Beasts and birds of the Middle Ages : the bestiary and its legacy

The medieval bestiary, or moralized book of beasts, has enjoyed immense popularity over the centuries and it continues to influence both literature and art. This collection of essays aims to demonstrate the scope and variety of bestiary studies and the ways in which the medieval bestiary can be addressed. The contributors write about the tradition of one of the bestiary's birds, Parisian production of the manuscripts, bestiary animals in a liturgical book, theological as well as secular interpretations of beasts, bestiary creatures in literature, and new perspectives on the bestiary in other genres. Contents 9 Acknowledgments 11 Introduction 13 1. The Art of Memory and the Bestiary 24 2. The Aviary-Bestiary at the Houghton Library, Harvard 38 3. Workshop Methods in English Late Twelfth-Century Illumination and the Production of Luxury Bestiaries 65 4 The Phoenix: Its Nature and Its Place in the Tradition of the Physiologus 81 5. Spring, Love, Birdsong: The Nightingale in Two Cultures 100 6. Duel of Bestiaries 108 7. An Elephant in the Litany: Further Thoughts on an English Book of Hours in the Walters Art Gallery (W. 102) 118 8. Bestiary Influences in Two Thirteenth- Century Romances 146 9. Animal Symbolism in the Prophecies of Merlin 163 10. Notes on Beasts in the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César of Rogier, Châtelain de Lille 176 11. Peacocks and Preachers: Analytic Technique in Marcus of Orvieto’s Liber de moralitatibus, Vatican lot. MS S93S 191 Appendix: Manuscripts of Western Medieval Bestiary Versions 209 Bibliography of Bestiary Studies Since 1962 217 Contributors 227 Index 229