Uploaded August 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Part two: youtu.be/eBwe-36o77w
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Check out the ‘World of Cryptobiology’ on World Anvil!
▷ World Anvil: worldanvil.com/w/the-cryptobiologist
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Today, we'll begin a journey into the strange and eccentric world of medieval bestiaries--a place where science and religion converge to present catalogs of fantastic creatures, with descriptions ranging from grounded to, at times, outright ridiculous. But as we'll see, these bestiaries offer far more than a few silly descriptions. They're a window into the minds of generations of people who truly found wonder in even the most common forms of life.
That, and a few deeply inaccurate attempts at describing and illustrating animals they'd clearly never seen.
Sources:
- bestiary.ca/manuscripts/manubeast100.htm
- historyhit.com/most-bizarre-creatures-from-medieval-folklore
- Christian symbolism: web.archive.org/web/20150513045201/http://christiansymbols.net/animals_10.php
- forwardtopast.wordpress.com/2016/10/21/10-weird-medieval-beasts
- medievalists.net/2015/01/ten-strange-medieval-animals-might-heard
- historycollection.com/12-crazy-descriptions-from-medieval-bestiaries/11
- mentalfloss.com/article/76347/20-bizarre-beasts-ancient-bestiaries
- Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 1444: bestiary.ca/manuscripts/manu1508.htm
- digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/faeff7fb-f8a7-44b5-95ed-cff9a9ffd198/surfaces/e40d95b5-6e99-49b4-a540-c798e205eb3c
- Sirens from the "Queen Mary Psalter": bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=royal_ms_2_b_vii_f084r
- physiologus.proab.info/?pg=in-english
- Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 764: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/e6ad6426-6ff5-4c33-a078-ca518b36ca49
- Harley Bestiary: bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=harley_ms_4751_fs001r
- The Worksop Bestiary: themorgan.org/collection/worksop-bestiary/90
- The Peterborough Psalter and Bestiary: https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/catalog/gs233db8425
- Saint Epiphanius on the Physiologus: spcoll.library.uvic.ca/Digit/physiologum/introduction.htm
- "Medieval Bestiaries and the Birth of Zoology" by Aura Beckhöfer-Fialho: antlionpit.com/aura.html
Part two: youtu.be/eBwe-36o77w
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out the ‘World of Cryptobiology’ on World Anvil!
▷ World Anvil: worldanvil.com/w/the-cryptobiologist
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today, we'll begin a journey into the strange and eccentric world of medieval bestiaries--a place where science and religion converge to present catalogs of fantastic creatures, with descriptions ranging from grounded to, at times, outright ridiculous. But as we'll see, these bestiaries offer far more than a few silly descriptions. They're a window into the minds of generations of people who truly found wonder in even the most common forms of life.
That, and a few deeply inaccurate attempts at describing and illustrating animals they'd clearly never seen.
Sources:
- bestiary.ca/manuscripts/manubeast100.htm
- historyhit.com/most-bizarre-creatures-from-medieval-folklore
- Christian symbolism: web.archive.org/web/20150513045201/http://christiansymbols.net/animals_10.php
- forwardtopast.wordpress.com/2016/10/21/10-weird-medieval-beasts
- medievalists.net/2015/01/ten-strange-medieval-animals-might-heard
- historycollection.com/12-crazy-descriptions-from-medieval-bestiaries/11
- mentalfloss.com/article/76347/20-bizarre-beasts-ancient-bestiaries
- Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 1444: bestiary.ca/manuscripts/manu1508.htm
- digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/faeff7fb-f8a7-44b5-95ed-cff9a9ffd198/surfaces/e40d95b5-6e99-49b4-a540-c798e205eb3c
- Sirens from the "Queen Mary Psalter": bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=royal_ms_2_b_vii_f084r
- physiologus.proab.info/?pg=in-english
- Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 764: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/e6ad6426-6ff5-4c33-a078-ca518b36ca49
- Harley Bestiary: bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=harley_ms_4751_fs001r
- The Worksop Bestiary: themorgan.org/collection/worksop-bestiary/90
- The Peterborough Psalter and Bestiary: https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/catalog/gs233db8425
- Saint Epiphanius on the Physiologus: spcoll.library.uvic.ca/Digit/physiologum/introduction.htm
- "Medieval Bestiaries and the Birth of Zoology" by Aura Beckhöfer-Fialho: antlionpit.com/aura.html
