969.
41In of the workers in the vineyard Guillaume also mentions
the parable
Maurice de Sully, bishop of Paris, who died in 1196.
42
See Chapter II.
43 Max Friedrich Mann, "Der Bestiaire Divin des Guillaume le Clerc",
Franzosische Studien, VI, Heft (Heilbronn, 1888), pp. 35 ff.
2
demonstrated by Mann,44 but others previous to him were uncon

vinced, although their reasons scarcely seem valid today. Reinsch,
the editor of Guillaume's bestiary, asserted that Book of Pseudo- II
Hugo of Saint Victor had as much in common with the bestiary
of Guillaume as the manuscript studied by Mann,45 but an impartial
examination of the manuscripts disproves this statement, for not
only is the order — with two exceptions — identical, but many
significant details are similar in the French version and in the Latin
of Royal 2 C. xii. Another discordant voice was that raised by
Max Goldstaub and Richard Wendriner, who stated their belief
that Guillaume le Clerc had not used a uniform text as a source
throughout.46 Now that the extensiveness of the B-Is version in rec
ognized, there seems no reason to think that Guillaume's is a
composite work. Except for the omission in the French bestiary
of the articles on the prophet Amos and on the Pearl, Guillaume's
chapters follow the normal order of the Latin B-Is and include in
almost all instances the Isidorean additions which had become an
integral part of the old B version.
Differing from Philippe de Thaon, Guillaume does not name
Isidore as the one from whom he drew much information, although
he occasionally refers to It livres and to le bestiaire as sources. But
just as in Philippe's bestiary, which quite naturally it often resembles
in content,47 there are variations in omissions and inventions in the
text that might be due to Guillaume or to his model ; it is difficult
at this point of textual studies to say definitely to which. Some of
the differences between Guillaume le Clerc's Bestiaire and Royal
2 C. xii are: in the account of the Pelican the father bird pierces
its side (the Latin says mater); only the B version of the Phoenix
story, where India is named as the dwelling place of the bird, is
given, and the Phoenix's funeral pyre is lighted by sparks from
its beak striking against stone; the Siren is like a fish or a bird,
while the Onocentaur is omitted entirely; the Hedgehog collects
both grapes and apples on its quills; there is no conclusion to the
44
Paul Meyer, "Les Bestiaires", op. cit., p. 376.
*5 Reinsch, op. cit., p. 68, n. 2.
" Max Goldstaub and Richard Wendriner, Ein Toscq-V enezianischer
Bestiarius (Halle, 1892), p. 93.
47Mann rightly attributes their resemblance to the similarity of their
source, op. cit., p. 90.
tale of the Ape, which carries the preferred offspring in its arms
(this unfinished state also exists in Philippe de Thaon's bestiary);
and the Turtle-Dove will sit on nothing green. Minor as these points
may seem, there would be satisfaction in being able to account
for them.
Below are listed the contents of the Bestiaire of Guillaume le
Clerc (based on B.M., Egerton 613) and those of the Latin manu
script, B.M., Royal 2 C. xii.
1. Lion 1. De tribus naturis leonis

2. Aptalops 2. De autalops
3. Dous peres 3. De lapide igniferi (terebolem)
4. Serre 4. De serra in mari
5. Caladrius 5. De chelindro, caladrius
6. Pellican 6. De pelicano
7. Nicticorace, freseie 7. De nicticorace
8. Aigle 8. De aquila
9. Fenis 9. De fenice
10. Hupe 10. De huppupa
11. Formi 11. De tribus naturis formice
12. Sereine 12. De sirena et onocentauro
13. Helton 13. De herinaceo
14. Ybex 14. De ibice
15. Gupil 15. De vulpe
16. Unicome 16. De monocero
17. Bevre 17. De castore
18. Hyaine 18. De hiena
19. Idrus, Cocadrille 19. De hidris
20. Buc, chevre 20. De dorcon
21. Asne salvage 21. De honagro
22. Singe 22. De simia
23. (Fulica) - unnamed 23. De fulica
24. Pantere, Dragon 24. De panthera
25. Cetus 25. De duabus naturis aspidis cclo
26. Perdriz nis
27. Belette, Aspis 26. De perdice
28. Ostrice 27. De mustela, de aspide
29. Turtre 28. De assida et strucione
30. Cerf 29. De turture
31. Salamandre 30. De cervo
32. Colom, Paradixion 31. De salamandra
33. Olifant 32. De columbarum naturis
34. Mandragoire 33. De arbore peredixion
35. Aimant 34. De elephanto
35. De amos propheta
36. De adamante
37. De mirmicolion
PIERRE DE BEAUVAIS
The most interesting and puzzling French bestiary is that com
posed before 1218 by a certain Pierre. Since the oldest manuscript
of his prose bestiary is in the Picard dialect, Cahier called him
Pierre le Picard, while Gaston Paris limited the name to Pierre de
Beauvais.48 Almost every aspect of this work by Pierre presents
tantalizing problems, the majority of which have by no means been
solved here although some new information is presented.
First among the unusual features of this bestiary is that it exists
in two forms : a short version of about thirty-eight chapters whose
order and content, as Paul Meyer has indicated,49 resemble that
of the oft-mentioned B.M., Royal 2 C. xii, but with a few additions
which escaped the French scholar's attention ; and a long version
of some seventy-one chapters containing all the material of the short
version supplemented by an almost equal number of descriptions
drawn from other sources.
The following manuscripts are known to exist.50
Long version:
P - Paris, Bibl. de 1' Arsenal, fr. 3516, f. 198v.-212v. XIII
cent. Illus.
Mon - Montpellier, Bibl. de la Faculte de Medecine, H.
437, f. 195-250 (end missing). XIV cent. Illus.
V - Vatican, Reg. 1323, f. 2-36. Dated 1475."
Ph - Phillipps 6739, f. 1-50. Late XIII cent. Illus."
" Cahier, Melanges d'arcUologie, Vol. II, 106-232; Vol. Ill, 203-88;
Vol. IV, 55-87. The precise form of the name is given by Gaston Paris in
Romania, XXI, p. 263.
49 Meyer, "Les Bestiaires", op. cit., pp. 381-90.
50
The letters P, R, S were assigned by Cahier; the others by the present
writer.
51This manuscript has previously received only a brief notice by Langlois
in Notices et Extraits des Nianuscrits de la Bibliotheque Nationale, XXXIII,
2 (1889), p. 111. It is written in a fifteenth century hand that is at times
difficult to read. At the end of the text on f. 36 the following explicit is
found: "Explicit le grant bestiaire commence' par moy Jehann Pamir a Pons
Sainte Maxence et parchevg au chasteau de Bouillencourt le lundi XVIII''
jour de septembre mil iiii c Ixxv." The first place referred to is in all probabi
lity Pont Sainte-Maxence (Oise) in the north of Ile-de-France, while the castle
could be located either at Bouillancourt (Somme, arr. de Montdidier) or
at Bouillancourt-en-Sery (Somme, arr. d'Abbeville).
52 This number was incorrectly printed in Meyer's article on French
bestiaries as 6730. The description in the Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum
Short version:
R- Paris, B.N., fr. 834, f. 39-48v. XIV cent.
S - Paris, B.N., fr. 944, f. 14-34v. XV cent.
L - Paris, B.N., nouv. acq. 13251 (former La Clayette
MS.), f. 22-31. XIII cent. Illus.
Ma - Malines, Bibl. du Seminaire 32, f. 1-23. XV cent."
In order to present clearly the contents of each version, the

titles in a representative manuscript of each type will be listed.
Short version Long version
R - B.N. 834" V - Vatican, Reg.
1. Du lyon 1. Du lyon premier

2. Del antula 2. De l'autula
3. De ii pierrez ardanz 3. De la sarre
4. De la serre 4. Du turobolem
5. Del caladre 5. Du caladres
6. Du pelican 6. De la guivre
7. Du niticorax 7. Du pelican
8. De l'aigle 8. Du tigre
9. Del fenis 9. De la grue
10. (De la hupe)55 10. Du voultre
11. Du formi 11. De l'aronde
in bibliotheca d. Thomae Phillipps, bart. (1837) reads: 6739 Le Livre apele

Bestiaire, translatei de latin en Roumans par Pierre ki le fist par le comman-
dement de l'Evesque Philipon. I examined this manuscript in London and
found it to be a complete manuscript of the long version ending with the
bird called Rafanay.
53 The existence of this manuscript was brought to my attention through
the kindness of M. Omer Jodogne of Louvain, who is preparing an edition
of Pierre de Beauvais' Bestiaire. Its contents appear to be the same as R
and L, to judge by the short description in the Catalogue general des manu-
scrits des bibliotheques de Belgique. Vol. IV, Catalogue des manuscrits du
grand seminaire de Malines (1937). It ends on f. 23 thus: "...ataindre a
ce quil convoitent et ce pierdent quil guerpissent. Chi fine li bestiaire."
54 The names of
the animals in the rubrics are preceded in many instances
by the phrase Selonc les proprietez du (lyon) or Ci parle des proprietez de...
It should be noted that the text of the short version differs at times from
the long text and variants published by Cahier. For example, in the chapter
on the Aspis in S Cahier fails to mention that the author, following the
Latin of the B-Is version, names various kinds of Asps — stala, prialis,
emorois, among others.
55 There is no rubric for the Hoopoe, which is a continuation of the
text on the Phoenix.
12. De la seraine 12. Du voltours

13. Du hericon 13. De l'asepic (text: aspis)
14. Del ybex 14. Du crinon ou gresillon
15. Du gourpil 15. Du corbiau
16. Del unicorne 16. De l'arpie
17. Del castre 17. Du rosignol
18. Del hyene 18. Du paon
19. Del ydre 19. De l'espec
20. De la chievre 20. De l'alerion
21. De l'asne sauvage 21. De l'aisgle
22. Du singe 22. Du niticoraux57
23. Del felica (text: fulica) 23. De la seraine
24. De la penthere (text: panthere) 24. De la huppe
25. De la coine 25. De la vasche58
26. De la pertris 26. Du fenis
27. De la mostoile 27. Du papegay
28. De l'asida 28. Des fourmis
29. De la tortre 29. De l'ostruche
30. Du cerf 30. Du herison
31. De la salemandre 31. Du ybeux
32. De la tanrine coulor" 32. Du goupil
33. Du coulon 33. De l'aringne
34. Del olifant 34. Des annes de la mer59
35. De la chievre sauvage (Amos) 35. Du baselicoc
36. Del aimant 36. Du teris
37. Du leu 37. De unicornes
38. Du chien 38. Du grifon
39. Du castoire
40. De la hienne
41. De ulica
42. Du cocadrille et de hydre
43. Du dorcon
44. Du centicore
45. De l'asne sauvage
46. Du singe
47. Du signe
48. Du huhan60
56L calls this Laurine color. Its origin is the chapter on Columbae
(B-Is 32): "Physiologus dicit multis ac diversis coloribus esse columbas, id
est color... aurosus..." R. begins: "Tanrine color sen^fie les III Enfans..."
In Pierre this notice treats the various colors of the Dove while the following
one is on the Peridexion Tree and the Dragon.
57 In P, although
the text is on the Owl, the title is Cauve sorvis [sic].
This same confusion occurs also in Queen Mary's Psalter (B.M., Royal
2 B. vii) where on f. 91v. and 93 there is an illustration of the Bat while
the correct order would call for the Owl.
58 P's title is Argus le vachier.
59
P's title: I'arbre dont li oisel naisent fors et chient jus quant il sont
meur.
80 P - huerans.
49. Du pantere
50. De la pertris
51. De la covie
52. Du asida
53. De la torte
54. De la mesenge
55. Du serf
56. De la salamandre
57. De la taupe
58. Du coulon
59. De l'arbre des coulons'1
60. De l'olifant
61. Des chievres (Amon li prophe-
tes)
62. De l'aimant
63. Du lou
64. D'ung poisson qui est appeles
esynus
65. Des chiens
66. De l'omme sauvage*2
67. De la merle
68. De l'escoufle
69. Du muscaliet
70. Des quatre clemens"
71. De l'orphanay
The variations contained within the prologue are important be

cause of the alleged source cited in some of the manuscripts and
because of the name of the person at whose request this bestiary
was written, since it is on this information that the date of com
position rests. The following is Paul Meyer's transcription of P :
Chi comenche li livres des natures des bestes.
Chi commence li livres c'on apele Bestiaire. Et por ce est il

apeles ensi, qu'il parole des natures des bestes, car totes les
creatures que Dex cria en terre, cria il por home, et por prendre
essanple et de foi en eles et de creance. En cest livre translater
de latin en romans mist grant travail et grant cure Pieres, qui
M P's title: Del dragon- del arbre de Judee. el del colon.

" P's title: del Sagetaire et del salvage home; Mon's title: Des gens
as comes ou front.
" P has two chapters here instead of one:
De coi li home est fais et
de sa nature and del voltoir. et de un ver con apele lieus.
volentiers le fist par le commandement l'evesque Philipon Cuers*4

en cui service ne perist mie, car il est espeisse debonaires, lai-
tuaires de franchise et confors de guerredon. Et por ce que rime
se feit afaitier de mos concueillis hors de verite, volt li evesques
que cist livres fust fait sans rime tot selonc le latin que Phisio-
loges, uns des bons clers d'Athenes traita.65 Et en tous sens les
natures des bestes et des oiseaus a l'entendement des spiriteus
cose.
The Philippe to whom reference is made in five of the manu

scripts has been identified as Philippe de Dreux, the turbulent bishop
of Beauvais who died in 1217.66 The dedication to Count Robert
that exists in the Malines manuscript is doubtless addressed to the
same person for whom Pierre wrote his Mappemonde, Robert II,
Count of Dreux and brother of Philippe." From this grouping of
names and dates it appears certain that Pierre's bestiaire in both its
long and short form existed before 1218, the year in which Robert II
died.
64 The dedications in
the various manuscripts are as follows: Philipon
Cuers - P, V, Mon; Philippe - S, Ph; Conte Robiert - Ma; No name - R,
L. According to P. Meyer, "Les Bestiaires", p. 384, n. 3, the name "Cuers"
exists nowhere else pertaining to this bishop. Cahier, II, p. 106, n. 4, suggests
that it was given to Philippe de Dreux because of his martial character.*
65 R and L add here "...traita, et Jehans choisi en les
Crisostomus en
(L - eles) natures des bestes et des oisiaus..."
•6
Turbulent seems a fitting epithet for this bishop who was twice a
crusader, a prisoner in Rouen of Richard of England, a participant in the
fighting against the Albigensians, and a lively figure at the battle of Bouvines.
This information is taken from Andr6 du Chesne, Histoire genealogique de
la maison royale de Dreux (Paris, 1631), pp. 33-45.
67 Some yearsbefore he wrote the well documented article on bestiaries
for the Histoire litteraire
de la France where he expressed the above con
clusions concerning identities, Paul Meyer in Notices et Extraits des Manu-
scrits de la Bibliotheque Nationale et autres bibliotheques, XXXIII, 1 (1890),
pp. 10-11, had suggested that the recipient of the Mappemonde was Robert
d'Artois, brother of Saint Louis, killed at Mansourah in 1250. However
he did concede that this Count Robert could be one of the counts of Dreux,
who bore this name in the first half of the thirteenth century. The evidence
which perhaps led Meyer to settle more firmly on Robert II de Dreux is
that another work of Pierre de Beauvais, La Translation et miracles de saint
Jacques, dated 1212 and written in Beauvais, bears this inscription (L, f. 42):
"Et Pierres par le commandement la contesse Yollent mist en romanz cest
Iivre." This Yolland is probably the daughter of Raoul I de Coucy whom
Robert II de Dreux married in 1184. Du Chesne, op. cit., p. 45.
Several questions now arise. Why are there two versions? Which
did Pierre write first? Where did he find the quantity of additional
material? If the names of the patrons of Pierre were attached only
to one version or the other, it could be supposed that le grant bes-
tiaire had been written for Philippe de Dreux and the short form
for his brother. Because of the spirited character of the Bishop of
Beauvais it might be supposed that a more "exotic" type of bestiary
would find favor with him, and that it is for this reason that Pierre
"stuffed" a traditional bestiary with strange bits on birds and beasts.
Unfortunately, there is no evidence whatsoever to support this hypo
thesis.
The editor of the only text in existence, Cahier, presumed that
the long version was the original work, and that the short version
had been consciously reduced in size.68 Later, Lauchert decided in
favor of the primacy of the shorter form.89 This is the opinion
expressed also by Paul Meyer70 and repeated by Faral.71 Since the
relationship between R, L, and Ma and certain Latin manuscripts
is on the whole too close to be the result of the amputation of
extraneous material, this writer concurs with the above in thinking
that Pierre's original composition was the short bestiary. His Latin
source was a manuscript belonging to the B-Is version with the not
wholly unusual addition of chapters on the Wolf and Dog.72
There remains the complex problem of sources for Pierre de
Beauvais' long bestiary. It must be admitted immediately that no
solution — not even a partial one — has been found as to the origin
of the added descriptions, and that the suggestions offered here
are of a very tentative nature.
Since Pierre introduces most chapters with the phrase "Phisio-
loges nos dist", the name Physiologus as an indication of a source
68 Cahier, op. cit., II, p. 97.

«9 Lauchert, op. cit., pp. 137-38.
70
Meyer, op. cit., p. 386.
71 Edmond Faral, "La queue de poisson des sirenes", Romania, LXXIV
(1953), 489.
72
It is pertinent to recall that Bodl., Douce 167 ends with a notice on
the Wolf, and that B.M., Stowe 1067, although the chapters on the Wolf
and the Dog are together in the middle of the manuscript, contains a text
quite like Pierre's translation. Of greater significance than these two similar
ities, however, is the existence of an unillustrated fifteenth century Latin
manuscript, Tours 312, f. 303-326v., which has exactly the same order of
contents as the French B.N. 834, even to the rather uncommon final chapters
(uncommon in that the Pearl [Margarita] is omitted): Amos, Adamas, Lupus,
Canis.
has no value. Paul Meyer states that might

the extra chapters
already have been interpolated in the Latin Physiologus from which
Pierre drew," a view accepted by Faral." It is true that an enlarged
bestiary of the Second Family (as represented by the complete Book
III of Pseudo-Hugo) could account for some of the supplementary
material in the long bestiary, in a very abbreviated form, but certain
ly not for all.
At present no single work has been found which could have
served as a source for all the additions." There are, however, one
or two Latin works written prior to Pierre's bestiary that do contain
items similar to the French, though whether Pierre extracted directly
from these books or used them through an intermediary cannot be
ascertained. Similarities have been noticed between the accounts of
the Harpia (XLI) and of the Musca et Aranea (XVIII) in Odo of
Cheriton and those on the Harpy and on the Spider and Fly
contained in Pierre de Beauvais. Alexander Neckam's De naturis
rerum might have been used in composing the chapters on Argus
(Neckam i.39), the Barnacle Goose (i.48), the serpent Tiris (ii.108),
the Basilisk (i.75) and possibly for part of the section on the
Elements and Senses (ii.152). Still there remain numerous chapters
unaccounted for.
Relatively unexplored and totally unexplained thus far is the
relationship between certain descriptions in Pierre de Beauvais' long
bestiary and corresponding notices in the well known Image du
monde of Gauthier, or Gossouin, de Metz, written in 1246." The
strange name of the animal resembling a flying squirrel in the
bestiary, muscaliet, appears again in the Image du monde; there
is a serpent called tygris in each compilation ; the Echineis, Parrot,
Barnacle Goose, and Phoenix, among other accounts, are described
in strikingly similar terms in both works, though it is possible that
each author was using related sources. The mingling of the charac
teristics of the Leucrota and the Yale in a beast called the centicore
73 "Les Bestiaires", p. 386.

Meyer,
71Faral, op. cit., p. 489.
75
Celebrated Latin compilations such as those by Jacques de Vitry,
Thomas of Cantimpre\ Vincent of Beauvais, and Bartholomeus Anglicus
offer no help in providing clues as to where Pierre might have found his
supplementary chapters.
7'Oliver H. Prior (ed.), L'image du monde de mditre Gossouin (Lau
sanne, 1913). Of possible import is the fact that both the Arsenal and
Montpellier manuscripts of Pierre's bestiary also contain the Image du
monde.
in both French compositions has been commented upon by Druce

who concludes: "...both the writer of the French bestiary and
Gautier de Metz obtained their information from some older bes
tiary, which had described these two animals the one after the
other, but it is difficult to say at what time the confusion took
place."" Surely the clarification of this problem would throw light
on the still unsolved puzzles of Pierre's works.
With the composing of Pierre's short bestiary the ancient Physio-
logus tradition ends in France. The bestiary which in a large measure
is derived from Pierre's long version, the Bestiaire d Amour of
Richard de Fournival, is, as already noted, totally secular in nature
although many of the animal descriptions continue the early traits.
From this survey of the Latin versions and of the various French
translations of the Physiologus, let us now turn our attention to
the appearance of the manuscripts themselves, and more particularly
to the illustrations which almost inevitably occur in the French
manuscripts and which are very common in the Latin.
77 Georges C. Druce, "Notes on the History of the Heraldic Jail or

Yale", Archaeological Journal, LXVIII (1911), 185. See also the section on
the Yale in Chapter V of the present study.
CHAPTER IV
ILLUSTRATED BESTIARIES
Many Latin bestiary manuscripts were illustrated, though it is

difficult to say whether or not they were in the majority,1 and it
is quite rare to find a French manuscript without illustrations.
England seems particularly to have favored Latin manuscripts with
pictures, and illustrated Latin examples were by no means unusual
in France. Indeed, the illustrations might be one of the factors
contributing to the popularity of this type of work, for, as the
authority on bestiaries in England, M. R. James, said, the bestiary
ranked with the Psalter and the Apocalypse as one of the leading
picture books of twelfth and thirteenth century England.2 From the
carefully and ornately executed miniatures of the more sumptuous
Latin manuscripts to those carelessly drawn and sometimes un
finished in the vernacular versions, the idea of illustrating the
obvious traits of the animals and birds occurred to many artists.
The subject in most cases lent itself well to visual portrayal, like
the capture of the Unicorn or the Phoenix on its funeral pyre; on
the other hand much ingenuity was demanded in the depiction of
certain scenes which were more difficult to translate into immediately
comprehensible pictures, such as that of the Onager braying at the
equinox (PL VII, Fig. 2) or the Fire Stones which are male and
female by nature. These are often portrayed in the form of a man
and a woman holding stones and surrounded by flames. It is evident
1 None of the manuscripts of the version ascribed to Theobaldus that

have been seen has contained illustrations, nor, strange to say, has any of
the simple B version, but it is hard to believe that in some library in Europe
there is not at present an illustrated B manuscript which somehow has been
overlooked.
2 James, op. cit., p. 1.
ILLUSTRATED BESTIARIES 71
that the treatment of the fabulous or rare animals offered the artist
the greatest liberty for his imagination, that of the domestic animals
the least, while the depiction of the birds was often perfunctory
and undistinguished. In all instances, however, the pictures are
valuable not only as examples of the developement of mediaeval
illustration in succeeding periods, but their aid in revealing common
or curious interpretations of the text is immense. This self-evident
observation makes it all the more surprising that relatively little
study has been devoted to the illustrations.3
It is assumed that the earliest Latin translations of the Physio-
logus, which, as noted before, were probably first made around the
fourth century, took over the pictures of the Greek manuscripts as
well as the text. Unfortunately, what is probably the oldest Greek
manuscript of the Physiologus is of a much later date and contains
no miniatures (Morgan 397, late tenth century),* and the only early
Greek manuscript that has been described in any detail is the
Smyrna Codex of about 1100.5 Its miniatures portray not only the
characteristics of the animals but also the religious allegories exposed
in the text. Because this manuscript contained miniatures illustrating
the Christian Typography of the sixth century author Cosmas Indi-
copleustes, which Stryzgowski thought was both written and illus
trated at Mount Sinai, this art-historian suggested an archetype of
Syro-Egyptian creation dating possibly from the sixth century for
this Greek Physiologus.* It appears though that the Cosmas min
iatures are not of Sinaitic origin, but rather of Alexandrian,7 and
3 The only
scholars who have treated the illustrations at any length, and
more often than not their investigations have been focused on individual
manuscripts, are Strzygowski, M. R. James, G. Druce, H. Woodruff, D. Tse-
los, S. Ives and H. Lehmann-Haupt, and H. Menhardt, all of whose works
are referred to in the course of this study.
4
This manuscript was pointed out by B. E. Perry in his review of
Sbordone's edition of the Greek Physiologus which appeared in the American
Journal of Philology, LVIII (1937), 495.
5
Josef Strzygowski, "Der Bilderkreis des griechischen Physiologus", By-
zantinisches Archiv, Heft 2 (1899), pp. 1-130. This manuscript, B.8, was
destroyed in 1922 when the Library of the Evangelical School was burned
by the Turks. It is regrettable that Strzygowski did not publish more plates
of illustrations rather than present the majority of them by written de
scription only.''
6 Ibid., p. 99.
7 For a recent affirmation that Cosmas wrote in Egypt, see Milton
V. Anastos, "The Alexandrian Origin of the Christian Topography of Cos
mas Indicopleustes", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, No. 3 (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1946), pp. 73-80.
thus another element seems to point to Alexandria as the probable

place of origin of the Physiologus.
Of the approximate forty-eight miniatures in the Smyrna manu
script which portray animals, most af the subjects illustrated, except
for the marked difference in style, are very similar to those found
in the Latin manuscripts. It should be remembered, however, in
this connection that the very nature of the material gives the artist
little occasion for marked deviation. Allegorical personifications, not
to be found in the Latin illustrations, appear in the scene of the
Eagle where a nimbed figure represents the nymph of the fountain,
and in that of the Owl where this bird sits on the hand of a woman
symbolizing Night. Among the more interesting illustrations, when
compared with their Latin counterparts, are those of the Siren, a
woman whose lower extremities are those of a full-feathered cock;
the Unicorn, a large, cloven-hoofed animal whose long horn has
a reverse curve, and which stands with raised foreleg before a
seated woman; and the Phoenix, which is pictured both walking
on the ground and in flames atop a column while it gazes at the
sun. Beside the pillar stands a nimbed priest. Scenes that have not
been found in any Latin manuscripts (because, except in rare cases,
the material in the Greek text was not continued in Latin) are those
of the Ant-Lion with the forepart of a lion and the hind part of
an ant, the Ichneumon against an erect snake, the Frog
springing
in a pond, the Vulture sitting on a stone, and for the chapter on
Amos and the fig tree a man in a tree collecting figs. Illustrated
manuscripts of the Greek Physiologus apparently were less popular
than the Latin versions, and it is therefore to the latter that one must
turn for an abundance of illustrations.
The oldest Latin illustrated manuscript is the one already re
ferred to as C, Bern 318, of the ninth century. It will be recalled
that its chapters, though not so numerous, follow the order and
content of the early Greek and Ethiopic versions. The miniatures
depict only the characteristics of the animals except for the first
one, which portrays Jacob blessing the lion of Judah.8 Stylistically
the illustrations belong to the school of Rheims, the most distin
guished of Carolingian artistic centers. In her study of the Bern
Physiologus Miss Woodruff emphasized what she considered as
8
Photographs of all the miniatures are reproduced in Miss Woodruff's
article, "The Physiologus of Bern", Art Bulletin. XII (1930), 226-53, but
in some the paint has peeled off, a condition which occasionally makes an
adequate interpretation of the subject, based on these photographs, difficult.
traces of the illusionism which existed in early Alexandrian paint

ing. Finding certain stylistic similarities between this Physiologus
manuscript and the fourth century Vatican Virgil and the Am-
brosian Iliad, among other manuscripts, and since the latter has
been connected with Alexandrian illumination,9 Miss Woodruff
implied that the model for the Bern manuscript had its origin in
Alexandria in the fourth century. Recently, however, the linking of
the Bern Physiologus with the early manuscripts has been question
ed, and a closer resemblance has been noted and studied.10 Professor
Tselos has indicated striking similarities in both human and animal
figures between the Bern Physiologus and the well known Utrecht
Psalter.11 Because of its obvious relationship to the Utrecht Psalter
and because the Bern Physiologus repeats a section from Isidore
of Seville's Etymologiae,12 which must have been incorporated in
the model for the Bern manuscript after the early seventh century,
Professor Tselos cannot assign to the archetype of this manuscript
as early a date as did Miss Woodruff. Instead, he believes "that
the model of the Physiologus was made in the same Greco-Italian
center which made the model or the Utrecht and Troyes Psalter
sometime in the seventh or eighth century."13
Notable illustrations in the Bern Physiologus are the portrayal
of the two Vipers as having the upper part of a man and of a
woman, each with a serpent's tail (PL IX, Fig. 3), the Siren whose
lower extremities are those of a serpent — an interpretation which
is contrary to the text — Jacob blessing the Lion of Judah, and the
unique miniatures of the use of the Agate in finding Pearls and
of the Indian Stone curing dropsy.
Next in age to the Bern manuscript is Brussels, Bibliotheque
Royale 10074, of the tenth century. This manuscript, which also
9 Ibid., p. 238.
10
Although Miss Woodruff briefly indicated certain similarities between
the Bern Physiologus and the Utrecht Psalter, the subject is fully treated
by Dimitri Tselos in "A Greco-Italian School of Illuminators and Fresco
Painters: Its Relation to the Principal Reims Manuscripts and to the Greek
Frescoes in Rome and Castelseprio" ', Art Bulletin XXXVIII (1956), 1-30.
11
Especially convincing is the depiction of the Unicorn, which in the
Bern manuscript, following the text, is portrayed as a goat with its horn
curving back (Pl. IX, Fig. 2 a), the whole forming a unique conception.
The Utrecht Unicorn is identical.
12 This
section is on the Horse (Caballus) and exists only in the Bern
Physiologus among early manuscripts.
13 Tselos, op. cit.,
p. 10.
includes illustrations in the same style of the Psychomachia of Pru-

dentius, contains no Alexandrian illusionism, but is a Carolingian
reworking of an antique archetype.14 In the drawings there is a
marked tendency, of which this is the only known example among
Latin manuscripts, to introduce pictorial references to the allegory.
For example, in the second illustration of the Caladrius the figure
of Christ appears, the tempting of Eve as Adam stands by is under
the drawing of a figure holding two rings representing the Fire
Stones, and the Crucifixion is depicted below the Pelican shedding
its blood. Legends, at times rather lengthy, usually explain the
scene portrayed. Some of the uncommon details seen in these il
lustrations are the capturing of the Caladrius with a net, the priest's
discovering the Phoenix upon the altar, and the Owl perched on
King David's palace. Unfortunately, fewer than half of the care
fully executed drawings were completed in this manuscript.
Although there are doubtless illustrated manuscripts of the Phy-
siologus dating from the eleventh century, none has so far been
signaled. In general, the early twelfth century manuscripts contain
pen drawings that still retained certain Carolingean features. Usually
added after the text had been copied, the problem of adapting the
drawing to the spaces which were left was one which a poor artist
cannot be said to have solved successfully. Towards the end of the
century, when the Physiologus was doubled in size by the numerous
additions from Isidore, the illustrations themselves became far more
elaborate. De luxe editions appeared, almost exclusively in England,
with carefully painted miniatures correctly placed on the page,
framed, and highlighted with gold — interesting compositions but
often lacking the animation of the earlier drawings.15 It is not un
usual for the number of miniatures to be increased from around
forty to over a hundred; Bodl. 764, for example, contains some
one hundred and thirty-five illustrations. Characteristic of the best
of these manuscripts is the arbitrary coloring, the love of symme
trical patterns, and the fact that artistic considerations take pre
14
See Helen Woodruff, "Illustrated Manuscripts of Prudentius", Art
Studies, VII (1929), 48. The remark in the text applies specifically to the
Psychomachia illustrations, but might be presumed to describe also the
evolution of the Physiologus drawings. For illustrations of this manuscript
see Chapter II, n. 13.
15 Among the finest Latin illustrated bestiaries are the following: Lenin
grad Qu.V.I, Aberdeen 24, Ashmole 1511, Harley 4751, Bodl. 764, Royal
12 F. xiii and the Dyson Perrins Bestiary. Very modest examples are Valen
ciennes 101 and B.N., lat. 14429.
cedence over natural observations. Although it is probable that

there were numerous model books in existence, such as the Hofer
Bestiary,1' it is unusual, though not unheard of, to find the illus
trations of one manuscript copied in another.17
When we turn to bestiaries in French, we realize how exceptional
it is to find an unillustrated manuscript, although there are cases,
as in the Latin manuscripts, where the spaces left for the miniatures
have remained empty. It is at once apparent also that in the majority
of instances the illustrations in the vernacular versions are inferior
in both conception and execution to those in Latin.18 This is doubt
less in large part due to the audience for whom the work was
destined — a less wealthy, and evidently rather often a less discrim
inating group, than the one to whom the finer Latin versions
were addressed. One such example, though admittedly an extreme
case, is seen in the portrayal of the Aspidochelone (Pl. II. Figs. 1 a
and b) where the first minutely detailed picture is a full-page paint
ing in a Latin manuscript, and the second is a small, crudely
executed drawing in a manuscript of Philippe de Thaon. The latter
manuscript (Oxford, Merton Coll. 249) repeatedly uses the same
beast to represent animals as different, to our knowledge at least.
16 Ives and Lehmann-Haupt, op. cit. See p. 31, note 33.

17 The following illustrated manuscripts whose relationships have not
heretofore been noted appear either to be copies one of the other or to
have been created by the same artist or in the same atelier. Since these
resemblances have been seen only on microfilms, the conclusions must be
tentative and should not be totally accepted until the manuscripts themselves
are consulted. The outlines of many of the drawings in B.M., Add. 11283,
early twelfth century, are pricked, and several, though not all, of the illustra
tions appear to have their counterpart in Brussels, Bibl. Roy. 8340 of the
fourteenth century. Numerous careless drawings found in the unique Fourth
Family manuscript, Camb., Univ. Lib. Gg.6.5 of the fifteenth century, look
like poor copies of the rather heavy pictures in Copenhagen, Gl. Kgl. 1633 4°.
Finally, although the script belongs to different periods, the framed pictures
with their lengthy legends found in B.N., lat. 3630, fourteenth century,
appear related to the imaginative illustrations in B.M., Harl. 3244, early
thirteenth; details and scenes sometimes make one think that the difference
was intentional — the miniaturist was trying not to repeat himself — but
the style looks remarkably similar in certain instances.
18 This statement does not apply to some of the manuscripts of Guil-
laume le Clerc's bestiary which occasionally are of excellent quality though
still on a reduced scale in comparison with some of the more magnificent
Latin manuscripts. Among the best French examples can be listed B. N.,
fr. 14969, 14964, 24428, and the small, delicate miniatures within the capital
letters in Camb., Fitzwilliam Museum J.20.
as the Crocodile and the Elephant. The artist of the Queen Mary's
Psalter, though skilled in producing spirited drawings, is also guilty
of this repetition.
There are few changes other than the minor ones that would
result from the general simplification characteristic of the French
miniatures in comparison with the Latin. It seems inevitable that
the drawings in some of the French manuscripts originally had as
models the corresponding Latin drawings;19 this hypothesis seems
particularly applicable to the Copenhagen manuscript of Philippe
de Thaon. As yet it has not been ascertained whether Latin models
were used for the miniatures of some of the additional bestiary
chapters found in Pierre de Beauvais' long Bestiaire. Unusual for
both Latin and French versions are the two manuscripts of Guil-
laume le Clerc (B.N., MSS. fr. 14969 and 24428) which in addition
to the customary animal scenes depict the moralization. A know
ledge of the text is necessary for an adequate interpretation of most
of these illustrations. Occasionally the content, though not the style,
will hark back to a much earlier period, like the priest kneeling
19 Influence flowing in the opposite direction, from

the French miniatures
to the Latin, might explain certain illustrations in two Latin manuscripts to
which James attributes a non-English origin, Perrins 26 and Sion College
402'
L (James, op. cit., p. 11). In the latter the Hydrus-Hydra confusion,
JL 2o
found often in the illustrations of the Bestiaire a" Amour of Richard de
Fournival, appears with a multi-headed creature protruding from the side
of a bear-like Crocodile, and in both manuscripts the Salamander is a winged
beast standing in flames, and so it appears on some manuscripts of both
Guillaume le Clerc and Pierre de Beauvais. It is also possible, of course,
that these French peculiarities could have arisen first in the Latin manu
scripts. Stronger reasons exist for claiming French influence, though textual
rather than pictorial, on the marginal bestiary drawings in B. M., Royal
2 B. vii. In his introduction to the facsimile reproduction of this manuscript,
Sir George Warner {Queen Mary's Psalter, London: British Museum, 1912,
p. 33) says he believes that the artist used as his source the Bestiaire of
Guillaume le Clerc in a fuller form than is now known, or that
he supplemented Guillaume from some other source. I am inclined to
think that the tviaia source for all of the drawings which follow for the
most part the traditional order of B, with the addition at the end of nine
extra animals, is the long version of Pierre de Beauvais. This conclusion
is based, among other reasons, on the illustration of the Asp on f. 125v.,
which depicts the beast lulled to sleep by instruments as two men approach
a tree as if to steal from it. This is without doubt the "arbre dont li baumes
degoute" of which Pierre de Beauvais speaks (Cahier, Vol. II, p. 149), and
of which there is no mention either in Guillaume le Clerc or in any Latin
bestiary.
before the burning Phoenix on an altar, seen in the fourteenth

century manuscript B.N., 14969 of the same Guillaume. One would
never study the illustrations in French bestiaries, any more than in
the Latin versions, for evidence of the artist's awareness of the
world of nature about him; a close visual interpretation of the
text as he understood it or as his model had presented it was the
object of the illustrator.
CHAPTER V
GENERAL ANALYSIS OF THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS

TREATED IN LATIN AND FRENCH BESTIARIES
Previously there has been no single compilation in English in

which were listed the characteristics of the birds, beasts, and stones
described in the Latin and French bestiaries. In this chapter under
alphabetically arranged subjects these traits are presented in their
approximate chronological order,1 except for Pierre de Beauvais' non-
bestiary material, which has been relegated to the Appendix. The
common Latin and French names are given as well as any conspic
uous variations in spelling. Words enclosed in single quotation marks
in Biblical citations indicate a pre - Vulgate reading as given by
Professor Carmody in his edition of B and of Y. When it exists,
the description begins with a summary of the earliest Latin accounts,
Y and B, with any important differences existing in A, C, Theobal-
dus, or the Dicta Chrysostomi. This is then followed by the expanded
versions such as Royal 2 C. xii, the Aviarium (Book I), or Books II
and III of the De bestiis et aliis rebus, referred to here as H because
of its traditional, though erroneous, attribution to Hugo of St. Victor.
When H has not provided the fullest account, additional informa
tion has been taken from the more complete version in Cambridge,
University Library Ii.4.26. Isidore's copious contributions are all
noted. As for analagous passages in antiquity and in the Church
Fathers, the examples given in this chapter — with the general excep
tion of references to Aristotle's Historia animalium and Pliny's
1 The question
repeatedly arose of what English equivalent to give to an
animal or bird which was already the object of confusion among early
writers. This is the case, to cite only one instance, of the bird which was
described under the name of Erodius and Fulica and which partook of traits
assigned to both the Heron and the Coot. In attempting to resolve these
problems, consistency and logic have been the aims in establishing the
nomenclature used.
PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS 79
Naturalis historia — are far from complete, and are presented only
to show the age and currency of many of the tales.2 The significant
changes, though few in number, in either additions or omissions
occurring in the French bestiaries are noted, but no attempt has
been made to gather other mediaeval accounts which are similar
in nature.3 In conclusion, a short iconographical description is given
of each subject illustrated wherein marked deviations from the
typical are indicated.
The allegorical interpretations, although perhaps the raison d'etre
of the Physiologus, have intentionally been treated very briefly. A
summary has been made only of those chapters contained in the
B version since this is the basic Latin text from which most others
grew or were translated. Usually the allegory remained fundamen
tally unchanged when incorporated in the enlarged bestiary or when
translated into French ; however, Philippe de Thaon and Guillaume
le Clerc often emphasized different parts of the "lesson", and the
latter tended to embroider long moralizing passages on the rather
bare original framework.
While it is realized that each topic has not been exhaustively
investigated, and that many questions have been left unsolved, it
is hoped that a certain insight has been provided into the imagina
tive reasoning of mediaeval man, who continually sought a logical
explanation of the unknown or little known, whether it be in the
boundless realm of metaphysics or in the more restricted question
of how the fallen elephant arises.
For brevity the following abbreviations are used in this chapter:
Latin :
A - Brussels 10074, X cent. (Cahier)

B - Bern 233, VIII cent. (Carmody)
B-Is - B.M., Royal 2 C. xii, XII cent. (Mann)
C - Bern 318, IX cent. (Cahier)
Y - Munich 19417, IX cent. )
14388, IX-X cent. > (Carmody)
Bern 611, VIII cent. )
TH - Theobaldus, XI cent. (?) (R. Morris)
An extensive list of sources, analogies, and derivative passages recorded

2
by authors of antiquity and by early Christian writers exists in Sbordone,

pp. 1-145.
3This aspect, with some reference made to classical sources, is treated
by Max Goldstaub and Richard Wendriner, Ein Tosco-Venezianischer Bes-
tiarius (Halle, 1892), pp. 255-438.
DC - Dicta Chrysostomi, XI cent. (Wilhelm)

H - Pseudo-Hugo of St. Victor, Books II
and III
of De
bestiis et aliis rebus, XII cent. (?) (Migne)
CUL - Cambridge, University Library Ii.4.26, XII cent. (James)
French :
PT - Philippe de Thaon, ca. 1125. (Walberg)

G - Gervaise, early XIII cent. (?) (Meyer)
GC - Guillaume le Clerc, ca. 1210. (Reinsch)
PB - Pierre de Beauvais, before 1218. (Cahier)
AMOS AND THE FIG TREE.
psycomora, sycaminus, Amos propheta; Amon li prophetes.
A unique Latin account, entitled De sycomora, exists in Y (28),

and begins : "Non sum propheta 'neque' filius prophete, sed 'capra-
rius' vellicans sycamina" (Amos 7:14). There follows a brief des
cription telling of gnats which live in the figs in darkness until the
fruit is opened and they come forth to light.
When transferred to the group of manuscripts known as B and
B-Is, this chapter (34) is entitled Amos propheta and it omits the
fabulous tale of the insects. In reality it contains only the lengthy
moralization which, in its essential, says that just as Amos was a
goatherd, Christ became the pastor of sinful mankind.4 In this
form the chapter was translated into only one French bestiary, that
of PB (IV, 63).
Biblical commentators, though alluding to the splitting of the
figs,5 make no mention of the insects dwelling within, and Sbordone
suggests that this account might have been combined by the author
*The second sentence of a typical B-Is manuscript, Bodl. 602, f. 32,

after the quotation from Amos, reads "Et distincto more salvator per pro-
phetam de se dicit. ..", which M.R. James believes to be a corruption of
"et districtor morae". See James, op. cit., p. 8.
5 For a notice on the preferable translation of the word vellicans as
"tending the fruit" rather than "piercing" — which refers to an ancient tradition
of puncturing the fruit to improve its flavor — consult the note on Amos 7 : 14
in William A. Harper, A critical and exegetical commentary on Amos and
Hosea, Vol. 20 of the International Critical Commentary (New York, 1915),
p. 172, and the article on "Sycomore" in James Hastings, Dictionary of
the Bible (New York, 1908-9), IV, 634-35. The fig-piercing and the insects
dwelling therein are discussed in Konrad Burdach, Der Gral, Vol. 14 of
Forschungen zur Kirchen-und Geistesgeschichte (Stuttgart, 1938), 34-40.
of the Physiologus with that of Aristotle (v 557b 26) on the fig-wasp

which lives in the fruit of the wild fig.*
The Latin illustrations shows Amos seated, leaning on his staff,
as his goats stand against trees and nibble. In Arsenal 3516, f. 210
(PB) only a haloed seated figure is drawn.
AMPHISBAENA.
amphisbaena, amfivena.
H's chapter (iii.44), a copy of Isidore's (xii.4.20), begins with an

explanation of this reptile's name, so called because it has two heads,
one in place and the other at its tail. This enables it to run in
either direction by a revolving motion of the body.7 It is the only
serpent to expose itself to the cold, and it goes first before all. A
quotation is given from Lucan's Pharsalia (ix.719): "Et gravis in
geminum vergens caput amphisbaena", "the fell amphisbaena, that
moves toward each of its two heads". In conclusion, its eyes are
said to shine like lamps.
Pliny (viii.23.35)
explains the amphisbaena's two heads "as
though one mouth were too little for the discharge of all its venom".
The origin of the shining eyes is not known. Today the name
amphisbaena is applied to a legless lizard which is able to progress
either forward or backward.8
One of the more common representations of the amphisbaena is
that of a horned, winged, two-footed serpent, making a circle of its
body and biting its tail, although it is also shown more prosaically
as a two-headed worm (Pl. I, Fig. 1 a and b).
ANT, ANT-LION, GOLD-DIGGING ANTS.
formica, mirmicoleon, formicaleon; furmi, formicaleun.
Y
contains both a chapter on the ant and on the ant-lion ; to a
combination of these H (ii.29) adds an account of the gold-digging
ants of Ethiopia. The result is altogether a strange mixture.
6 Sbordone, p. 144.
7 From the Greek d|i<ptaj3a'.va, a(itp!;, 'both ways', 'around' and fiaivtiv
'to go'.
For a detailed study on the mythological and the actual amphisbaena
8
see George C. Druce, "The Amphisbaena and its Connexions in Ecclesiastical

Art and Architecture", Archaeological Journal, LXVII (1910), 285-317.
Y (14) and B (11) begin with a quotation from Proverbs: "Vade

ad formicam, o piger, et 'imitare' vias eius" (Prov. 6:6). They con
tinue by saying that the ant has three natures: it walks in order
carrying grain in its mouth, unmolested by other ants who have no
grain; it divides each grain in two lest the rain cause it to germi
nate and the ant perish from hunger in the winter; it goes into the
fields at harvest time and, climbing the ear of grain, distinguishes
wheat from barley by its odor, and refuses the latter because it is
food for cattle. CUL adds that ants take advantage of good weather
to dry their grain.
In B's moralization, which for the other
serves as a general basis
versions, the improvident ants are equated with the Five Foolish
Virgins. The necessary splitting of the grain represents the separation
that must be made in the Old Testament between the literal and
the spiritual meaning in order to prepare for the Day of Judgment
(winter). The spiritual sense must transcend the literal, though the
Jews failed in this. The barley which the ants flee is heretical doc
trine (here B and PT list the names of certain heretics). PT expands
the section on the Wise Virgins, who for him represent the five
senses.
Entitled De mirmicoleon, Y (33) begins : "In lob Elefas Teman-
eorum rex dixit de mirmicoleon : Periit eo quod no habeat escam"
(Job. 4:11). The ant-lion is described thus: its father has the face
of a lion and eats flesh ; its mother has the face of an ant and eats
plants. When the mirmicoleonta is born, it dies because of its two
natures, unable to eat either flesh or plants because of its lion's face
and its fore and hind quarters of an ant.
H and B-Is (11), naming the Etymologia (xii.3.9) as their source,
say that the formica is so called because it carries morsels of grain
("ferat micas farris"). They continue by describing the jormicaleon,
thus named either because it is the lion of ants, or equally an ant
and a lion. It is a small animal so hostile to ants that it hides in
the dust and kills the ants bearing grain. Thus it is called ant and
lion, because as the lion is stronger than other beasts, so this ani
mal is stronger than other ants.
The same chapter of H B-Is includes the tale of the gold-
and
digging ants said to exist in Ethiopia. These ants, the size of dogs,
dig up golden sand with their feet and guard it. Should it be carried
off, they pursue and kill the thieves. To steal the gold, people
capture mares with foals. Starving the mares for three days, they
tie the foals at the edge of the river flowing between them and the
ants, while the mares with pack saddles are driven across the water
to fields of green grass where they pasture. When the ants see the
pack saddles, they bring the golden sand and hide it in them. To
ward evening the mares hear their foals neighing from hunger, and
so return to them laden with gold.
One must wonder about the origin of the disparate elements
which make up the chapter on the ant and the ant-lion. Concerning
the traits of the former, distantly related passages can be found
in Pliny (xi.30.36) and Aelian (ii.25). Research on the ant-lion has
been made by George Druce, whose findings are here summarized.9
The inclusion of the mirmicoleon in the Physiologus is due to the
appearance of this word in the above cited passage in the Sep-
tuagint version of Job. H's description of the ant-lion closely follows
that in Isidore (xii.3.10), who in turn repeats what Gregory had
written in his Moralia on Job (V 20.40).' ° The Hebrew for the
animal spoken of is lajisch, an unusual word for "lion". In the Vul
gate this is translated tigris, in the King James version "old lion",
and only in the Septuagint does nupurjxoWov appear. There was a
belief in antiquity that an animal called (lupins; existed. In his des
cription of Arabia, Strabo (xvi.4.15) mentions a country abounding
in lions called ants.11 According to Druce the eastern version of the
ant-lion tale — that of its double nature from its ant and lion parent
age — had its origin in the Greek Physiologus, and it was not until
the time of Gregory that a cleavage took place between eastern
and western interpretations.12 James has pointed out that for some
unknown reason the name Mermecolion was attached to the pearl-
oyster in a few of the Latin bestiaries.13
The story of the gold-digging ants is found in Herodotus (iii.102-
105) where the place of origin of these ants, which are smaller than
dogs but bigger than foxes, is India. Strabo (xv.1.44), citing Nearchus
and Megasthenes, speaks of the nupHxe^ y.puo«>puxoi in India, as does
9 George
C. Druce, "An Account of the |Mjp]ir(xoXE(uv or Ant-Lion", The
Antiquaries Journal, III (1923), 347-64.
10 Migne, Patr. Lat., LXXV, Col. 700.
11 Cf. Aelian vii.47.
12 Druce, op. cit.,
p. 354. "...for while the eastern imagination and love
of the picturesque nursed the idea that the ant-lion was composed of an ant
and a lion, Gregory and the more sober western commentators adopted the
view that the ant-lion was no more than a large ant which preyed on smaller
ants. This passed into Isidore's etymology, which set the seal upon it for the
future".
13 James, op. cit., p. 9. I do not think that the names of the pearl and
of the ant-lion are related.
Aelian (iii.4; xvi.15). Solinus changes their abode to Ethiopia and

it is there, citing Isidore, that the earliest French bestiary locates
them.
FT (861-1104) and GC (871-1020), after enumerating the three
traits of the ants, describe gold-hoarding ants who resemble dogs.
FT mentions the heavy load in comparison to the size of its body
carried by the ant, and the fact that if rain wets the ant's grain, it
throws the grain out. They both conclude with a description of the
formicaleon, the lion of ants, cunning and harmful. G and PB limit
themselves to listing the three habits of the ant.
Of all the illustrations included in the bestiary, probably those
of the ant are the least satisfactory in clearly indicating the trait to
be depicted. The ant itself is sometimes a series of dots (Bern 318,
f. 12v.), or again a multi-legged, bean-like figure in Morgan 832,
f. 7v., where it is shown carrying kernels up a hill. Brussels 10074,
f. 146 illustrates Solomon on his throne beside stalks of wheat
which ants mount. Probably the most imaginative portrayal of
ants is found in Oxford, Merton Coll. 249, f. 4v. (FT). Here the
artist has used the center margin between the double columns of
writing as the path up which the ants march by two's while near
the top of the folio some turn to the right and walk between two
lines of the text. The formicaleon mentioned by GC is shown as
two dogs in B.N., fr. 1444, f. 245. In an especially fine manuscript
of GC the gold-digging ants appear (Pl. I, Fig. 2). And in B.M.,
Royal 2 B. vii, f. 96 armed men combat the dog-like Ethiopian
ants. However, apart from these, the illustrations are disappointing.
J ANTELOPE.
autolops, antalops, antula, autula; aptalon, aptalops, antule.
This animal is so wild that no hunter can approach it. Its horns,
which are saw-like, can cut tall trees, but when thirsty the antelope
goes to drink in the Euphrates and there catches its horns in the
abundant branches of a shrub which in Greek is called herecine.
it,
After the antelope's struggles do not free cries out and heard
is
it
by hunter who arrives and kills the animal (B 2; Y 2).

a
The antelope's two horns are the two Testaments by which man
can cut himself free from vice (G says that the horns are abstinence
and obedience). Man should especially beware of drunkenness,
which might lead to lust and eventual death by the devil. GC ad
monishes clerks from playing in the thicket of worldliness, where

pleasures kill body and soul.
With no Isidorean additions the story is repeated in H (ii.2) and
in all the French bestiaries with no change in outline. PT (757-798)
says that the antelope resembles a goat, and that its horns
E si sunt endentees,
Cum falcilles curvees, ... (765-766)
In one of the few similes found in the bestiaries, GC (239-278) des

cribes how the antelope is caught:
E ele est prise el roncerei

Com un peisson en une rei. (266-267)
G (449-472) gives the source of the Euphrates as Paradise, and

through some confusion, PB (II,116) believes that the Greek word
hericine refers to a place which is full of small branches.
This animal is not related to the antelope that is known today,
nor were the early compilers certain of its identity. The wide variety
of spellings of the name of the antelope attests the lack of clarity
as to what animal was being described, and some Greek and Latin
manuscripts contain no name at all.14 Outside the Physiologus both
the name and the story are unknown in ancient literature, although
not unsimilar accounts by two Arabic writers are given from a
secondary source in Sbordone.15 In the Hexaemeron attributed to
Eustathius of Antioch (ca. 330) the word dv6oXo<|i appears, and it
has been suggested that this is a Coptic word in an already modi
fied form.16 Professor B. E. Perry thinks it not unlikely that the
ulpusty in the Greek Physiologus is a corruption of Spu$.17 The Oryx
is described in Oppian's Cynegetica (ii.445 ff.) as a fierce animal
which dwells in thickets. Its sharp horns become so firmly imbed
ded in the animal against which it charges that, unable to free
itself, they both die.
Since the artist had no definite animal on which to model the
antelope of the Physiologus story, it ranged from a horse-like figure
with feathery horns in Brussels 10074 (PL I, Fig. 3) to one small
" PW, p. 1091.

15 Sbordone, pp. 116-17.
" PW, p. 1091.
17 Ibid., p. 1092.
and dog-like with almost straight long horns in GC (Camb., Trin.

Coll. 0.2.14, f. 34v.). Sometimes the essential feature of horns
having serrae figurant was forgotten, and then again there are cases
of great exaggeration. The scene of the antelope alone is portrayed
as well as the more inclusive one of the animal's drinking while
it,
its horns are caught and a hunter pierces as in the early twelfth
century Bodl. 602, where the horns are unmistakably serrated.
f.
3
In spite of the specific expression in PT, the animal drawn in Ox
ford, Merton Coll. 249, hornless.
is
f.
4
APE.
simia; singe.
The role of the ape in the Greek and earliest Latin Physiologus
texts mentioned in the chapter on the onager with which was
is
it
linked. There stated that at the equinox the ape urinates seven
is
it it
times (Y 25) also has the appearance of the devil, having head
a
;
but no tail (B 21).18
H (ii.12) and B-Is (22) begin with one of Isidore's etymologies

the simia so called because in the similitude*,
is
it
(xii.2.30-33)
:
"appearance", of human reason sensed.19 Apes rejoice at the new

is
moon and grow sad when wanes. There are five types of apes
it
:
the cercopithecus has tail the sphinx rough haired and docile,
is
a
forgetting its wildness; the cynocephalus like monkey with

is
a
long tail and dog's face, whence its name the satyrus has pleas
a
a
;
ing face and lively gestures; and the callitrix's appearance
is
wholly different from the others, since has pointed face, long
it
beard, and wide tail. According to others simia or simus Greek

is
a
name, for of no; the equivalent of fimus, "excrement", because

is
the ape dirty, horrible beast with flat and wrinkled nose. The
is
a
it a
female ape gives birth to twins one loves, and the other hates.
it
:
When hunted, the mother carries the loved one in front of her while
the other must cling to her back. But as she tires, since she
is
running on two feet only, unwillingly she drops the preferred child,
and thus the hated one saved.
is
18 The Egyptian origin

and later Christian connection of these two traits
have been studied by H.W. Janson, Apes and Ape Lore in the Middle Ages
and the Renaissance (London, 1952), pp. 16 ff.
19 Isidore, however, added "sed falsum est", which H omits.
The ape symbolizes the devil who had a head but no tail ; that
is, he had a beginning when he was in heaven, but because of his
inner hypocrisy and deceit, he lost his head. PT differs in saying
that the ape-devil mocks those who do evil, and will carry them in
front of him to hell, while he leaves the good at his back with God.
The French versions remain close to the Latin.20 In the few lines
given by PT to the ape (1889-1899) it is noted that this animal
imitates what it sees, makes fun of people, dirties itself when angry,
and carries its favored offspring in front. GC (1927-1942; 1953-1964)
calls it an ugly filthy beast which thinks evil, and though he states
that there are more than three kinds, he only mentions those with
a dog's head and the lunar-sensitive apes. G (361-366) merely
repeats the early Latin description of its resemblance to the devil.
The ironic import of the tale of the favorite offspring's being aban
doned is perverted in PB (III, 230), where the exhausted mother
leaves the less loved child.
The apparent similarity between the word simia and similitudo
and the ape's actual resemblance to a human being early formed a
conection in men's mind which was celebrated in a well known
saying by Ennius quoted by Cicero in the De natura deorum (i.35.97),
and cited throughout the Middle Ages: "Simia quam similis tur-
pissima bestia nobis".21 The division of apes into various types is
found in Isidore, Solinus (27.56-60), and ultimately in Pliny
(viii.54.80). The origin of the theme of the mother carrying her
young can be traced back to the Aesopic fables of Greece.22 As
it is treated by Pliny, Horapollo (ii.66), and Oppian (Cyn. ii. 604 ff.)
the mother, showing great affection for its child, embraces and
often smothers it, but Avianus introduced the new element of the
mother's being forced to drop the loved one. In a very abbreviated
form this was adopted by Solinus and eventually by Isidore.
80 An amusing
addition to the account of the ape appears in Richard de
Fournival's Bestiaire d' Amour (19,3) and because of its popularity deserves
telling here. The wise hunter, knowing the monkey's penchant for imitation,
puts on and takes off his boots where a monkey can see the action. Departing
and hiding, the hunter leaves a boot, which the animal immediately tries on,
but before it can be removed, the monkey is caught. The catching of the ape
by shoes weighted with lead is found in Aelian (xvii.25); Pliny and Solinus
mention boots and also the fact that hunters leave bird lime for the ape to
rub in its eyes.
21 Janson, p. 23, n. 9.
22 Ibid., pp. 31-32.
In the section on the Elements and Senses included in the

Appendix to this study, it is noted that the monkey represents the
sense of taste. The probable explanation for this choice is that the
monkey was associated with the Fall of Man, and it is often pictured
eating an apple.25
That many mediaeval artists had yet to see any member of the
simian family is evident from the fanciful representations found in
some manuscripts, where the scene most frequently portrayed is that
of the huntsman pursuing the mother to whom one young clings
while the other is carried. An unusual group is that including the
satyr and the apple-eating ape in Bodl. 602, f. 18v. (Pl. I, fig. 4), or
that in Bodl., Laud Misc. 247, f. 153v., where shaggy apes appear
to be playing over the body of a recumbent man. The French illus
trations are usually similar to the Latin, although in B. N., fr. 14964,
f. 147 (GC) the ape, with two dogs nipping its heels, is fleeing on
all fours with the young riding in a precarious fashion.
Some of the Latin bestiaries include other types of apes in sepa
rate drawings. The bearded satyr standing crosslegged and the mule-
faced callitrix holding a cup appear in Bodl. 764, f. 17v., and
horned satyrs with tails and cloven hoofs, one with an axe and shield,
the other clutching a snake, are found in B. M., Harl. 3244, f. 41v.
ASP.
aspis; aspis.
The asp is often included in the same chapter with the Weasel
(mustella). According to H (ii.30) and B-Is (27), which cite Isidore
as their source (xii.4.12), the asp is so called because by its bite
poison is discharged, for as or rather i 6 s is the Greek word for
"poison". H adds that others say that it means "I defend" because
aspiso with that meaning comes from aspis (dank), a "shield". The
asp is said to avoid enchantment by songs intended to draw it forth
from its cavern by pressing one ear to the ground and closing the
other ear with its tail. Other poisonous serpents which are described
in the same section with the asp will be mentioned at the end of
this article.
Allegorically the asp represents the wealthy who press one ear
to earthly desires (or, as PT says, they have one ear to the ground
23 Ibid., p. 240.
to amass wealth) and whoseother ear is plugged with sin. GC

contains a lengthy sermon on the evils of wealth, which he illustrates
with a story of a rich man who cast his gold into the sea before it
drowned him.
The deafness of the adder is spoken of in Psalm 58:5,6:
"...they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; which will
not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely",
and it is Saint Augustine in a sermon on the feast of Saint Stephen
who is first credited with noting the ingenious device of plugging
both ears at once.24
The French versions follow the Latin closely. PT (1615-1628,
1655-1679) even copies the etymology found in B-Is:
As en griu venim est

Dunt aspis numez est; (1655-1656)
He closes with brief list of the noxious effect of certain unnamed

a
serpents which are named and described in GC (2553-2588).
A strange change takes place in G (1151-1168). The enchanter,
instead of being a human, is another beast, who hates the asp and
would kill it if possible.25 An addition is made by PB (II, 148),
where the function of the asp is to guard the tree from which balm
drips. If a man wishes to procure this balm, he must put the asp
to sleep by means of instruments.26 Parallels to the asp's guarding
the tree of balm are found in Herodotus (iii.107), where winged
snakes watch over spice-bearing trees, and in Pausanius (xxviii.2-4),
where vipers of Arabia protect the juice of the balsam trees.
24 Migne, Patr. Lat., XXXVIII, Col. 1432.

25 A suggestion has been made by the present author that the Latin word
marsus, meaning "enchanter", which appears in some Latin manuscripts has
been misinterpreted by G to indicate some kind of beast. This is apparently
what happened in the Icelandic Physiologus, where marsus appears in the
text and the illustration depicts a four-footed animal. See F. McCulloch,
"The Metamorphoses of the Asp", Studies in Philology, LVI (1959), 7-14.
For the fragmented text and illustrations of the Icelandic Physiologus, see
Halldor Hermannsson (ed.), "The Icelandic Physiologus", Icelandica, XXVII
(1938).
26
Still another version is found in Bruneto Latini's Li Livres dou Trisor
(i.138), where the asp is said to carry a precious stone called a carbuncle
which the enchanter hopes to obtain by saying certain words, but is unsuc
cessful because the asp deafens itself. This stone is the dracontis or dragon
stone described by Pliny (xxxvii. 10.57) and Solinus (30.16), which in two
mediaeval lapidaries has been identified with the carbuncle. See Leo J. Hen-
kin, "The Carbuncle in the Adder's Head", MLN, LVIII (1943), pp. 34-39.
Illustrations of the asp are interesting for their variety within a

fixed theme. In the Latin bestiaries there is often a long-robed en
chanter holding a book or scroll and standing before the semicircular
serpent, which sometimes not very convincingly deafens itself. A
slightly different scene appears in CUL 48v.), where man pro
(f.
a
tected by shield strikes at the winged asp's ear with stick. A
a
second illustration in Morgan 81, 83 shows man holding cloak
a
f.
a
before his face as horned serpent with golden stone embedded
a
in its head gazes at him. In Queen Mary's Psalter (B.M., Royal
B. vii, 125 r. and v.) quartet of musicians lulls the four-footed
f.
2
a
beast to sleep, while in second drawing portable organ and pipes
a
are played as two men steal balm from tree.
a
Other types of serpents are listed along with the asp in the early
B-Is and H versions, although in the later enlarged Latin bestiary
they are relegated to separate section on Reptiles. will be seen
It
a
that there an occasional confusion of names and traits.

is
Dipsas. — This serpent, as its name implies, causes death from

thirst by its bite. The Latin name, as given by Isidore (xii. 4.13),
is
situla. The dipsas so small that not seen when tread upon,
is
is
it
and its poison kills before felt (H iii.49). The additional chapter
is
it
in H taken in part from Book IX of Lucan's Pharsalia, of which

is
three lines are quoted telling of the death of the standard-bearer

Aulus from the bite of the dipsas (11. 737-760). GC (2563-2566) also
recounts the death by thirst. The dipsas usually depicted in
is
a
conventional worm-like form with the occasional addition of wings
or horns. However, in Bodl. 764, 98v. appears as small snake
it
f.
underneath human foot.

a
Hypnalis. — Again from its name could be deduced that this

it
serpent kills by sleep, and was from the hypnalis that Cleopatra
it
received her death (H ii.30; Solinus 27.31). PT attributes her death

to asps which she put to her breasts, where they drank so deeply
of her milk that they sucked out her blood (1671-1679). B-Is and GC
call this serpent prialis.
Haemorrhois. — After the bite of this serpent one sweats blood
in such way that life itself pours out through the veins, for blood
a
called hema (<*'w) in Greek (H. ii.30; Isidore xii.4.15; Solinus

is
27.32). Again in Lucan's Pharsalia (ix.805-814) that descrip

is
it
tion given of the fatal effects of the haemorrhois. GC (2575-2583)

is
says that the veins burst when this blood-colored snake bites.
Prester. — This serpent runs with its mouth open and steaming.
Its bite causes such swelling that the victim dies because putrefaction
sets in. Lucan (Pharsalia ix.789-804), from whom a line is quoted,

describes a distended body untouched even by birds and wild beasts.
PT (1665-1666) mentions those who swell.
Seps. — By the bite of this serpent the entire body is consumed.
H again quotes from the Pharsalia (ix.723).
ASPIDOCHELONE.
aspidochelone, aspido de lone, aspido testudo, balene; balain,

lacovie.21
B (24) begins with the statement that there is a sea monster called
in Greek aspidochelone and in Latin aspido testudo. Because this
large creature's back is covered with sand, sailors think it an island
on which they alight. To cook their food they make a fire, but when
the whale feels the heat, it submerges and drags the ship to the
depths. When hungry, the whale opens its mouth and emits a pleas
ant odor. Small fish are thus attracted into the whale's mouth,
which soon closes on them (Y 30). To the similar accounts of
B-Is (25) and H (ii.36), CUL mentions Jonah and adds a section on
the balene, both of which are taken from Isidore (xii.6.7-8). The
Old French versions do not deviate from the early Latin.
According to the allegory the sailors are the incredulous who,
ignoring the wiles of the devil, put their trust in him and sink
with him to hell. The small fish are men of little faith who are
destroyed by the lures of the devil, while those of great faith know
his tricks and avoid him.
Albert S. Cook, who has written on the legend of the aspido
chelone, or shield-turtle, has traced the germ of the Physiologus
chapter to an account by Nearchus, admiral of Alexander the Great's
fleet.28 His experience with a disappearing island can be found in
the Indica of Arrian (xxxi) and in Strabo's Geography (xv.2.13).
A new element enters the story in an apocryphal letter of Alexander
to Aristotle which appears in the romance of Pseudo-Callisthenes.
Here it is reported that the occupants of a boat drowned when the
27
For an explanation of the derivation lacovie from Jacoines, as the
whale is called in the Old French Voyage of St. Brendan, see F. McCulloch,
"Pierre de Beauvais' Lacovie", MLN, LXXI (1956), 100-1.
28 Albert S.
Cook (ed.), The Old English Elene, Phoenix, and Physiologus
(Yale University Press, 1919), pp. lxiii-lxxxv. See also Cornelia C. Coulter,
"The 'Great Fish' in Ancient and Medieval Story", Transactions of the Amer
ican Philological Society, LV1I (1926).
supposed island which they were approaching proved to be an

animal and sank. Finally, the Physiologus tale is quite similar to
that told in Hebrew by Rabbah bar Hana, a Babylonian rabbi of
the late third century A.D. As for calling the sea monster a turtle,
there are numerous and widely spread legends about the size and
habits of turtles which might have led to the apparent confusion.
No explanation has been given for the odor attracting fish, but it
should be noted that the aspidochelone in the oldest Latin texts
follows the chapter on the panther where a similar trait is attributed
to that animal.
The mediaeval imagination's treatment of a relatively uncommon
sea creature is evident in the depiction of the aspidochelone, where
a big fish is the base to which were occasionally added such non-
cetacean features as legs. For one interested in the appearance of
mediaeval ships, there are numerous examples as well as a pictures
que variety of camp-fire scenes. Often the two traits of the whale
are combined in one picture as in Bodl. 602 (Pl. II, fig. 1 a). In
Camb., Sidney Sussex Coll. 100, f. 42v. an unwary sea traveler dries
his stockinged feet over the fire burning on the fish which, in the
Leningrad Bestiary is provided with large tusks. Here also the sailors
in the ship above the whale but not on its back busily raise the
mast. The miniature depicting la coines in B.N., fr. nouv. acq.
13521, f. 27 of PB shows a strange beast with heads at the tips of its
three tails, though the illustrations in other PB manuscripts are
normal.
ASS .
asinus, asellus.
Copying Isidore (xii.1.38), H (iii.22) says that the name of the

ass and its colt comesfrom assidendo, for they are "sat on" by men.
This animal is slow and resists commands. Large, tall asses are
Arcadians;29 the smaller ones are more useful since they sustain
hardships.
Usually a single well-drawn ass is portrayed
more rarely a genre
;
scene appears such as that in Bodl. 764, f. 44, where the ass, with
a sack on its back, stands at the door of a mill.
29 Pliny (viii.45.68) speaks of asses from Arcadia as being the most

valuable.
basiliscus, regulus, sibilus.
H (iii.41) combines passages from Isidore (xii.4.6-9) in a chapter

which begins by explaining that the Greek word basiliscus, "little
king", is regulus in Latin, for the basilisk is the king of serpents,
which it kills by odor just as it kills men by its glance. No bird can
fly before its sight unharmed, but is consumed by fire from its
mouth. The weasel, however, can kill the basilisk. It is a half foot
long and marked with white spots. Like scorpions the basilisk seeks
dry places, and after coming to water it bites people, making them
hydrophobic and lymphatic. The sibilus, which kills by hissing, is
the same as the regulus.
Most of H's account comes from Pliny (viii.21.33; xxix.4.19),
and from Solinus (27.51), who specifies that the white spot on the
basilisk's head resembles a sort of diadem. This would give rise to
the identification as a "little king". The sentence on this serpent
and the scorpions is taken in a slightly changed form from Jerome,
Epistola LXIX ad Oceanum.31 The difficulties of translating the
names of reptiles in the Old Testament are well illustrated by the
indiscriminate use of adder, basilisk, and cockatrice by the transla
tors.32 This is mentioned because in the mingling of names might
lie the explanation for the basilisk's birth from a cock's egg, as
described in the Appendix.
The basilisk is drawn in numerous forms. Camb., Corpus Christi
Coll. 53 (Pl. II, fig. 2) shows the crested cock with a snake's tail
attacked by its enemy the weasel. B.M., Harl. 3244, f. 54v. has two
illustrations: the one entitled basiliscus shows a crested snake
darting its forked tongue at a man bearing a spear and protected
by a shield; the other of the regulus depicts a man falling and
another fleeing before the approach of two snakes, one of which is
crested. In Bodl. 533, f. 22v. the regulus is depicted as a dog
walking in water.
30
PB's non-bestiary account of the basilisk is found in the Appendix.
A lucid presentation of the basilisk is one of the many animals appearing
in the attractive and scholarly study of P. Ansell Robin, Animal Lore in
English Literature (London, 1932), pp. 86-91 and Appendix.
31 Migne,
Patr. Lat., XXII, Col. 660.
32
See the article "Serpent" in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible, IV,
459-60.
BAT.
vespertilio.
H's account (iii.34) differs somewhat from that of Isidore's

(xii.7.36), and begins by saying that this ignoble bird takes its name
from vespers, "eventide". It is both a bird and a quadruped, differing
from other birds by having teeth and by giving birth to living
young instead of eggs. For flying it is supported by a membranous
wing. Bats hang from high places like a cluster of grapes, and if one
loosens its grip, they all do.
A ventral view of the bat is usually shown with a minimum of
direct observation evident. A lively drawing is that in B.M., Royal
2 B. vii, f. 91v. and 92, where men brandishing branches drive off
a bat.
BEAR.
ursus.
From Isidore (xii.2.22), H (iii.6) takes the etymology that since

the bear forms its offspring with its mouth, ore, ursus resembles the
word orsus, "beginning". Bears do not conceive like other quadru
peds, but with mutual embraces like humans. Winter arouses lust,
but the male respects the pregnant. After thirty days the female
gives birth to a small piece of white flesh which is eyeless. Gradually
it is shaped by licking and is kept warm by being held to the chest,
and life is breathed into it. Meanwhile no food is taken, and for
fourteen days bears sink into such a deep slumber that even wounds
do not arouse them. When they emerge, their eyes suffer from the
light. They eat honey; death ensues should they eat apples of the
mandrake unless they also devour ants. When fighting bulls bears
seize their horns and inflict pain on the bulls' tender noses. The
young are born head first, making this part weak and the arms and
loins strong, whence bears sometimes stand erect. If wounded they
cure themselves by touching the herb phlome or mullein. Numidian
bears exceed others in fierceness and in length of shaggy hair.
Almost all of H's account is found in Pliny (viii.36.54) and
earlier in Aristotle, who describes the new-born bear as "smooth
and blind, and its legs and most of its organs are as yet inarticulate"
(vi 579a 23), and who also mentions the eating of honey, ants, and
fighting with bulls (vi 594b 5 f.).
The customary picture of the bear is that of a recognizable ani

mal licking one or more round balls. In Bodl. 764, f. 22v. features
are already visible in the mass beneath the bear's tongue.
BEAVER .
castor, fiber; castor, bievre.
The description of the beaver in both its text and illustrations

is one of the most unvarying of all those in the Physiologus. Accord
ing to B (17) and Y (36), the beaver is a very gentle animal in
whose testicles is a medicine valuable for various maladies. When
hunted, the beaver bites off its testicles and throws them at the
hunter, who picks them up and ceases the chase. Should another
hunter pursue the beaver, it shows its incompleteness and is left
unharmed. The identical tale appears in all French bestiaries.
B-Is and H (ii. 9) change the report in no way, but add Isidore's
etymology (xii.2.21) that castores, "beavers", are so called from
castrando, "castrating". There are also beavers called Pontic dogs.
The beaver's self-emasculation is recounted, among many other
ancients, by Pliny (viii.30.47).
It is stated in the allegory that those who wish to live chastely
should sever themselves from sin and throw it in the face of the
devil, who will depart when he sees that nothing belongs to him.
Little variety appears in the illustrations of the beaver, which
is portrayed as a dog-like animal oftentimes in extremely contorted
positions. Usually there is a hunter in the scene (Pl. II, fig. 5). It is
rare, but not unknown, to find the beaver looking like the amphib
ious animal it really is. Except for its yellow body and blue tail the
beaver in B.N., fr. 14970, f. 13v. (GC) is realistically drawn.
bees .
apes.
H (iii.38), like Isidore (xii.8.1), begins with an explanation of the

name apes: bees are so called either because they hold to one
another pedibus "with their feet" or because they are born without
feet, only acquiring them later. They excel in making honey, dwell
in the abode assigned to them, and arrange their home with great
skill. They have an army and kings, wage war, flee smoke, and are
excited by noise. It has been proved that bees are born from the
carcasses of oxen.In order to create them the flesh of slain calves
is beaten so that from the decayed gore worms are formed that
afterwards become bees.
The remainder of H's long passage will be briefly summarized.
Bees are the only animal to have everything in common - home, work,
food, and even offspring. They elect their own king by choosing the
most noble in body. The king does not use his sting vengefully. The
laws of the bees are based on custom, and lawbreakers punish
themselves, dying from their own sting. After speaking of the bees'
ingenuity in the construction of their hexagonal cells, H enumerates
their division of duties among which are watching over the food
supply, examing the rain-clouds, forming wax from flowers, and
collecting dew. Bees have a poison which they spread in their honey
if they are irritated.33
In Pliny many chapters are devoted to bees and the production
of honey (xi.5.4-20, 23). Although he says that the generation of
bees has puzzled many, he does not offer the theory of spontaneous
generation from carrion as a solution (xi.16.16), nor does Aristotle
(v 553a 17 ff.), who quotes some as affirming that bees fetch their
young from various flowers. Many details in H's account are also
found in Ambrose's Hexaemeron (v.68.21-70).
Scenes of bee-husbandry are numerous, such as that in Morgan
81, f. 58 where bees fly into the hive from a cloth held by their
keeper. In some examples they sting a nearby man as in Brussels,
Bibl. Roy. 8340, f. 200v.
BLACKBIRD.
merula; merle.
The Aviarium (i.43), the only Latin account of this bird, cites
Isidore (xii.7.69) for the etymology of the bird's name. Formerly the
blackbird was called medula because it modulet, "sings", but others
say that it was so named because it flies alone, as if mera volans.3*
33 Bees do
not appear in French bestiaries until Richard de Fournival's
Bestiaire d'Amour (37,10), where it is stated that although bees have no
hearing, the swarm can be led by a fife or by singing, not because the sound
can be heard but because the bee's nature is so orderly.
34 Merula early gave rise to varied etymologies.
Festus in the De signi-
ficatione verborum defines merum as: "Antiqui dicebant solum; unde et
It is universally black except in Achaia.35 The sweetness of the

blackbird's voice moves the mind to a feeling of delight.
In PB (IV.81) the blackbird is described as an agreeable bird that
sings marvelously high in April and May, and because of its song,
people keep it in a cage.
Aristotle (ix 632b 16) notes the change in the voice of the black
bird which, he says, has a musical sound in the summer and in the
winter a discordant chatter.
In most manuscripts of the Aviarium the blackbird is merely a
black bird."
BOA.
boa.
According to H (iii.45) the boa is an Italian snake of immense

size. It follows herds of cattle and, fastening itself to the udders
soaked with milk, sucks until it kills. From the depopulation of
cattle, bos, it takes its name (Isidore, xii.4.28).
Pliny (viii.14.14) does not say that it kills the cow, but that it is
nourished by the cow's milk.
Occasionally the boa will only appear as a coiled snake, but in
Bodl. 764, f. 98 it is a winged serpent clinging to a cow's udder.
bo ar .
aper.
According to H (hi. 17) the boar is a wild pig or hog so called

because of its savageness, a letter being eliminated from the word
avis merula nomen accepit, quod solivaga est et solitaria pascitur", and Quin-
tillian in his De institutione oratoriae (i.6.38) attributes to Varro (De lingua
latina, v.76) the error of saying that merula is derived from "flying alone".
35 Pliny
says Arcadia (x.30.45).
36 There
is one unusual exception. The Hofer Bestiary, which is preceded
by the Aviarium, has on f. 6 a miniature portraying a naked, tonsured monk-
walking through high grass, his clothes in a bundle nearby and a white
bird atop a tree. This is one of the rare examples in a Latin manuscript of
the moralization being illustrated. The story is from the life of Saint Benedict
in the Dialogues of Saint Gregory (Migne, Patr. Lat., LXVI, Col. 132).
It is recounted that a blackbird flew before the face of Saint Benedict. The
holy man was thereafter tempted by the flesh, and casting off his clothes,
asper, "wild", as Varro declares." After presenting other etymolo

gies unrelated to the boar, the notice ends by saying the name comes
from the Greek <5»po;, "foam", because it foams at the mouth.
BONASUS.
bonasus.
One of the few animals mentioned by H (iii.5) which is not found

in Isidore but in Solinus (40.10) is the bonasus, an Asian-born beast.
Its head is like bull's and its horns curl in upon each other so
a
that what they strike is not harmed. The forehead's lack of defense,
however, is remedied by the belly, for when pursued, the bonasus
expels dung in a swift flow for a great distance. The heat of the
dung consumes whatever it touches.
The bonasus is described by Pliny (viii.15.16) who exaggerates a
descripiton of the monapos by Aristotle (ix 630a 20 f.). Aristotle
writes that the animal defends itself "by kicking and projecting its
excrement to a distance of eight yards, ... and the excrement is so
pungent that the hair of hunting dogs is burnt off by it."
The bonasus is sometimes given a horse-like body though with
cloven hoofs, and the manner of depicting its involuted horns tested
the cleverness of the artist. Occasionally a defenseless hunter stands
behind the flow from this animal, but a wise one protects himself
with a shield as in Camb., Fitzwilliam Musuem 254, f. 24.
BULL.
juvencus, taurus.
H (iii.18) says that the juvencus, "bullock", is so called because

it begins to help (juvare) in cultivating the land, or because among
the Gentiles rather than the bull because the age
it was sacrificed
of the victim was considered. The Indian bull is tawny colored, swift
as a bird. Its hair turns contrariwise, its horns are movable, and its
he plunged into a thicket of nettles where by wounding his flesh he cured

the wound of his mind.
37
Varro (v.101) attributes its name to the fact that it frequents aspera,
"rough" places, whereas Isidore (xii.1.27), substituting an / for a p, declares
that the name is from its wildness (a feritate).
hard hide rejects spears. Such is their wildness that when captured,
they breathe fiercely lest they be tamed. Taurus and bos are Greek
names.
The Indian bull is mentioned in Pliny (viii.21.30), but the deri
vation of the word from juvare is given by Varro (v.96). In compar
ing H's text with Isidore's (xii.1.28) one sees that the former has
omitted the phrase jovi, "to Jove", when speaking of the sacrifice
of the bullock. This passage seems to be based on Servius (Comm.
in Verg. Aen. Ill, 1. 21) from whom the sentence about the age of
the victim is copied.
Differing from the usual picture of a lone bull is the miniature
in B.M., Sloane 3544, f. 17, which shows a kneeling priest holding
a tiny bullock in his hands beside an altar.
CALADRIUS.
caladrius, charadrius, calandrius; caladrius, caradrius, caladres,

calandre
B (5) and Y (5) begin by referring to Deuteronomy (14:18),

where it is written that the caladrius (heron in the A.V.) is not to
be eaten. The first characteristic of this bird is that it is all white.
Then a feature is described about which there is interesting diver
gence. B says: "cuius interior fimus curat caliginem oculorum".
This is repeated in B-Is and H (ii.31), but in the Aviarium (i.48) the
passage reads: "cuius femoris pars interior caliginem aufert ab
oculis".38 The bird is found in the king's house. It prognosticates the
outcome of an illness, for if it refuses to gaze at a sick man, the
man will die, but if it looks into the face of the patient, it draws
the into itself and flies to the region of the sun where the
illness
sickness is consumed. DC and H vary the means of curing by saying
that the bird puts its mouth upon the man's and with its breath
extracts the illness. This, of course, is copied by G (863-878).
Allegorically the caladrius is Christ, who turned away from the
Jews because of their disbelief and malice and turned instead to
the Gentiles, whose infirmities and sins he bore to the cross.
38 The variation in readings between

fimus and femur is an understand
able one, probably originally due to a copyist and then perpetuated.
The Latin model for PT (2143-2174) read femur since he writes:
E l'oisels at un os
Enz en la quisse, gros;
Se om la meiile at
Cui veiie faldrat,
E ses uiz en uindrat,
Senes repairerat. (2167-2172).
The same is true for PB who speaks of the power of the bird's
thigh.39
Of all bestiary subjects the identities of this bird and of the
unicorn have probably aroused most speculation.40 The origin of the
legend of the caladrius has been investigated by Druce and it is
his conclusions that will be summarized here.41 In the list of unclean
birds in Leviticus and Deuteronomy the Hebrew anaphah was
rendered by the Septuagint as yapafyxd; . This name is derived from
lapdipa, "mountain stream", which when swollen cuts its way through
the mountain side forming a cleft, hence the cleft itself, and at last
a bird dwelling in such a place. Aristotle speaks of the caladrius in
this connection ; elsewhere he places it among sea birds (viii 593b
15 ; ix 615a 1). There is no mention of its being white. Pliny
(xxx. 11.28) tells of curative powers like those of the caladrius
belonging to the icterus, so called because of its peculiar color,
icterus being the Greek word for jaundice. If the patient looks
at this bird, he will be cured of jaundice, and the bird will die.
Among the ancients, jaundice was known as regius or arquatus
39
Arsenal 3516, f. 199v. of PB has a strange addition, which Cahier
(1I,129) reports as probably an interpolation since it is written above the line.
The bird is described as having two straight horns like a goat's. In the
illustration a later hand, according to Cahier but difficult to verify on the
manuscript, has drawn two long horns from the bird's head. A small horned
bird appears also in Montpellier H. 437.
40 The caladrius has been identified as the plover, the lapwing, the crane,
the woodcock, the parrot, and the heron. PT says it resembles a mave,
"seagull". For other identifications see D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, A
Glossary of Greek Birds (Oxford University Press, 1936), pp. 311-14. In the
Middle Ages there was some confusion between the caladrius and the
calandre, the crested lark, because of a similarity of names. Littre' gives the
derivation of calandre as probably from caliendrum, a "high head-dress",
linked with the crest of the bird. This information is stated in an article by
George C. Druce, "The Caladrius and its Legend", The Archaeological
Journal, LXIX (1912), p. 402, n.l.
" Druce, op. tit., pp. 381-416.
morbus and aurugo. Druce concludes that the name "royal disease"
led the Physiologus to say that the caladrius was found in the courts
of kings.42
The depiction of the scene of the cure by the caladrius shows
variations within a limited range. In the oldest Latin illustration,
Bern 318, f. 8v. the white bird perches on the feet of a reclining
woman with outstretched arms. Lines of yellow-white paint extend
from its eyes to the infirm woman, thus assuring her of recovery.
Brussels, Bibl. Roy. 10074, f. 142v. and 143 contains a drawing not
found elsewhere of the capture of the bird with a net in the king's
dwelling. Beside it a man holds the bird with averted head over
the bed of the ill one. In a third scene this is repeated with the
difference that the bird not only looks at the sick man, but in the
same picture flies up to the sun. The figure of Christ is also present.
Following the text, Morgan 832 of the Dicta Chrysostomi (Pl. Ill,
fig. 3) shows the bird's beak against the patient's mouth before it
flies to the sun. A crowned king looks at a web-footed bird standing
on his coverlet in Morgan 890, f. 12. The French bestiary
illustrations show only minor differences.
CAMEL.
camelus.
A
lengthy explanation for the camel's name is given by H (iii.20)
and is found in a slightly changed form in Isidore (xii.1.35). It may
be from cama (xi^w), since it is a beast of burden and
derived
chamae (x«i»a0 is a Greek adverb meaning humi, "on the earth",
for when burdened, camels recline and thus make themselves more
humble (humiliores). Or it may be derived from camur, "curved",
because of the hump on its back.
Arabian camels are numerous and have two humps, while Bac-
trian are the strongest and have only one hump, and their hoofs do
not wear away. Some camels are suitable for bearing burdens and
other for traveling. They grow wild with the desire to mate, and
42 Ibid., p. 410. A different explanation is offered by Wellmann, op cit.,

pp. 54-55. In the Koiraniden of Hermes Trismegistus, cited by Wellmann,
the caladrius, whose healing power is not limited to a distinct illness, is
described as Spvsov PasiKixdv; thus the "kingly bird" came to dwell in the
residence of the king.
they hate horses.For three days they can endure thirst; then when
given the opportunity to drink, they fill up for past and future needs.
If muddy water, which they prefer, is lacking, they stir up clear
water by treading. Their life span is one hundred years, but if they
are taken to a foreign place they become ill because of the unac
customed change of air. Females are used in war. Desire for mating
is destroyed by castration for they are thought to be stronger if kept
from engendering. Most of these observations are found in Pliny
(viii. 18.26) and Solinus (49.9).
It cannot be said that the camel's structure was too well under
stood by many bestiary illustrators. The merest trace of two humps
appears in Morgan 81, f. 42, while the camel has horse-like legs in
B.M., Harl. 3244, f. 47v. A man grasping a scourge sits sideways
on a kneeling camel in Camb., Gonville and Caius 384, f. 178.
CAT.
cattus, musio, muscio, muriceps, murilegus.
Isidore only uses the words musio and cattus in his derivations
(xii.2.38) on which H is based (iii.24). The musio, "cat", is so called
because it is hostile to the mouse (mus). The people call it cattus
from captare, "to seize". Others say it seizes things with its eyes
sees — for so keen is its sight that it penetrates the night's
— that is,
shadows. The final sentence in H reads : "Catus enim acutus et calli-
dus", and in Isidore: "Unde et a Graeco venit catus, id est, inge-
niosus, a™ xou xai'eo8ai"." The latter reading is found in Servius'
commentary on the Aeneid i.423.
A humorous view of the cat's relations with the mouse is often

evident in the drawings of this subject.In Morgan 81, f. 46v. three
cats— one green, one blue, and one tan — sit on their haunches ; the
tan one holds a mouse in its paws. In front of them a large blue cat
stalks a fat mouse, which flees over the border of the illustration. A
feline domestic interior is seen in Bodl. 764, f. 51.
"
This Greek phrase, doubtless not understood by the scribe, is ren
dered in Bodl. 764, f. 51 as apotoyragestai.
CERASTES.
cerastes.
Again H's account (iii.42) is based wholly on Isidore (xii.4.18).44

The cerastes is so called because horns extend from its head like a
ram's, for xlpaxo in Greek means "horns". Some have four pairs of
little horns, which show when the rest of the body is covered by
sand. These look like bait and attract animals, who are then killed
by the cerastes. It is more flexible than other serpents, seeming to
have no spine. These traits appear in Pliny (viii.23.35) and Solinus
(27.28); Lucan (Pharsalia ix.716) speaks of the cerastes "which
wanders about as its spine makes it turn". Aristotle 500a says
4)
(ii
that the word "horned" applied metaphorically by the Egyptians
is
to this animal, which actually only has protuberances on its head.

A vivid illustration in Bodl. 764, of the
102v. shows the head
f.
cerastes with its ram-like horns emerging from the sand while from
its mouth hangs dead bird.
a
CINNAMOLGUS.
cinnamulgus.
An Arabian bird according to H (iii.30), which repeats Isidore

(xii.7.23), this bird so called because makes its nest from the
is
it
fruits of the cinnamon tree. Men cannot reach the nest because of
the height and fragility of the branches, so they attack with lead
it
balls to bring the cinnamon down. sold at better price since

It
is
merchants esteem this cinnamon more than any other.

A somewhat similar tale
recorded in Herodotus (hi. where Ill)
is
old birds seize large pieces of meat and carry them to their nest,
which the meat's weight causes to break and fall to the ground. The
fable of the cinnamolgus as related by Aristotle (ix 616a 7), who
says that men attach lead weights to their arrow tips to bring down
the nest, repeated by Pliny (x.33.50) and Solinus (33.15).
is
44
The additional chapter on the Cerastes which concludes the version of
the Dicta Chrysostomi in Munich, lat. 6908, 85v., unrelated to the besti
is
f.
ary account. The drawing presents prudent rider drawing up his leg as
a
horned snake bites his horse's foot.*

Illustrations commonly show this bird in its nest

atop a tree
while below a man holds a slingshot and a companion picks up the
fallen cinnamon as in Bodl. 764, f. 71v. In B.M., Harl. 3244, f. 54 a
figure shakes a club at the bird standing in a tree.
COCK.
gallus.
In his edition of Bern 318 Cahier omitted the chapter on the

cock because the account was unique among the manuscripts that
he had examined, and all lists of contents based on his edition have
followed him in this omission. According to Helen Woodruff45 this
earliest Latin Physiologus account follows verbatim the notice of
the galli carttus (which is the title of the Bern article) given by
Ambrose in his Hexaemeron (v.24.88).
The Aviarium (i.36) does not follow Isidore (xii.7.50) in deriv
ing gallus, "cock", from castratio, "castration", but quotes Gregory
in his Moralia on Job46 on the intelligence of the cock, which
discerns the hours of the night and then crows. The Aviarium states
that before crowing, the cock spreads its wings and strikes itself.
This last trait, as well as the cock's ability to mark the passage of
time, is recorded in Pliny (x.21.24). CUL's chapter differs from that
of the Aviarium in repeating all of Isidore. This includes a statement
that some say the cock's limbs are destroyed when mixed with
liquid gold.
A single cock is usually portrayed in the act of crowing.
COOT.
fulica; fullica.
B (22) relates that this is a very intelligent bird which neither

eats cadavers nor flies about but always stays in one place. B-Is (23)
adds Isidore's explanation (xii.7.53) that the fuliga is so called be
cause its flesh tastes like a hare's, for in Greek the name of this
animal is Xafu>z. The Aviarium (i.58) repeats B on the coot, then
45 Woodruff, op. tit., p. 253.

«• Migne, Patr. Lat., LXXVI, Col. 529.
copies the following from Isidore. The coot is a bird associated

with ponds; its nest is in the middle of the water or on a stone
surrounded by water. When it foresees a storm it flees to sport
in its nest.
The allegory states that by the habits of the coot is represented
the man who lives according to the will of God — not flitting
around like a heretic or someone smitten with worldly desires and
carnel lust, but remaining always within the catholic and apostolic
church. In PTs slight variation the bird is the holy man who rejects
flesh for self mortification while the nest represents the dwelling
place of the holy man or hermit.
PT (2749-2764) follows the Aviarium closely except for saying
that the bird plunges into the water when the weather is stormy.
GC (1965-1986), where the bird is unnamed and whose illustration
in B.N., fr. 14969, f. 37, showing birds with fish in their beaks,
carries the legend "le oysel ke mangue le bon peison", adds that
its flesh is like that of a heather hare. The non-Physiologus details
of its appearance in PB (III, 208) remove the bird from the realm
of precise ornithology: it is not big but is spotted with various
colors; its head, beak, and feet are like an eagle's; its body is
that of a peacock, and its neck and tail like a falcon's.
The drawings of the coot are usually an uninteresting portrayal
of a bird on water or by a nest.
c RA N E.
grus; grue.
Cranes follow one another in lettered order.47 They fly high to

see more easily the lands they seek. The leader corrects his band
with a shrill voice, and when he becomes hoarse, another succeeds
him. At night cranes take turns keeping watch, the watchman hold
47 The Aviarium (i.39) does not cite here, as does Isidore (xii.7.14), a
line from Lucan's Pharsalia (v.716) which would clarify what is meant by
"ordine litterato" : "Et turbata perit dispersis littera pinnis". In its context
this is translated: "...at the beginning of their flight they [the cranes] describe
various chance-taught figures; but later when a loftier wind beats on their
outspread wings, they combine at random and form disordered packs, until
the letter is broken and disappears as the birds are scattered". (Loeb transla
tion). A note to this passage in the Loeb Classical Library Edition (p. 292)
states: "Palamedes was said to have invented the alphabet by copying the
figures formed by flocks of cranes in the sky".
ing pebbles in his raised foot and thus being prevented from sleep
ing. Their clamor With age they become black. To
is a warning.
this description as found in the Aviarium (i.39) CUL adds others.
The notice here begins by repeating Isidore that the name grus
comes from the sound of the bird's voice. To act as ballast in a
strong wind cranes swallow sand and carry small stones. When one
bird becomes tired, it is held up by the others until it recovers.
Most details in these accounts can be found in Pliny (x.23.30;
x.29.42), Solinus (10.12-16), and Aristotle (ix 614b 18), who omits
reference to the role of the stone but speaks of the leader's keeping
watch. This is the only trait carried over to PB's bestiary (II, 142),
where it is said that the pebble prevents the guard from standing
firmly and thus going to sleep.
The characteristic pose of cranes as they are portrayed in the
illustrations for both Latin and French bestiaries is that of the sleep
ing birds with their guardian holding a stone in his upraised foot
(Pl. Ill, Fig. 2).
CROCODILE.
crocodilus, cocodrillus; cocodrille, cocatris.
Bestiaries of the Second Family contain two rather similar notices

on the Crocodile, one between the chapters on the Leucrota and
the Manticora and the other in the section on Fish. H (ii.8) repeats
Isidore's etymology (xii.6.19), which states that the crocodile gets
its name from crocus, its "saffron color". It is a four-footed animal,
born in the Nile, living on land by day and in the water at night.
It is generally twenty cubits long, and is armed with cruel teeth
and claws. The hardness of its skin is such that its back is not
hurt when struck by stones. After eating a man it always weeps.
It is the only animal to move the upper part of its mouth and hold
the lower part immobile. A person is made beautiful by smearing
the dung of this animal on the face until sweat washes it away.
H (iii.55) adds that the serra or sawfish can cut the crocodile's
stomach.
Much of this account is in Pliny (viii.25.37), although before
him Herodotus (ii.68) and Aristotle (i 492b 24) had mentioned the
peculiar movement of the crocodile's jaw. The strange effect that
this statement had on some of the illustrations of the crocodile will
be later evident. results of applying crocodilea, a

The beneficial
substance found in the crocodile's intestines, is described in Pliny
(xxviii.8.28). The weeping crocodile is spoken of by Asterius, bishop
of Amasenus about 400 A.D., in a sermon entitled In principium
jejuniorum.** He asks his listeners if they are imitating the croco
dile, who weeps when he captures a man not because he is penitent
but because the head is lacking in flesh and not suitable for food.
The French versions in their chapter on the Hydrus both repeat
tradition and show fresh imagination in describing this creature
unseen by the authors. PT (703-718) cites and translates much of
Isidore. GC (1651-1684) believes that the crocodile somewhat re
sembles an ox and it appears thus in the illustrations. As for the
ointment which removes wrinkles from the face, he says that several
people still use it,
Mes puisque la suor sorvent,

Sachez, que nul preu ne lor tent. (1683-1684)
The only consistency in the portrayal of the crocodile is that

it usually has four legs; beyond that point the artist's fantasy is
at play. The first surprise apparent in the early twelfth century
Bodl., Laud Misc. 247, f. 152v. is that the head of the animal
swallowing the hydrus is upside down.49 The scene usually repre
sented in the first chapter is that of the crocodile swallowing a man
(PL III, Fig. 1). Other interpretations of this exotic beast deserve
48 Migne, Patr. Gr., XL, Col. 388.

49Druce, who made a study of illustrations of the crocodile and remarked
on this feature in French manuscripts, said: "This feature does not, as far
as I know at present, occur in any English bestiary". See George C. Druce,
"The Symbolism of the Crocodile in the Middle Ages", Archaeological
Journal, LXVI 318. His explanation for this peculiarity is that the
(1909),
artist might have been following an expression used by Pliny (viii.25.38) when
describing how crocodiles are hunted by the race of men known as the Ten-
tyritae. The words applied to the crocodile are "hiantibus resupino capite ad
morsum" ("faucibus" being understood), which correctly rendered would be
"with its head turned back and jaws agape for biting". According to Druce
the word resupino is also used in the sense of "reversed", and it perhaps was
in this sense that the artist interpreted it (P1. V, Fig. 2a). This seems a likely
explanation also for the appearance in some manuscripts (among others
Camb., Corpus Christi Coll. 53, [Pl. V, Fig. 2b]) of the crocodile lying on
its back while a winged hydrus disappears down its throat.
mention here as examples of a certain type of mediaeval inventive

ness. In B.M., Sloane 3544, f. 11 a finely dressed lady apparently
is collecting from a lionlike animal. The crocodile is an
crocodilea
extraordinarily long donkey lying in water and surrounded by fish
in Bodl., Douce 88, f. 12v., and a winged, cock-headed creature
staring at its human victim in B.N., lat. 14429, f. 110v.50 Finally
in Camb., Gonville and Caius 372, f. 11 a small naked rider whips
a running animal covered with scales. French illustrations also show
wide variations.
CROW.
comix.
A chapter on the crow is not found in all Latin bestiaries, and

never in French bestiaries. Y (40), beginning with a verse from the
Septuagint, "Hieremias propheta testatur quoniam: Sedisti sicut
cornicola deserta" (Jer. 3:2), says that the crow belongs to one
male only. If he should die, the female does not take another mate.
The monogamy of the crow is attested by the third century A.D.

writer Athenaeus (Deipnosophistae x.394b), who cites Aristotle's
comments on the ring-dove, which lives in solitary bereavement
when its mate dies, as does the crow. Plutarch in his Bruta ratione
uti (v.989A) says that Penelope's chastity was surpassed nine times
by the female crow.
H (iii.35) omits entirely any reference to the crow's fidelity, and
copies Isidore (xii.7.44). The crow is a long-lived bird called among
the Latins by its Greek name corone. Augurs say that it reveals
ambushes and foretells the future, but it is very wrong to believe
that God entrusts his foresight to crows! By their voice they are
said to predict rain (Virgil's Georgics i.388 is here cited).
A dark colored bird suffices for depicting the crow in most
manuscripts.
50
The influence of the spelling doubtless accounts for the small illus
tration in B.N., fr. nouv. acq. 13521, f. 25v. (PB) of the coc codrille, where
a cock with a serpent's tail (the usual way of portraying the basilisk) ap
proaches a dog.
DIAMOND and MAGNET.
adamas, lapis adamantinus, lapis magnis; adamas, diamant, aimant.
Becausethere was an eventual mingling of the properties and

the names for the diamond and the magnet, the two are here treated
together. In Y
(24) the diamond is said not to fear iron or keep
the smell of smoke. If found in a house, neither a demon nor other
harm can arrive, and whoever possesses a diamond can overcome
man and beast. In the second chapter on the Diamond (47) the
stone is said to exist in the East, where it does not shine by day
but is found by night. The diamond is so called because it over
comes everything.51 The magnet (46) supports iron.
The allegory contains the Latin (or French) of the
generally
Septuagint version of Amos 7.7 : "Vidi virum stantem super murum
adamantinum et in manu eius lapidem adamantem in medio populi
Israel" (B-Is 36). The diamond is Christ while the Eastern (orien-
tis) mountain is God from whom all things come (oriuntur). Christ
hid his descent from the celestial powers and came into the shadows
of this world to illumine it. Neither death nor the devil nor any
creature can prevail over Christ.
The diamond's being found only at night is thought by Well-
mann to be the result of a transference of a similar comment by
Epiphanius in the De gemmis concerning the carbuncle (av 9 p <*£)•"
The knowledge of the magnet's power of attraction is said to go
back to Democritus.53 The early Latin translation (Y) does not
mention, as do later versions, the power of the he-goat's blood to
dissolve the hard diamond, but such a statement is made by Jerome
in his commentary on Amos,54 where he quotes Xenocrates, a
physician of the first century A.D. whose superstitious means of
curing diseases were borrowed from Democritus.
In PT (2894-2922), under the name adamas, the stone is said
to be split by goat's blood, to attract iron, and to glow by night
on a mountain in the East. GC (3333-3362), containing the same
mixture of traits, adds that with the fragments of diamonds one
51The relationship between the name of the stone and its function is
clearer in the Greek (32) : dW)ia; ?s \iy*xa.\ oti itavta 8a(iaCei.
52 Wellmann,
op. cit., pp. 87-88.
53 Ibid., p. 88.
51 Migne, Patr. Lat., XXV, Col. 1073.
can cut gems, iron, and steel. The old belief in the stone's ability
to avert evil is also recorded. These characteristics are all found in
B-Is (36), H (ii.34), Isidore (xvi. 13.2,3) and, among others in anti
quity, Pliny (xxxvii.4.15). PB (IV.65) retains the simple account
of the invincible diamond shining in the night.
An interesting variety of illustrations portrays the attributes and
significance of the diamond (the magnet does not appear), from a
shell-like object atop a mound (Bodl. 602, f. 32v.) and Christ upon
a mountain (Bodl., Douce 167, f. 11), to the lively miniatures of GC,
where miners wield pick-axes (B.M., Cott. Vesp. A. vii, f. 27v.) and
a hooded man drops a diamond in a dish of goat's blood (Camb.,
Fitzwilliam Mus. J. 20, f. 67v.).
DOG.
canis; chien.
According to H (ii.17) there are several kinds of dogs: some

for hunting wild beasts, some for hunting birds, some for guarding
sheep, and others which watch over their master's house and prop
erty. They are said to be unable to live without men. A certain
king, captured and held by his enemies, was rescued by a mass
movement of his dogs. Friends of a slain man did not know whom
to blame for the crime, but a dog disclosed the slayer in the midst
of a crowd. A dog cures his wounds by licking, and a young dog
bound to the patient is supposed to cure internal wounds. He eats
little and returns to his vomit. When crossing a river and holding
some food in his mouth, the dog sees his shadow; hoping to have
the other piece of meat and opening his mouth, he loses what he
holds. CUL begins with Isidore's etymology (xii.2.25), which says
that canis comes from the Greek xu«>v; some, however, think it
is from canor, the "sound" of barking.
The anecdotes recorded in H are amplified in CUL, where it
is specified that it was a king of the Garamantes who was rescued
by his dogs. This and similar manuscripts include references to
Jason's dog, who died from hunger after his master's death, to King
Lysimachus' dog, who threw himself on the king's funeral pyre, and
to the loyalty of a Roman dog who followed his owner to prison
and then tried to support his corpse in the Tiber. These accounts
are all drawn from Pliny (viii.40.61), as is the reference to the lycisci,
the offsprings of the wolf and dog. PB (IV.75) in general follows
the less detailed chapter of H.
The Latin bestiaries often devote numerous scenes to the dog

as in B.M., Harl. 3244, f. 44v. ff., where six illustrations appear.
Among these are a dog standing by a drowsing shepherd, dogs
chasing stags and rabbits, a dog howling over the pierced body of
his master while another leaps at the neck of a standing man, and
two dogs attacking and dragging the porter of a castle in the
presence of a crowned king. A small illustration of PB (Montpellier
H. 437, f. 247v.) shows a dog with meat in its mouth crossing
water.
DOVE.
columba; colum, coulon.
Y (48) begins with the words of Saint John on the descent of

the Spirit of God like a dove (John 1 : 32). The various colors of
doves are then enumerated with special attention given to the red
dove. B (31) says that the red dove rules over all and that it is this
one which gathers the others into the dovecot.
The allegory perpetuated in the French bestiaries is that found
in B, where it is recorded that God sent his Son in the form of a
dove to gather mankind together in his holy church. Just as the
dove has many colors, so were there divers manners of speaking
through the laws and the prophets. Briefly, the colors and their
meanings are: red, the predominant color because Christ redeemed
man with his blood; black, obscure sermons; speckled, diversity
of the twelve prophets: air colored, Elisha, who was snatched up
through the air; ashen, Jonah preaching in hair shirt and ashes;
gold, the three boys who refused to worship the golden image;
white, John the Baptist and the whiteness of baptism; stephanite,
Stephen, the first martyr.
The first eleven chapters of the Aviahum relate the dove and
its parts to Christian dogma or institutions, as for instance Chapter
V, which is entitled "A comparison of doves having red feet to the
Church". Chapter XI, however, lists ten "properties" or attributes
of the dove : its song is a mournful plaint ; it lacks gall ; it con
tinually kisses; it flies in flocks; it does not live from plunder; it
collects the better seeds ; it does not feed on corpses ; it nests in
the holes of rocks; it sits on streams in order to see the shadow
of the hawk, which it can then quickly avoid ; and it has twin young.
Most of these traits are found in CUL.
(v 544b If.) mentions various types of doves, and

Aristotle
Athenaeus (Deipnosophistae ix.394) adds their colors. The prom
inence of the red dove can perhaps be traced to a tale told in
this same passage of Athenaeus and more specifically in Aelian
(iv.2). On Mount Eryx in Sicily is celebrated the festival of the
Embarkation when Aphrodite is said to leave for Libya. At this
time the doves, which are sacred to this goddess, disappear. After
nine days a red dove flies forth from the sea and the others follow.
The inhabitants then celebrate the festival of the Debarkation. The
hawk's attack on the dove, but not the water episode, is elaborated
in Aristotle (ix 620a 24).
PT (2389-2396) cites Isidore (xii.7.61) as saying that one dove
attracts others to the dovecot, but this is not to be found in Isidore.
In PB (III, 275) only the colors and their significance are given.
The portrayal of the dove separate from its appearance on the
limbs of the Peridexion tree is a disappointing sight.
DRAGON.
draco; dragon.
The dragon, the greatest of all serpents or animals on earth, is

drawn from its hole into the air, which it stirs and causes to shine.
Crested, it has a small mouth and an open tube through which both
air enters and its tongue stretches out. Its strength is not in its teeth
but in its tail, which harms by lashing. Its venom is harmless, but
what is caught in its coils is killed. Not even the size of the elephant
avails, for the dragon hides around the paths where the elephant
usually walks, and binding the elephant's legs with its tail, it destroys
by suffocating. Dragons live in Ethiopia and India.
This passage from H (ii.24) is very similar to that of Isidore
(xii.4.4,5) beginning with the word Draco maior, which many of the
later manuscripts copied. The crested dragon which kills the ele
phant is recorded by Pliny (viii.1 1.1 1-13) and Solinus (25.10-13), and
it is the latter who describes its mouth and powerful tail (30.15).
Pliny had noted that the dragon was destitute of venom (xxiv.4.20).
GC (2221-2238) is the only French bestiary to have a major
chapter on the dragon, the others only speaking of it in connection
with the enmity existing between it and the elephant. (Pl. Ill,
Fig. 4a.)
The details of the illustrations of the dragon vary, as might be
expected, but it always has at least two feet, wings, and a long tail.
It is often shown entwined around the elephant. The legend of the

illustration in B.M., Harl. 3244 (Pl. Ill, Fig. 4b) reads : "De dracone
ignivomo: Qui se in aerem iaculatur ut ipsum facit choruscare."
DROMEDARY. '
dromedarius.
H's short notice (iii.21), taken from Isidore (xii.1.36), says that
the dromedary is a type of camel but smaller and swifter, whence
its name, for in Greek dromos (»pdiio<;) means "race" and "speed".
It can cover a hundred or more Roman miles in a day. The drome
dary chews its cud.
Usually drawn with two humps, a humpless dromedary in Camb.,
Trinity College R.14.9, f. 99 nonchalantly crosses its forelegs. The
artist of Bodl. 764, f. 45v. took the subject of the dromedary as an
occasion to portray what must be the Magi astride their mounts.
DUCK.
anas.
i
Isidore's etymology (xii.7.51) is used by H (iii.36), which repeats

that the anas, "duck," takes its name from its assiduitas, "constancy,"
in swimming. Certain ducks are called germanae (Isidore's spelling)
because they nourish others more. Pontic ducks feed on the poison
of the sea and are not suitable for human sustenance. It is also
thought that the duck gives the goose (anser) its name because the
latter, although it lives on land, swims continuously.
A reference to the duck in Pliny (xxv.2.3) notes that the blood
of the ducks of Pontus is used as an ingredient in antidotes since
they derive their nourishment from poisons.
Illustrations do no more than portray a recognizable duck.
EAGLE.
aquila; aigle, aille.
Latin texts begin with a quotation from Psalm 102 : 5 (Vulgate) :

"Renovabitur ut aquilae iuventus tua." Since the following account
has no parallel in ancient literature, it is believed that its formation
was influenced by this citation." When the eagle grows old, its eyes
are covered with mist and its wings become heavy. It seeks a
fountain, then flies above it into the region of the sun where its
wings are burned and the mist consumed. Descending, the eagle
plunges three times into the fountain and is wholly renewed. DC
and TH also say that with age the bird's upper beak grows so that
it hinders its eating. After the eagle strikes it against a stone, the
beak is broken and the bird can eat again. Pliny (x.3.4) mentions
the growth of the beak but offers no solution for its diminution, and
Aristotle (ix 619a 16) states that the bird dies of starvation.
The Aviarium (i.56) and B-Is (8) repeat Isidore (xii.7.10) in
deriving the eagle's name ab acurmne, "from the sharpness," of
its eyes. When the bird flies high above the sea, it can see fish in
the water below and, descending like a whirlwind, captures its prey.
This bird can gaze directly at the sun, and it holds up its young by
the claws to see those which keep their vision motionless and are
thus worthy of their kind. The offspring which turn their eyes away
are cast out as degenerate. CUL here adds that the coot rescues the
abandoned eagle and raises it. In Aristotle's account of the sea-
eagle (ix 620a 2) a similar story of the testing of the young is found.
Among others, Ambrose (Hexaemeron v. 18.61) tells of the coot's
nourishing the rejected eaglet.
FT(2013-2060) copies B-Is, and GC (657-1704) includes the
sun-gazing test to discover the true offspring, if by chance the eggs
in the nest had earlier been changed. The beak-sharpening is re
corded first in French in G (828-848). In addition to the traditional
account the strength of the eagle's eyes is such in PB's long version
(II,164) that they hatch eggs merely by looking at them. After the
eggs are laid, the eagle and its mate fly to separate trees and watch
the nest for forty days and fast until the eggs open. This addition
probably has a Biblical connotation.
The allegory as presented in B states that the man who is clad
in old clothing and the eyes of whose heart are covered with mist
should seek the spiritual fountain of God. Unless man be baptized
and raise the eyes of his heart to the Lord who is the sun of justice,
his youth will not be renewed. G adds that Christ is the rock on
which the eagle sharpens its beak. Finally PT links the eagle with
Christ, who came from on high to conquer men's souls as the eagle
catches fish. The eagle looks at the sun just a Christ looks directly
55 Lauchert, op. cit., p. 10.

at his Father, and as the eagle lifts its young toward the sun, angels
carry souls to God who receives only the worthy.
In the Latin versions more than one scene is usually illustrated
as in Bodl. 764, f. 57v., where one eagle flies to the sun, another
plunges into water, and a third holds a fish. Elsewhere (Pl. Ill, Fig. 5)
the eagle tests its young and dips into the fountain.
ELEPHANT and MANDRAKE.
elephas; elefant, olifant.
Of all accounts in both Latin and French bestiaries that of the

elephant is one of the longest, not only because of the numerous
traits attached to this animal but because its connection with the
mandrake is often included. For the earlier Latin version that of
Y (20) will be summarized since it is more inclusive than B (33).
The elephant is reluctant to mate, but if offspring are desired
he goes to the East near Paradise where the mandrake tree is found.
The female eats first, followed by the male, and immediately she
conceives. At the time of birth the female goes to a pool, which she
enters up to her udders and there gives birth. B's explanation is
clearer here : if birth were out of water, the elephant's enemy, the
dragon, would devour the young.56 The male stands guard to trample
the dragon to death should it come. B states that the odor of the
elephant's burning skin or bones will expel serpents from any place.
Y contains yet another trait. Since the elephant has no knee joint,
if he falls down it is impossible for him to rise. Thus he sleeps
leaning against a tree. When a hunter wishes to capture him, he
it,
cuts the tree partially so that when the elephant leans against both
fall. The fallen elephant cries out, but no large elephant can lift
him. A small elephant must come and raise him with his little trunk.
The amount of material so large that necessitates two
is
it
chapters in H (ii.25,26), but only one in B-Is (34). The first chapter
repeats the earlier Latin the second begins with incomplete etymol
;
ogies from Isidore (xii.2.14-16). The elephant so called in Greek

is
(iUyai) because of the great size of his body." Among the Indians
56 Bern 318 explains the birth in water as allowing the young elephant
by swimming to reach the mammae of its mother.
57
This elucidated by Isidore, who says that the elephant has the form.
is
of mountain, for Xdtso; "mountain" in Greek.

is
a
he is called barrus, whence the trumpeting is called barritus. His

teeth are of ivory and his snout is called a promuscis because it
collects food for his mouth. It is like a snake, fortified with a wall
of ivory.58 The ancient Romans thought elephants were Lucanian
oxen-, oxen because they saw no animal bigger, Lucanian because in
Lucania Pyrrhus first opposed them in battle against the Romans.
The Persians and Indians place wooden towers on them and fight
with javelins as if from a wall.59 They go in herds, salute men with
whatever movements they can, and flee a mouse. The female bears
her young for two years, only giving birth once. Their life span is
three hundred years, and though they formerly were found in India
and Africa, now they exist only in India.
At the end of this chapter H and B-Is cite Isidore for his infor
mation on the mandrake (xvii.9.30). It is named mandragora because
it has mala, "apples", that are sweet smelling and the size of filberts.
In Latin it is therefore called "earth apple", and the poets call it
manshaped because the root has the form of a man. Its rind is
mingled with wine and given to those whose bodies are to be operat
ed on so that asleep they will feel no pain. There is a female
mandrake with leaves similar to lettuce and fruit like plums; the
male has leaves like a beet.
In the moralization the two elephants symbolize Adam and Eve
who were in Paradise before Eve tasted the forbidden fruit and
urged Adam to do likewise. They were then expelled into this world,
which is like a pond because of its fluctuations and its countless
pleasures and passions. Finally the incarnate Christ came and led
mankind out of this lake of misery. The burning skin or bones of
the elephant represent the works or commandments of God, which
purify the heart and allow no evil to enter.
58According to George C. Druce, "The Elephant in Medieval Legend

and Art", Archaeological Journal, LXXVI (1919), p.5, n.4, this is a mutilated
passage from Lucretius ii.537:
in genere anguimanos elephantos, India quorum

milibus e multis vallo munitur eburno,
in the breed of snake-handed elephants, which

in their thousands provide an ivory palisade about
India, (Loeb trans.).
59 For a
discussion of the elephant and its tower see William S. Heckscher,
"Bernini's Elephant and Obelisk", Art Bulletin, XXIX (1947), 158-65.
Early accounts of the many traits attributed to the elephant are

numerous. Ambrose, for instance, refers at length to the elephant
in his Hexaemeron. Pliny (viii.5.5) speaks of the modesty of this
animal which never couples except in secret. However, it is Well-
mann's belief that the tale of eating the mandrake near Paradise is
a direct borrowing of the story of the Fall of Man, which could have
originated only with a Jewish writer.60 The enmity of the dragon

and the elephant is described in Pliny (vii.12.12), where its cause is
attributed to the serpent's desire in the hot summer for the cold
blood of the elephant. Although Aristotle 498a) insists that the
(ii
elephant does not sleep standing and that its back knees can bend,
Diodorus Siculus (iii.27) says that the Ethiopians saw the tree of the
sleeping elephant, and Strabo (xvi.4.10) states that its leg has
a
continuous, unbending bone. Most of H's and B-Is's statements are
based on the first twelve chapters of Pliny's Book VIII, and some
of the remarks on the mandrake are found in Book XXVUM.HM50)
which Pliny largely took from Dioscorides.
The French accounts of the elephant are lengthy and contain
many of the traits mentioned above, although PT alone in includ
ing the episode of the sleeping elephant and the tree. In describing is
the elephant's trunk GC uses an interesting expression which must
reflect his interpretation of its manner of functioning.
L'olifant est mult corporu.
Quant vent en un pre herbu

il
Hors de sa boche ist un boel,61

Od quei se pest el prael.
il
(3289-3292).
60 Wellman, op. cit., p. 41.

61
Boel means "gut" or "intestine", from the Latin botellus, "little sau
sage". Evidently GC thought that the trunk could be ejected at will to aid
the elephant in eating. Ambrose long ago gave a reason for this appendage
(Hexaemeron vi.5.31): "Helephantus autem etiam prominentem promoscidem
habet, quia, cum sit eminentior cunctis, inclinare se ad pascendum non
potest".
In the Provencal poem by Richart de Berbezill, Atressi com I'olifanz, are
the following lines:
Atressi com I'olifanz

Que, quan chai, no's pot levar,
Tro que 1'autre ab lor cridar,
De lor voz lo levon sus,...
The word voz in the last line of the quotation has been thought to mean
"voice", but seems more probable that this also form of botellus,
is
it
referring to the small elephant's lifting the fallen elder by means of its trunk.
In his section on the mandrake PT (1569-1612), after repeating

Isidore's description of the plant, explains how to gather it. A dog
that has been starved for three days is attached to the plant, bread
is shown to him, and he is called from afar. The dog pulls out the
root and dies from the shriek which it utters. Man must close his
ears to its mortal shriek. From this root comes valuable medicine
which cures all illnesses except death. In G's short account (381-404,
439-443) the mandrake is called mandegloire. No mention is made
of the use of the dog in GC (3297-3332); it is therefore odd that
the only French illustrations of the dog tied to a human-headed root
are seen in manuscripts of GC (B.N., fr. 14969 and 14970). The bark
of the mandrake boiled in water is good for sickness, and when
any part of the body hurts, the crushed plant should be applied to
that spot.
The account of obtaining the mandrake by means of a dog which
is killed in the process is probably taken from a similar story told
by Josephus (Bel. lud. vii.180) about a plant called baaras which
grows near the Red Sea, and of another told by Aelian (xiv.27) about
a plant named cynospastus or aglaophotis."
Illustrating the elephant's numerous attributes apparently intrigued
the mediaeval artist, but apart from creating the general outline
of this large animal, details are often presented in a curious way.
That these animals had a trunk (of what form is often puzzling) and
tusks (originating exactly where is also a problem) is often the limit
of characterization. Later manuscripts picture the elephant carrying
an elaborate castle (Pl. IV, Fig. lb), while earlier ones are more
varied in their scenes.
Bern 318, f. 19 and 19v. shows an elephant
wrapping its trunk around a tree representing a mandrake, at the
base of which flows a small stream, the River of Paradise. On the
ground lies a coiled serpent. The little elephant lifting its fallen elder
is also seen. The early twelfth century Bodl., Laud Misc 247
(PL IV, Fig. la) depicts the elephants and the mandrakes as well as
the birth in the water. Although the mandrake appears occasionally in
the earlier Latin manuscripts either as a human form or as a human-
headed plant, the picturesque portrayal of its gathering appears only
62 A
convenient list of the properties of the mandrake among the ancients
is found in Charles B. Randolph, "The Mandragora of the Ancients in Folk-
Lore and Medicine", Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciencies, XL (1905), 487-537. For a more general history see C. J. S. Thomp
son, The Mystic Mandrake (London, 1934).
in manuscripts of GC (PL IV, Fig. 4) and in the drawings of Queen

Mary's Psalter.
FIRE STONES.
lapides piroboli, lapides igniferi, terroboli, cheroboli ;" turrobolen,

dens perres.
According to Y (3) and B (3) fire stones, which are found in the
East, are male or female. When far apart, there is no fire; but if
they approach one another, a fire is ignited that burns everything.
French accounts are similar.
The moral of this is that man should flee woman lest the good
that Christ has placed in him be consumed. FT specifies that because
love burns when men and women are close, monks and nuns are
kept apart. He also states that Samson and Joseph were tempted
by women with divers results.
Although sexual differences between stones were not unknown
to ancient writers,'4 the above description of the fire stones is not
recorded other than in the Physiologus.
Illustrations of fire stones usually show the bust of a man and
a woman emerging from a mound surrounded by flames, or a couple
holding stones.
FOX.
vulpis; vurpil, gupil.
The fox is a crafty and deceitful animal for when it is hungry

and finds nothing to eat, it rolls in red earth to give the appearance
of being covered with blood. It then feigns death by lying on the
ground and holding its breath. Birds, seeing the fox's swollen and
stained appearance and its tongue hanging out, believe it dead and
sit upon it. The fox immediately snatches and devours them (B 15 ;
Y 18).
H (ii.5) and B-Is (15), following Isidore (xii.2.29), say that vulpis,
"fox", comes from volupes, "twisty-foot", because the fox never
M H (ii.19) says that the Greeks call these stones "chirobolos, id est
manipulos".
** Cf. Pliny (xxxvi.21.39).
runs in a straight line but in circles. The capture of the birds is

then recounted.
The fox in the allegory is said to resemble the devil, who pretends
to be dead for those who live by the flesh until he has them in his
jaws; the devil is in truth dead for those who are perfect in faith.
References to the cunning of the fox seem to derive more from
the Bible than from Greek or Roman authors.65 There exists, how
ever, a similar story of the fox's catching birds in Oppian's Halieu-
tica (ii.107). In Gregory's Moralia mention is made to the winding
course of the fox."
The influence of the Roman de Renart can be seen at the begin
ning of GC:
Assez avez 01 fabler,

Coment Renart soleit embler
Des gelines Costeins de Noes. (1307-1309)
as well as in the title to PB (II,207), Li golpis Reinart.

Over the centuries the picture of the supine fox and the careless
birds has scarcely changed (Pl. IV, Fig. 2). Less common is the scene
in B.M., Harl. 3244, f. 43v. where a fox with a fowl in its mouth is
pursued by a club-wielding peasant.
FROG.
rana.
Y's chapter (44) is to my knowledge found nowhere else in this

form in Latin bestiaries. Land-frogs are not troubled in the summer
by heat, but they die if rain catches them. If water-frogs see the
sun's rays and are heated, they dip into a fountain.
GOAT.
dorcas, caper, caprea; chevre, buc.
The goat likes high mountains and pastures in valleys. It sees

long distances and can tell whether men are hunters or travelers
(B 20, or as Y 21 says, whether the man is approaching with harm-
e5 Sbordone, op. cit., p. 58.

•• Migne, Patr. Lat., LXXVI, Col. 96.
ful or friendly intentions). H (ii.13) and B-Is say that the caper,
"goat", is so called because it captet, "seeks", wild places, though
some say it is from the crepitus, "cracking", of its shin-bones. The
Greeks call the wild goat dorcas because it sees keenly.67 These
derivations are from Isidore (xii.1. 15-16).
Although GC moralizes at length about good works, both his
allegory and that of PT stem from parts of B, which says that like
the goat, Christ loves high mountains ; that is, prophets, angels, and
patriarchs. As the goat pastures in the valley, so does Christ in the
church, where good works and alms are his food. The keen sighted-
ness of the goat signifies God's omniscience and his perception of
the devil's deceits.
The French bestiaries follow the Latin closely, but PT (581-592),
instead of stating the purpose of the man whom the goat sees, em
ploys a circumlocution :
[the goat] Tres bien set purpenser

Se il deit luinz aler. (589-590)
Two depict the principal traits of the goat: either the

scenes
pasturing, where the goat often stands against a low tree and eats
from its leaves (B.M., Harl. 3244, f. 42), or the ability of the goat
to distinguish a man's purpose from a distance as in Morgan 832,
f. 6v., where a tufted goat stands on rocks while at his side a hunter
blows his horn and holds a leashed dog.
HE-GOAT and KID. — hircus, haedus. H
(iii.16) devotes a chap
ter to the lascivious he-goat, which looks askance from lust, whence
comes its name since according to Suetonius hirquii are the angles
of the eyes.68 Its nature is so hot that the diamond which neither
fire nor iron can break is dissolved by goat's blood. Haedi or hoedi,
"kids", are called from edendo, "eating", for they are fat when little
67 In his homily on the Song of Solomon 2:9, which is given as "Similis

est fratruelis meus capreae, aut hinnulo cervorum in montibus Bethel",
Origen explains the word dorcas: "...caprea, id est dorcas, acutissime videt.
...dicimus quia dorcas, hoc est caprea secundum eorum physiologiam qui
de naturis omnium animalium disputant, ex insita sibi vi nomen acceperit.
Ab eo enim quod acutius videat. .. dorcas appellata est." Migne, Patr. Gr.,
XIII, Col. 56.
68 This
statement is from one of the lost works of Suetonius and is
cited in Servius' commentary on Virgil's Third Eclogue 8), and in Isidore.
(1.
See C. L. Roth, C. Suetoni Tranquilli (Leipzig, 1924), Fasc. II, p. 302.

and of an agreeable taste, though others say that the / of foedus,

"foul", was changed to h.
Illustrations of the he-goat merely portray a bearded goat with
long horns.
GOOSE.
anser.
The goose makes known the night watches by its repeated

cackling. No other animal smells the odor of man as it does, and
by its crying the ascent of the Gauls to the Capitol was detected.
Of the two kinds of geese, the wild fly high and in order; the
domestic live in villages, clamor, and maim themselves with their
beak (Aviarium i.46). The first part of this notice is taken from
Isidore (xii.7.52) whose description is not unlike that of Ambrose's
Hexaemeron (v. 13.44) in its mention of the role of the geese during
the attack by the Gauls. The sentence on the goose's sense of smell
is copied from Servius (Comm. in Aeneid viii.652), who attributes
his information to Pliny although it is not now found there.
Usually a recognizablegoose is presented, but Bodl. 764, f. 83v.
depicts a scene in which a wrathful goose cackles before a fox
holding a limp chicken in its jaws.
GRIFFIN.
gryphes; gripon.
H (iii.4)
describes the griffin as a winged, four-footed animal
born in the Hyperborean mountains, which has a lion's body with
wings and a face like an eagle. It is hostile toward the horse. Live
men are torn to pieces by the griffin or are carried to its nest.
Herodotus first mentions the griffin (iii.116) but does not de
scribe it. Pliny (vii.1.2; x.49.70) speaks of it twice, once calling it
a winged monster noted for digging gold from mines, and again in
his chapter on fabulous birds noting that griffins come from Ethio
pia and have long ears and a hooked beak. Isidore's account (xii.2.
17) of their birthplace in the Hyperborean regions and their enmity
toward the horse is taken from Servius' commentary on Virgil's
eighth Eclogue (1. 27).
In PB (II,226) the griffin, designated as a bird living in the In

dian desert which it leaves only to find food, has strength so great
that it can carry a live ox and fly with it to its young.
The griffin is shown with a biting horse in Bodl. 764, f. llv.
(PL IV, Fig. 3) but often it appears holding a pig, a small boar, a
ram, or an ox in its fore claws. In the bestiary of the Westminster
Chapter Library, MS. 22, f. 25v. it holds the head of a prostrate
man. In spite of the PB text mentioning no leonine characteristics
in connection with the griffin, the drawing in Arsenal 3516, f. 205 v.
shows a typical eagle-lion but with empty claws.
HAWK.
accipiter.
A resume of Isidore's account (xii.7.55,56), beginning "Accipiter,

avis animo plus armata, quam ungulis", will be given first because
many later bestiaries have copied it rather than that of the Aviar-
ium. The hawk is more armed with determination than with claws,
having great courage in a small body. Its name comes from acci-
piendo, "taking", related to capiendo, "seizing", for it is a bird which
snatches greedily from other birds. On that account they call it
accipiter, that is, a "robber". The hawk is said to be harsh with its
young for when it sees them able to fly, it gives them no food, but
beats them with its wings and pushes them out of the nest. It thus
forces them while young to seek prey lest by chance they become
lazy adults.69
In the Aviarium (i.13-19), the first chapter devoted to the hawk
contains Gregory's commentary on Job 39:26, "Doth the hawk fly
by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?"70 Gregory
says that wild hawks loosen their old feathers by heating their
limbs in the warm wind, or if wind is lacking, they make the air
warm by beating so that with pores open either old feathers will
fall out or new ones will grow. The next chapter tells of the two
kinds of hawks : the wild, which catch and eat domestic birds, and
the tame, which catch wild birds and return them to their master.
In the remaining chapters (16-19) the use and training of hawks is
•• This latter information is found also in Ambrose's Hexaemeron

(v. 18.59).
79 Migne, Patr. Lat., LXXVI, Col. 623.
briefly described as a means of depicting the righteous life which

man should lead.
The hawk is sometimes portrayed on its perch, but more interest
ing are the contemporaryscenes of hunting such as that in Bodl. 764,
f. 76v. where a woman stands with a hawk upright on her hand
while a man arouses the bird by beating on what resembles a cym
bal. In a stream swim two ducks.
HEDGEHOG.71
herinacius, hericius, echinus; hericon.
B (13) that the hedgehog is said to have the appearance

states
of a suckling pig. It is wholly covered with quills. At harvest time
it goes into the vineyard, climbs a vine, and shakes the grapes to
the ground. After descending and rolling on the grapes so that they
become affixed to the quills, it takes the fruit to its young.72 Y (16)
adds that it resembles a ball. These descriptions are substantially
like Isidore's (xii.3.7), which B-Is (13) includes and which say that
the hedgehog is protected against danger by its quills. The moral-
izations all agree in declaring that man should care for his vineyard
and spiritual fruits lest the devil carry them off.
H contributes the information (ii.4) that this animal when cooked
is suitable for medicine. When the hedgehog senses a man, it rolls
into a ball and protects itself with its quills - and creaks like a cart !
To this CUL adds that the hedgehog is also called echinus (the
name of the sea-urchin). When it realizes that the north wind will
blow, it closes the northern of its lair's two breathing holes.
Plutarch (De soil. anim. 16.971F) mentions the hedgehog's man
ner of obtaining grapes and its ability to detect the direction of
the wind; however, the passage in CUL is identical with that in
Ambrose's Hexaemeron (vi.4.20). Pliny states that apples are the
fruit collected (viii.37.56), and Aelian (iii.10) designates figs.
There are almost no changes or additions in the French ac
counts except for the vacillation between the types of fruit. According
71 The explanation for the inclusion of the Hedgehog in the Physiologus

and its usual position as the chapter following that on the Siren and Ono-
centaur will be found in the notice on the Siren.
72 In recent years the Illustrated London News has contained an article
on the feasibility of the hedgehog's collecting fruit on its quills. See Maurice
Burton, "The Hedgehog and the Apples", ILN, Aug. 16, 1952, p. 264.
to GC (1113-1150) the hedgehog does not fear being taken by

another beast, for how could a beast devour him when he would
be so badly pricked? PB (II,198) adds a quaint note at the con
clusion : "Et tot dis quant il va cargies a ses faons, si va chantant".
Illustrations of the hedgehog are usually limited to its climbing
a tree or vine or rolling on fruit (PL V, Fig. 1). A less common
scene shows barking dogs attacking a bristling hedgehog (B.M.,
Royal 2 B. vii, f. 98).
HERCINIA.
hercinia.
This bird is named from the Hercynian forest in Germany, where

it is born. Its feathers so glow in the dark that they make a visible
path because of their brilliance (H iii.3 1 ; Isidore xii.7.31). The
hercinia is briefly mentioned by Pliny (x.47.67) who only says that
its feather shine at night like fire. It is Solinus (20.3) who enlarges
the account and makes the bird a beacon to travelers.
In Morgan 81, f. 51 v. the body of the hercinia is entirely covered
with thick gold leaf and gleams forth from the vellum page.
HERON.
herodius, fulica, ardea.
The early compilers of the Physiologus wavered as to the attri

butes of this bird, which partakes of traits assigned to both the
coot and the heron with the result that proper identification is
almost impossible." The presence of the herodius is due to one
of the Vulgate readings of Ps. 103:17 with which Y (27) begins:
"Herodion domus dux est eorum (hoc est fulice, in psalmo CIII)."74
This bird is wise above all others and does not seek numerous
resting places, but where it dwells it feeds. It does not eat carrion.
73 D'Arcy Thompson, op. cit., p. 102, equates the Greek IpmBio; for
the most part with the heron, but says that it is a difficult word of varying
and uncertain meaning.
74
Jerome (Migne, Patr. Lat., XXVIII) reads: "Ibi aves nidificabunt
milvo abies domus eius", and the A.V. (104:17): "as for the stork, the
fir trees are her home".
In B (22) this description is assigned to the fulica. Nowhere else

in antiquity is the herodius so described."
The ardea, "heron", is described in the Aviarium (i.47) as deriv
ing its name from ardua, "steep places", because of its lofty flight
(Isidore xii.7.21). It fears rain storms and flies above the clouds
to avoid a tempest. When the heron flies off, it signifies a storm. It
seeks its food in the water, but nests in high trees. The heron
defends its young in the nest with its beak lest they be carried off
by other birds. Some birds are white and others are ash colored.
A chapter on the heron does not appear in the section on Birds
in all of the Second and Third Family bestiaries. Among the Latin
writers who have mentioned the heron is Virgil, who in the first
Georgic 363) speaks of the bird fleeing before the onset of a
(1.
storm, and Lucan (Pharsalia v.555), who notes its lofty flight.
In Bodl. 764, 64v. the heron stands on the surface of the
f.
water, an eel in its beak.
HOOPOE.
hupupa, epopus; huppe.
(10) begins with two Biblical quotations: "Honora patrem

B
tuum et matrem tuam" (Ex. 20:12); "Qui maledixerit patri et

matri, morte moriatur" (Ex. 21:17). When the hoopoes' offspring
see their parents grow old with feeble wings and eyes covered
with mist, they pull out the old feathers, care for their eyes, and
warm them under their wings. Once the parents have recovered
they are grateful to their children, who tell them that in re
is
it
payment for the kindness done to them in their youth. The brief
moral that children should honor and care for their parents.
is
After this model family scene jarring note added by the

is
a
Aviarium (i.52) and B-Is (10), which have copied Isidore (xii.7.66).
Isidore's passage apparently derived from Jerome's commentary
is
on Zechariah where the hoopoe characterized as very

is
9,76
a
5
:
filthy crested bird which collects human dung and feeds on evil-
smelling excrement, dwelling in and around tombs.
it
Two ancient beliefs were fused in the account of the hoopoe.

Although Aelian (x.16) says that the bird was venerated among
» PW, op. cit., p. 1096.

'« Migne, Patr. Lat., XXV, Cols. 819-820.
the Egyptians for its love of its parents, this trait is usually as
sociated among the writers of antiquity with the stork. Aristotle
himself says : "It is a common story of the stork that the old birds
are fed by their grateful progeny" (ix 615b 23). In Aristotle mention
is also made of the hoopoe's constructing its nest out of human
excrement (ix 616b 1)."
While stressing the care of its parents, PT (2575-2604) omits all
reference to the bird's dirtiness, but does add, from Isidore, that
if the blood of a hoopoe is rubbed on a sleeping man, devils will
come and try to strangle him. In an attempt to reconcile the two
contrasting natures of the hoopoe, GC writes:
La hupe est un oisel vilein :

Son ni n'est pas corteis ne sein,
Ainz est fet de tai e d'ordure.
Mes mult sont de bone nature
Li oiselet, qui de li issent: (821-825)
G (989-1002) explains that the young lick the veils that have formed
over their aged parents' eyes. The illustrations of the hoopoe are
very similar; the young are shown pulling out the old feathers
and feeding their parents.
HORSE.
equus, caballus.
Unlike other extant manuscripts of the Physiologus of an early

date, Bern 318 contains a chapter on the Horse, which was omitted
by Cahier in his edition of this work. Miss Woodruff78 states that
the text is like Isidore's (xii. 1.42-48), in which certain phrases are
taken from Ambrose's Hexaemeron.™
77
In the to this passage D'Arcy Thompson remarks that the
footnote
nest is not made from human excrement, "but has a very offensive odour
arising from accumulated excrement, as well as from a peculiar secretion
of the bird. ... from this cause, and from the bird's seeking its food amidst
dung ('avis obsceno pastu', Plin. x.29.44), the hoopoe receives various char
acteristic epithets in countries where it abounds, e. g., Coq puant, Kothahn,
Mistvogel, Stinkvogel, etc."
78 Woodruff,
op. cit., p. 253.
r* Only one similarity has been located by me (Hexaemeron v.9.25).
In all of the expanded Latin bestiaries the chapter on the horse

is one of the longest, and because many of the details treat factual
points about the horse, only an incomplete resume will be given
here. According to Isidore the name caballus, "horse", is derived
from cavando, "making hollow", from the horse's hoofprint, though
others call the horse sonipes because it makes sound with its feet.
Horses are high-spirited, they scent war, they are stirred by the
sound of the trumpet for battle and are aroused by an excited voice
in racing. Grieved when they are defeated, they exalt in victory.
Certain of them recognize the enemy in battle and attack by biting.
Some know their masters and become disobedient if these are
changed; others will carry none but their masters and when they
are slain or are dying, the horses shed tears. Men who are to fight
infer the outcome of the battle from the horse's sorrow or joy. In
the centaur is mingled the nature of the horse and man. Isidore
lists the regions where horses live over fifty years, and states that
in Spain, Numidia, and France the span is thought to be shorter.
He concludes by defining the four qualities to be sought in a horse :
form, beauty, merit, and color.
The long chapter in H (iii.23) is preceded by an additional
etymology: equus is derived from aequus, "equal", because horses
are harnessed in two's or four's of equal size and they are coupled
for strength and for racing. Certain horses associated with famous
men are mentioned: Bucephalus and Alexander the Great; the
horse of Caius Caesar, which allowed none but its master to mount ;
a slain Scythian king's horse, which killed the victor by biting and
trampling; King Nicomedes' horse, which fasted to death after
the king died ; and finally a slain leader's horse, which killed itself
and the victorious Antiochus when he tried to mount. The horse's
lust can be destroyed by cutting its mane. On the forehead of the
newborn colt is found a poisonous substance called hippomanes
which is used in love potions. If it were immediately removed, the
mother would not suckle the colt. The healthier the horse the deeper
it immerses its nostrils while drinking. H then follows with a de
scription of the qualities and kinds of horses. Ultimately all of the
accounts including Solinus (45.5-18) take much from Pliny (viii.
42.64-66).
The illustration consists invariably of a single well-drawn horse.
HYDRUS, HYDRA, and ICHNEUMON.
hydrus, niluus, echinemon, hydra; ydrus, idre.
Although Y
(38) calls this animal niluus, the word appears
nowhere else, and hydrus is the name by which it is always known.
And because B-Is (19) includes Isidore's comments on both the
hydrus and the hydra (xii.4.22,23), eventual confusion arose concern
ing these serpents which were already none too clearly conceived,
with strange results ultimately appearing in some illustrations.
According to B (19) there is an animal in the Nile called a
hydrus (Y says it has the appearance of a dog) which is an enemy
of the crocodile. Upon seeing a crocodile sleeping with its mouth
open, the hydrus rolls in mud in order to glide more easily down
its jaws. It enters the crocodile'smouth, is swallowed, and having
torn the crocodile's viscera so that it dies, the hydrus comes out.
Allegorically the crocodile signifies death and the hell to which the
incarnate Christ descended and led out those imprisoned there.
Of the ichneumon Y (39) says that it is an enemy of the dragon.
When the dragon is seen, the ichneumon covers itself with mud,
closes its nostrils with its tail, attacks the dragon and kills it.
Much has been written on the hydrus, an animal hard to identify,
and the ichneumon with which it has sometimes been confused
because it was also the crocodile's enemy.80 Wellmann81 found that
the ichneumon has been called SX>.o;, "ichneumon"; 53po?, "water
snake"; Ivu^p;; , "otter"82 or "water snake". The Roman historian
Ammianus (xxii.15.19), after speaking of the tiny bird, the trochilus,
which tickles the crocodile's cheeks, writes of the enhydrus, ich-
neumonis genus, which enters the crocodile's mouth. Wellmann also
points out that OXXoz and IvuSpo; were the names in Asia Minor
for pharoah's rat or the mongoose. Aristotle (ix 612a 17) describes
the ichneumon plastering itself with mud when attacking the asp,
which is its usual opponent, but Strabo (xvii.1.39) includes its enmity
with the crocodile.
80
See Robin, op. cit., pp. 181-88 and Druce, "The Symbolism of the
Crocodile...", op. cit., 320-24.
81 Wellmann, op. cit., p. 14.
82 In Camb., Fitzwilliam Museum 254, f. 27v, in the chapter on the
crocodile and preceded by a section on the enydros, is a description begin
ning: "Est bestia quedam que vulgo luter dicitur..." The value of the otter's
pelt is mentioned and its picture is drawn.
H(ii.7) and B-Is copy Isidore, and besides telling of the hydras'
killing the crocodile, explain that it is a water serpent deriving its
name from 5 t m p , "water". Its bite causes a swelling called boa
sickness because it is cured by ox-dung, fimus bovis. The chapter
continues with an account of the many-headed dragon which dwelt
in the Lernaean swamps. When Hercules cut off one of its heads,
three came in its place. Isidore comments "Sed hoc fabulosum est"
because Hydra is known to be a place vomiting forth waters which
devastate the country-side, and when one passage is closed, others
burst forth, so Hercules dried this place with fire and closed the
passage. The French bestiaries show no deviation from B in their
description of the hydras which destroys the crocodile.
It is rare to see a hydras in any form other than with its tail
projecting from the crocodile's mouth and its head emerging from
the side of the same animal (PL V, Fig. 2 a and b).83 One of the
strangest pictures of the hydras is that in B.M., Harl. 3244, f. 62
where a horned and goateed serpent swims over the water while
a man with spear and shield sits in the prow of a nearby boat.8*
Sometimes the hydra has an illustration to itself like the five-headed
serpent in Morgan 81, f. 16; occasionally, however, the hydras-
402
hydra confusion appears as in Sion College L —'— f. 88v., where
L28
the animal coming forth from the bear-like crocodile's side has
three heads.
HYENA.
hyaena, hiena, yena; hyene, luvecerviere.
B (18) recounts that there is an animal which in Greek is called

hyaena and in Latin belua, "beast". According to the law it should
not be eaten for it is dirty.85 Jeremiah (12:9) is then quoted as
83
In the Icelandic Bestiary the hydrus is called a bird and so it is
pictured, with feathers in the crocodile's mouth and a bird's head appearing
from its side.
84 Druce, "The
Symbolism of the Crocodile...", op. cit., p. 323, sees here
the influence of Pliny's various references to the hydrus as a water snake,
and believes that man and serpent are seeking their common enemy, the
crocodile.
85 The hyena is not specifically mentioned, but cf. Lev. 1 1 : 27 and
Deut. 14:8.
"
saying, 'mea facta est'."8* The hyena
'Spelunca haenae' hereditas
is said to have two natures; it is sometimes male and sometimes
female (Y 37). To this B-Is adds from Isidore (xvi.15.25) that this
animal has a stone in its eye called hyena which, if held under the
tongue, will enable one to predict the future.
The allegories in general derive from B, which says that the
sons of Israel are like the hyena because first they served God and
then they adored idols. Omitting this, GC develops the idea of the
hyena's resembling untrustworthy, two-faced people. PT does not
contain the traditional allegory, but briefly states that the hyena
signifies an avaricious and lustful man whereas man should be
stable.
Many additions are found in H (ii.10) besides that of the two-
gendered animal. It is reported to live in the tombs of the dead
and to devour their bodies. Solinus (27.23-26) is quoted as saying
that the hyena circles houses at night uttering certain words and
is thought by the occupants to be a man. He who goes out is
eaten. After mentioning the hyena stone, H again cites Solinus as
maintaining that this stone is found in the stomach of the hyena's
young.87 CUL includes even more details about the hyena. Because
its spine is rigid, it must move its whole body in order to turn. If
a dog crosses the hyena's shadow, it loses its voice.88
Twice Aristotle refutes the notion that the hyena has two gen
ders, and accounts for this error with the observation that the
peculiar structure of the reproductive organs of the male and female •
could deceive a casual observer (De gen. an. iii 757a 6 ; HA vi 579b
15). That Aristotle's accuracy went unheeded is seen in the repe- /
tition of the same error a thousand years later. The added traits
credited to Solinus are found in Pliny (viii.30.44), who in his next
chapter (45) describes the corocotta.
Jerome's version differs from the Vetus Latina and reads "Numquid
86
avis discolor haereditas mea mini?"

87 Although
Solinus writes, "in quorum pupulis lapis invenitur", H states,
"Veruntamen Julius Solinus refert de hoc lapide quod in ventriculis pullorum
hyaenae invenitur". Probably there has been an error here in confusing pu-
pula, "pupil of the eye", and pullus, "young animal", since the lapidaries
and other bestiaries all locate the stone in the eye.
88
CUL and a few other manuscripts conclude their chapter on the
Hyena with a short description of the Crocote or Crotote (actually the
Leucrota), the offspring of the hyena and the lioness. It too can imitate
human voices. Apparently the only illustration of this animal included with
the hyena is in B.N., lat. 11207, f. 5, where its parents are shown mating.
PT (1177-1214) says that the hyena is called luvecerviere in

French, and mentions its double nature and the stone. The same
material is contained in GC (1575-1606) who states that he does
not know the animal's name in French.89 In PB (III,203) the hyena
is described as having the body of a bear, though of a different
color, and the neck of a fox.
With few exceptions the hyena is portrayed eating a corpse or
a human limb in a tomb (Pl. V, Fig. 5). A notably different scene
is found in some manuscripts of DC (Morgan 832, f. 4; Munich
lat. 6908, f. 79v.), where two standing hyenas embrace one another.
IBEX.
ibex.
The short account of the wild goat was one of the earliest
additions to the First Family of manuscripts as represented by B-Is.
The ibex is said to have two horns, whose strength is so great that
if it jumps from the top of a mountain to the bottom, its whole
body is held safe and upright by its horns (H ii.15). Isidore (xii.1.16)
gives as the derivation of the plural form ibices, avices, because
like "birds" they dwell in high places. Pliny (viii.53.79) mentions
the ibex and its immense horns, but not their sustaining power.
Artists seem to have enjoyed portraying the plunging ibex. In
B.M., Harl. 3244, f. 40v., pursued closely by a panting dog, the
goat has lowered its horns prior to leaping, but in B.N., lat. 3630,
f. 77v. it is shown upheld in a totally vertical position. An odd
variation exists in Camb., Corpus Christi Coll. 22, f. 165v. where
the two horns appear as elongated tusks.
IBIS.
ibis, ibex,*0 hibicis; ibis, ibex, ciguigne.
According to the law the ibis is the dirtiest of all birds because
it feeds on corpses and remains at all times on the water's edge
seeking dead fish or a cadaver. It fears entering the water because
89 In B.N., fr. 1444, f.

247 of GC the hyenas's picture is labeled De yelve.
This name becomes clear when in appears in Bodl. 912, f. 6 of GC as yeine
—a hasty glance could easily confuse the two words.
The words ibis and ibex have been confused in both Latin and French
90
manuscripts.
it neither knows how to swim nor makes the effort to learn; thus
it cannot go in the deep water where clean fish exist (B 14, Y 17).
This information is repeated in the A viarium (i.57), which only adds
that snakes flee the ibis. B-Is copies Isidore (xii.7.33), who tells
how the ibis inhabiting the Nile purges itself with its beak and feeds
on snake's eggs.
Except for G, which differs slightly, the long allegories say in
general that the ibis represents the miserable sinner who remains
with the fruit of the flesh rather than imitating the good Christian
who, having been reborn by water and the holy spirit, proceeds
into deep waters, where he can find the numerous fruits of the spirit
such a charity, joy, and peace.
The unclean eating habits of this bird, sacred to the ancient
Egyptians, are mentioned by Aelian (x.29). According to Pliny
(x.28.40) the Egyptians invoke the ibis against incursions of serpents.
In his chapter on medicinal remedies which have been borrowed
from animals, he also reports that the ibis purges itself (viii.27.41).
In PT (2631-2742) the ibis, wrongly called ibex, is equated with
the stork (Strabo had noted the striking resemblance between the
two birds (xvii.2.4)):
Ibex d'oisel est nuns

Que ciguigne apeluns;
D'Egypte vient del Nil,
Mult par est best vil. (2631-2634)
GC (1171-1194) confesses ignorance as to thebird's name in French.

Usually portrayed as a nondescript bird, the ibis is shown in
many positions. One drawing combines the two principal traits of
its self-purgation and its carrion diet, Bodl. 602 (Pl. V, Fig. 4). In
Bodl. 764, f. 14v. a long-necked bird feeds its young in a nest on
the ground (in some illustrations the food consists of snake's eggs)
while under foot at the water's edge it holds a snake and a human
head.
INDIAN STONE.
lapis indicus, lapis senditicho
Y (26), Aand C, the only Latin versions to include this stone,

say that if it is bound to a dropsical man, it absorbs his impurities,
and when untied it weighs as much as the man. If set in the sun
for three hours, the unclean water flows out and the stone is again
pure.
Although the Indian stone was known in antiquity, being men
tioned by Pliny (xxxvii. 10.61) among others, this tale was not at
tached to it. Wellmann sees a parallel with the description of the
water stone found in the head of a water snake as told in Hermes'
Koiraniden,*1 but Sbordone thinks there exists an even closer
relationship in this same work with the account of the land frog
which carries in its head a stone capable of curing dropsy if fastened
around the waist of the sufferer.*2
The only illustration of this stone that has been seen is that of
Bern 318, f. 21, where a seated man holds towards the sun a rec
tangular stone from which water drips.
JACKDAW.
graculus.
The Aviarium (i.45) attributes the beginning of its chapter on

the Jackdaw to Rabanus Maurus, the ninth century author of the
De universo mundo."3 The graculus, "jackdaw", is thus called be
cause of its garrulitas, "chattering", not, as some say, because it
flies gregatim, "in flocks". The jackdaw lives in the forest and flies
from tree to tree singing noisily. When caught it is shut in a cage
to be taught to speak. If the bird escapes and was previously voluble,
after leaving it shouts even more. Isidore (xii.7.45) contains the
same statement as Rabanus.
The only representation seen other than that of an undistinguish
ed bird was in Bodl. 602, f. 64v. where a small archer shoots an
arrow into a large bird on a tree.
JACULUS.
jaculus.
H's chapter (iii.46), which is copied from Isidore (xii.4.29), states

that the jaculus is a flying serpent about which Lucan wrote "Jaculi

92 Sbordone, op. cit., p. 141.
93 Migne, Patr. Lat., CXI, Col. 247. The chapter on the Jackdaw is not
found in all Second Family manuscripts.

que volantes" (Pharsalia ix.720). It lies in ambush in a tree until

some animal is nearby, then throws itself (jactant se) upon the
animal, killing it, whence comes its name. Pliny (viii.23.35) and
Aelian (vi.18) both mention this serpent.
In B.N., lat. 3630, f. 94v. a winged serpent darts from a tree
to seize a naked man by the neck.
KINGFISHER.
halcyon.
The kingfisher is a sea bird, according to H (iii.29), which gives

birth to its young on the shore, laying eggs in the sand around
mid-winter when the sea surges. An unexpected calm then takes
place. For seven days the kingfisher hatches its young, and for seven
more days it nourishes them. Sailors watch for these fourteen days,
during which no tempest is feared. This account is almost identical
with that found in Ambrose's Hexaemeron (v. 13.40) and differs in
form from Isidore's (xii.7.25), which says that the name alcyon is
like ales oceanea, "sea bird".
Aristotle (v 542b 4) speaks of the fourteen halcyon days at the
winter solstice, and Pliny (x.32.47) of course includes this bird and
its attractive story.
Consistent with this bird's close association with water, the artists
have usually given it webbed feet as in B.M., Harl. 3244, f. 53
where the bird leans over its eggs. In Bodl. 764, f. 69v. the length
of the bill of the bird standing on water and biting its tail is far
from reality.
KITE.
milvus; escouffle.
The Aviarium (i.40) cites Isidore (xii.7.58) as its source for the
statement that the milvus, "kite", takes its name from its being
mollis, "supple", in strength and flight. It is exceedingly rapacious
and feeds on carrion. Continuously flying around kitchens and meat
markets, it quickly seizes any raw meat that is discarded. It is
timid in large undertakings, bold in small. Not daring to snatch
woodland birds, it lies in wait for domestic birds and young ones
to catch and kill. PB (IV.82) is the only French bestiary to include
the kite, whose dirty eating habits he dwells on at length. None

of these descriptions follows Pliny (x.10.12) closely, although he
speaks of the ravenous appetite of the bird.
The kite with its prey is the subject usually illustrated as in
the Aviarium of Bodl. 602, f. 61, where the bird flies off with what
resembles a young dog in its claws.
LAMB.
agnus.
The lamb is so called because ayvd; means "chaste", although

the Latins think that it is because the lamb agnoscat, "recognizes",
its mother before other animals. Even if wandering in a large flock,
the lamb immediately knows by their bleating the voices of its
parents, just as its mother knows its offspring among many lambs
(H iii.15).
The etymologies in this account are taken from Isidore (xii.1.12),
the former being mentioned by Festus. Varro had said (v.99) that
the lamb's name came from the fact it is agnatus, "born as an
addition", to the flock of sheep.
Most drawings of domestic animals in the bestiaries show an
acquaintance with the animal depicted, like the blue and green lamb
in Morgan 81, f. 40.
leucrota.
leucrota, leucrocuta.
This swift animal is born in India. It is the size of an ass, has

the hind quaters of a stag, the chest and legs of a lion, a horse's
head, cloven hoofs, a mouth split as far as the ears,94 and instead
of teeth, a continuous bone. With its voice it imitates the sounds
of a speaking man (H iii.7).
The illustration in CUL, f. 14v. attempts to fulfill the description
of this animal by giving it a toothless mouth which opens to its
ears.
"The manuscript used for Book III of the De bestiis of Pseudo-Hugo

(Migne, Patr. Lat., CLXXVII, Col. 85) reads ad nares, but other manuscripts
as well as Pliny (viii.21.30) and Solinus (52.34) read ad aures, "to the ears".
LION.
leo; leun, lion.
Since the lion was considered king of beasts, it is with its des
cription that every Latin and Old French bestiary began until the
unorthodox Bestiaire d' Amour of Richard de Fournival in the mid-
thirteenth century. From the simple enumeration of three character
istics in the earliest Latin versions, the chapter became one of the
longest and most complex. This increase is also seen in the number
and subjects for the illustrations of the lion.
The traditional beginning for the first chapter of the early Latin
Physiologus is that of B (1): "Et enim Iacob, benedicens filium
suum Iudam, ait: Catulus leonis Iudas..." (Gen. 49:9). The lion
is then said to have three natures: when walking in the mountains
and smelling a hunter, it covers its tracks with its tail; it sleeps
with open eyes; its cubs are born dead and on the third day it
breathes into their faces and revives them. A slight variation in
the manner of resuscitation is found in TH, where it is the roaring
of the father which arouses the cubs.
Although PT has added numerous details to correspond to his
lengthy description, basically the allegories of all Latin and French
versions are the same : Christ everywhere covered the traces of his
divinity; his body might sleep, but his divinity is ever watchful;
his omnipotent Father revived him on the third day.
In ancient literature the erasing of the tracks by the lion's tail
is not attested,95 but this trait can be compared with Aelian (ix.30),
who says that when the lion returns to its den it obliterates its
path by running about. Among the classical writers who mention
the open eyes of the sleeping lion is Plutarch (Quaest. conviv. iv.5.2).
No writer preceding the Physiologus says that the cubs are born
dead, but this idea, with its obvious later Christian connotation,
could derive from Pliny (viii.16.17), who quotes Aristotle (vi 579b 8)
as saying that the cubs when first born are shapeless and very
small.
H (ii.1) and B-Is follow Isidore (xii.3.4) in saying that leo comes
from the Greek, and they copy many traits from him and from
Solinus (27.13-16). They state that there are three kinds of lions:
the timid with a short body and curly mane; the more fierce with
PW, op. cit., p. 1078.

a long body and straight hair ; the third kind is not described. Pliny
(viii.16.18) speaks of only two species — those mentioned above.
Their courage is apparent in their forehead and tail, their strength
in their chest, and their firmness in their head. When surrounded
by hunters they look at the ground, which frightens them less than
the sight of spears. They fear the noise of wheels, more so fire,
and above all the white cock." The Physici is then quoted as saying
that the lion has five natures. In addition to the usual three are
added the traits that the lion is not easily angered unless first an
noyed, that it spares the prostrate and permits captive men whom
it meets to depart, and that it does not kill except out of great
hunger. CUL adds other attributes not found in H and B-Is. A sick
lion is cured by eating a monkey. It eats one day and drinks the
other, but when it perceives that meat is not properly digested, its
nails pull it from its throat (Pliny viii.17.18). From Ambrose's
Hexaemeron (6.6.37) comes the statement that scorpions harm the
lion if it wounds them and snake venom kills it. CUL continues
with statements about the lion's mating practices and the belief
that the lioness first has five offspring, then one less each year. This
version concludes with a reference to the leontophonus, a beast
whose ashes are spread on meat in order to catch lions (Isidore
xii.2.34).
All of the Old French bestiaries keep the principal traits of the
tail, eyes, and cubs, but some of them retain more and also con
tribute new details. PT (25-370) says that when the lion is hungry
it treats animals angrily as it does the ass. When the lion wishes
to capture prey, it makes a circle on the ground with its tail. Once
inside, no animal dares pass beyond its limits. PT contains one trait
which is as unclear at first sight as its illustration.
Leiins quant est iriez

II se peint od ses piez,
En tere se peindrat
Quant il mariz serat; (121-124)
The Latin rubric in both the Merton College and the Copenhagen
manuscripts reads: "Hie leo pingitur et quomodo pingit se supra
96Lucretius ingeniously explains the fear of the lion before the cock.
''...no doubt because there are certain seeds in the cock's body, which
when they are sped into the eyes of the lion, dig holes in the pupils and
cause stinging pain, so that they cannot endure against it for all their
courage." (Loeb trans. De rerum natura iv.710-717).
pectus hominis." In the former the lion is shown standing over the
body of a man lying in bed ; in the latter it is standing on the chest
of an animal lying upside down. The matter seems to have been
clarified by Langlois who explains that paindre, "to strike", should
be read instead of peindre, "to paint".97
In G the influence of a Biblical quotation (Song of Songs 5 : 2)
is evident in the wording.
Quant lion dorment et someillent

Lor cuer dorment et lor oel voillent.
Dex dist une mult grant mervoille:
"Je dor" fait-il, "mais mes cuer voille".
(109-112)
PB (II,110) has a full account of the lion, adding the strange

statement that the cub is born dead through the mouth. He develops
the point, which is continued in later bestiaries, that if a man should
look at the lion while it is eating, because the man is made in the
image of the Lord of Lords, it fears his face and glance. Since it
is naturally bold, the lion is afraid of its fear and thus leaps upon
the man. Had the man not gazed, he would not have been harmed.
Drawings of the several traits of the lion are more numerous
than those of any other animal. Usually more than one picture is
it,
devoted to and in the finer Latin manuscripts there are as many

as two entire folios portraying various aspects of the lion. That
an actual lion had not been seen by the majority of artists evident
is
from its dog-like appearance, but the fullness of the mane and the
length of the claws show that the artist knew the main physical
characteristics of the animal.
The oldest Latin illustrated manuscript, Bern 318, has as
f.
7
its first illustration one that seems to be unique in the Physiologus

series. Jacob shown blessing the lion of Judah, whereas in Brussels
is
97 en France ait moyen age (1927 ed.), Vol. Ill, p. 15,

Langlois, La vie
referring to Walberg's edition of PT writes " 'Voila, dit l'^diteur
3,
n.
:
(p. 121 - Walberg), un trait bien curieux [faire son portrait avec ses pieds].
semble plus naturel de lire paindre (<pangere), c'est-a-dire frapper, au
II
lieu de peindre; mais, comme les rubriques latines [de quelques mss.] in-
diquent que, pour leur auteur, s'agissait bien de peindre, n'y ai rien
je
il
change^.
fallait changer, Et l'erreur evidente des rubricateurs en cette cir-
II
constance est un argument qui s'ajoute tous ceux que M. Mann fait
a
valoir (Romanische Forschungen, VI, 1891, p. 399) pour 6tablir que les
rubriques latines des manuscrits sont, non de l'auteur, mais d'un copiste."
10074, f. 140v. Jacob is blessing his son Judah. The Bern manu
script then has three separate pictures showing the lion dragging
a longtail, hunched up and sleeping with open eyes, and an open-
mouthed lion standing over a dead cub. These are the most com
monly reproduced scenes. A more elaborate composition is seen in
Camb., Corpus Christi Coll. 53 (Pl. VI, Fig. lb), where the lion
covers its tracks, revives its young, gazes at a scorpion, spares a
prostrate man, and eats a monkey. An unusual addition is seen in
the Third Family manuscript, Camb., Fitzwilliam Museum 254, f. 15,
where an episode from the story of Androcles (called Andronicus
in the text) and the lion is illustrated : 9S the lion is licking a naked
man tied to a stake. Although the text above the miniature in
Bodl. 764, f. 4v. tells of the leontophonus, the picture itself shows
how to capture a lioness. A sheep is bound to a log which projects
from a hole while down another hole, to reach its prey, the lioness
disappears.
The two illustrated manuscripts of PT have a record seven
drawings of the lion. The drawings of one are sometimes needed
to understand the subject of the other in spite of the Latin rubrics,
since these are often placed in the text at some distance from the
illustration. The scenes shown are the lion attacking an ass, driving
assorted animals into a circle, standing over a man or animal, cover
ing its tracks with its tail, in the presence of a cock and a cart
(Pl. VI, Fig. la), standing by the dead cub, and Merton College 249,
f. 2v. contains a drawing of an animal before the bust of a man
holding a trilobed mace.
LIZARD.
saura, lacerta.
B (37)" calls this a "volatile animal", while DC (12) says that

it is an "aquatile animal". They agree that it is as bright as the
sun, whence the name saura eliace in Y (49). When it ages and
Cf. Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, v. 14.

98
In his edition of Versio B Professor Carmody is

99
in error when he
publishes the Lacerta as the final chapter of this version. This reptile never
belongs to the group of First Family manuscripts known as the B version.
On the other hand, it is always included in the small, easily identifiable
family represented by Book II of Pseudo-Hugo, and in the Dicta Chrysostomi
manuscripts.
its sight no longers permits it to see the sun's light, it seeks a wall
facing east. After passing through a hole and staring at the sun,
its eyes are renewed (Isidore xii.4.37; H ii.28). The similarity of
this mode of renewal with that of the serpent and its old skin is
marked. There is no Old French version.
The lizard as portrayed by the mediaeval artist seldom has
markedly reptilian features; it is usually a dog-like animal squeez
ing through a crevice. The example from Munich, lat. 6908 of DC
(Pl. V, Fig. 3) is unlike any other representation seen.
LYNX.
lynx.
According to H (iii.3) and Isidore (xii.2.20) the lynx is so called

because it is classed in the species lupus, "wolf", which it resembles
except for being spotted on the back like the male panther (pardus).
The urine of the lynx hardens into a precious stone which Pliny
and Solinus call lygurius or lycurius (Isidore writes lyncurius). This
animal covers its urine with sand lest the stone pass into human
hands. Pliny is quoted as saying that the lynx has only one off
spring.
The stone which is produced by the urine of the lynx and whose
name means "lynx-water" is described by Pliny (viii.38.57), who
says it is similar to a carbuncle and of a brilliant flame color.100
The lynx is usually shown standing over a round stone as in
Bodl. 764, f. 11.
MAGPIE.
pica.
In H (iii.32) the magpie (pica) and the woodpecker (picus) are

included in the same chapter, but they will be treated separately
100 In another place Pliny asserts his disbelief in the existence of such
a stone (xxxvii.3.13). Strangely no mention is made in the traditional bestiaries
of the proverbial keen eyesight of the lynx (Pliny xxviii.8.32). Such a
reference does appear in Brunetto Latini's chapter on wolves (Li Livres dou
Tresor i.190). The metamorphosis of the lynx into a worm symbolizing the
sense of sight is mentioned in the Appendix of the present study in the
section entitled Elements and Senses.
here. Magpies are like poets because they express words distinctly
like men.101 Hanging from branches, magpies chatter annoyingly.
If they are unable to speak, they can at least imitate the sounds
of the human voice. It is fitting therefore that a certain poet (Martial
xiv.73) should say:
Pica loquax certa dominum te voce saluto.

Si me non videas, esse negabis avem.102
The illustrations of the magpie are usually undistinguished.
MANTICORE.
manticora.
The manticore is born in India. It has a triple row of teeth

which fit alternately, a man's face, bluish eyes, a lion's body the
color of blood, and a tail like the sting of a scorpion. Its whistling
voice resembles the melodies of pipes. It seeks human flesh, is
active, and leaps so that neither large spaces nor broad obstacles
delay it (H iii.8; Solinus 52.37).
Most early writers name Ctesias as their source for this fabu
lous Aristotle 501a 24 f.), following Ctesias, speaks
(ii
animal.103
of the spines in the animal's tail which shoots off arrow-wise,
it
but Pliny omits this detail (viii.21.30).

Artists varied in their portrayal of the head of this beast, in one
case giving woman's head (Camb., Gonville and Caius Coll. 384,
it
a
175v.), but more usual its depiction as heavily maned beast

is
f.
101 According to note on this passage in Migne's edition of Isidore

a
(Patr. Lat., LXXXII, Col. 465), the phrase "picae, quasi poeticae" rem
is
iniscent either of verse of Persius (Choliambus, 13) where he speaks

1.
a
derisively of "corvos poetas poetridas picas", or refers to the fable of the

Pierides, the nine daughters of Pierus who were defeated by the Muses
and turned into magpies (Ovid, Met. v. 300-678).
102"A chattering pie, with intelligible voice salute you, my master;
I
did you not see me you will say am no bird." (Loeb trans.)
I
103 The
account from Ctesias' Indira can be found in the Myriobiblon
of Photius (Migne, Patr. Gr., CHI, Col. 214), where the beast called
is
[tapTiydpa and equated with the Greek "man-eater".

is
avflpiiiTcotpafo;
,
According to the NED the word manticore derived from an Old Persian
is
word manijaqdra also meaning "man-eater".

having by a Phrygian cap as in Bodl. 764

a man's face topped
(PL VI, Fig. 2). How to depict a scorpion-like tail concerned none
of the artists except the literal minded illustrator of B. M„ Harl.
3244, f. 43v., where an oddly pointed tail is attached to a sharp
toothed monster clawing a human body.
MOLE.
talpa; talpe.
The mole is a small black animal condemned to perpetual blind

ness for it lives in darkness without eyes. It is always digging in
the earth, piling up soil, and eating roots (H iii.26 ; Isidore xii.3.5).
Although untrue, the belief in the mole's blindness has persisted
from early times, both Aristotle (i 491b 27) and Pliny (xi.37.52)
mentioning it. The remainder of the above description is taken al
most verbatim from Jerome's commentary on Isaiah 2:20.104
In PB (III,274) the mole is twice cited: as a symbol of one of
the four elements, earth, on which it is said to live ; and in its own
chapter, where the mole's ability to hear so well that it cannot
be surprised is noted. According to PB it has eyes beneath the
skin, it dirties the earth where it dwells, and harms grass.
The illustration of this animal in Latin bestiaries is usually a
dorsal view of a flattened mole as in Morgan 81, f. 47.
MOUSE.
mus.
The mouse is a small animal whose Greek name ( ^ u ; ) was

transferred into Latin. Some say that mus comes from its being
born from humus, "soil". Its liver increases with the full moon — a
belief found in Pliny (xi.37.76). Some make a division between the
mouse and the shrew-mouse (sorex), which is smaller and pursued
by cats (H iii.25; Isidore xii.3.1,2).
Mice are usually drawn with a round object, probably grain, in
their mouth as they appear in Morgan 81, f. 47.
104 Migne, Patr. Lat., XXIV, Col. 55.

NIGHTINGALE. -
luscinia; lousegnol, rosignol.
The luscinia,
"
nightingale", according to Isidore's etymology
(xii.7.37) which is copied from Ambrose's Hexaemeron (v. 12.39),
takes its name from the fact that by its song it signifies lucinia,
that is, the day bringing "light". While brooding its eggs it relieves
the sleepless tedium of the long night by the sweetness of its song
(H iii.33). PB (II,159) is the only French bestiary to mention the
which sings, according
nightingale, to the text, so enthusiastically
at dawn that it almost dies.
Pliny has an unusually appreciative and lyrical account, for
him, of the nightingale; he says that they sometimes vie with one
another in song, and the one which is defeated often dies, abandon
ing life rather than its song (x.29.43).
There is little remarkable about the illustrations of the night
ingale in Latin bestiaries except for B.M., Sloane 3544, f. 30, where
a singing bird sits beside two sleeping men while a third stretches
out his arm (imploring the bird to be silent?). In Montpellier H. 437,
f. 208 (PB) a vanquished nightingale drops dead from one tree
while the victor sits upon another.
ONAGER.
onager; asne salvage.
The early Latin Y version contains two chapters on fhe Onager :

one on the Wild Ass alone ; the other on the Onager and the Ape.
The influence of this connection, although the ape's story is totally
different, is still seen in the order of animals in PT, GC, and PB,
where the chapter on the Ape follows that on the Onager. Y (11),
after quoting Job 39:5, "Quis dimittit' onagrum liberum",
'est qui
recounts how the male onager is first in the flock. If a male off
spring is born, the father emasculates it lest it reproduce. In Y (25)
the onager's announcing the arrival of the equinox is told. On the
twenty-fifth day of the month of Famenoth, that is March, the
wild ass brays twelve times to indicate the equinox. The ape urinates
seven times. B differs slightly. The ass brays at the equinox

(21)105
twelve times in the night and in the day, and the hour is known
by the number of brays. The ape is here said to have the appearance
of the devil.
The onager symbolizes the devil who, when he sees the people
who had wandered in the shadow of death converted to God and
co-equal in the faith of patriarchs and prophets, brays, seeking
the food he has lost. PT adds that the days stand for the good
people, the nights the bad, the hours the number of people, and
the equinox everlasting heaven and hell.
Following Isidore (xii.1.39), H (ii.1l) and B-Is (21) tell of the
equinox and the male's jealousy of male offspring which causes
him to bite off their organs, although the mother has hidden her
young (the last trait is omitted in B.M., Royal 2 C. xii, but is found
in other manuscripts of B-Is).
Pliny (viii.30.46) speaks of the onager's fearing rivals in its lust,
but the animal's link with the equinox appears much older. The
baboon's relationship with the equinox is noted in Horapollo (i.16).
In an Egyptian papyrus in the British Museum106 Professor Perry
has indicated a source for the substitution of the onager for the
baboon. The ape's urinating might have arisen, according to Well-
mann, through a confusion with the mystical nature of the cat.107
PT (1827-1850) speaks merely of the onager in connection with
the equinox, whereas GC (1843-1880) is the only French writer to
include the emasculation. PB (III,224) says that the ass cries out
at the equinox, but he more fully develops the point that this animal
makes the greatest effort to bray with its ugly voice, and that it
only brays when it can find nothing to eat, and so strongly then
that it almost bursts.
The Latin bestiaries are almost evenly divided in portraying a
single braying ass and the emasculation scene, whereas GC more
often depicts the latter. An unusually full picture of the braying,
the hiding of the young, and the emasculation is found in B.N.,
fr. 14969, f. 35. An original manner of presenting the conception
of the equinox to the eye is in the pair of scales beside the braying
ass in a manuscript of DC (Pl. VII, Fig. 2).
ios professor
Carmody includes the Onager and the Ape in the same
chapter in his edition of Versio B, although they are almost without exception
given separate headings in manuscripts belonging to the B and B-Is versions.
106 PW,
op. cit., p. 1095.
107 Wellmann,
op. cit., p. 66.
OSTRICH.
assida, struthiocamelon, struthio; assidam, ostrice, chamoi.
B (27) begins by giving the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin names for
the ostrich, and then quotes a pre-VuIgate reading of Jeremiah 8:7:
"Et 'asida' in celo cognovit tempus suum."108 This bird is like a
vulture. It has wings but cannot fly, and it has feet like a camel's ;
hence its name struthiocamelon in Greek. When it is time for laying
eggs, it looks to the sky and sees the star Virgilia rising,109 that
is, around June. The ostrich digs in the earth, lays its eggs, covers
them with sand, leaves them and forgets them. The eggs are then
incubated by the warm summer sand.
Allegorically
interpreted, this means that even more than the
ostrich man should forget the world in order to concentrate on
heaven. He should raise the eyes of his heart and love God more
than earthly ties.
It is probable that this story arose from combining the verse
cited from Jeremiah with Job 39: 13-16 telling of the ostrich forget
ting its eggs in the dust. The origin of the tale rests in part upon
the apparent nesting habits of this bird.110 The description of the
ostrich as having wings useless for flying and a foot provided with
two toes (not, however, like a camel's) is mentioned by Aristotle
(De part. anim. iv 697b 13), although he calls the foot a cloven
hoof.
In the Aviarium (i.37) attention is given to the bird's inability
to fly, while the matter of leaving the eggs is developed only in
the moralization of the verses from Job.
No change takes place in the early French bestiaries, but through
carelessness PB contains two chapters on the ostrich: one (III,257)
entitled assida;the other (II,197) ostrische. The former follows the
Latin more closely but attributes the following description to Jere
miah: the ostrich has a neck and head like a swan, short fat legs,
cloven feet like a cow, and a body and tail like a crane. In the
108 The Vulgate reads milvus, "kite", and the A.V. translates the word
as "stork".
109
The Pleiades.
110Hastings, op. cit., Ill, 635. See also Max Goldstaub, "Physiologus -
Fabelein iiber das Briiten des Vogels Strauss", Festschrift Adolf Tobler
(Braunschweig, 1905), pp. 153-90.
latter chapter the feet are said to be cloven like a stag's and the
legs resemble those of an ass. Phisiologe is quoted as saying that
the bird eats iron.111
The only way by which the ostrich in most cases is distinguished
from other birds is its thick legs and cloven foot. The customary
scene shows the eggs in sand while the bird looks up at a star.
For its metal meal it eats a horseshoe or nails (Pl. VI, Fig. 3).
OWL.
nycticorax, noctua, bubo; fresaie, huerans.
In the oldest Latin versions (Y 7, B 7) the chapter on the Owl

aways follows the Pelican's chapter because of the following verse
from Psalm 101 : 7 (Vulgate) : "Similis factus sum pellicano soli-
tudinis: factus sum sicut nycticorax in domicilio." After citing the
appropriate second clause, the versions conclude, in one of the
shortest of all Physiologus descriptions, that the owl is a dirty
bird,112 preferring darkness to light. The owl's preference for dark
ness signifies the rejection of Christ by the Jews when they said:
"We have no other king but Caesar." Christ then brought his light
to the Gentiles. PT adds that the Jews are backward like the bird's
flight.
The Aviarium (i.34) states that the owl dwells in roofless ruins
and flies about at night seeking food. The same source (i.44) on the
bubo cites Isidore as its model (xii.7.39). Here the owl is depicted
as a heavily feathered,
slothful bird which always hovers about
tombs and dwells in caves. It is called bubo from the sound of its
voice. This filthy bird pollutes its dwelling place with dung. When
seen by other birds, it is betrayed by their clamoring and molested
by their attacks. CUL's brief account differs slightly from the above
and begins with Isidore's explanation that the noctua is thus called
because it flies at night (nox).
PT (2789-2802) describes the fresaie as a dirty nocturnal bird
which flies backwards. In PB (III,234) the bird called huerans likes
111 This popular notion developed perhaps from a statement in Pliny

(x.1.1) about the remarkable ability of the ostrich to digest anything.
112 Deut. 14:15.
to frequent tombs, and when someone is near death, this owl senses
it from afar and cries out.113
Owlish characteristics are sometimes absent from pictures of
this bird, which is usually portrayed alone. However, in Bodl. 764,
f. 73v. three small birds attack a strong featured bubo.
ox.
bos, urus, bubalus.
In Latin the ox is called triones because it "treads" or "rubs"

(terit) the terra, "earth". The ox greatly enjoys company and seeks
its accustomed partner to pull the plow, roaring frequently if separat
ed. Oxen can predict the weather, and they remain in their stalls
when rain threatens. The urus is a wild ox with huge horns which
are used as drinking vessels on royal tables. In India there is a
one-horned ox, extremely cruel and untamable, which has a solid
hoof (H iii.19).
This relationship of triones and terra is found in Varro (vii.74)
and then in Isidore (xii.1.30); it is Ambrose (Hexaemeron vi.4.20)
who calls the oxen rain prophets. Barbarians of the North use the
horns of the urus for cups according to Pliny (xi.37.45), who again
mentions the urus when he says the common people in their igno
rance call it bubalus (viii.15.15).
An unmistakable and uninteresting ox is always drawn.
PANTHER.
panthera; pantere, love cervere.
Y(29) begins with a pre-Vulgate quotation from Hosea (5 : 14) :

"Factus sum 'sicut leo domui' Iuda, et sicut 'panthera' domui Ef-
fraim." B (23), omitting this verse, says that the panther is a many-
colored animal, extremely handsome and gentle, whose only enemy
is the dragon. When the panther has eaten plentifully, it retreats to
its cave and there sleeps for three days. Upon awakening it utters
113 A second chapter on the Owl in PB (1I,169) is entitled "le cauve

soris". Either because of a strange coincidence or because of a definite
relationship, the illustration in Queen Mary's Psalter (B.M., Royal 2 B. vii,
f. 91v.) which in the normal order of contents would picture the owl shows
instead a man beating off a bat.
a great roar and at the same time a sweet odor comes from its
mouth. Animals from far and near hear the voice and follow the
sweet breath except for the dragon, who from fear enters its hole
where it remains stiff as if dead, lest the odor strike it.
In the longest of all Physiologus allegories the panther symbolizes
Christ, who by his incarnation drew mankind to him, and the dragon
represents the devil. The variegated appearance of the panther
signifies the many qualities of Christ who, satiated with the mockeries
of the Jews, died and was buried. He descended into hell, bound
the great dragon, and arose on the third day. The panther's sweet
breath is Christ's voice calling out after his resurrection.
H (ii.23), B-Is (24), who includes here a description of the
dragon, and Isidore (xii.2.8,9) say that the panther is called Ta»(trjpa
because it is a friend of "all animals" except the dragon. It is further
described as having a tawny coat spotted with black or white disks.
The female can only bear once because when the young in the
womb reach the time of birth, they tear their mother with their
nails so that great pain forces her to give birth. She is unable there
after to conceive. Pliny is quoted as saying that frequently animals
with sharp claws cannot have offspring because they are injured
internally by the moving cubs.
The sweet odor of the panther is noted by Aristotle (ix 612a 13)
but according to him it is used as a lure to catch animals.114 This
is repeated by Pliny (viii. 17.23) and Plutarch (De soil. anim. 24
976D) among others. Isidore's allusion to Pliny is in reality the
latter's reference to the lioness who at delivery tears her womb
with her claws (viii. 16. 17).
None of the French versions repeats the account of the birth
of the panther's young, but all mention the attraction of its breath
and its enmity toward the dragon. GC (2029-2068) says that the
animal whose name is panther is "en dreit romanz love cervere",
"lynx". Its coloring seems to have had a special fascination for
this author.
Car ele est blanche e ynde e bleue

E jalne e verte e russe e bise
E coloree en meinte guise. (2034-2036)
114 Sbordone has pointed out the change effected in the ancient tradition
of the mortal attraction of the panther's breath when, in its Christian form,
the panther became the symbol of Christ (Sbordone, Ricerche, p. 104).
The miniatures of the panther are always recognizable, not be

cause of the appearance of the principal animal, which varies from
that of a dog to a horse, but because of the variety of animals
it,
clustered about and the serpent's tail disappearing into hole.
a
An amusing marginal addition seen in Bodl. 602, 21v. The
is
f.
large illustration (Pl. VI, Fig. typical representation of the
is
4)
a
panther and beasts, but the marginal drawing on the following folio
portrays the panther seated on its haunches holding in its paws
the enemy serpent toward which spits its pleasant odor. In two
it
related manuscripts of GC (Camb., Fitzwilliam McLean 123, 49v.,
f.
and Bodl. 912, the panther an odd looking beast-serpent
is
f.
7v.)
with two feet, wings, and curved tail. Among the congregated
a
animals camel!
is
a
PARANDRUS.
parandrus, tharandus.
The parandrus, which comes from Ethiopia, the size of an
is
ox and the color of bear, has cloven hoofs,115 branching horns,
a
a
stag's head, and long hair. has the habit of changing its appearance
It
so that when concealed becomes like its surroundings (H iii.9;

it
Solinus 30.25).
Pliny (viii.34.52) mentions that the tarandrus of the Scythians
changes color, and from his description the animal has been various
identified as the reindeer or the elk.
ly
The parandrus in Morgan 81, 39 an abundantly tufted

is
f.
animal with magnificent antlers.
PARD and LEOPARD.
pardus, leopardus.
The pard kind of spotted wild animal, extremely swift and

is
a
bloodthirsty, for with one leap strikes its victim dead. The leo
it
pard born from the adultery of the lioness and the pard. Pliny
is
115
The manuscript of H published by Migne reads bisulco vestigio,
"cloven sole", as does Solinus, but CUL, 16 reads ibico vestigio, which
f.
White in The Book of Beasts, p. 52, translates as "the slot of an Ibex".

is quoted as speaking of another origin: the lion's mating with

the female pard, from which a degenerate birth results (H iii.2;
Isidore xii.2.10,11). Pliny (viii.16.17) mentions the male panther,
calling it a pard, and its relations with the lioness.
An animal spotted with circles is drawn in Camb., Fitzwilliam
Museum 254, f. 15 v.
PARROT.
psittacus; papegai.
The parrot comes from India. It is a green bird with a purple-

red collar and a tongue which is bigger and broader than that of
other birds. It utters words so distinctly that if unseen, one would
think it a man. By nature it greets, saying ave or xaips, but other
words it must learn by teaching. Whence Martial (xiv.73) says :
Psitacus a vobis aliorum nomina discam;

Hoc didici per me dicere cesar ave.116
Its beak is so hard that when it falls from on high upon a stone,
it catches itself by the pressure of its mouth. The parrot learns
more quickly and retains better when it is young (H iii.28; Isidore
xii.7.24; Solinus 52.43).
Only PB (II,186) among the French works mentions the parrot.
He states that there are two kinds: those which have three toes
are of a mean disposition and those with six are gentle. The parrot
is also said to hate rain because it makes its color ugly. Pliny
(x.41.58) lists neither of these details in his description of the parrot.
Another of many examples showing the artist's lack of ob
servation of birds or his failure to illustrate any statement in the
text is evident in the drawing in CUL, f. 33, where the parrot is
a long-billed bird standing on water. Evidently the bird is being
taught and chastised in Camb., Gonville and Caius Coll. 384, f. 182v.,
where a man holding a stick kneels before a parrot which bears
no resemblance to the actual bird.
116 "I, a parrot, will learn the names of other things from you;
This I have learnt to say by myself: 'All hail, O Caesar'."
(Loeb trans.)
PARTRIDGE.
perdix; perdrix, pertris.
The partridge is a deceitful bird, so Y (31) and B (25) begin,

then quote from Jeremiah (17: 11): "Clamavit perdix et congregavit
quae non peperit." This bird steals the eggs of others and broods
them, but she can have no fruit from her deceit for when the young
partridges hear the voice of their mother, they fly off to their true
parents. The partridge signifies the devil, who steals God's off
spring, but they, on hearing Christ's (or the church's) voice, fly off
and are received under his wing and given to mother church.
The Aviarium (i.50) repeats this description and adds from
Isidore (xii.7.63) that it takes its name from its voice. CUL includes
several different details. Males occasionally have intercourse, and
the female is so lustful that wind alone from a male can impregnate
her. Partridges camouflage their nests with thorns and cover the
eggs with dust, but should a man approach the nest, the mother
feigns a broken foot or wing and draws the man away from the
nest. When it has been discovered, the partridge lies on its back
and covers itself with clods of earth.
There is no trace of the fraudulent partridge in Greek literature
although Aelian (iii.30) writes a somewhat related story about the
cuckoo, which places its eggs in others' nests. The Hebraic word
for the "caller" or "crier" was translated by the Septuagint as
it e p I p t Z and thus it appeared in the passage from Jeremiah quoted
above. In Jerome's commentary on this verse he writes:117 "aiunt
scriptores naturalis historiae tarn bestiarum et volucram quam ar-
borum herbarumque (quorum principes sunt apud Graecos Aristo-
teles et Theophrastus, apud nos Plinius Secundus [sic]) hanc per-
dicis esse naturam..." and tells of the theft of the eggs by a partridge
in the traditional manner that Ambrose also recorded (Hexaemeron
vi.3.13). Since none of the writers named by Jerome describes the
partridge in this way, it appears that the story of the partridge was
contrived to explain the verse of Jeremiah.118 All of the additions
in CUL are found in Pliny (x.33.51).
There is no difference in the French accounts of the partridge.
GC (2345-2380), however, following B-Is (26) is the only author
117 Migne, Patr. Lat., XXIV, Col. 820.

who mentions the unnatural love of the males. He says too that
in spite of their being unclean, they are eaten.
The illustrations of the partridge, like many of those depicting
the birds mentioned in the bestiary, instead of clearly stressing the
bird's principal trait, merely portray a standardized bird, or occasion
ally a large bird with some young, but with nothing except the text
to identify it as the partridge and its tale. More vivid is the illustra
tion in B.M., Sloane 3544, f. 29, where a bird walks with an egg
in its beak from one nest to another, there to sit on it.
PEACOCK.
pavo; paon.
The Aviarium (i.55) cites Isidore (xii.7.48) as its source for the
derivation of the peacock's name from the sound of its voice, but
it explains further that when the bird unexpectedly begins to cry,
it strikes the listener with pavor, "fear". It has hard flesh, which
resists putrefaction but which can scarcely be cooked by fire or
even by the heat of the liver in the stomach. The voice of the peacock
is terrible,its head serpentine, its breast sapphire colored. Small
red feathers are in the wings, and the long green tail is adorned
with eyes. When praised, it raises its tail, leaving its rear part
bare. This version omits Isidore's citation of an epigram by Martial
(xiii.70).
Miraris quotiens gemmantes explicat alas.

Et potes hunc saevo tradere dure coco.119
PB (II,161) says that the peacock suddenly awakens and cries out,
thinking its beauty lost. The prophet Amos is credited with the
statement that it is a bird of great foresight.120
us "You admire as often as it spreads its jeweled wings, —

And then hand this creature over to a cruel cook, —
you hard hearted man." (Loeb trans.)
120 None of the traditional Latin bestiaries with Isidore's additions re
counts a trait that is often used later to counteract the peacock's pride — the
bird wishes to fly, but at the sight of its ugly feet, rather than fly high
it remains grieving. This description is found in the Waldensian Bestiary (4).
The peacock's screaming at the sight of its feet is mentioned in the Physio-
logus attributed to Epiphanius (Migne, Patr. Gr., XLIII, Col. 527).
From Varro (v.75) is taken the statement that the peacock's

name comes from its voice. Saint Augustine, testing the ability of
the peacock's flesh to withstand decay, discovered that after a year's
time the cooked meat was only somewhat shriveled and dried!
(De civitate Dei xxi.4). Aelian (iii.42) notes that the bird is adorned
with feathers, but the rest of its body is not seemly.
The general effect of the peacock is well portrayed in the
bestiaries with a magnificent tail either lowered as in Morgan 81,
f. 56 or a frontal view of the bird with its tail outspread as in
Bodl. 764, f. 84v. The only illustration seen where a noticeable at
tempt to give the peacock unattractive feet is in Arsenal 3516, f. 202
of PB, where the text does not refer to them.
PEARL and AGATE.
margarita, unio, perla, concha, concha sabea, mermecolion, achates ;
union.
Although Y (22) has a separate chapter on the Agate, it is here

treated with the Pearl because it occasionally so appears in the
earliest accounts (C 23) and then ceases to exist,121 while the Pearl
continues its existence in the Latin and in one French bestiary.
To find pearls divers tie an agate to a rope which is dropped
into the sea. The stone comes to a pearl, remains there, and the
diver follows the rope to its treasure.
According to Y (23) before dawn at sea the stone which is called
oyster (sostoros)122 opens its mouth and swallows dew, the rays
of the sun, moon, and stars. From this the pearl is born.123
The essential part of the long allegory as recorded in B-Is (37)
is found at the beginning, which says that the pearl signifies the
Virgin Mary, who ascended to the temple of God and there re
ceived the words (celestial dew) of Gabriel. The opening of the
shell symbolizes the Virgin who said "Ecce ancilla Domini...". PT
adds that as the shell opens and closes without a break, so did the
Virgin conceive and give birth.
121 Unexpectedly the account of the Pearl and Agate appears in H

(iii.57) after the long section on Trees, and in B.M., Harl. 3244, f. 71v.
122 In C (Bern 318) the conchos is said to be a fish.
123 professor
Carmody does not print the text on the Pearl in his Ver-
sio B, but sends the reader to B-Is (37).
Isidore's account (xii.7.49) is followed in some later bestiaries

which call the pearl oceloe. This word has numerous spellings and
its origin is somewhat uncertain.124 In H (ii.35) pearls are called
uniones, though the common people say perlae. Of these a certain
kind are called marmaetholion (mermecolion), for which the Greek
word is concha sabea. In manuscripts of the common B or B-Is
version this passage begins "Item lapis est in mari qui dicitur latine
mermecolion, grece concha sabea, quia concavus est et rotundus".
What concha sabea means or why the name that was attached to
the Ant-Lion, mermecolion, is found also applied to the pearl re
mains so far unexplained.125
The role of the agate in finding pearls is unknown before the
Physiologus, but in Arrian's Indica (viii.8) Megasthenes reports that
should the king pearl be captured, the others are easily caught. The
birth of the pearl from dew is recorded in classical Indian poetry.128
Two descriptions of the pearl are found in PT (3015-3062),
which include some statements similar to those in Pliny (ix.35.54,56),
where the pearl is called unio as in PT and where the island of
Taprobane (Ceylon, PT Tapne) is said to be very fertile in pearls.
PT adds that if one drinks the pearl mixed with dew it will cure
any illness but death.
The only miniature seen of the agate's use in finding pearls is
Bern 318, f. 20v., which shows two men in a boat while a third
dives into the water, guiding himself with a rope. In Bodl. 602,
f. 35 the two valves of an oyster are open to receive drops of dew
from the sky and rays from the sun. Beside a closed oyster, to
illustrate the allegory, is a graceful drawing of the Virgin holding
her young Son.
PELICAN.
pelicanus, onocrotalus; pellican.
B (6) begins by quoting Psalm 101 : 7 (Vulgate): "Similis factus

sum pelicano solitudinis." The pelican is said to have great love
124 Cf. Lindsay's edition of Isidore. A passage very similar to Isidore's

in Rabanus Maurus (Migne. Patr. Lat., CXI, Col. 238) probably offers an
explanation: "...ex coelesti rore margaretum concipiunt. Unde et coeloe
nominantur."
125 James, op. cit., pp. 8-9.
for its young. However, when these begin to grow, they strike their
parents in the face. Their parents in turn strike and kill them. After
three days their mother pierces her side and sheds her blood over
the dead children, thus reviving them.
Allegorically Christ is the pelicanmankind struck by
whom
serving what has been created rather than the creator. Christ then
ascended the cross, where from his pierced side flowed the blood
and water of man's salvation and eternal life.
In Horapollo (i.1l) the vulture is spoken of as feeding its young
on its own blood when unable to find food. Wellmann believes it
plausible that the name ^a>?o;, "crooked bill", as the pelican is
called in Hermes' Koiraniden, was also applied to the vulture, hence
the transfer of the story.127 Sbordone, on the other hand, is of the
opinion that the tale of resurrecting the dead with one's own blood
could only be the work of a Christian writer.128
H(ii.27) and B-Is call the pelican an Egyptian bird
living in the
Nile (Isidore xii.7.26 adds that is from this country that the pelican
gets its name, for Egypt is called Canopos). There are two
kinds
of pelicans: one lives in water and feeds on poisonous animals
such as lizards and crocodiles; the other, the onocrotalus, a bird
with a long neck and bill, imitates the braying of an ass when it
drinks. The account in the Aviarium (i.33) offers an explanation
of its eating habits different from the above and apparently derived
from Pliny (x.47.66). Whatever this insatiable bird swallows is im
mediately digested because its stomach has no diverticulum in which
to retain food.
PT(2323-2366), following the order of B-Is, has reversed the
two types of pelicans. According to him those living in the water
eat fish, and those living on islands eat dirty animals. He gives
honocrotalia as the Greek name,129 explaining that in Latin this
is longum rostrum and in French lunc bee. Here also there is a
variation which is found in some Latin bestiaries and is carried
through their French translations. Instead of the mother's resuscitat
ing the young, it is the father who, regretting his action which had
caused their death, pierces his side.
The two scenes of the mortal clawing between two birds and
the pelican piercing its side, from which blood streams down on
12? Wellmann, op. cit., p. 50, n. 142.

129 The word onocrotalus, "ass-clapper", is applied to the pelican by
Pliny (x.47.66).
the young, are often simultaneously presented (Pl. VII, Fig. 4),
although in several illustrations there is no reviving blood, but only
the fighting among the birds. An unusual depiction of unknown
origin is that in Morgan 81, f. 6v., where the parent's blood flows
from its mouth to the open beak of a smaller bird.
PERIDEXION TREE.
peredixion, circa dexter am, pendens, perindens;130 paradixion, en

viron destre.
There is a tree in India which is called in Greek peredixion and

in Latin circa dexteram. Its fruit is so sweet that doves like to sit
in the tree. A cruel dragon hates the doves and they are afraid of
him, but the dragon fears the tree's shadow even more and flees it.
When the shadow of the peridexion is on the right, the dragon
moves to the left, and the opposite is also true. The doves know
of the timidity on the part of the dragon and stay safely in the
shadow of the tree, but should a dove leave the shadow, it would
be devoured by the dragon (Y 19; B 32; B-Is 33; H iii.39). The
French versions are the same.
In the allegory the doves are the faithful, who are admonished
to be both simple and shrewd and to remain within the church.
Christ is portrayed as the right side of the tree, while the shadow
is the Holy Ghost. The faithful are to beware lest the devil-dragon
find them outside God's house.
In his book on trees Pliny recounts that no
(xvi. 13.24)
serpent will ever lie in the shadow cast by the ash, though
no mention is made of doves. Lauchert believed that the doves
were added by the author of the Physiologus to the story
of the peridexion tree under the influence of the Biblical parable
of the grain of mustard seed which became a tree "so that the birds
of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof (Matt. 13:32)
or, as Mark says (4:32), "So that the fowls of the air may lodge
under the shadow of it".131 However, because of the similarity in
wording Wellmann considers the source of the Physiologus story
to be one such as Hermes used in his version of the peridexion
130 In Camb.,
Corpus Christi Coll. 22, f. 169, the peridexion tree is
called mandragora . . . vel perdixion.
131 Lauchert,
op. cit., p. 29.
tree, which included doves in his Koiraniden."2 Finally, it is Sbor-

done's opinion that the account was entirely a creation of the
author of the Physiologus and then transcribed by Hermes.133
Just of the peridexion tree are unusually consist
as the accounts
ent, so the drawings show little variety. All contain a tree which is
usually an ornate, symmetrical stylization with doves perched on
its leaves and a winged dragon at its base. Exceptional is the
simplicity of Bodl. 602 (Pl. VII, Fig. 5). In the center of the tree
in Arsenal 3516, f. 209 (PB) sits the figure of God blessing the
doves on the tree's edge.
PHOENIX.
phoenix; fenix.
In India the phoenix of five hundred years goes to

at the age
the frankincense tree ("intrat in lignis libani") and fills its wings
with spices. In the month of March or April134 a priest of Heliopolis
piles twigs on an altar. When the bird arrives in the city and sees
the altar, it rolls in spices, lights a fire, and is consumed. The
following day the priest finds on the altar a small, sweet-smelling
worm. On the second day it has the appearance of a bird, and on
the third day the priest discovers a perfect phoenix.135 The bird
bids the priest farewell and returns to its place of origin (B 9 ; Y 9).
All versions agree that the phoenix symbolizes Christ, who had
the power to come back to life.
Many Latin versions of the Second Family, such as CUL, contain
two accounts which differ slightly from each other. The first of these
resembles the description in the Aviarium (i.49) and the second
copies the notice in Ambrose's Hexaemeron (v.23.79). The Aviarium
text, identical with Isidore (xii.7.22), omits mention of the priest
and Heliopolis, and calls the phoenix a bird of Arabia either because
of its purple red color (phoeniceus) or because it is unique in the
world and the Arabs by phoenicem mean a "single thing". Once
on the pyre which it has built, the bird turns toward the sun and
fans the fire by the beating of its wings so that a second time it
132 Wellmann, op. cit., pp. 51-52.

133 Sbordone, op. cit., p. 109, and Ricerche, pp. 84-89.
134 Both B and Y give the Coptic names for these months.
135 Y declares that it is a large eagle which is found on the third day.
might arise from the ashes. B-Is, as would be expected, contains

B's version and Isidore's, making again two separate accounts only
one of which is similar to the Second Family.
Tales of the burning and rebirth of the phoenix are among the
oldest and most widely diffused of antiquity. For the Egyptians
the phoenix was a symbol of the rising sun and thus linked with
the idea of a resurrection.136 In various forms, none closely ap
proximating the Physiologus versions, the story of this bird is found
in Herodotus (ii.73), Pliny (x.2.2), and Aelian (vi.58). Only later
in the writings of Tertullian and Clement of Rome does the account
approach B and Y.1"
There changes in the Old French versions of
are only small
the phoenix. PT
(2217-2203) gives the two successive accounts found
in B-Is. In the first, from Isidore, he says that the bird is wholly
purple in color and formed like a swan;138 the second description
follows B. According to GC (739-786), instead of the wings catching
fire from the sun's rays as in PT, the fire is lit by the striking of
the bird's beak against a stone. G (1021-1046) says that along with
the spices the phoenix gathers stones, which cause the fire that is
fanned by the bird's wings. How the fire-kindling properties of the
stone entered the phoenix story, I do not know. As usual PB (II, 182)
gives a colorful description, probably from Solinus (33.11). The bird
138 See Cook,

op. cit., pp. lxxv-Ivi, for a detailed account of the symbol
ism of the phoenix, and for various identifications of the bird see Lactanti
De Ave Phoenice, ed., Mary C. Fitzpatrick (Published Ph.D. dissertation,
University of Pennsylvania, 1933), p. 18, n. 29. A further study is that by
Jean Hubaux and Maxime Leroy, Le Mythe du phenix dans les litteratures
grecque el Inline (Bibliotheque de la Faculty de Philosophic et Lettres de
l'Universite' de Liege. Fascicule LXXXII. Liege, 1939).
137 Tertullian, Liber
de resurrectione carnis (Migne, Patr. Lat., II, Col.
857), connects the phoenix bird with the Septuagint rendering of Psalm
91:13: "Et florebit velut phoenix", where the Greek word 6oivt£ meant
"palm tree". The account of Clement of Rome, Epistola I ad Corinthios
(Migne, Patr. Gr., I, Cols. 261-265, is somewhat similar to Ambrose's des
cription.
138
PT in describing the phoenix as
En Arabie est truvez,

Cume cisne est furmez; (2219-2220)
must have hastily read Isidore's introduction, "Phoenix Arabiae avis, dicta
quod colorem phoeniceum habeat", and misunderstoodco/ore/n, "color", for
a/orem/Watf'.
is crested like a peacock, its chest and throat are resplendent with
red and shine like pure gold, and towards the tail it is sky blue.
When it flies to a mountain called Liban, it finds a high tree by
an excellent fountain. After that the text follows B.
The earliest Latin bestiary drawing of the phoenix is that of
Brussels 10074, f. 145 where the bird sits in a tree labeled cedrus
libansi. Beside this scene a priest is pictured finding the new bird
upon an altar. An attendant brings faggots to the burning phoenix
in Bodl., Douce 88 (Pl. VII, Fig. 1). The priest and the reborn
bird appear in two manuscripts of GC (B.N., fr. 14969, f. 14v. and
B.M., Cott. Vesp. A. vii, f. 9). The most common pose, however,
is the phoenix plucking twigs to make its pyre or sitting upon the
burning nest.
QUAIL.
coturnix.
Quails are so called from the sound of their voice, but the Greeks
call them ortygas because they were first seen on the island of
Ortygia.139 At summer's end they migrate over the The bird
seas.
which leads the flock is called ortygometra, "mother of quails".
When this bird is close to earth, it is snatched by the hawk, and
for this reason quails seek a leader from another species. The
quail alone, like man, suffers from falling sickness or epilepsy
(Aviarium i.51 ; Isidore xii.7.64,65). CUL adds, from Isidore, that
quails feed on poisonous seeds, and for this reason the ancients
forbade their being eaten.
It is Festus who is recorded by Paulus as giving the derivation
of the bird's name from its voice. The remainder of the account
is found in Pliny (x.23.33) and in Solinus (11.20), who explains that
the Greeks believed the quail to be under the guardianship of
Latona, the goddess who gave birth to Artemis and Apollo on
Delos.
The hawk attacking the quails' leader and holding it by the
neck is depicted in Bodl. 764, f. 82v., but in most manuscripts the
quail is a very nondescript bird.
139 Ortygia, or Quail-Island, is the ancient name of Delos.

RAVEN.
corvus, corax; cor beau.
It is easier to read CUL's descriptionof the raven, which is

copied from Isidore (xii.7.43), than to extract it from that of the
Aviarium (i.35), where it is mingled with Gregory's commentary
on Job 38:41: "Quis praeparat corvo escam suam, quando pulli
eius clamant ad Deum vagantes, eo quod non habeant cibos?" Isi
dore says that the raven, corvus or corax, takes its name from the
sound of its wind-pipe because it "croaks" (coracinet). It does not
bring food to its young until it can recognize them by the black color
of their feathers. In a corpse the raven first seeks the eyes.140
The raven enters French bestiaries in G, who speaks only of
the extreme caution of the parents in feeding their offspring. The
featherless young in PB (II,156) are fed by dew until their feathers
grow and cause them to resemble their father. He also explains
that the raven eats human eyes in order to be able to draw forth
the brain.
Drawings of the raven's activities are usually more vivid in
French manuscripts than in Latin. Dew rains into the open beaks
of the young birds in Arsenal 3516, f. 201 (PB) as the raven pecks
the eyes in a corpse's head.
SALAMANDER.
salamandra, stellio; salamandre, sylio.
According to B (30) there is a reptile which is called salamandra

by the Greeks and stellio by the Latins. Concerning it Solomon
said: "Sicut stellio 'habitans in domibus' regum" (Prov. 30:28).141
It is like a small multi-colored lizard. If it should come upon a
fire or a burning furnace, the fire is immediately extinguished. Y (45)
is similar to this, but C (18) exhibits an interesting difference that
140 The probable origin of this trait is found in Proverbs 30:17: "The
eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens
of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it."
141 The A.V. reads: "The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is
in the kings' palaces."
exists in Sbordone's first Greek text: not only does the salamander
extinguish fire, but should it enter a bath, the water would become
cold.
The salamander signifies just men, like the three that Daniel
spoke of who emerged unharmed from the fiery furnace, because
the faithful can penetrate fire with impunity.
Largely copying Isidore (xii.4.36), H (ii.16) and B-Is (31) say
that the salamander's venom is very powerful for where others kill
singly, it kills many at once. It poisons apples on a tree and water
in a well. This animal not only lives painlessly in flames, but
extinguishes them.
Even Aristotle believed that the salamander was an animal which
fire could not destroy (v 552b 16). The salamander's poison is
mentioned by Pliny (xxix.4.23), who also attributes the extinguish
ing of fire to the coldness of the animal (x.67.86). This is perhaps
the basis for the action found in C of making water frigid.
In the French bestiaries the salamander starts out as normally
as such a reptile can, with its own chapter, but later it is incorporated
into the section on the four Elements as representing fire, and
eventually it becomes a bird in the Bestiaire d' Amour. PT and GC
repeat B-Is, but a new trait is added in PB (III,271). From the
salamander, which lives on pure fire, is produced something that
is neither silk, linen, nor wool, but another material which is worn
by people of importance. When dirty, the only means of cleaning
this cloth is to put it in fire, where it does not burn. In his chapter
on the Elements (IV.77) PB declares that the salamander is said
to have fleece like a lamb's "mais nus ne peut savoir quel cose ce
est". Cloth is made from this unknown substance in a part of the
deserts of India.
The portrayal of the salamander is even more varied than its
lizard-to-bird descriptions, and its different qualities are sometimes
combined in a very compact fashion. The oldest illustration is that
in Bern 318, f. 17v., where the salamander is a satyr-like creature
in a circular wooden tub. Following the text, this must be the
salamander cooling the bath water. The poisonous effects of the
reptile are seen in B.M., Royal 12 C. xix (PL VII, Fig. 3). There
are also less imaginative renderings of the salamander as merely
a worm penetrating flames in Bodl. 764, f. 55, but GC, B.N.,
fr. 1444, f. 253v. portrays a winged dog and B.N., fr. 14970, f. 23v.
depicts a small bird in flames.
SAWFISH.
serra; serre, sarce.
There is a monster in the sea, called a serra, which has enormous

wings. On seeing a ship it raises these wings and races against the
ship for thirty or forty stadia. Growing tired, it lowers the wings
and the waves carry the sawfish back to its original location in the
depths (Y 4; B 4). In DC (10), instead of wings the sawfish has
spinas ("spinas habens proppe se longiores"). although this prob
ably originally was meant for pennas since the text continues by
saying that it lifts its wings.
Allegorically the sea represents the world in which the righteous
people or the apostles sail, while the sawfish signifies those who
have started out with good intentions but abandon them and revert
to sin. For PT the sawfish symbolizes the devil, who holds back
holy inspiration from men and captures them just as the serra draws
the wind away and devours fish.
H (ii.22) and B-Is repeat the older Latin versions without mak
ing any reference to Isidore's description (xii.6.16) of the serra as
having a serrated crest ("serrata crista") and swimming under ships
to cut them."2
The tale of the sawfish recalls Pliny on the swift dolphins which
compete with ships (ix.8.7,8). In Aristotle (ix 631a 21 ff.) the dolphin,
after pursuing fish, can hold its breath and shoot up like an arrow,
sailing over a ship's mast if one is nearby. Isidore's description seems
to be based on Pliny's reference to the sword-fish (xxxii.2.6) as
having a sharp-pointed muzzle with which it can pierce the sides
of ships and sink them.143
142In most Second Family manuscripts, where the serra is included in

the section on Fish, there is no illustration of this sea creature. In CUL
there are in reality two notices on the Sawfish: one following the paragraph
on balene, "whales", which concludes the B text on the Aspidochelone ;
and the other following the short description of the gladius, "sword fish",
where the text copies Isidore.
143 The text for the
serra in Morgan 81, f. 68, is unique. Translated it
reads: "The city of Syria which is now called Tyre, was formerly named
Serra from a certain fish which used to abound there. And this fish they
called in their tongue "sar", from which it was deduced that little fish of
similar appearance to it were called sards or sardines." This description
comes from Isidore (xii.6.38), but the scribe has written Serra instead of
Isidore's Sarra, the old name of Tyre. Presumably the scribe confused the
An odd description occurs in PT (1681-1702).
Serra beste est de mer,

Eles at pur voler
E teste at de leiin
E cue at de peissun. (1681-1684)
When the sawfish sees it raises its wings to do great

a ship,
harm, because it flies ahead and holds back the wind from the sails.
When it cannot go faster than the ship (though from what precedes,
one would think the ship becalmed), it plunges into the sea to
devour of the ship is apparently related to Isi
fish. The stopping
dore's account (xii.6.34) of the echineis or remora, which clings
to ships and renders them incapable of moving. GC (399-420)
continues the notion of the harmful effect of this creature by say
ing that sailors dislike it because it often causes ships to sink.
G (1105-1122), differing from DC, calls the scarce a crested bird
with a wide notched tail. According to PB (II,121), although the
beast has wings and flies, it swims against ships ("ele ... se lance
parmi la mer et commence a nagier contre la nef ...").
The depiction of the sawfish is probably the most varied of
all the fantastic animals in the bestiary — it ranges from a winged
dog to a feathered fish and from harpy-like creatures to sirens.
Sometimes influenced by the text and again uninhibited by it, the
artist gave his imagination free line with the sawfish. Although
each drawing has some peculiarity that should be mentioned, only
a few can be indicated here, beginning with the oldest, Bern 318,
f. 18v. Though the picture is difficult to make out, two men appear
to be in a boat, and one of them seems to beat off with an oar a long
fish with dorsal fins which swims abreast of the ship.114 A startling
phenomenon takes place in the second oldest manuscript and is
perpetuated in the winged siren in Camb., Univ. Lib. Gg.6.5, f. 95.
In Brussels 10074 (Pl. VIII, Fig. 1 b) the drawing for the text on
the serra shows a siren beside a boat of sleeping men. On each
of her arms and hands are attached five wings. Druce accepts
Cahier's suggestion that the artist interpreted "pennas immanes"
two names, and copied this notice rather than xii.6.16. See George C. Druce,
"The Legend of the Serra or Saw-Fish", Proceedings of the Society of Anti
quaries of London, 2nd. Series, XXXI (1919), 28.
144 The text of this manuscript begins "Haec
piscis longas habet alas".
as equivalent to "pennas in manibus".145 An illustration for DC

(Morgan 832, f. 5v.) presents an empty boat beside which stands
in the water a two-legged, animal-faced creature with wings and
a wide tail, while another DC manuscript (B.M., Sloane 278, f. 51)
contains a strange, web-footed bird with a cock's head, doubtless
the influence of the word crista, "crest" or "cock's comb". The
Copenhagen manuscript of PT (Pl. Fig. VIII, 1 a) shows the swallow
ing of fish. Numerous other variants could be given, such as the
winged fish on Morgan 81 (Pl. VII, Fig. 6), but to end on a note
of restraint, B.N., fr. 14970, f. 4 of GC pictures the sawfish as a
small flying bird, and Bodl., Douce 132, f. 65, as a huge fish with
two sets of wings.
SCITALIS.
scitalis, scytale.
H's chapter on the scitalis (iii.43) is a copy of Isidore (xii.4.19),

who in turn repeated Solinus (27.29) with one addition. The scitalis
is thus called because its back gleams so that the pleasure of be
holding its markings slows a person down.146 Those that it cannot
pursue are caught, stunned by the marvelous appearance of the
scitalis. So great is this serpent's heat that even in winter it sheds147
its skin, whence Lucan (Pharsalia ix.717) wrote:
Et scitalis sparsis etiam nunc sola pruinis,

Exuvias positura suas.148
In Camb., Gonville and Caius Coll. 384, f. 98 the drawing shows

that some attention has been given to the text because the snake-like
creature has round marks down its back. It is usually portrayed
as an undistinguished winged serpent.
145 Druce, "The Legend of the Serra", op. cit., p. 28.

146 Actually the serpent's name comes from the Greek oxuxa'Xrj, "staff,
referring to its uniform thickness, according to the NED.
147
CUL reads here instead of deponat, exponat, "displays".
148 "The scytale, which alone can shed its skin while the rime is still
scattered over the ground." (Loeb trans.)
SHEEP.
ovis.
The ovis, "sheep", is a defenseless, placid animal covered with

soft wool whose name is derived from oblatio, "offering", since
the ancients in the beginning offered sheep, not bulls, for sacrifice.
Among these some are called bidens, either because two of their
eight teeth are larger — these are the sheep that are sacrificed by
the Gentiles— or because they are biennis, "two years old". In
early winter they gather grass before it is nipped by frost (H iii.13 ;
Isidore xii.1.9). The explanation of the name bidens seems to have
been drawn from Servius' commentary on the Aeneid (iv.57).
The illustration of the sheep is always a faithful depiction of
this animal.
SIREN and ONOCENTAUR.
sirena, onocentaurus; serena, sereine, onoscentaurus.
These two mythological figures are almost always contained in

the same or in successive chapters in Latin and French bestiaries.
Usually the notice on the Siren and Onocentaur is followed by that
on the Hedgehog because of its inclusion — a pre-Vulgate usage,
it should be noted — in the verse from Isaiah (13:22) with which
Y (15) and B (12) begin: "Sirena et 'daemonia' saltabunt in Baby
lonia, et 'herinacii' et onocentauri habitabunt in domibus eorum."149
Sirens are deadly creatures who have a human form from the
head to the navel; thence to their feet they have the appearance
of birds. Their beautiful singing charms men, and from a distance
they attract sailors. The sailors fall asleep, enchanted by the sirens'
song. Then the sirens attack the men and tear their flesh. The ono
centaur also has two natures: his upper part is like a man; his
lower part exceedingly wild, or as Y says, like an ass.150
149
Jerome's translation (Migne, Patr. Lot.- XXVIII, Col. 842) reads:
"Sed requiescent ibi bestiae, et replebuntur domus eorum draconibus, et
habitabunt ibi struthiones, et pilosi saltabunt ibi, (22) et respondebunt ibi
uluae in aedibus eius, et sirenae in delubris voluptatis."
150 por a summary of the early history of the onocentaur, see Robin,
op. cit., pp. 81-82.
The plight of the sailors shows that those who delight in the
pleasures of this world are prey for the devil. PT gives more details
in his moralization where the siren symbolizes wealth in this world
which causes man to sin. The onocentaur is like two-tongued hypo
crites who speak of doing good but act in an evil manner. PT
differs slightly. Man is rightly called man when he tells the truth,
but the ass signifies his evil deeds.
Isidore (xi.3.30), drawing in a certain measure upon Servius
(Comm. in Verg. Aen. v.864), says that sirens are part women, part
volucres, "birds", with wings and talons. With Hugo (ii.32) an
important change has taken place; from their navel to their feet
the sirens have the appearance of fish. B-Is continues Isidore's bird
figure. Copying Isidore, this version states that one of the sirens
sings, another plays the flute, and the third, a lyre. In truth, it is
said, sirens are harlots who lead men into poverty and are there
fore said to cause a shipwreck.
The siren was included in the Physiologus because of Jerome's
use of the word sirena in the Vulgate. Homer, in the earliest reference
to sirens (Odyssey xii.166 f.), does not describe
them physically,
but only alludes to the mortal charm of their voices. Ovid (Metam.
v. 552), in the Greco-Oriental tradition, refers to their bird-like
appearance :
... vobis, Acheloides, unde

Pluma pedesque avium, cum virginis ora geratis?
When then did the siren acquire the fish tail with which it is now
Edmond Faral has called attention to what he believes
associated?
is the first mention of this new type of siren.151 It is contained
in the late seventh or early eighth century Liber monstrorum. At
the beginning of the twelfth century the siren is still a woman-bird,
but in the second quarter of the century the woman-fish appears in
the vernacular, and the text of PT is the first to record this change
of appearance.
PT(1361-1374) says that the siren sings in the tempest and
weeps in fair weather. He describes her as being a woman to the
151 Edmond de poisson des sirenes", Romania, LXXIV

Faral, "La queue
(1953), Druce believes that the mermaid or woman with a fish tail
433-506.
has its origin in a classical source, that of the female triton (p. 174).
See George C. Druce, "Some Abnormal and Composite Human Forms in
English Church Architecture", Archaeological Journal, LXXII (1915), 135-86.
waist, having falcon's feet and the tail of a fish. The quotation
on the onocentaur (1109-1116) is attributed by PT to Isidore. GC
(1053-1070) compromises on the siren and declares that she can
be either a fish or a bird below the waist. What is now the current
description of the woman-fish is found in G (305-334), although
this is contrary to the source, DC. Later, following DC, G contains
a fearful mediaeval lesson which names those who will perish like
the sailors listening to the siren's song.
Cil qui aiment tragitaours

Tumeresses et juglaours,
Cil ensevent, ce n'est pas fable,
La procession au deable. (321-324)
PB (II,172) begins with the important quotation from Isaiah which

he renders in French as: 'La seraine et li diable manront en Ba-
bilone; et li herichons et li haneton152 mandront en lor maisons
et habiteront." He states that there are three types of sirens; two
are half -woman and half -fish ; the third is half -bird. Later he quotes
Phisiologes as saying that the siren is part woman and part bird.
The centaur is also called by PB sacraire,153 and is given a separate
chapter (IV, 176) on the war which the horned wild men wage against
him.154
Illustrations of the siren, like the sawfish with which it was

sometimes confused, are among the most fascinating of bestiary
drawings because of the ingenuity shown in combining monstrous
features with the figure of a woman. The three types that appear
are women with bird extremities, with fish tail, and finally hybrid
fish and bird features. The text of the oldest illustrated manuscript,
Bern 318, says that the siren has a bird's tail, but the drawing of
a woman standing by a centaur shows her with a coiled, serpent
like tail.155 Brussels 10074, f. 146v. shows two bird-tailed sirens
tearing the clothes from a recumbent man while another siren plucks
152 B.N., fr. 834, reads honocentors.

153
And sage t aire, idem.
154 in the Appendix of this study under Wild Man.
See the description
155 drawn by Miss Woodruff, op. cil., p. 242, from this
The conclusion
discrepancy does not seem wholly valid in light of the numerous inconsis
tencies that exist between the text on the siren and its illustration. She says :
"The miniature was not made for the text in which it now stands, but fol
lows the ancient Asiatic story recounted by Ctesias rather than the clas
sical conception which attributes the tail of a bird to the Siren. ... We are
a stringed instrument.156 Below them is a galloping centaur holding

a speared rabbit in his hand.157 It is odd to see in the Icelandic
Bestiary a fish-tailed, bearded woman standing on human legs beside
a boat full of lively men. The twelfth and thirteenth century Latin
bestiaries from England are scarcely less fantastic in their conception
of the siren (PL VIII, Figs. 2 and 3). Bodl. 602, f. l0v. depicts two
sirens with bird's wings, tails, and taloned feet, playing instruments.
A third has a fish's tail and webbed feet. The scene below shows
an attack made against two centaurs on whose horse-bodies the
dismembered body of a man is tied. In her hand the siren often
holds a fish, a mirror, or a comb ; more rarely, she grasps the head
of a serpent twisted over her shoulder. The onocentaur is usually
seen shooting a bow.
SIREN SERPENT.
sirena.
It that through some inexplicable reasoning the name of

seems
the siren became attached to a winged serpent. Isidore (xii.4.29)
in such a case reaching the period when the Physiologus text was without
religious allegories and consisted merely of accounts of animals, a time
before the fourth century. The conclusion seems justified that the Physio
logus was illustrated as a pure animal book some time between its compi
lation in the second century and its expansion in the fourth". In the Smyrna
Physiologus (Strzygowski, op. cit., PL II) the siren has an abundant cock's
tail. Other than those mentioned in the above discussion, the only draw
ings of the siren as wholly a woman-bird that I have seen appear in the fol-
40.2
lowing manuscripts: Bodl., Douce 167, f. 3v.; Sion College L — •, f. 81v.;
L 28
Douai 711, f. 32; B.N., lat. 3630, f. 89 (where a long beak disfigures her
face), Perrins Bestiary, f. 78.
156 This scene, not common in Latin manuscripts in the form displayed
here — the sirens usually attack the men in their boat — is probably influenc
ed in its conception not only by the text but also by Pliny's brief notice
on sirens (x.49.70). He here expresses doubts concerning the reality of sirens,
which he classifies as fabulous birds although it has been reported that they
exist in India, where they tear men to pieces after charming them with songs.
The two legends on the Brussels manuscript read : "Ubi syrene musica sonant
ad decipiendos homines" and "Ubi dilaniant eos iam mortuos".
157 Druce, "Some Abnormal and Composite Human Forms", op. cit.,
p. 181, suggests that the hare is used here as a symbol of uncleanliness
(cf. Pliny viii.55.81), although the portrayal of a centaur holding a hare has
elsewhere been connected with maps of the stars.
reports that in Arabia there are serpents with wings which run
faster than horses; they also fly. Their poison is such that death
follows its bite before pain begins (H iii.47).
A winged serpent with two legs is drawn on Copenhagen, Gl.
Kgl. 1633 40, f. 56.
SNAKE.
serpens; serpens.
Y(13) quotes Matthew 10: 16, "Estote prudentes sicut serpentes,

et 'mites' sicut columbe", and says that the snake has three natures.1"
The first nature old, its eyes become
is that when the snake grows
dim. To renew itself it fasts for forty days, causing its skin to be
come loose; then seeking a narrow crack in a stone, it pushes
through and leaves the old skin behind. The second nature is that
on coming to drink in a river, the snake leaves its venom in a hole.
The third nature is one applied often to the viper — that of fleeing
a naked man and leaping upon a clothed one.
The chapter on the Snake does not belong to the B, B-Is group
of manuscripts, though it is found in TH and DC (11), where the
three traits are included in the notice on the Viper. It reappears
in the enlarged bestiary as the final reptile treated in the section
on Reptiles. The snake pushing through a crack is often the last
or among the last two or three illustrations in a Second Family
manuscript. H (iii.53) keeps the traditional three attributes, and in
part following Isidore (xii.4.43) adds that the snake rids itself of
blindness by eating fennel. If the snake should taste the spittle of
a fasting man, it would die. Pliny, who in reality does not mention
it, is quoted as saying that if a snake should escape with its head
and only two fingers' length of body, it would still live.
The assumption that the snake becomes young when its skin
is shed rests on a misunderstanding of the figurative Greek ex
pression -jT)pa<; exouvsiv, "to shed old age", as in Aristotle (viii
600b 23 ff.).159 It is similar to the account of the lizard's renewing
itself. The depositing of venom is attributed in Aelian (ix.66) to
158 In his edition of Y Professor Carmody adds a fourth nature to the

snake. When a man attempts to kill a snake, it exposes its whole body but
protects its head. This description is taken from C (Cahier IV.68).
1,9
Lauchert, op. cit., p. 16.
the viper before it couples with the muraena, and this trait with
a slight change could easily have been transferred to the snake,
which in turn gave the attribute of fleeing a naked man, an ancient
folk belief, to the viper.160 Virgil in the Third Georgic 422) speaks
(1.
of the snake's hiding its head when attacked. This notion might
have developed from Aristotle's description of the snake (De part.
arum, xi 691b 32 f.). In Pliny (xx.23.95) mention made of the
is
serpent's use of fennel for skin and sight.
The snake does not appear in French bestiaries before G (501-
602), where its IX! parentage evident. G lists three kinds of snakes
is
which are evil and poisonous the vuivre, described as viper the
;
colouvre, to which :
he attributes the sloughing off of old skin and
renewed eyesight; and the dragon, which vomits its poison before
drinking and flees the naked man. In PB (II, 217) the fasting and
renewal of skin assigned to serpent called tiris,111 from which
is
treacle, an antidote against poison, made.

is
Bern 318 pictures snake squeezing through wall 11 v.), two
(f.
a
a
coiled snakes drinking from pool (f. 12), and man piercing
a
a
snake with spear 12v.). The usual scene for the snake the
(f.
is
a
shedding of the old skin, however little the snake might resemble
its own kind (Pl. VIII, Fig. 4). In Epinal 58 (209), 72v. (DC)
f.
under the title De dracone the third nature of the snake portrayed is
— naked man and fearsome dragon confront one another.
a
a
SPIDER.
aranea araingne.
;
The spider worm so named because

an aerial takes its
is
it
nourishment ab aeris, "from the air". Drawing from its small body
long thread, never ceases to work upon the stretching of its
it
a
net (H iii.54; Isidore xii.5.2). TH (175-184) contains verses on the

spider's catching flies and on the fragility of its web, easily destroyed
by wind. PB (II,212) contains chapter entitled "L'araingne et
la
a
mosche". Here said that the saliva of fasting man kills snakes
is
it
and spiders should they taste it. After the spider has spun its web,
160 PW, p. 1083.

161 This serpent called tygris in the Image du monde de maitre Gos-
is
souin (p. 119) and tiris in Alexander Neckam (De naturis rerum ii.108).
it hides in a comer waiting for or worm. When the fly is

a fly
caught, the spider runs to devour it and drink its blood.
The spider in the act of spinning its web is illustrated in Arsenal
3516, f. 204v.
STAG.
cervus; cerf.
Both B (29) and Y (43) quote Psalm 41:2 (Vulgate) at the

beginning of their chapter : "Sicut cervus desiderat ad fontes aqua-
rum, ita desiderat anima mea ad te, deus." The stag is the enemy
of the snake. When the stag knows where the snake is, it fills its
mouth with water and spurts it into the hole, drawing the snake
out by its breath. The stag then tramples it to death underfoot.
The stag symbolizes Christ, who destroyed the devil-dragon that
was unable to endure the fountain of wisdom. G states that the
stag signifies a repentant man, who must keep the devil away by
vigils and fasting.
In the bestiary attributed to Theobaldus (145-170) the stag is
said to have two natures. With its nostrils it draws the snake from
it,
its hiding place, swallows and burning with poison goes to water
to purge itself.162 There the stag drinks much water, and the poison
overcome. The stag sheds its horns and renewed. If stags swim
is
is
across river to seek food, one rests its chin upon the buttocks of
a
the other, and the stag in front becomes tired, goes to the one
it
if
behind and carried in turn.163

is
162
DC (13) says that the stag seeks pure water because swollen
is
it
from the poison.

1,3
In his marginal summary of the Old English translation of the Phys-
iologus attributed to Theobaldus, Richard Morris (ed.), An Old English
Miscellany (Early English Text Society; London, 1872) records for
Oc leiged his skinbon

On octres lendbon. (359-360)
"Each lays his shin-bone on the other's loin-bone". The Latin in question
for this passage reads
:
Portant suspensum gradientes ordine mentum.

Alter in alterius clunibus impositus.
thus apparent that where "chin-bone" should go "shin-bone" has

It
is
a
a
been placed.
More is added by H (ii.14) and B-Is (30), based largely on Isidore

(xii.1.18,19). Cervi, "stags", are so called from their xipaxa, "horns",
and they are said to live nine hundred years. When suffering from
sickness or old they draw out the snake from its hole with
age,
their breath and are made well by their meal of poison. Stags can
shake off implanted arrows by eating dittany. They marvel at the
whistling of a reed pipe and hear well with their ears erect, but
not when they are lowered. After telling of their method of swimming
so that none grows tired, H alone says that a drink for heart trouble
is made from their tears and from bones found in their heart. He
then describes the two kinds of stags : the first similar to that of TH,
and the second which, after finding and killing a snake, seeks a
mountain where it might get food. DC also contains this trait.
The antipathy of the stag and the snake was often mentioned
in antiquity. Oppian (Cyn. ii.233 ff.) says: "All the race of snakes
and deer wage always bitter feud with one another..." (Loeb transla
tion). As is evident above, there are two ways in which the stag
extracts the serpent : by spewing water and then drawing forth the
serpent with its breath, and by the intake of air alone. Once poisoned,
the reason for their seeking water might be explained by the enmity
of the crab and the snake, the result of which proves to be an
antidote for the stag.164 Pliny (xxxii.5.19) quotes Thrasyllus as saying
that "there is nothing so antagonistic to serpents as crabs; that
swine, when stung by a serpent cure themselves by eating them"
(Bohn translation). Thus it is fitting for Oppian (Cyn. ii.284 f.) to
tell of the remedy sought by the stag : "[the stag] seeks everywhere
for the dark stream of a river. Therefrom he kills crabs with his
jaws and so gets a self-taught remedy for his painful woe" (Loeb
translation). Pliny (viii.27.41) mentions the power of the herb dittany,
and Aristotle (ix 611b 26) speaks of the stag's being caught by
the hunter's pipe playing. Some of H's information is taken from
Pliny's chapter on the stag (viii.32.50), and all of the additions in
CUL are located there, but probably came by way of Solinus (19.9-
19). According to CUL, although the stag is lustful, the female
conceives only when the star Arcturus rises. The young are born in
a dense wood, kept hidden, and taught to flee over high places.
When they hear the barking of hunting dogs, they change their
track to the other wind so that their scent will not be carried to
the dogs. Their teeth reveal their age, and that they are long lived
164 Wellmann, op. cit., pp. 32-33.

was proved by Alexander the Great, who captured many stags and
had them banded. Upon recapture a hundred years later, they were
found healthy. Since stags are never feverish, those who eat venison
are protected from fever.
The stag is usually shown with its enemy the snake, and often
in a double scene where it also appears drinking at a stream (Pl.
VIII, Fig. 5 a). The oldest illustration is that of Bern 318, f. 17
where, contrary to the description in many texts of the stag's
trampling the snake with its feet, it attacks the snake with its antlers.
In addition to a picture of standing stags, Camb., Fitzwilliam Mu
seum 254 (Pl. VIII, Fig. 5 b) depicts the swimming stags supported
by their chins. Precise details are included in two manuscripts of
DC: in B.M., Sloane 278, f. 51 v. a woefully swollen stag drinks
at a stream, and in Munich, lat. 6908, f. 81 v. while a stag's tongue
dips in water, its antlers fall off!
STORK.
ciconia.
According to the Aviarium (i.42), repeating Isidore (xii.7.16,17),

storks are named after the rattling sound which they make by strik
ing their beaks. They are harbingers of spring, companions of so
ciety, and enemies of snakes. When they cross the sea to Asia, crows
lead them. They care for their young diligently, and the young
reciprocate when their parents grow old.
Ovid noted the stork's clattering noise (Met. vi.97), and Pliny
(x.23.31,32) speaks of the attention of the young to their parents,
a trait also mentioned by Aristotle (ix 615b 23).
In Latin bestiaries the stork is usually portrayed in a recognizable
manner with a frog in its mouth (Bodl. 764, f. 64) or with a snake
(Bodl. 602, f. 62v.).
SWALLOW.
hirundo ; aronde.
The chapter on the swallow does not exist in the Latin B or

B-Is versions nor in French bestiaries before PB. Y (42) begins
by quoting two Biblical verses in which the swallow is mentioned:
"Sicut 'hyrundo, ita' clamabo, et sicut columba, sic meditabor"

(Is. 38
14) : ; "Turtur et hyrundo et cyconia
tempus custodierunt
'introitus' sui" (Jer. 8:7). According to Physiologus the swallow
breeds once and no more.165
The Aviarium (i.41) is more detailed concerning this bird. Nam
ing Isidore as its source (xii.7.70), it says that the hirundo, "swallow",
is so named because it takes its food not sitting, but while haerendo,
"remaining", in the air. Noisy, flying in circles, it is skillful in
building nests and bringing up its young. Endowed with a certain
foreknowledge, it deserts buildings that are about to collapse. It is
not sought by other birds. The swallow spends the winter overseas,
and its return announces the beginning of spring. CUL describes
in more detail the construction of the swallow's nest and mentions
the medical skill of the swallow in restoring vision to its young.
Aristotle (v 26) does not here agree with the Physiologus,

544a
because he says that the swallow breeds twice a year. It is unusual
for the Aviarium not to contain more than a little of what Pliny has
said on a certain subject, but concerning the swallow (x.24.34) there
is almost no correspondence between the two except the statement
that the bird departs for the winter months. The swallow as a
harbinger of spring is a belief going back to classical times. The
manner in which the swallow obtains mud for its nest is noted in
Aristotle (ix 612b 21 f.), while Pliny (viii.27.41) tells how the herb
celandine is used in restoring sight.
PB (II,145) speaks of the swallow's gathering food while flying,
of its confidence that no bird of prey will catch it because of its
swiftness, and of the fact that the bird daubs its nest with earth. If
the eyes of the young are torn out, the mother is able to make them
see again "mais nus ne set comment ele le fait, ne par coi".
Occasionally the distinctive silhouette of the swallow has been

caught by the mediaeval artist in contrast with the usual stereotyped
portrayal of birds. One of the best of all bird illustrations is that
found in the Hofer Bestiary 5v.) where the two birds gracefully
(f.
fly in opposite directions.
165
The second Greek version (33 bis) printed by Sbordone the same
is
as Y,but not the first which says that after winter over the swallow
is
appears in the spring and its song arouses sleepers to work.

SWAN.
olor, cygnus; cygne.
The swan is a bird called by the Greeks xixvo;; however, it

is called olor in Latin because 0X0; means "all" and the swan's
plumes are entirely white, though its flesh is black. It is called
cygnus from its canendo, "singing", because it pours out the sweet
ness of song with a harmonious voice. Its song is more pleasant
because of the swan's long curving neck. In the Hyperborean regions
it is said that swans fly to the playing of zithers and that they sing
together. Just before its death, the swan sings most sweetly (Avi-
arium i.53; Isidore xii.7.18). CUL quotes from Isidore two lines by
the poet Aemilius Macer, who says that the sight of this bird is
considered auspiciousby sailors.
The only French bestiary under consideration to include the
swan is PB (III,233), which recounts the swan's delight in singing
to the accompaniment of a harp and the particular excellence of
its song during the year in which it is to die.166
The voice of the swan presaging its death is an ancient literary
allusion; Plato uses this figure in describing the death of Socrates
(Phaedo 85B). Pliny expresses disbelief in the swan's uttering a
mournful song at its death since he tested this story himself (x.23.32).
That the swan is a good omen for sailors is found in Servius' com
mentary on the Aeneid (i.393).
In Latin bestiaries the swan is shown in the water, occasionally
with a fish in its mouth (Bodl. f. 65v.). In the illustrated
764,
manuscripts of PB's long version the swan sings before a harpist.
TIGER.
tigris ; tigre.
The account of the tiger in H (iii.1) is a combination of two

sources : the etymologies are from Isidore (xii.2.7) and the particular
version of capturing the whelps is almost identical with Ambrose's
Hexaemeron (vi.4.21).
166 For an amusing example of the strange figure which resulted from
Brunetto Latini's misinterpretation in Li Livres dou Tresor (i.161) of the
cause of the swan's death, see the "The Dying Swan - a Misunderstanding"
by the present writer in Modern Language Notes, LXXIV (1959), 289-92.
The tiger is so called because of its swift flight, for thus the
Medes and the Persians call an arrow ; and the Tigris River derives
its name from the fact that it is the most rapid of rivers. Tigers are
spotted and are remarkable for their strength and speed. They come
from Hyrcania. The tiger, finding its den empty of whelps, starts
in pursuit of the swiftly riding robber. When the thief sees that the
tiger's speed will overtake him, he rids himself of the animal
by
a trick. He throws down a glass sphere, and when the tiger looks
at this mirror, it believes its own image is that of the stolen cub.
It returns to the empty mirror and settles down as if to nurse the
cub. Thus by zeal it loses both revenge and offspring.
Varro had said in the De lingua latina (v. 100) that both an arrow
and the river were called tigris in Armenian; it is Solinus (37.5)
who attributes the word to the Medes, and Isidore adds the Persians.
Pliny's version (viii. 18.25) of how to deceive the pursuing tiger is
less picturesque than the bestiary account. Instead of mirrors, Pliny
has the hunter throw down one cub at a time. The mother returns
each one to the lair while the hunter with his prey eventually reaches
a ship and safety.
PB (II,140) begins by calling the tiger a kind of serpent.167 The
tiger's delay here is caused by the pleasure it takes in admiring
the fair form it sees in the mirror!
The tiger is shown in Latin bestiaries either running after a
fleeing horse whose rider holds a stolen cub in his arm, or already
deterred by looking into a mirror (PL IX, Fig. 1 b). An unusual
change takes place in two Third Family manuscripts. In Westminster
22, f. 25 and Bodl. E Mus. 136, f. 18v. the horse or dog-like tiger is
looking at a circle hanging from a tree (in the Westminster manu
script a person on foot carries off the cub and in the Bodleian
manuscript even the person has disappeared). In Arsenal 3516, f. 200
of PB the tiger, which also gazes at round mirrors attached to a
tree, has wings (PL IX, Fig. 1 a).
167 This odd statement is probably the result of a confusing reminiscence

in copying the initial sentence of two very different chapters in PB: this
one on the tiger, which begins, "Une beste est qui est apelee tigre, c'est
une maniere de serpent", and that on the snake (1I,217), described as "Une
beste qui est apele' tyris ; et c'est 1 serpens dont on fait le triacle".
TURTLEDOVE.
turtur; turtre, tortorele.
Y(41) and B (28) begin with a Biblical quotation : "Vox turturis

audita est in terra nostra" (Song of Sol. 2:12). Y says that the
turtledove will always sit in the desert, and B declares that it is
ever faithful to its mate and will not take another should the first
one die.
The allegory based on B states that the turtledove is like the
holy church, which remained faithful to Christ after his death. GC,
referring to the papal interdict then weighing on England, says that
many believe that her spouse has abandoned the church.
According to Aviarium (i.25) the bird sometimes descends
the
to the gardens of the poor and to the laborer's fields to collect seeds.
It chooses soft and delightful places for its nest. CUL adds from
Isidore (xii.7.60) that the bird's name comes from its voice; it loves
solitude; and in winter when moulted it lives in hollow trees. To
protect its young from attacks by wolves, the turtledove spreads
squill leaves over the nest.
The account of and chastity of the turtledove is
the faithfulness
carried over into the French versions with the addition, first appear
ing in PT (2547-2555), that the bird, after losing its mate, will not
sit on anything green.168
Aristotle (viii 600a 20) refers to the bird's hiding in a tree in
winter when its feathers drop, and to the bird's single mate (ix 613a
14).1*9 From Ambrose's Hexaemeron (vi.4.29) comes the reference
to the use of squill leaves.170
For the most part the illustrations of the turtledove are un
satisfactory, and were it not for the text or title the bird's identity
could not be guessed. The Latin bestiaries usually show a con
ventional standing bird, but in Camb., Corpus Christi Coll. 53,
168 por a short discussion of this characteristic of the turtledove and

its relationship with the Spanish romance Fontefria, see Leo Spitzer, "Auf
keinen griinen Zweig kommen", MLN, LXIX (1954), 270-73.
169 For numerous citations of the turtledove's monogamy by the Church
Fathers see Sbordone, Ricerche, pp. 131 ff.
170 Pliny
(xx.9.39) quotes Pythagoras as saying that squill suspended
over a door will ward off evil spells. Perhaps from this idea arose the story
of the turtledove's using it.
covers its nest with squills in the presence

f. 202v. the turtledove
of a wolf. In some French bestiaries what apparently is a barren
tree is introduced.
UNICORN.
unicornis, monoceros, rinoceros; unicorne.
The unicorn, doubtless known of fabulous animals, has

the best
had a varied career and, according to one of the authorities on its
history, the spread of popular tradition concerning this beast as
distinguished from the learned was by means of the bestiaries.171
A significant place in literature and art is occupied by this animal
of hybrid ancestry — descending from the Indian ass among the
Greeks and the horse among the Greeks and Romans, and from
the goat in the Physiologus, with the rhinoceros strain constantly
reappearing.
Y (35) begins with a Biblical quotation : "Moyses de monocera-
ton in Deuteronomio dixit, benedicens Ioseph: 'Primitivus' tauri
'species' eius, cornua unicornui cornua eius" (Deut. 33 : 17).m The
unicorn is described as a small animal like a kid, very fierce, and
having one horn in the middle of its head. No hunter can approach
this animal because of its strength, so in order to catch it a virgin
is placed in its path. When the unicorn springs into her bosom, she
warms and suckles it.173 It is then caught and taken to the king's
palace. H (ii.6) makes no major change in the account. The virgin,

on perceiving the unicorn, uncovers her bosom, the sight of which
causes the animal to lose its wildness. It then puts its head in her
lap and goes to sleep. B-Is (16) omits any reference to the bosom,
and says merely : "At ille visa virgine complectitur earn et dormiens
in gremio eius..." It differs also from H by including a passage
from Isidore, which will be discussed later.
Allegorically, except for PT's markedly different minor details,
all versions agree that Christ is the spiritual unicorn who, descending
into the Virgin's womb, was incarnate, was captured by the Jews,
and condemned to death. The unicorn's horn symbolizes Christ's
unity with his father ; the animal's fierceness, the inability of heaven
171 Odell Shepard, The Lore of the Unicorn (London, 1930), p. 47.
172 In B (16) the Greek name monosceros and the Latin unicornis are
first given.
173 This last is not contained in B.
ly powers to know Christ and of Hell to hold him; its small size
signifies Christ's humility in assuming humanity; and its kid-like
appearance represents Christ's being made in the likeness of carnal
sin. PT, before straying far from the traditional allegory, explains
that the virgin's bosom represents the church and that the kiss
signifies peace.
The earliest account of the unicorn is in the Indica of Ctesias,
a fifth century B.C. Greek who was physician at the court of
Darius II, king of Persia.174 The one-horned animal is there called
a wild ass from India, and seems in part to be based on the Indian
rhinoceros. Pliny (viii.20.29) in describing the rhinoceros mentions
that it is a natural-born enemy of the elephant and that when fight
ing, it aims at its adversary's belly. Then after speaking of other
animals which have one horn, he mentions (viii.21.31), without real
izing that he is again referring to the rhinoceros, the fierce monoceros
which has the head of a stag, elephant's feet, the tail of a boar, and
a horse's body. It makes a deep lowing sound, and has a black
horn two cubits in length in the middle of its forehead. Solinus (52.
39,40) later repeats this description. Much importance is given to
the unicorn in Aelian (iii.41 ; iv.52 ; xvi.20), who in the third passage
which treats the cartazon seems to be describing a rhinoceros with
an antelope's horn.175 Its excessive fierceness is stressed, and the
fact that "the young are sometimes taken to the king to be exhibited
in contests on days of festival because of their strength". Elsewhere
(xvii.44), in his chapter on the rhinoceros's combat with the elephant,
Aelian refuses to describe the rhinoceros because it is familiar to
the Greeks and Romans. Thus the two animals, the rhinoceros and
the unicorn, which were originally one, are separated.
There are seven references, all in the Old Testament, to the
unicorn in the King James Version of the Bible,176 the word being
derived from the Septuagint translation povoxepioz of the Hebrew
Re'em. The beast is always alluded to as being strong and fierce.
Where then did the story of the small goat-like animal captured
by a virgin originate?
Sbordone believes that the small unicorn was invented by the
Christian compiler in order to facilitate the capture by the virgin,
and is thus another example of many cited by this scholar Where
Migne, Patr. Gr., CHI, Col. 226.

174
175
Shepard, op. cit.. p. 36.
176 Num. 23:22; Deut. 33:17; Job 39:3-12; Ps. 22:21; Ps. 29:6;
Ps. 92:10; Is. 34:7. In the Vulgate the unicorn is also found in Ps. 77:69.
the allegory influenced the zoological account.177 A passage identical

with that of the Physiologus is found in the Commentary on Basil's
Hexaemeron, long attributed to Eustathius of Antioch.178 The next
appearance, important for its later influence, is in Isidore (xii.2.
12,13), where the opening words show the confusion existing be
tween the rhinoceros and the unicorn: "Rhinoceron a Graecis vo-
catus. Latine interpretatur in nare cornu. Idem est monoceron, id
est,unicornu..." In this notice the unicorn is spoken of as fighting
with the elephant — a trait taken from ancient descriptions of the
rhinoceros — and
as captured by a virgin. In the expanded Latin
bestiaries of the Second Family and thereafter, there exist two
chapters on the Unicorn : the first, De unicorni, describing the virgin-
capture; and some chapters later, De monocerote, transcribing So-
linus' frightful horse-bodied rhinoceros.
It appears that the ultimate origin of the role played by the
virgin in ensnaring the unicorn is lost, although non-Christian tra
dition has probably influenced the story.179 In the Syriac version
the emphasis is upon sexual attraction by the girl: "...Then the
girl offers him her breasts, and the animal begins to suck the breasts
of the maiden and to conduct himself familiarly with her..."180
Definite traces of using physical means to draw the unicorn to his
ultimate death can be found in the oldest Old French version.181
The Physiologus tradition is at once apparent in PT (393-418)
where the unicorn is described as resembling a buket, "little goat".
The physical attraction of the virgin is also stressed, for when the
hunters find the unicorn's repair,
La met une pulcele

Mors del sein sa mamele;
E par l'odurement
Monosceros la sent;
Dune vient a la pulcele
Si baise sa mamele,
En sun devant se dort, (403-409)
177 Sbordone, Ricerche, p. 59.

178 Migne, Patr. Gr., XVIII, Col. 744.
179 Shepard, op. cit., p. 66.
180 Ibid., p. 49. Although Shepard states that this citation is from the
Syriac version, it is in reality from the Arabic. See J. P. N. Land, "Scholia

in Physiologum Leidensem", Anecdota Syriaca, IV (1875), 147.
181 In Richard de Fournival's Bestiaire d 'Amour (42,7) and the bestiaries
related to this the odor of the virgin is stressed as the power which attracts
the unicorn.
GC (1375-1416), based on B-Is, includes Isidore's contributions,

but instead of the horn being the sharp instrument which pierces
the elephant's belly, it is the unicorn's foot with a sharp nail which
cuts the elephant.182 On seeing the virgin, the unicorn crouches on
her lap, then plays so much with her that it falls asleep. When
captured, it is driven before the king. In G (239-264) a beautiful
virgin is sent as a decoy into the desert where the beast is accus
tomed to live.183 PB's account (II,220) seems to be based on So-
linus' rhinoceros-unicorn description, except that here the animal
has a high and clear voice instead of Solinus' "mugitu horrido".
The many illustrations of the unicorn show the same instability
as to physical characteristics that has been noted in the texts. The
oldest Latin Physiologus picture in Bern 318 (Pl. IX, Fig. 2 a)
portrays the animal as a goat with a curving horn, its muzzle placed
in the hands of a standing woman. This pose has not been seen
elsewhere.184 Brussels 10074, f. 147 contains two scenes: in one a
woman leads a large, clovenhoofed unicorn toward a king seated
within a stylized palace; in the other the woman is seated on a
folding chair with the standing animal's head in her lap. Twelfth
and thirteenth century manuscripts apparently all show the hunter
182 An explanation for the transference of the cutting from the horn
to the foot can be discovered by comparing Isidore's Latin (xii.2.12) with
GC's Old French. Isidore says: "...id est, unicornus, eo quod unum cornu
in media fronte habeat pedum quatuor ita acutum et validum ut quidquid
impetierit, aut ventilet aut perforet. Nam et cum elephantis saepe certamen
habet, et in ventre vulneratum prosternit." GC expresses the passage in
this way:
Tant a le pe dur e trenchant

E l'ongle del pe si agu,
Que ren n'en poet estre feru,
Qu'ele ne perce e qu'el ne fende,
N'a pas poeir que s'en defende
Li olifanz, quant le requert:
Car desoz le ventre le fert,
Del pe trenchant com alemele
Si forment, que tot l'esboele (1384-1392)
It is evident that the pedum meaning "foot" in the sense of measurement

in Isidore was understood as pedem, an anatomical "foot" in GC. This
erroneous interpretation has been pointed out by Lauchert, op. cit., p.
146, n. 1.
i83 Aelian (xvi.20) says of the unicorn's habitat: "Desertissimas regiones
persequitur, simul et solitarius errat."
184 The resemblance between this unicorn and those depicted in the
Utrecht Psalter is noted in Chapter IV of this study.
attacking the unicorn with all manner of weapons while the animal
either kneels or awkwardly crouches with its forefeet in the girl's
lap (Pl. IX, Fig. 2 b). The unicorn itself has many forms — from
that of a small dog with a straight horn to a large graceful animal
with a curved horn. It is pertinent to note the position of the
unicorn's head in the Leningrad Bestiary — it is inside the woman's
dress. This would seem to be evidence that the word sinus was
understood "bosom" rather than "lap" as it is some
as meaning
times translated into English from the Latin. Except for his elephant
like feet the monoceros usually resembles the unicorn (Pl. IX,
Fig. 2 c).
In the French manuscripts, as has been seen in other cases, the

compositions are more simple, but the variations in the depiction
of the unicorn are as great as in the Latin. In the Copenhagen
manuscript of FT 15) the unicorn goat-like creature in the
(f.
is
a
lap of maiden, while in two GC manuscripts (Bodl., Douce 132,
a
70 and Camb.,Fitzwilliam Museum, McLean 123, 40v.) the

f.
f.
woman unclad. All of these animals are far removed from the
is
spirited, finely proportioned unicorns of later heraldry.
VIPER.
vipera; wivre, woutre.
The account of the Viper underwent bizarre changes in the course

of time and, because in the Greek and the early Latin versions the
chapter on the Viper was followed by that on the Snake, and since
the viper type of serpent, some of the latter's characteristics
is
a
were attached to the former and have so remained.

Y (12), after the expected mention of "Generatio viperarum"
(Matt. 7), recounts that the male viper has the appearance of
a
3
:
man, and the female of woman to the waist, but below the navel
a
she has tail. Thus the female has no place to conceive.

crocodile's
a
When male injects his seed into her mouth, she cuts off his
the
member and he dies. The young vipers have no place through which
to be born, so they open their mother's side and come forth, kill
ing her.
This the extent of the oldest Latin versions, though earlier
is
literature has elements of the story. In the Theogony

(1.
297 ff.)
Hesiod describes the monster daughter of Callirhoe and calls her
Echidna (?x'sva being the Greek name for "viper"). The crocodile's
tail would seem to show Egyptian

influence.185 The viper's im
pregnation through the mouth (although the viper in these cases is
wholly reptilian) and the subsequent death of all are found in
Herodotus (iii.109), Pliny (x.62.82), and Aelian (i.24).
With H (ii.21) and DC (11) — the viper is not included in B —
the human appearance is wholly lacking and conception occurs when
the mouth of the male is inserted in that of the female. She then
cuts off his head.186 The ensuing traits listed by Hugo and DC right
fully belong to the snake and are discussed in that chapter except
for one which was transmitted to PB — the third nature of the viper
which is to flee a naked man and to leap upon one who is clothed.
An addition which describes the coupling of the viper and the
muraena apears in CUL, and finds its origin in Ambrose's Hexaeme-
ron (v.7.18).
G's account (507-521) of the conception and birth of the viper
is normal. PB has two chapters on the viper, perhaps thinking of
it as two different creatures. In the chapter telling of the birth, the
animal is called a wivre (II,134); in the one connected with its flee
ing a naked man, it is called a woutre (II, 143).187
Of interest is the oldest illustration of the viper, Bern 318 (PL IX,
Fig. 3), because it portrays the male and the female as humans with
tails. The male points with his finger to the mouth of the female.
In Morgan 832, f. 5v. of DC the viper is drawn as a snake which
swallows the head of another, while below two small snakes emerge
from their mother's back. More commonly the viper does not appear
as a snake but with wings and two feet (PL X, Fig. 1). To illustrate
PB's woutre a beast runs from a naked man in Arsenal 3516 (PL
VIII, Fig. 6).
VULTURE.
vultur; voltoir.
The substance of Y's chapter (32) on the Vulture is entirely

different from the later Latin and French attributes of this bird.
Y says that the vulture is found in high places. When pregnant it
goes to India and there finds the eutocium stone (X.tflo; tuxdxioc).
185 PW, op. cit., p. 1082.

186
Cf. Isidore (xii.4. 10,11).
187 In a mediaeval manuscript it would not be very difficult to mistake
the appearance of the word wivre for woutre.
This stone is similar to a nut in size,188 but when moved it sounds

like a bell. At the moment of birth the vulture sits on the stone
and delivers without pain.
Legendary attributes of the eagle have here been connected with
the vulture.189 Writers of antiquity called the stone mentioned in
the account of the vulture the eagle-stone (X.i'9o<; dexi'trjc or lapis
aetites), and it had two functions. Eagles were said to use it in
the construction of their nest in order to anchor it more firmly.190
Its other use as an aid in birth was more generally referred to.191
Wellmann has suggested the possibility of the original name X i 8 o «
ie-zhrfi being altered to Xi'80; euxoxio; .I92
The Aviarium (i.38) mentions none of the above story of the

vulture, but describes it as a bird of prey which flies down to seize
a dead body and which follows armies to feed on corpses. This habit
is mentioned also in Ambrose's Hexaemeron (v.23.81). Isidore
(xii.7.12) is quoted as saying that the vultur is thought to receive
its name "a volatu tardo", "from its slow flight". CUL's chapter on
the Vulture largely differs from that in the Aviarium, though it
notes the bird's ability to predict the number of dead in battle. From
Ambrose's Hexaemeron (v.20.64) is drawn the statement that the
offspring are engendered without mating and live to be
vulture's
a hundred years old.193
The vulture is not mentioned in any French bestiary previous
to that of PB (II,146), which tells of its desire to follow armies
for their carrion that it can smell from a distance of a three day
journey.194 When a corpse is found, the vulture first eats the eyes
188 Yreads "nix similis magnitudine", but this must be a misprint for
"nux" since the Greek text reads xripuov.
189 See article
by A. A. Barb, "Birds and Medical Magic: 1. The Eagle-
Stone; 2. The Vulture Epistle", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld
Institutes, XIII (1950), 316-22.
190 Horapollo (ii.49).
181 The explanation of the connection between this stone and pregnancy
is found in Pliny (x.3.4): "This stone has the quality also, in a manner, of
being pregnant, for when shaken, another stone is heard to rattle within,
just as though it were enclosed in its womb" (Bohn trans.).
183 The manner of engendering is explained in Horapollo
(i.ll): "...when
the vulture hungers after conception, she opens her sexual organs to the
North Wind and is covered by him for five days..."
194
Cf. Pliny (x.6.7). PB repeats this in another chapter on the Vulture
(IV,80), where it is found together with the keen sighted worm lieus, and
though it is not explicitly stated, the vulture here signifies the sense of smell
and then extracts the brain through the orbit (this trait is also linked
with the raven). Needless to say, it is considered a dirty bird.195
The carniverous tendencies of the vulture are evident in most
of its illustrations. In B.M., Harl. 3244, f. 51 a large bird places
its talons on the shoulder of a corpse; in Camb., Trinity Coll.,
R.14.9, f. 100 it has part of a human arm or leg in its beak; and
in Bodl. 764, f. 61 two vultures tear the flesh of animals.
In the illustrations of French bestiaries special emphasis is placed
on the vulture's flying behind armed knights on horseback as in
Arsenal 3516 (Pl. X, Fig. 2).
WEASEL.
mustella; mustelete, mostoille, belette.
Although in most versions prior to the enlarged Second Family

the account of the Asp is included in the same chapter with the
Weasel, each is discussed separately here. Y (34) begins with the
admonition that according to the law, weasels are not to be eaten
because they are dirty animals (Lev. 1 1 : 29). The weasel is said to
conceive at the mouth and to give birth through the ear. Y then
contains a statement not found in B (26) — if mating takes place
through the right ear, a male will be born ; if it is through the
left ear it will be a female. The weasel signifies those who willingly
receive the seed of the divine word, but then hide what they have
heard.
H (ii.18) and B-Is (27) differ slightly concerning the weasel's
conceiving. Here it is reported that some say it conceives by the
ear and gives birth through the mouth, while others say that con
ception takes place through the mouth and birth through the ear.196
The rest of H's and B-Is's remarks are taken from Isidore (xii.3.3)
although the etymology of the name mustela is changed. According
to H and B-Is the animal is so called becauseit is like a mus longus,
"long mouse", for telos (-zilns) means "long" in Greek. Isidore
as the liens does sight. The chapter follows that on the Elements and Senses
with which, in all probability, it should form a whole.
185 In
the Waldensian Bestiary (15) we return to the ancient story of
the eagle-stone.
1*8
Cahier (1I,149) offers the following suggestion to explain the mouth-
ear ambivalence : "Des equivoques comme 'aurem' and 'orem' (pour 'os')
auront pu occasioner les differentes versions egalement merveilleuses qui
couraient sur l'enfantement de la mustoile..."
used the word telutn, "spear", in this place and said that the animal
derives its name from its spear-like length. Weasels are clever be
cause they move their young from place to place after birth. They
pursue snakes and mice. There are two types of weasels : one, which
is called by the Greeks ictidas ( I x - 1 ? ), lives in the woods ; the
other wanders about in houses. Not found in Isidore is the statement
that weasels are skillful in medicine, knowing how to revive their
young should they be killed.197
The belief that weasels give birth through the mouth was already
being refuted by Aristotle, who attributes this misconception to
Anaxagoras (De gen. an. iii 756b 15).198 A surprising assertion is
found in Pliny (x.65.85), who states that the lizard gives birth at
the mouth, and says that Aristotle denies it. This confusion apparent
ly arose from mistaking the word toM, "weasel", for y«Xs<u-y]c,
"spotted lizard".190 The impregnation through the mouth and birth
at the ear, instead of the contrary, is a later version which might
have been influenced by tales such as those about the viper.200
In the Old French accounts the same hesitancy as to the location
of each action is sometimes found. The short passages in PT (1217-
1228) and G (1137-1144) only mention the conception at the mouth
and birth at the ear. GC (2419-2436) repeats this and questions in
credulously :
Sont cil fols, qui vont affermant,

Que ele receit e espant
La semence parmi I'oie?
Seurement ceo n'i a mie. (2433-2436)
PB (II,148) and GC alike speak of moving the young about, and

the former records the old belief that the weasel can revive its dead
offspring.
No ancient references have been found referring to the belief that

197
the weasel knew the herb of life, but mention is made of this power in
Marie de France's lai Eliduc and in Giraldus Cambrensis, Topographia
Hibernica (i.27). See Thomas S. Duncan, "The Weasel in Religion, Myth
and Superstition", Washington University Studies (Humanistic Series), XII
(1924), 62-65.
198 That
the opinion was current in Egypt also is seen in Plutarch
(De Is. et Os. 381 A): "There are still many people who believe and declare
that the weasel conceives through its ear and brings forth its young by
way of the mouth, and that this is a parallel of the generation of speech."
199 Wellmann, op. cit.. p. 28.
290 PW. op. cit., p. 1087.
Many illustrations merely portray a lengthy, long-nosed animal,

but others have more individual renditions (Pl. X, Fig. 3). In B.M.,
Sloane 3544, f. 20v. two weasels stand mouth to mouth as a tiny
weasel pops from the ear of one of them. Rats and dragons flee
from the weasel in B.M., Royal 12 F. xiii, f. 44; in Camb., Corpus
Christi Coll. 22, f. 164 the weasel transports its young and stands
over one that must be dead. Finally in Sion College L j- f. 96v.

40 2
—
L28
birth is taking place at the weasel's mouth.
WETHER and RAM.
vervex, aries.
The vervex, "wether", is called either from its vires, "strength",

being stronger than other sheep, or because it is a vir, "male",
though castrated, or because having vermes, "worms", in its head
it becomes excited by their itching and strikes other sheep. Aries,
"ram", comes from " Apso; , "Ares" — that is, from Mars, by which
name male sheep are called; or the name comes from the fact that
rams were first sacrificed by the Gentiles on the ara, "altar". Isidore
(xii.1. 10,11) and H (iii.14) cite a line from the fifth century Christian
poet Caelius Sedulius: "Aries mactatur ad aram." However, an
objection to the derivation of aries from ara is expressed in H,
where after this quotation is written, "Sed id minus placet, et primae
syllabae quantitas non approbat".
An illustration in Camb., University Library Kk.4.25 shows a
wether wearing a bell, behind a flock of sheep before which two
rams butt one another. Above the head of the hooded shepherd
are the words: "Ha ha ware le corn."
WOLF.
lupus; lup, leu.
This is among the longer of the chapters not found in the oldest
Latin texts, and it is one of the earliest additions to B-Is. The text
in H (ii.20), differing from Isidore's etymology (xii.2.23,24), says
that the Greeks call the wolf lycos (Xux0;), and that lux (Xuxtj)
means "morning light", a derivation fitting for plunderers. Thus
prostitutes are termed wolves because they lay waste their lover's
goods. Others say that wolves are called lupos because they resemble
leopedes, since like the lion their strength lies in their feet, and
what they trample on does not live. Countrymen say that a man
loses his voice if first wolf, but if it is the animal which is
seen by a
first seen, it loses its fierceness. The wolf is strongest in its shoulders
or mouth, weakest in its loins, and it is unable to turn its neck
backwards. The wolf lives from prey, from the earth, and sometimes
from the wind. During the year the wolf does not couple more than
twelve days, the female bearing its young only in May when it
thunders. Nourishment for the young is not sought nearby but at
a distance, where the wolf approaches the sheep fold like a tame
dog, and lest the watch dogs smell its evil breath and awaken the
shepherds, it goes against the wind. If a branch should break under
foot, the wolf fiercely bites its foot as punishment. In the night its
eyes shine like lamps. Solinus (2.36) is given as H's authority for
stating that at the tip of a wolfs tail is a tuft of hair having amatory
power which the wolf bites off if capture is imminent. H explains
what a man should do when his voice has been silenced by the
wolf. He should remove his clothes, trample the ground underfoot,
and taking two stones in his hand, should strike them together.
CUL includes Isidore's derivation of the Greek name Xuxot , "wolf,
from Xuizm, "rage".
Pliny (viii.22.34) attributes the wolfs ability to cause muteness
to a harmful power in its eye, mentioning also the tuft of hair in
its tail and its coupling only twelve days, although Aristotle (vi
580a 15) states that this length of time applies to the lying-in period
of the she-wolf.
The short version of PB's bestiary, as has been pointed out in
Chapter III, is based on B-Is with the addition of notices on the Dog
and on the Wolf. PB's text on the Wolf (IV ,71) is a translation of
the chapter found in B.M., Stowe 1067, and resembles H down to
the reference to Solinus.
In the Latin bestiaries the scene most often represented is that
of the wolf approaching the sheep fold and biting its noisy paw
(Pl. X, Fig. 4), although a wolf fleeing with a lamb in its jaws
appears on B.M., Harl. 3244, f. 44. Apparently a unique illustration
is that found in B.M., Royal 12 F. xiii, f. 29, where the man who
has been rendered speechless stands upon his shirt and holds a
large stone in each hand in an effort to recover his voice.
WOODPECKER.
picus; espech, espec.
In the same chapter with the Magpie (pica), H includes the

Woodpecker (iii.32), saying that picus takes its name from Saturn's
son Picus who used this bird in auguries. The woodpecker is con
sidered divine since no spike can remain inserted in any hole where
the woodpecker has made its nest. Isidore (xii.7.47) adds that this
is the picus Martius.201
Why should these accounts omit the essential factor in this bird's
ability to reopen its plugged hole — the existence of an herb which
the woodpecker applies to the peg and which Pliny mentions
(x.18.20)?202 The woodpecker and the herb which unplugs whatever
it touches is included in PB (II,160).
Unillustrated in the Latin bestiaries because of its inclusion in
the section on the Magpie, in Arsenal 3516 the woodpecker flies
with a leaf in its beak to a hole that is closed with a spike (Pl. X,
Fig. 6).
YALE.
eale ; centicore.
Not found in Isidore but in Solinus (52.35) and in H (iii.10),

the yale had an even more composite career in the vernacular than
in its original form as an animal large as a horse, black in color,
with an elephant's tail and the jaws of a wild boar. Its horns are
unusually long and adapted for movement, for one is folded back
while the other fights. If a blow damages the sharp point of one,
the other is used.
In PB (III,223), the only French bestiary to include this animal,
the yale is called a centicore and is said to dwell in the deserts of
201 For a discussion of the woodpecker which was equated with Zeus,
and its relation with Picus, son of the king of Latium, who was meta
morphosed into a woodpecker (Ovid, Met. xiv.390; Virgil, Aen. vii.197), see
W. R. Halliday, "Picus-who-is-also-Zeus", Classical Review, XXXVI (1922),
110-12.
202 In the Koiraniden the same story is told of the oevipoxoXdicxT);,
Wellmann, op. cit., p. 97.
India. After speaking of its mobile horns, which are longer than
four arm lengths, it is described as having a muzzle like the bottom
of a barrel, thighs and chest like a lion, the feet and body of a
horse, an elephant's tail, and a voice like a man's. The basilisk
(basilecoc) hates the centicore, and finding it asleep, pricks it between
the eyes so that it swells until its eyes burst from its head and the
animal dies from poison.
George Druce has pointed out that this French version is com
posed of details from the yale and the leucrota as can be seen by
comparing Pliny's consecutive remarks on each (viii.21.30).203 In
the Image du Monde of Gossouin de Metz the leucrota is called
a centicore and its chapter is followed immediately by that of an
unnamed animal whose description is that of the yale ; and in some
manuscripts, by the omission of line, the two accounts are fused
into one under the title centicore.201 The derivation of the word
centicore, though perhaps having an origin similar to manticora, is
uncertain,205 and the connection of the basilisk with this story is
unaccountable.
A humorous variation appears in some of the Latin texts and
illustrations. Some read maxillis aprinis, "with jaws of a wild boar",
and others maxillis caprinis, "with jaws of a goat". This difference
is perhaps attributable to the vagaries of a scribe who thought it
inconsistent for a beast to have both horns and tusks and therefore
added a c to the name of the animal.206 In illustrations where the
reading is the former, the yale has no beard, but with the latter it
203 George
C. Druce, "Notes on the History of the Heraldic Jail or
Yale", Archaeological Journal, LXVIH (1911), 173-99.
204 Ibid., pp.
184-85.
205 Ibid.,
p. 185, n. 2. A possible solution of the formation of the word
centicore might lie in another work by Pierre de Beauvais. In the resume
of Pierre's Mappemonde given by Langlois, La Connaissance de la nature
(1927), p. 185, four animals are described by Pierre in the same order in
which they appear in Pliny (viii.21.30), Solinus (52.34-37), and Honorius
Augustodunensis probable source. See Migne, Patr. Lat., CLXXII,
(PB's
Col. 124). Their Latin in succession are: leucrocota (Honorius writes
names
ceucocroca), eale, indicus taurus, and mantichora, but Pierre calls them
santicora (with a variant given by Langlois, ceucrocata. This reading is
found in B.N., nouv. acq. fr. 13521, f. 63 b), eale, taureaux, manticore. It is
not improbable that the first syllable ceu- was thought to be cen- in a
manuscript, and then because they are almost homonymous, it was written
san-. And doubtless the ending -ticora was the result of a scribe's attention
dropping down a few lines in his source to the word manticora.
206 Ibid., p. 178.
usually has a goatee. In Morgan 81 (Pl. X, Fig. 5) the rather graceful

animal has two horns, one pointing up and the other forward, while
in Camb., Fitzwilliam Museum 254, f. 20 the yale resembles a
bearded bull with thick horns pointing ahead and behind. In Arsenal
3516, f. 206v. of PB the basilisk, with cock's body and snake's tail,
pricks with its beak the seated centicore, but in the Montpellier
manuscript of PB, a normal, horizontally horned yale is drawn with
no basilisk in view.
ILLUSTRATIONS
NOTE
Since iconographical considerations were of more importance

for this study than stylistic, certain liberties have been taken with
the tracings made of the manuscript illustrations: landscapes were
eliminated where they did not affect the scene ; frames were omitted;
depiction of clothing was simplified; the size of the original was
reduced or enlarged ; and in the illustration of the Beaver two sepa
rate scenes were juxtaposed. In no case, however, have any of the
essential features been changed as far as these were visible on
microfilms or photographic reproductions. In spite of the incompar
able aid given by the various processes of reproduction in existence
today, it is still true that nothing can wholly take the place of seeing
the manuscript itself — with its dark letters and rubrics, its lively
drawings in outline, or its scenes in many colors.
The animals in the following illustrations represent a personal
choice based, among other reasons, on scenes that are most typical
of the familiar or of the lesser known of the Physiologus and
bestiary creatures. It will be noted that the majority are taken from
Latin rather than French manuscripts. This can be explained by
recalling that the latter in many cases contain small, rather un
imaginative pictures usually dating from the thirteenth century;
they include a numberof interesting details but their general ex
cellence is not equal to that found in the wide variety of extant
Latin manuscripts.
SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate I.
1. Amphisbaena
a. Bodl. 764, f. 97.
b. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum 254, f. 41v.
2. Ant. B.N., fr. 14969, f. 17. (GC).
3. Antelope. Brussels, Bibl. Roy. 10074, f. 141.
4. Ape. Bodl. 602, f. 18v.

5. Asp. B.M., Harl. 3244, f. 61v.
Plate II.
1. Aspidochelone
a. Bodl. 602, f. 22v.
b. Oxford, Merton Coll. 249, f. 8. (PT).
2. Basilisk. Cambridge,Corpus Christi Coll. 53, f. 205.
3. Barnacle goose. Paris, Arsenal 3516, f. 205. (PB).
4. Caladrius. B.M., Egerton 613, f. 34. (GC).
5. Beaver. B.M., Royal 2 B. vii, f. l0lv. and 102.
Plate III.
1. Crocodile. Morgan 81, f. 70.
2. Crane. Bodl. 764, f. 62.
3. Caladrius. Morgan 832, f. 10.

4. Dragon
a. B.N., lat. 3630, f. 93.
b. B.M., Harl. 3244, f. 59.
5. Eagle. Cambridge, Corpus Christi Coll. 53, 198v.
Plate IV.
1. Elephant
a. Bodl., Laud Misc. 247, f. 163v.
b. B.M., Harl. 4751, f. 8.
2. Fox. Bodl. 602, f. 12v.
3. Griffin. Bodl. 764, f. 11 v.
4. Mandrake. B.N., fr. 14969, f. 61v. (GQ.

ILLUSTRATIONS 195
Plate V.
1. Hedgehog. B.M., Royal 12 F. xiii, f. 45.
2. Hydrus and crocodile

a. Copenhagen, Royal Lib. 3466, f. 21. (PT).
b. Cambridge, Corpus Christi Coll. 53, f. 206.
3. Lizard. Munich, lat. 6908, f. 81v.
4. Ibis. Bodl. 602, f. llv.

5. Hyena. B.M., Harl. 4751, f. 10.
Plate VI.
1. Lion
a. Copenhagen, Royal Lib., 3466, f. 10. (PT).
b. Cambridge, Corpus Christi Coll. 53, f. 189.
2. Manticora. Bodl. 764, f. 25.
3. Ostrich. Canterbury Lit. D 10, f. 131.
4. Panther. Bodl. 602, f. 20.
Plate VII.
1. Phoenix. Bodl., Douce 88 A, f. 20.
2. Onager. Munich, lat. 6908, f. 80.
3. Salamander. B.M., Royal 12 C. xix, f. 68v.
4. Pelican. Bodl. 764, f. 72v.
5. Peridexion tree. Bodl. 602, f. 29.
6. Sawfish. Morgan 81, f. 69.
Plate VIII.
1. Sawfish
a. Copenhagen, Royal Lib. 3466, f. 43v. (PT).
b. Brussels, Bibl. Roy. 10074, f. 142.
2. Siren and onocentaur. Bodl., Douce 167, f. 3v.
3. Siren. Cambridge, Sidney Sussex Coll. 100, f. 38v.

4. Snake. Bodl. 764, f. l0Ov.
5. Stag
a. Bodl. 764, f. 17v.
b. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum 254, f. 10.
6. Viper. Paris. Arsenal 3516, f. 200v. (PB).

Plate IX.
1. Tiger
a. Paris, Arsenal 3516, f. 200. (PB).
b. B.M., Add. 11283, f. 1.
2. Unicorn
a. Bern, Burgerbibliothek 318, f. 16v.
b. B.M., Royal 12 F. xiii, f. l0v.
c. B.M., Harl. 3244, f. 42v.
3. Viper. Bern, Burgerbibliothek 318, f. 11.
Plate X.
1. Viper. B.M., Sloane 278, f. 51.

2. Vulture. Paris, Arsenal 3516, f. 200v. (PB).
3. Weasel. B.M., Royal 2 B. vii, f. 112v.
4. Wolf. B.M., Sloane 3544, f. 13.

5. Yale. Morgan 81, f. 39.
6. Woodpecker. Paris, Arsenal 3516, f. 201v. (PB).
PLATE I
2. Anc
1. Amphisbaena
3. Antelope
4. Ape 5. Asp
PLATE II
2. Basilisk
I. Aspidochelone
5. Beaver
PLATE III
2. Crane
1. Crocodile
3. Caladrius
5. Eagle
4. Dragon
PLA*TE IV
1. Elephant
2. Fox
Mandrake 3. Griffin
PLATE V
0 oteS^fl^#"fl
1. Hedgehog
2. Hydrus & Crocodile
3. Lizard
4. Ibi:
5. Hyena
PLATE VI
2. Manticora
1. Lion
b.
3. Ostrich 4. Panther
PLATE VII
1. Phoenix
2. Ona ger
3. Salamander
4. Pelican 5. Peridexion Tree 6. Sawfish

PLATE VIII
1. Sawfish
2. Siren & Onocentaur

3. Siren
4. Snake 5. Stag 6. Viper

PLATE IX
1. Tig.
2. Unicorn
3. Viper
PLATE X
1. Viper 2. Vulture-
3. Weasel
4. Wolf
5. Yale 6. Woodpecker
APPENDIX
NON-BESTIARY MATERIAL IN PIERRE

DE BEAUVAIS
The following twelve descriptions found in Pierre de Beauvais'

long version of the Bestiaire have no close connection, apart from
the possible exception of the Echeneis, with any accounts found
in the traditional Physiologus or in the expanded form of the
bestiary such as the manuscripts of the Second or Third Family.
For the most part it has been impossible to find with any degree
of certainty a definite source for the various items; all that is
possible at present is to indicate surface similarities with con
temporary Latin works, and occasionally even these have not been
discovered. Whether Pierre de Beauvais drew his additions from
one work which remains unknown or whether he dipped here and
there for the miscellaneous topics, either action is feasible but neither
is verifiable at this time.
ALERION.
alerion.
Although this bird is known in heraldry as a kind of eagle,1 its

story in PB (II,162) is unlike that associated with the eagle apart
from its being credited with lordship over all other birds. In size
it is somewhat larger than an eagle, the color of fire, and with
wings sharp as a razor. Only one pair exists in the world. After
sixty years two eggs are laid, which are then brooded for sixty
days and nights. When the young are born, the parents, accompanied
1
See Godefroy I,218.
by birds of the region, fly swiftly to the sea, plunge into the water,
and drown. Returning to the young, the other birds guard and
nourish them until they are strong and can fly.
An account similar to this is found in the French prose version
of the letter of Prester John on the marvels of the East,2 but its
ultimate source has not been ascertained.
In Arsenal 3516, f. 202 the illustration shows two birds diving
toward the sea while a single bird feeds the two young left in
the nest.
ARGUS.
Argus le vachier.
Appearing only in PB (II,181) and some later French bestiaries

is a picturesque account of the classical story of Argus. There was
once a lady who had a cow very dear to her which she gave to
a cowherd named Argus to guard. Of Argus' hundred eyes, two
slept while the others watched. In spite of this vigilance the cow
was lost because a man whom the cow had loved sent his son Mer-
curius to lull Argus to sleep with his pipe playing. Mercury then
cut off the head of Argus and led the cow to his father.
In Alexander Neckam's De naturis rerum (i.39) appears a des
cription not unlike this one of Argus.
Arsenal 3516, f. 203 portrays Mercury blowing on a horn while
Argus, whose head is studded with eyes, listens. The miniature in
Montpellier, H. 437, f. 214v. depicts Mercury leading off the cow
after beheading Argus.
BARNACLE GOOSE.
bernekke, 'Tarbre dont li oisel naisent fors

bernace; et chient jus
quant il sont meur", "des annes de la mer".3
Unique in French bestiaries is PB's account (II,216) of the Bar

nacle Goose, although it makes an unusual appearance in two
2 Prester John's letter says that the pair lives forty years before laying
the eggs. See Oeuvres completes de Rutebeuf, ed. Achille Jubinal (Paris,
1839), II, 456.
3 The first title is from Arsenal 3516 and the second from Vatican,
Reg. 1323.
APPENDIX 199
Latin bestiaries.* PB attributes to Phisiologes his information that

a tree growing over water bears birds resembling geese, only smaller.
While young the birds hang by their beaks, and when they mature,
they fall like ripe pears. Those falling on the water float and are
safe; those falling on land die.
This description appears more closely related to the one found
in Alexander Neckam's De naturis rerum (i.48), where the bernekke
are said to be born from wood exposed to salt water or from trees
planted on the edge of the shore, than to Giraldus Cambrensis'
notice, which only mentions the birth of the birds from deal planks.5
The illustration in PB (Pl. II, Fig. 3) is similar to those exist
ing in the two Latin manuscripts except that they do not contain
the swimming birds.
BASILISK.
basilecoc, basilique.
PB's tale of the Basilisk (II,213-214) is different from the des

criptions of this serpent that are contained in the enlarged Latin
bestiary, where its fantastic generation is not mentioned. According
to PB when the cock is seven years old, to its amazement an egg
is formed within it. After great suffering it secretly seeks a warm
place — a dung heap or a stable — where it digs a hole. Ten times
a day it goes there in hope of delivery. The toad smells the venom
inside the cock and watches carefully because it wants to hatch
the egg. This it does, and when the animal is born it has the upper
parts of a cock and the lower body of a snake. Other details are
included in PB's account. To avoid being seen the basilisk seeks
a crevice or a well, for if seen first by a man it dies ; otherwise the
man is the victim. Since the basilisk casts poison from its eyes,
whoever wants to kill it should have a glass vessel, which stops
the poisonous glance and returns the venom to the basilisk.*
4 B.M., Harl. 4751, f. 36 and Bodl. 764, f. 58v., where after the initial
sentence, "Sunt in Ybernia aves multe que bernace vocantur", the text of
Giraldus Cambrensis' Topographica Hibernica (i.15) is followed.
5 For a brief
history of the Barnacle Goose see P. Ansell Robin, op. cit..
pp. 32-36.
• In
PB's acount of the Yale (11I,223), which he calls a centicore, the
basilisk is described as killing this animal by pricking it between the eyes,
though how the basilisk became connected with the centicore cannot be
An explanation of the basilisk's birth from a cock's egg has

been proposed by P. Ansell Robin,' who thinks that this story
probably had its origin in the Septuagint version of Isaiah 59:5,
which, literally rendered, reads: "They break the eggs of adders
and weave the spider's web : he who would eat of their eggs, having
crushed the wind-egg ( o 3 p t o), finds in it a basilisk." Aristotle
(vi.559b 17) in discussing the wind-egg had spoken of substances
resembling an egg being found in the cock. "It may therefore have
been inferred that a basilisk was sometimes hatched from a cock's
egg."8 The cock and the basilisk are found linked in Aelian (iii.87).
The basilisk and toad appear together in Arsenal 3516, f. 204v.
CRICKET.
crisnort, gresillon.
According to PB (II, 155) the cricket so likes to sing that it

loses its appetite, forgets everything, lets itself be hunted, and dies
singing.
In the drawing of Arsenal 3516, f. 201 the cricket appears as
a small, two-horned animal in front of a hole in the ground, whereas
in Montpellier, H. 437, f. 206 there seem to be several crickets on
a hearth.
ECHENEIS.
remora; essinus.
In the extensive chapter on the nature of various fish H (iii.55)

includes the echeneis with a lengthy etymology which, unusual to
say, is not found in Isidore (xii.6.34) but is alluded to in Pliny
(ix.25.41). This is a small fish a half foot in length which takes its
name from clinging to a ship and delaying it. The name is derived
from the verb 1/ o>, which is habeo, "to have", or E/o(iot, which
explained. See George C. Druce, "Notes on the History of the Heraldic

Jail or Yale", op. cit., p. 186.
7 The basilisk and the cockatrice are thoroughly investigated and their
confused existence clearly presented by P. Ansell Robin, op. cit., pp. 86-91
and Appendix.
8 Ibid.,
p. 87.
APPENDIX 201
is haereo, "to adhere", »«»5, "boat". When the wind rushes

and
or the storm rages, the boat seems to be rooted in the sea. The
Latins call this fish remora, "delayer", because it forces vessels to
remain still (remoror).
PB (IV.74) says that this fish of remarkable delaying ability is
from the Indian Sea. Apparently PT's sawfish has assumed some
of the traits of the echeneis, though by what means is not clear.
A fish swims under a ship in Arsenal 3516, f. 210v.
ELEMENTS and SENSES.
An unusual addition to the traditional bestiary material is first

found in PB's chapter (IV.77) entitled "De quoi li home est fais
et de sa nature", in which each of the four elements is represented
by an animal, and the five senses are mentioned but not linked
with any animal.' The salamander is said to live on fire, the chame
leon — here called a bird — lives on wind, the herring on water,
and the mole on earth. From its subterranean existence the mole
is logically linked with the earth which Isidore (xii.3.5) says it
eats, and from ancient times there was a belief that the chameleon
lived on air alone (Pliny viii.33.51), but why the herring is used
to symbolize the element of water, I have been unable to discover.
To portray the four elements in Arsenal 3516, f. 211, a naked
man is drawn surrounded by a fish in water, a flying bird (the
gamalien), a winged, four-footed salamander in fire, and a mole
in the ground.
9
In the Bestiaire d'Amour of Richard de Fournival (36.2-6) each sense
is also identified with an animal (the plover is substituted for the chameleon
in the elements); but in PB the only senses thus distinguished are found in
the following chapter (IV,80), where the vulture is connected with the
sense of smell and the lieus (or liens, Montpellier H. 437), a small white
worm which can see through walls, is sight. For a short
associated with
examination of the "sensory champions" H. W. Janson, op. cit., pp. 239-40,
see
and for hypotheses concerning the transformation of the lynx, noted in
antiquity for its keen-sightedness, into a little worm, see John Holmberg
(ed.), Eine Mittelniederfrankische V bertragung des Bestiaire d' Amour (Upp
sala Universitet Arsskrift, 1925), pp. 243-44, and Edward B. Ham, "The
Cambrai Bestiary", Modern Philology, XXXVI (1939), 229.
HARPY.
arpie.
PB's account of the harpy (II,157) is not based on the classical

conception of the rapacious bird-women described by Homer and
Virgil, but is similar to the description found in Odo of Cheriton.10
According to PB, this beast resembles a horse and a man, with a
lion's body, serpent's wings, and a horse's tail. Exceedingly cruel,
it kills the first man it meets; then going to water and seeing its
own reflection, it realizes that it has killed a fellow creature. It is
grief-stricken, and its sadness is renewed each time the reflection
is seen.
The drawing on Arsenal 3516, f. 201v. depicts a winged lion
with a face perhaps human, standing beside water. Under the beast
lies a dead man.
MUSCALIET.
muscaliet.
This unidentified — whose name has in all probability

animal
been incorrectly interpreted as the musaraigne, "shrew"11 — is des
cribed by PB (IV,84) as living in the country of the three dry trees
which announced to Alexander of Macedonia the day of his death.
With body like a hare's but smaller, legs and tail like a squirrel's,
it flies from branch to branch by the strength of its tail. Weasel-eared
with a mole-like muzzle, its teeth resemble those of a boar and its
hair that of a pig. This animal can quickly run up any tree, whose
leaves or fruit it then devastates. Underground it hollows out the
tree for its nest, where its hot nature causes the tree to dry up
and die.
The muscaliet in a composite drawing in Arsenal 3516, f. 212
is asquirrel-like animal which burrows in the ground, emerges from
a hole in a tree, and perches on top of a tree.
10 See Leopold Hervieux,

Les Fabulistes latins (Paris, 1884), II, 699.
11 Oliver H. Prior (ed.),
L' Imagedu Monde de maitre Gossouin (Lau
sanne, 1913), glossary. The description of this animal hardly resembles the
musquelibet noted by Albertus Magnus (De animalibus, lib. XXII, tract. 2,
cap. 1.75), to which Cahier (IV.83) likens it. For the present it will apparently
have to remain with the unknown animals found in PB.
APPENDIX 203
ORPHAN BIRD.
orphanay (Vatican, Reg. 1323), rafanay (Phillipps 6739).
Only in PB (IV.85) does the description of this unusual bird

appear and only in two manuscripts is any name given to
it. So far no source has been found for this tale, although Cahier
would link it with a remotely similar account in an Armenian
bestiary of a bird called Gerahav.12 The account in PB begins by
locating the bird in India, where it inhabits a sea called "la mer
darenoise".13 It is crested, with a neck and chest like a peacock's,
swan's feet, an eagle's beak, and the body of a crane with red,
white, and black wings. As soon as its eggs are laid on the water,
the young chick is within the shell, and the mother's intelligence
senses which egg will contain the best offspring. If the chick is to
be good, the egg will drop a little below the mother in the water,
but that of the "deputaire pochin" falls to the sand on the sea
bottom. At hatching time the good eggs rise under the mother's
wing, where the young come forth and are joyfully led to their
father. The bad eggs hatch on the floor of the sea, where the young
live in darkness and grief.
A long-necked crested bird sits on the water in Arsenal 3516,
f. 212v., while four large eggs float in the sea among fish.
TITMOUSE.
masenge.
In an account almost entirely free from the fabulous, PB (III,265)

contains an elaborate descriptionof the titmouse's appearance. The
titmouse is said to have beautiful feathers of many colors. It has
12 Charles Cahier, Nouveaux melanges d'archeologie (Paris, 1874), I, 137.

13
Cahier says concerning this word: "Si darenoise doit signifier quelque
chose, ce pourrait bien etre une alteration de tyrrhenum (ou meme tyrium)
mare; quoiqu'il soit difficile de dire par oCi cette mer touche a l'lnde. ..."
(IV, p. 85, n. 2). Darenoise might more plausibly, with the unexplained
addition of an initial d, be derived from the adjective arenosus. "sandy",
as it appears in the Latin and French letters of Prester John published by
Jubinal, op. cit., Vol. II. The first allusion speaks of "mare harenosum sine
aqua" (p. 447) and the second, "la mere arenouse" (p. 458). Incidentally, the
definition given by Tobler-Lommatzsch (I,513) for arenos, citing the above
French passage, as "im fernen Osten", is incorrect.
a curious nature and wants to see other birds, whether dead or

alive. When the hunter who has set a snare whistles and shows a
bird, the titmouse flies toward the trap and is caught by its feet,
as are many other birds who congregate upon hearing its cries.
WILD MAN.
ome sauvage.
This non-bestiary chapter of PB's (IV.76) has slightly different

titles in the three main manuscripts in which it exists : Arsenal 3516,
"Del sagetaire et del salvage home" ; Montpellier H. 437, "Des gens
as comes ou front"; Vatican, Reg. 1323, "De l'ome sauvage". The
account tells of the wild men dwelling in India who have a horn
on their foreheads and who constantly fight against the sagetaires.
To protect himself from wild animals which exist in abundance,
the wild man prefers tree tops. He is also naked unless he happens
to kill a lion and wear its skin.14 Druce cites the use of the term
"Physiologus" at the beginning of PB's chapter as evidence that
the story must have come from an early Latin or Greek Physio
logus,15 but it is quite clear that PB used this term indiscriminately
and that nothing can be proved by its presence. The origin of this
short notice is unknown to me.
The illustrations of this chapter have a certain amusing aspect
to them. In Arsenal 3516, f. 210v. a centaur shoots an arrow
at a lion-robed, unicorned man who aims a spear at him, and in
Montpellier H. 437, f. 248v. a man's head and a woman's head,
each sporting a long horn, emerge from the top of a tree while
on the ground prowls some sort of "vermine" or "sauvagine", to
use PB's terms.
14 Jubinal, op. cit., II,458, quotes a

similar description from a thirteenth
century French translation of the letter to Prester John. This and PB's
account of the wild man are unmentioned in Richard Bernheimer's Wild
Men in the Middle Ages (Harvard University Press, 1952).
15 George
C. Druce, "Some Abnormalities...", op. cit., p. 161.
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Pliny. Naturalis historiae libri XXXVII, Ed. C. Mayhoff. 5 vols. Leipzig,
1892-1909.
Plutarch. Moralia. Ed. G. Bernardakis. 6 vols. Leipzig, 1888-1896.
Queen Mary's Psalter. Introduction by Sir George Warner. London, 1912.
Randolph, Charles B. "The Mandragora of the Ancients in Folk-Lore and
Medicine", Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
XL (1905), 487-537.
Raynaud, Gaston (ed.). "Poeme moralise' sur les propridtds des choses",
Romania, XIV (1885), 442-484.
Robin, P. Ansell. Animal Lore in English Literature. London, 1932.
Rose, William. The Epic of the Beast (Physiologus, trans. James Carlill).
London, n. d.
Sbordone, Francesco (ed.), Physiologus. Milan, 1936.
. Ricerche suite fonti e sulla composizione del Physiologus greco.
Naples, 1936.
-. "La Tradizione manoscritta del Physiologus Latino", Athenaeum,
Nuova Serie, XXVII (1949), 246-280.
Shepard, Odell. The Lore of the Unicorn. London, 1930.
Solalinde, A. G. "El Physiologus en la General Estoria de Alfonso X",
Melanges d'histoire litteraire generate et compare offerts a Fernand
Baldensperger. Paris, 1930.
Solinus. Collectanea rerum memorabilium, ed. th. Mommsen. Berlin, 1864.
— . The Excellent and Pleasant Worke of Caius Julius Solinus. Trans.
Arthur Golding. Gainesville, Florida, 1955.
Spitzer, Leo. "Auf keinen griinen Zweig kommen", Modern Language Notes,
LXIX (1954), 270-273.
210 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Stettiner, Richard. Die illustrierten Prudentiushandschriften. Tafelband. Ber
lin, 1905.
Strzygowski, Josef. "Der Bilderkreis des griechischen Physiologus", Byzan-
tinisches Archiv. Heft 2, 1899, Pp. 1-130.
Theobaldus. Physiologus of Theobaldus. Ed. Richard Morris. (An Old English
Miscellany, Early English Text Society). London, 1872. Pp. 201-209.
. Physiologus a Metrical Bestiary of Twelve Chapters by Bishop
Theobald, trans. Alan W. Rendell. London, 1928.
Thompson, C. J. S. The Mystic Mandrake. London, 1934.
Thompson, D'Arcy Wentworth. A Glossary of Greek Birds. Oxford, 1936.
Thorndike, Lynn. A. History of Magic and Experimental Science. Vols. I, II.
New York, 1929.
Tobler, Adolf. "Lateinische Beispielsammlung mit Bildern", Zeitschrift fur
Romanische Philologie, XII (1888), 57-88.
Tselos, Dimitri. "A Greco-Italian School of Illuminators and Fresco Painters :
Its Relation to the Principal Reims Manuscripts and to the Greek Frescoes
in Rome and Castelseprio", Art Bulletin, XXXVIII (1956), 1-30.
Voigt, Ernst. Review of Friedrich Lauchert. Geschichte des Physiologus.
Strassburg, 1889. Zeitschrift fur Deutsche Philologie, XXII (1890), 237-242.
"Der waldensische Physiologus", ed. Alfons Mayer. Romanische Forschun-
gen, V (1890), 392-418.
Wellmann, Max. "Der Physiologos: ein religionsgeschichtlich-naturwissen-
schaftliche Untersuchung", Philologus, Supplementband XXII, Heft I
(1930), 1-116.
White, Lynn Jr. "Natural Science and Naturalistic Art in the Middle Ages",
American Historical Review, LII (1947), 421-435.
White, T. H. The Book of Beasts. London, 1954.
Wilhelm, Friedrich (ed.). "Dicta Chrysostomi", Munchener Texte, Heft 8 B
(Kommentar), 1916. Pp. 13-52.
Woodruff, Helen. "Illustrated Manuscripts of Prudentius", Art Studies, VII
(1929), 33-79.
. "The Physiologus of Bern", Art. Bulletin, XII (1930), 226-253.
ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA 211
1. *p. 31. Manuscripts of this text are also often listed in catalogues under
the title De tribus Columbia.
2. *p. 31. As a result of more recent research the following information

should be added to note 32:
A recent denial of Hugo's authorship of the De bestiis is found in Rog
er Baron, Science et Sagesse chez Hugues de Saint-Victor (Paris, 1957),
pp. xxxi, xxxii. The rejection of the attribution of Book to Guillelmus
III
Peraldus (Guillaume Peyraut) is repeated by Hubert Silvestre, "Apropos
du Liber tertiua du De bestiis et aliis rebus et d'un passage des Etymolo-
giae (11,2,33) d'Isidore de Seville," Le Moyen Age, 4= serie, 4-5 (1949),
247. The connection between Hugo of Saint Victor and the hybrid compo
sition entitled the De bestiis is doubtless explained by the fact that the
author of the allegorical treatise on birds, the Aviarium (which as a sepa
rate work ends with the chapter on Aquila (56), and which when followed
directly by the treatise on animals, as in Migne's edition, ends with Fu-
lica), was Hugo of Folieto, some of whose writings already in the thir
teenth century were ascribed to the more famous Hugo. See Henri Peltier,
"Hugues de Fouilloy, chanoine regulier, prieur de Saint-Laurent-au-bois,"
Revue du moyen age latin, II (1946), 36-42.
3. *p. 32. To this list the following two illustrated manuscripts should be
added :
B.N., lat. 2495 A, f. 17-23. End XII cent. (.Avarium, f. l-16v.).
B.N., lat. 2495 B, f. 29v.-47. Xin cent. (Avarium, f. 1-29).
4. *p. 34. Photographs of this manuscript, whose marginal animal drawings

(f. 9-64) generally follow the order of Morgan 81, are in the New York
Public Library (*ISM). These illustrations are briefly described by
Donald Drew Egbert, The Tickhill Psalter and Related Manuscripts (New
York and Princeton, 1940), pp. 166-68.
212 ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA
5. *p. 44. Numerous allusions in the works of Peter Damien, the celebrated
eleventh century ecclesiastical reformer, show the symbolical relations
that can be created in the world of nature for the moral edification of man
by a writer versed in traditional animal lore (perhaps derived in part
from Ambrose's Hexaemeron) . See especially his letter entitled De bono
religiosi status et variarum animantium tropologia (Migne, Patr. Lat.,
CXLV, Cols. 763-792) where he compares the abbey of Monte Cassino to
Noah's ark and the animals found therein. See also Dom Jean Leclercq,
Saint Pierre Damien ermite et homme d'Sglise (Rome, 1960), pp. 177-
191.
6. *p. 47. Not one, as originally stated, but two manuscripts exist of the
Waldensian Bestiary: the Dublin manuscript and another at the Univer
sity Library, Cambridge, Dd. 15.29, f. 17-49. See Mario Esposito, "Sur
quelques manuscrits de l'ancienne litterature religieuse des Vaudois du
Piemont, "Revue d'Histoire eccWsiastique, XL VI, N. 1-2 (1951), 148-49.
7. *p. 66. Monsieur Jodogne, in a personal communication, more convinc

ingly proposes that cuers is a scribal misreading of envers in the original
text which doubtless read Philipon envers qui service ....
8. *p. 71. Recently the style of an eleventh century Greek manuscript of
the Physiologus (Milan, Ambrosiana E.16 Sup. Restaurato N. 83, f. 1-41),
whose illustrations are characterized as "primitive," has been analyzed by
Maria Luisa Gengaro, "A proposito delle inedite illustrazioni del Phisiolo-
gus greco della Biblioteca Ambrosiana," Arte Lombarda, Anno III,
Numero I (1958), 19-27.
9. *p. 103. This scene is based on a verse from Genesis (49:17): "Fiat
Dan coluber in via, cerastes in semita, mordens ungulas equi, ut cadat
ascensor eius retro."
10. *p. 157. The peculiarity of the blood issuing from the pelican's mouth
is probably a transference of the essential detail of the normal scene
where though the blood gushes from the bird's side wounded by the beak,
it could appear to come from the beak itself.
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INDIANA

MEDIAEVAL LATIN AND

of a personalpreference for illustrated manuscripts I have largely

assistance in publishing this study. For permission to reproduce

II, THE LATIN PHYSIOLOGUS AND THE BESTIARY 21

Oldest Latin Versions:

Second Family - The Bestiary 34

Third and Fourth Families 38

Other Principal Versions:

III. TRADITIONAL FRENCH BESTIARIES 45

IV. ILLUSTRATED BESTIARIES 70

V. GENERAL ANALYSIS OF THE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS

THE GREEK PHYSIOLOGUS: ITS CHARACTER

1 This remark applies more to Latin manuscripts whose period of greatest

(Vulgate 101:7): "I of the wilderness", and

1. Lion 14. Hedgehog

3There exists a translation into English of the Physiologus based on

27. Crow 39. Sawfish

knowledge as to the place and date of origin as well

* In Chapter V the Magnet is included in the discussion on the Diamond.

of God. It was in this atmosphere of the symbolical study of zo

attributed synonomous with wisdom,

notice concerning the existence of an early Latin Physiologus and its

23 Sbordone, Ricerche, pp. 168-69, accepts the date and authenticity of

It known when the first Latin translations of

1 See Chapter I, n. 24.

some order out of the large number of manuscripts with variations

THE OLDEST LATIN VERSIONS.

The Latin Physiologus was translated more than once from

8 Montague Rhodes James, The Bestiary (Edited for the Roxburghe

2. A— Brussels, Bibl. Roy. 10074, f. 140v.-156v. X cent.

This manuscript contains thirty-six chapters, and has been

3. C—Bern, Burgerbibliothek, lat. 318, f. 7-22v. IX cent.™

C represents another translation, quite corrupt, from the Greek

Mention should perhaps of the Glossary of Ansileubus

(or Fragments alphabetiques, as they are sometimes referred to),

lection of twenty-two short Physiologus descriptions, arranged al

from Isidore's Etymologiae (xii. 1.42-48).

(Paris, 1855), Vol. Ill, pp. 418, 419.

Because it seems the clearest way in which to indicate the var

20 Francis J. Carmody (ed.), Physiologus Latinus, Versio B (Paris, 1939).

Bern 233, s. VIIMX Bern 318, s. IX

The Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville was the work which ef

In the hope that more confusion will not be caused by the

21 M. Lindsay (ed.), Etymologiarum sive originum libri XX. 2 vols.

content of B but which, except for seven chapters,28 contain ad

Bodl., Laud Misc. 247, f. 139v.-166v. Early XII cent.

28 The chapters containing no additions from Isidore are: Antalops,

The next two manuscripts show the addition of new articles on

B. M., Stowe 1067, f. l-15v. Early XII cent. (Illustrations

2. H — Book II of Pseudo-Hugo of Saint Victor and the Aviarium.

The Physiologus printed in Migne as Book II of the De bestiis

31 This manuscript of French provenance was sold at Sotheby's in

often preceding rather than following the traditional account and

bore no resemblance to a bestiary. The bestiary which Haureau used for

The Pelican and Caladrius are, however, found twice.34 M. R. James

The illustrated manuscripts known to exist are the following:

Camb., Sidney Sussex Coll. 100, f. 26-43. XIII cent. (Avia

The table of contents, with some simplification in the titles for

Montague R. James, A Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts in the