List of medieval bestiaries

The bestiary form is commonly divided into "families," as proposed in 1928 by M. R. James[1] and revised by Florence McCulloch in 1959–1962.

In the absence of popular culture books, people in the Middle Ages in Europe took superstition for granted, and the unthinkable can easily be accepted as the undisputed truth.

Today, everyone knows what a dog or a bee is, but at that time, fabulous stories were considered non-fiction.

[2] The subfamily designated the "B-Is" version, dated to the 10th–13th centuries, are based upon the "B" version of the Physiologus and the writings of Isidore of Seville: The "H" versions,[3] late 13th-century, which in addition to a base Physiologus text, adds and arranges the content according to the "H" text or Book II of De bestiis et aliis rebus of Hugues de Fouilloy (olim of Pseudo-Hugo de St.

[4][5] The "Transitional" group, appearing from the 12th to 14th century, incorporate material from other sources used by second family bestiaries:[6][5] The works in this group are based principally on Isidore's Etymologiæ with significant additional material from Solinus, Saint Ambrose's Hexameron,[7][8] Rabanus Maurus and others:[9] These, from the 13th century, expand on the above with various races of humans, mythological creatures, and sometimes wonders of the world from Bernard Silvestris and others: The sole work in this family, from the 15th century, is distinguished by its incorporation of writings by Bartholomaeus Anglicus: These works were attributed in their time to John Chrysostom and appeared, mostly in Germany, from the 12th to 15th century: Many manuscripts contain portions of bestiaries that can be attributed to a single author.