Of all the literary forms in human history, the illuminated manuscripts of medieval Western Europe are among the most memorable. With their thick parchment, elaborate opening letters, and colorful and often strange illustrations, what’s not to love? Perhaps the most famous illuminated manuscripts were the great medieval bestiaries, curious tomes describing both natural history and ludicrous myths regarding various animals. Medieval bestiaries also counted downright mythical creatures among their pages.
But of course, the question is… Why? If medieval bestiaries described animals, why have fantastical monsters and mythical creatures? And for that matter, why add obvious myths to the entries on real animals? Did the monks of Europe’s Middle Ages really believe that lion cubs are born dead, only for their father’s breath to revive them after three days? (And yes, that is one of the stories you can find in a medieval bestiary.)
Well, the short answer is… probably not. Bestiaries, from what we can tell by the literary form, were never meant to be zoology textbooks. They are manuscripts of fable and allegory, using a combination of natural science and myth to both entertain readers and help them understand their religion.
The roots of early medieval education
Speaking of myth, one of the biggest modern myths about Europe’s Middle Ages is that the time period constituted a “dark age” of continent-wide ignorance and decay. This notion is a wild exaggeration of the truth. For one thing, the term “dark age” was coined strictly as an idea of intellectual and literary loss. It was also coined by the Renaissance scholar Petrarch as a perceived (and biased) contrast to the revival of “enlightened” Classical literature in his own time. Modern scholars view the Dark Age as solely the Early Middle Ages, just after the fall of the Roman Empire.
This all started because of how the Romans themselves viewed and treated education. Out east, Greece had become a hub of great philosophy and then-modern science. At the height of the Roman Empire, general education focused on literacy and practical subjects like law and politics. More advanced study followed the teachings of Greek scholars. Ancient Romans considered this advanced study a leisure activity for the upper class. Those upper class scholars knew Greek, and studied Greek natural philosophies in the language they were first written in.
When the Roman empire splintered and broke down and invading Germanic tribes began to mix among them, this practice became a problem. As it fractured, Western Europe became increasingly cut off from Greece and its language. Meanwhile, economic upheaval reduced the upper class, and more people moved out of large cities and into more rural areas. By around 500 AD, the only Classical literature still accessible to much of Western Europe was that which had been translated into Latin or other languages.
Among these works was the Physiologus. This manuscript, its author unknown, had likely been written in Alexandria sometime within the second to fourth century AD. The Physiologus was a collection of moral-driven beast tales, written to serve as a collection of Christian allegories. Though not itself a bestiary, the extremely popular and widely translated book inspired the bestiaries of the later medieval period. This included a propensity to have mythical creatures sprinkled in among the real ones.
The Physiologus, the Etymologiae, and what’s up with all the monks
The social and economic upheaval of Rome’s fall also caused another problem for education in the Early Middle Ages. With the social classes upset and so many people taking to rural lives in small villages and farms, their focus shifted largely to simple survival and other practical matters. With little time for the “leisure” of higher education, even basic literacy in Western Europe diminished. However, there was one other cultural pillar still playing a major role in these people’s lives: their religion.
This was where the monks came in. Monasteries were places where people could go to dedicate themselves to Biblical study and the pursuit of God’s works. To study and contemplate the Bible and similar books, monks, nuns, and other clergy needed to know how to read. As a result, monasteries became hubs of education — albeit education geared toward spiritual matters for future clergy.
Basic literacy and theology weren’t the only subjects monks and nuns studied. Other subjects, such as astronomy and botany, proved useful for their work as well. These two subjects were necessary for making accurate calendars to determine holy days and for understanding and applying medicine, respectively. And some clergy, such as the bishop Isidore of Seville, took their education even further. For Isidore, this meant writing a variety of books, the most famous of which were the encyclopedia-like Etymologiae.
While Isidore of Seville did little to fact-check the information he compiled, the Etymologiae, or “Etymologies,” were instrumental in preserving and sharing the literary knowledge of the time. His focus in these books, including one dedicated to animals, was to explore the deeper spiritual meaning of the natural world by interpreting meanings behind names. While the zoological book of the Etymologies was not outright allegorical like the Physiologus before it, it did have much in common — including the presence of both real and mythical creatures. Both works ultimately influenced the rise of the medieval bestiaries.
As the Middle Ages went on and learning and leisure picked up again, educated monks continued to write, copy, and share books and other manuscripts. Later on, scribes took to this task as well. Illuminating the manuscripts served a dual purpose. In addition to being beautiful (the term “illumination” originally referred to lighting up the page with gold decoration), the fanciful images and illustrations helped convey the book’s message even to those who still couldn’t read. Bestiaries, pieces of medieval literature illustrating creatures real and mythical to tell meaningful stories, became some of the most popular.
(Un)natural history or deliberate fable?
As I stated in the beginning, the bestiaries’ medieval audience most likely at least generally understood that they were allegorical. We can’t know for certain; how people interpreted these manuscripts would have been considered a common knowledge not worth recording. The fact that medieval education still trended toward the practical even in the later Middle Ages, and zoology just wasn’t high on the list of people’s concerns, further obscures matters. However, contemporary manuscripts covering more practical subjects like medicine and falconry do show a more “modern” approach than fanciful bestiaries.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone was on the same page about what was and wasn’t real, though. And why would they be? Even today, in the Age of Information, myths abound about animals and other aspects of the natural world. Some, like groundhog shadows predicting the remaining length of winter, we widely understand as just “for fun.” Others, like bird parents abandoning their nest if a human goes near, are misinformation that many people nevertheless believe.
Likewise, medieval people who believed in dragons and unicorns would have been similar to modern people believing in cryptids. Just because there was no hard scientific evidence proving the creature’s existence didn’t stop them from hearing stories and believing the sightings were genuine. And a farmer from the Middle Ages didn’t have the benefit of an Internet database detailing all the neighboring countries in which the scientific community had not in fact documented unicorns.
Still, the fact remains that medieval bestiaries were written for a non-scientific purpose. Their creatures, both natural and mythical, offered moral lessons and entertaining stories. And one thing that is clear is that people tended to enjoy those stories.
So, what does all this have to do with this blog?
Other than exploring the history behind the blog’s visual theme, you mean? Well, medieval bestiaries and their mythical creatures showcase the value of having natural and fantastical elements in the same work. Bestiaries inspired, entertained, and morally and theologically educated their readers. But they did so with the help of scientific fact.
Let’s think about The Lion King for a moment. This classic Disney movie is a great example of using both natural history and symbolism to create an animal fable. We have our lion pride: apex predators of the African savannah, with only a few adult males and an important niche in their ecosystem. Then, we add some human elements: the symbolism of this impressive predator as “king of beasts,” interpreted as the lions actively ruling the land and maintaining peace and order through their Circle of Life philosophy. Add these elements together, and you get a movie about succession-based political turmoil and the responsibility of rulership, all set against the backdrop of savannah ecology. Most of us know that real lions aren’t literal monarchs. However, combining natural science with fiction creates a story that’s both entertaining and teaches a meaningful lesson.
Medieval bestiaries have a similar purpose, both with their real animals and their mythical creatures. The aforementioned story about lion cubs being born dead, for example, illustrates the death and resurrection of Christ. The king of beasts/people (God) has a son who is dead for three days (Jesus) and then miraculously returns the son to life.
So too it is with the mythical creatures. Propped up by a bit of fake “natural” history, dragons serve as allegories to Satan — a practice that stretches all the way back to the story of the Serpent’s temptation of Eve. The dragon, thus a tempter, pits itself against the elephant. In addition to being large and powerful, providing a practical foe for a mighty beast (which is true regarding real apex predators), the elephant was seen as a highly intelligent animal (also true) and thus a symbol of wisdom. So the dragon attempts to trick and coil around the elephant to overpower it, much as Satan tries to overcome us through temptation and deceit.
At the end of the day, science and myth just have a fun interplay. Mythical creatures, whether in medieval bestiaries or modern fantasy, have a kind of imagination-firing magic to them. Science, meanwhile, grounds us and our stories in a setting that feels a little more real. By combining the two, we can explore the world in all its facets: whether natural, allegorical, or outright philosophical. And as the ancient Greek philosophers and Christian monks both understood, each of these parts of the world have a place in the human story.
Sources: The Beginnings of Western Science by David C. Lindberg, The Medieval Bestiary (particularly the articles on the Physiologus and Isidore of Seville), Minneapolis Institute of Art on medieval illuminated manuscripts, the British Library on some bestiary tales
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