Libellus de Natura Animalium Facsimile Edition

The Libellus de Natura Animalium belongs to the long medieval tradition of the moralized bestiary, where the animal world becomes a mirror for human conduct. Before its early printed life, the work circulated in fifteenth-century manuscript copies, two of which are preserved today in the Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli. One manuscript records the date 1453 and the name of Antonius Mathei de Alfidena, who copied the text “for himself,” a detail that evokes the intimate, practical world in which this small treatise first moved.

From Manuscript to Print

In 1508, the same text entered print at Mondovì through the press of Vincenzo Berruerio, under the title Libellus de natura animalium perpulcre moralizatus and with an attribution to Albertus Magnus. The copy associated with J. I. Davis, London, is one of only four known witnesses of this first edition. Its rarity gives it exceptional value, not only as a bibliophile’s object but as evidence of how medieval moral literature passed from scribal culture into the age of print.

Animals as Moral Figures

The work begins with the superiority of humankind within creation, then moves through fifty-one animal chapters: birds, quadrupeds, fish, and reptiles. Each creature is described through its natura or proprietas, then transformed into an ethical figura. The eagle, lion, fox, serpent, spider, and scorpion become more than natural beings. They are examples to imitate or avoid.

A Portable Moral Bestiary

With its Gothic type, compact format, and black-and-white woodcuts, the Berruerio edition preserves the medieval bestiary as a practical book of memory, preaching, and moral discernment. Its images sharpen the lesson: nature is not simply seen, but read.