What is a Bestiary?. Background of the Bestiaries. Bestiary Aragones. Architecture, stone, Romanesque Gothic Renaissance painting sculpture nature.

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a.The Origin of the Text
b.The Families of the Text
c.The Origins of Illustrations:	Physiologus
	The bestiary
	Isidore's Lost Cycle
	Solinus and Ambrose
	The cycle of Creation
The Aviarium cycle

A Bestiary is a collection of small descriptions of all kinds of animals, real and imaginary, birds and any other, accompanied by a moralizing explanation. This description of the natural world was never intended as a scientific text and should not be read as such. Some observations may be real but they are given with the same importance as totally fabulous stories. The Bestiary appears in this format already elaborated in the 12th century, as a compilation of several close sources, mainly the Physiologus. Much of their charm stems from the humor and imagination of the illustrations, partially painted for pleasure but justified as a teaching tool.
'to improve the minds of ordinary people, in such a way that the soul will at least perceive physically things which it has difficulty grasping mentally: that what they have difficulty comprehending with their ears, they will perceive with their eyes' (Aberdeen MS 24, f25v).

1a. The Origin of the Text

The Physiologus was written in Greece, probably Alexandria, around the fourth century. It consists of 48 or 49 chapters on beasts, birds and stones used as a vehicle to explain Christian dogma. His stories have several very old sources: Indian, Hebrew and Egyptian Animal Tales and various classical natural philosophers such as Aristotle and Pliny. A Christian moralizing gloss was added to these stories by a person presumably known as Physiologus. All identifiable animals in this Alexandrian text (except for beaver and antelope) must have been known in North Africa. The animals of northern Europe only appear in much later texts. The correctness of natural observations remains problematic, with various false clichés (such as the wonderful voice of the swan) repeated for centuries where every writer should know the truth (George and Yapp 1991).

The original Greek copies did not survive and the oldest surviving texts are Latin translations. There is version Y (Bern, Lat. 611, 8-9th centuries), A version (Brussels, Bib. Roy. 10074, 10th century), version C (Bern, Burgerbibliothek, lat. 318, 9th century) and version B (Bern, Lat. 233, centuries 8-9). The Y text is very close to the Greek source but was little used and had little influence on the other versions. The Brussels copy of A is important because it contains delicate Carolingian drawings to illustrate the text. C is a corrugated Greek translation. Bern's copy has old illustrations painted on. English and French Physiologus manuscripts are derived from version B and following of the text, although none of this group is illustrated (McCulloch 1962, 21-25).

The oldest surviving Greek version of the text (New York, Morgan 397) was copied in the 10th century and has no illustrations. The oldest Greek illustrated text, the Smyrna Codex, was made around 1100 but was burned in 1922 (Strzygowski, 1899, 1-130; Demus, 1976, 235-257).

Diagram to show the origin of the Physiologus

1b. The Families of the Text

No intermediate stages of development have survived between these Physiologus manuscripts and the Bestiaries themselves that appear in the twelfth century. The Bestiaries use Physiologus as the base text but add a host of additional materials from other books. The increased number of animals leads to the amount of moral comments. Studying this composition, M.R. James divides the Bestiaries into four families.
McCulloch and George and Yapp have subsequently subdivided the groups (James, 1928, 10-13; McCulloch, 1962, 25-44; George and Yapp 1991, xi-xiv, 1-5).
The following is based on McCulloch and agrees with the English manuscripts:

1. The first family consists of the Physiologus plus extracts from the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville. Isidore, lived in the seventh century, he explained the true nature of animals by analyzing their names. For example, a cat is called catus because he hunts mice. Isidore's encyclopedic work was not moralizing. The sequence of chapters in the first family begins with the Lion, Antilopes and the animals are not classified.
The closest illustrated example to this group is Oxford Bod., Laud Misc. 247.
An additional text, the Aviarium by Hugh de Fouilloy, began to be used in some versions of this family, notably Oxford Bod. 602 and Douce 167.
This book of birds was written after 1152 and portions were used in some bestiaries including Aberdeen and Ashmole.
Hugh's text contains more moralizing examples than the original Physiologus.

McCulloch identifies a transitional group that has some chapters of the first family but adds large sections of Isidore and classifies the contained in the same way as Isidore, in Beasts, Birds, Fish and the rest.
Important 12th century Transitional illustrated manuscripts are:
Camb., Trinity Coll. R.14.9(884); New York, Morgan 81;
St Petersburg/Leningrad, State Public Library, MS Saltykov-Shchedrin Latin Qu.V.1;
and B.L.Royal 12 C. xix.
The Northumberland Bestiary (formerly Alnwick) is from the mid-13th century.

2. The second family was developed during the twelfth century, it includes 20 surviving English copies. The number of chapters has more than doubled to 108 subjects. Additional material comes from:

Isidore
Solinus, Liber Memorabilium, a 3rd century travel guide, incorporating much of Pliny's Natural History
Ambrose, Hexaemeron, a fourth century commentary on six days after creation
and sometimes Rabanus Maurus, From the Universe , moralizations added to the Etymologies of Isidore.

The entire text is classified according to Isidore's groups.
The important twelfth century copies of this family are:
B.L. Add. 11283;
Aberdeen University MS 24;
Oxford.Bod. Ashmole 1511;
B.L. Harl. 4751;
Camb. Univ. Lib. Ii.4.26.
Oxford Bod. Douce 151 is a poor fourteenth century copy of Ashmole 1511.

3. The third family appears in the thirteenth century, enlarged with narratives from Isidore of Fabulous Nations, the Megacosmus by Bernard Silvestris. The beast sequence begins with domestic animals. There are only five known examples of this family, including the magnificent Westminster Abbey Bestiary (MS 22).

4. The fourth family is based mainly on De proprietatibus rerum of Bartholomeus Anglicus.
The only example is: Camb. University Library Gg.6.5, 15th century.

1c. The Origins of Illustrations:

Physiologus

In the same way that the text of the Bestiaries is maintained from remote sources, their illustrations have, since ancient times, traditional quality. His style includes and reflects contemporary fashions but the iconography in many cases can derive from lost classic originals. The oldest illustrated Physiologus, the 9th century Latin Bern 318 (Steiger and Homburger 1964) reveals its classical origins in both composition and style. Most of the images are placed in thick red boxes spaced between the text.
The figures are set in suggestive landscapes and the painting is applied with a great sense of space and light.
This illusionistic way of painting is typical of classical art and may imply that the artists had a classical model for working with forms.
However in the ninth century, the classicist style has been completely absorbed by the scriptoria particularly in Reims, and the artists may just as well have used a contemporary model. There is evidence that the iconography of several of Bern's images must come from very remote Greek sources. The most remote surviving Physiologus Illuminated Greek (Milan, Bib. Ambrosiana MS E.16 sup, 11th century) shares various images such as a serra, the pearl fisherman and cervus with Bern 318, stating that both must be derived from a remote Greek source. The longevity of these scenes is attested by the Cretan copies from the 15th and 16th centuries that also share half-human, half-serpent figures with the Bern 318. (These are Vatican Ottob. Gr. 354, f26 and Vatican Barb. Gr 438, f43 Muratova, 1984b, 387).
The figures are set in suggestive landscapes and the painting is applied with a great sense of space and light.
The classic originals can come from zoological texts, hunting and aquatic scenes, paintings of animals enchanted by Orpheus, and compositions still life. Some of these can be found in manuscripts, painted walls, and mosaics.

The Physiologus Brussels has illustrations that are also classicist but derive mainly from another original separate cycle. These images, which are drawings without a colored frame, have a narrative element and include symbolic, moral and allegorical themes. The only known Greek Physiologus with moralizing illustrations was the Smyrna Codex (Demus, 1976, 235-257) where the animals correspond to those of the Latin manuscript but where the allegories differ from the Brussels text.

The Sources of the Bestiary Illustrations

There must have been illustrated copies of the Physiologus in England from which the Bestiaries developed in the twelfth century.
(There are unillustrated copies of Physiologus written in Anglo-Saxon: Cook, 1919). How it happened is unknown to us. However, it has been a matter of interest for a long time.
The sum of several books from Wearmouth to Rome or Gaul by Benedict Biscop in the eighth century resulted in a Codex cosmographorum mirandi operis.
This was a manuscript similar to the Etymologies of Isidore.
At Peterborough Abbey in the 9th century there was a Liber bestiarum donated by Aethelwold, Bishop of Winchester about 984. Aethelwold, while running Abingdon, spent some time at Fleury Abbey in France.
He showed a clear interest in manuscripts because samples of Fleury's scriptorium began to appear in Winchester books at the end of the tenth century. (Muratova, 1984b, 391-2. Goldschmidt 1947)
However, Physiologus Bern was in Fleury at this period, through Archbishop Ebbo of Reims.
Fleury's scriptorium, an influential center in the diffusion of classical heritage in the tenth century, may have provided the union between the continental and English copies of Physiologus.

There is a time jump between the production of illustrations in the Physiologus and the appearance of the oldest Illustrated Bestiaries, Oxford, Bod. 247 in the remote twelfth century.
The delicate pen that drew this book was so precise in composing and outlining that it must have copied from an earlier model. (Kauffmann, 1975, 75-6)
The book shows passages from the Physiologus and Isidore clearly integrated into a visual unit. Some images are derived from Physiologus Bern and Brussels, while others come from an unknown source.

The Lost Cycles of Isidore

The remote illustrated texts of the Etymologiae of Isidore have not survived, but the smooth fusion of the Physiologus and the images of Isidore in the early Bestiaries indicates that there must have been a Isidore's remote cycle. In the Aberdeen and Ashmole Bestiaries there is a portrait of Isidore sitting at work. There must have been a specific portrait of Isidore or it must have been an adaptation of the classic portrait of the author, modified by these two books.
Muratova (1984b, 395) proposes that a set of illustrations by Isidore that were collected by Rabanus Maurus when he wrote his On the Universe in the 8th century and this ordering is reflected in Montecassino Abbey MS 132, made in 1032 .
This text is partially based on the Etymologiae. The large animals section is somewhat erratically illustrated by drawings of various animals assembled, unordered in registers, of various sizes and fantastic colors. Isidore's texts are not consistent with what is illustrated.
However, the small animal section is more appropriately treated and naturally colored.
Muratova suggests that these drawings must have come from some ancient zoology book, perhaps an illustrated Pliny (Nissen, 1971-2, 41ff. Kadar 1978) while Maurus may have designed the rest himself using models from pattern books of paintings or mosaics.

Solinus and Ambrose

Solinus's Collectanea rerum memorabilium, written in the 3rd century AD, supplies the text for creatures such as leocrota, manticora, yale, parander, and bonnacon.
The oldest surviving illustrated text of Solinus was made in the fourteenth century but must be based on much older models. Finally, there may have been early illustrated copies of St. Ambrose's Hexaemeron.
His description of a cock is used in the Physiologus Bern text and is illustrated there. The most remote preserved illustrated Hexaemeron is in Salzburg, made in the middle of the thirteenth century (Munich, Staatsbib. Cod. Lat. 14399). In this copy are illustrations of the early days of Creation, closely tied to the Creation cycles of Ashmolean and Aberdeen.

The Cycle of Creation

Six Bestiaries include an illustrated cycle of Creation. They are in:
Saint Peterburg (formerly Leningrad) State Public Library, MS Saltykov-Shchedrin Latin Q v V 1;
Oxford, Bod. Ashmole 1511;
Aberdeen MS 24;
Oxford ,St Johns MS 61;
Bestiario Northumberland (antes Alnwick Castle MS 477);
Cambridge, Gonville y Caius MS 372.
Although cycles of Creation are quite common in Bibles and Psalters, they are a rare addition to Bestiary.

The Aberdeen cycle lacks the third and fourth days but from Ashmole it is clear that the first four days of creation are based on a frontal model of God with various cosmic circles behind it. For the next three scenes, they remain in a three-quarter shape, making their creation normally zoned. These two poses are used in some early creation scenes and are found for example in the Anglo-Saxon B.L.Cotton Claud. B.IV and Oxford, Bod. Junius 11.
However, close details emerge in Bibles produced in the Salzburg area in the nearby twelfth century. The frontal God surrounded by circles appears in the Michelbeuren Bible (Stiftsbib. cod. perg.1 f6; en Muratova 1984a, VII). Similar to Aberdeen f 1v, this he does not have a beard. The same design is used in the Admont Bible (Vienna, Osterreiches Nationalbibliothek, Cod. Ser. Nov. 2701, f3v. c. 1140) and Biblia Erlangen (Erlangen, University Library, MS 1, f5v. c. 1195). The cosmic circles must ultimately derive from the Carolingian and early Byzantine paintings of Christ in Majesty. In the colored drawings of the Hexaemeron of St. Ambrose made at St. Emmeram, Regensburg c. 1160-70 (Munich Staatsbib. MS Clm. 14399, f14v, 21v, 52r; Muratova 1984a, VIII) the circles are similar in proportion to those of Ashmole and Aberdeen. The image is now repeated three times where it was found only once in Michelbeuren's bible. The God of the Hexaemeron is bearded, like the first folio in Aberdeen . The bearded Deity is a particular Byzantine feature, found for example in the mosaics of Palermo and Monreale.

A less bearded God stands in a three-quarter pose creating the animals of this creation on the right in the mosaic in the narthex of San Marco, Venice. In Monreale he is sitting, similar to the Adam of Aberdeen Adam, while he creates the birds and the fish in two zones.

It is difficult for any of these to provide the direct source for the English Bestiaries, but it does indicate the type of source that may have been available.
On the other hand, the Munich Hexaemeron is the earliest known illustrated copy, there may have been others in circulation in England because its texts were used to develop the second family. They were most likely master books derived from Venetian and Sicilian mosaics that also spread to England. The connections between the Normans in England and those in Sicily were very close in the twelfth century, particularly after Jeanne, the daughter of Henrique II, married William II of Sicily in 1177. For example, Robert de Cricklade, a canon Augustus. he traveled several times to Rome and Sicily and made a compilation of Pliny's Natural History for Henrique II.

The Aviarium Cycle

Hugh de Fouilloy wrote the Aviarium or Book of Birds c.1132-1152 while he was prior of the Augustinian house of Saint Nicholas-de-Regny, near Amiens (Clark 1992). He derived his text from the Etymologies of Isidore, Hrabanus Maurus and Moralia in Job of Saint Gregory. He thought with these twenty-seven birds, similar to Physiologus, to combine a description with a moral teaching. His sermons are much longer and more discursive than Physiologus. This book, with its entertaining images, was specifically designed to teach illiterate lay brothers and was an instant success. Several copies of the book circulated in the twelfth century and the text was reproduced in bulk, through its illustrations, in some of the Bestiaries of the second family. Hugh's original text has been lost but the Heiligenkreuz Aviary (Heiligenkreuz Abbey, MS 226, late thirteenth century) represents the most complete version and must be a very close derivation of the original. The Aberdeen Group (as defined by Clark 1992, 73-85; Aberdeen MS 24;
Oxford, Bod.MS Ashmole 1511;
Oxford, Bod. MS Douce 151;
Oxford, University College MS 120;
Cambridge, Gonville y Caius College MS 372/621;
London, B.L. MS Harley 4751;
Oxford, Bod. MS Bodley 764)
incorporates part of Hugh's text into the Bestiary and derives several of the illustrations from the Aviarium.

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