{"id":1623,"date":"2014-03-31T12:30:06","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T12:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.facsimilefinder.com\/articles\/?p=1623"},"modified":"2017-09-11T12:26:56","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T10:26:56","slug":"westminster-bestiary-bestiaries-third-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.facsimilefinder.com\/articles\/westminster-bestiary-bestiaries-third-family\/","title":{"rendered":"The Westminster Bestiary and the bestiaries of the Third Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Physiologus, origin of all bestiaries<\/h2>\n

The influential literary genre of the medieval Bestiary<\/i><\/strong> has a variety of incarnations, but all of the manuscripts in this tradition have their roots in the text entitled the Physiologus<\/i><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Physiologus<\/i>\u00a0was designed to employ the characteristics of animals and other creatures to guide Christians with moral lessons throughout their lives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Physiologus<\/i> (The Naturalist<\/i>) was written in Greek<\/strong> by an anonymous author, probably in Alexandria in the 3rd <\/sup>century A.D. Its text comprises chapters on various real and mythological animals and birds, reptiles, and magic stones. The sources of this compilation were various works pre-Christian and Church authors, the Bible<\/strong>, and fables<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\"Westminster<\/a>\n

The text of the chapter includes quotations from the Bible combined with zoological and pseudo-zoological characteristics of the animal<\/span>, and also a moralisation explaining the animal\u2019s characteristics in light of Christian doctrine. The Physiologus<\/i> was designed to employ the characteristics of animals and other creatures to guide Christians with moral lessons throughout their lives.<\/p>\n

In case you missed it: check out the beautiful gallery of the Westminster Bestiary\u00a0and find out all the facsimile editions available on Facsimile Finder!<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Starting with the 12th<\/sup>\u00a0century, the development of bestiaries took place almost entirely in England.
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Apparently the Physiologus<\/i> achieved its aim, as it quickly became a very popular book, presumably among those less educated, as evident in its rapid translation into various languages. By the 4th<\/sup> or 5th<\/sup> century the Physiologus<\/i> was translated into Latin and toward the 9th<\/sup> and 10th<\/sup> centuries it had spread throughout Western Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n\"Westminster<\/a>\n

By the 12th<\/sup> century the Physiologus<\/i> had reached England, and from this period on the development of the bestiary tradition took place almost entirely in that country. The tradition of these manuscripts was first described by the prominent English scholar Montague Rhodes James<\/strong>, who in 1928 divided all illustrated bestiaries known to him into four groups or \u201cfamilies\u201d according to their texts.<\/p>\n

As result we currently possess about seventy manuscripts<\/strong> of so-called BIs<\/i>, H<\/i>, Second<\/i>, Transitional<\/i>, Third<\/i> and Fourth<\/i> Families.<\/p>\n

The bestiaries of the Third Family<\/h2>\n

The five bestiaries<\/strong> of the Third Family<\/i>, all of them of English origin<\/strong> dating back to the 13th<\/sup> century<\/strong>, have received much less scholarly attention than the bestiaries of other families despite the fact that these manuscripts differ tremendously from all other bestiaries.<\/p>\n

Their structural difference is most striking. They start with the Isidorean text<\/strong> beginning Cum voluntas condito<\/i> accompanied by pictures of Fabulous Nations, and after that proceed to Adam naming the animals<\/i>, and then to the domestic animals. This section is followed by chapters on the wild beasts, birds, fish, snakes and insects.<\/p>\n

The bestiaries of the\u00a0Third Family<\/i>\u00a0have unparalleled and so far untraced moralisations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The bestiaries end with chapters on fabulous monsters<\/strong>. The manuscripts contain absolutely different additional texts that appear at the end: Rota Fortunae<\/i>, extracts from Pseudo-Seneca<\/strong>\u2019s De Remediis Fortuitorum<\/i>, De<\/i> Septem Mirabilibus Mundi<\/i>, and extracts from the Policraticus<\/i>, a twelfth century text written by John of Salisbury<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\"Westminster<\/a>\n

In addition to the irregular structure, the bestiaries of the Third Family<\/i> have unparalleled and so far untraced moralisations, whose source for many years was considered the unedited encyclopedia entitled the Pantheologus<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/i>written at the end of the twelfth century by Peter of Cornwall<\/strong>, an obscure Augustinian canon at Holy Trinity, Aldgate in London<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Westminster Bestiary, unparalleled beauty among the Third Family<\/h2>\n

The Westminster Bestiary<\/strong> stands out even within this anomalous family of manuscripts, in its structure (which has its own textual and structural peculiaries), and even more in its iconography, probably the most beautifully decorated of all known bestiaries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Description of the manuscript
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