Beastiology, more commonly spelled “bestiary,” refers to a genre of illustrated manuscripts from the medieval period that cataloged animals, both real and imaginary, and assigned moral or religious meanings to each one. The term comes from the Latin “bestiarum,” meaning “of beasts.” These texts were not scientific field guides. They were tools for moral instruction, using the natural world as a lens for understanding human behavior and Christian theology.
What Medieval Bestiaries Actually Were
Bestiaries flourished primarily in England from the early 1100s to the late 1200s. They were lavishly illustrated manuscripts, most of them housed in church libraries, designed to teach lessons about proper conduct through stories about animals. The core idea was that every creature in creation had a significance beyond itself. A lion wasn’t just a lion. It was a symbol carrying a spiritual message.
Each entry in a bestiary typically followed a pattern: a description of the animal’s appearance and behavior (often wildly inaccurate by modern standards), followed by a “moralization” that drew a parallel to Christian doctrine or ethical living. The animals’ place in nature was studied not for scientific purposes but to learn how one should live. The texts usually opened with the biblical story of Adam naming the animals, then moved into sections on wild beasts, birds, serpents, and fish.
Real and Imaginary Creatures Side by Side
One of the most striking things about bestiaries is that they made no distinction between animals that actually exist and ones that don’t. Lions, tigers, and panthers shared pages with unicorns, griffins, and basilisks, all presented with equal authority. The panther, for instance, was said to have breath that smelled like allspice and could attract all prey except dragons, which supposedly detested the scent. The salamander could walk through fire unharmed and poison fruit just by touching it.
Some of the imagined creatures were remarkably inventive. The manticore had the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, and the head of a man. The yale was described as horse-sized with elephant tusks, boar tusks, and horns it could swivel independently like ears, folding one back if damaged while fighting with the other. The amphisbaena had a head at each end of its body and could supposedly roll across the ground like a hoop. The basilisk, also called the cockatrice, had the body of a serpent with the head and wings of a rooster and could kill with nothing more than its breath or gaze.
Even the real animals were described with fantastical traits. Lions were said to sleep with their eyes open, sweep away their tracks with their tails, and breathe life into their stillborn cubs on the third day. Tigers were noted for their “maternal devotion” above all else. These embellished traits weren’t errors so much as deliberate storytelling choices, because each trait served the moral lesson attached to the animal.
Animal Symbolism and Religious Meaning
The unicorn is the most famous example of bestiary symbolism. Depicted as a pure creature that could only be captured by a virgin, the unicorn’s story of capture and killing was read as an allegory for Christ’s death and the salvation of humanity. This connection made the unicorn one of the most popular animals in medieval art, appearing in tapestries, carvings, and manuscripts far beyond the bestiaries themselves.
The pelican carried similar weight. Medieval writers believed the pelican pierced its own breast to feed its young with its blood, making it a powerful symbol of Christ’s sacrifice. Carved pelicans appeared in churches across Europe, including a painted wooden sculpture from 1500s Switzerland that survives today. The lion’s supposed habit of reviving its dead cubs on the third day was another direct Christ parallel, linking the king of beasts to the resurrection.
Because so many bestiary animals carried complex religious messages, they appeared frequently in churches and devotional objects where worshippers would immediately recognize the symbolism. But the imagery wasn’t limited to religious settings. Unicorns, elephants, foxes, and other well-known bestiary creatures were also adopted into secular art made for royal courts and wealthy households, where their characteristics became shorthand for virtues like loyalty, wisdom, or cunning.
How Bestiaries Shaped Art and Culture
The Getty Museum has described the bestiary as a genre that “brought creatures both real and fantastic to life before the reader’s eyes, offering devotional inspiration as well as entertainment.” That dual purpose is key. These were not dry theological texts. They were some of the most beautifully illustrated books of their era, filled with vivid images of exotic and impossible animals painted in rich colors and gold leaf. They were meant to be visually captivating.
The influence of bestiaries extended well beyond the manuscripts themselves. The animal symbolism they codified became embedded in European culture for centuries. Heraldic crests, church architecture, literary metaphors, and folk beliefs all drew from bestiary traditions. When you see a lion on a coat of arms representing courage, or a fox in a fable representing cunning, those associations trace back in part to the bestiary tradition and its older roots in texts like Isidore of Seville’s “Etymologies” from the 600s.
A Note on Similar-Sounding Terms
The word “beastiology” is sometimes confused with “bestiality,” which refers to something entirely different: sexual contact between humans and animals. That term belongs to the fields of psychology and sexology, where researchers use the clinical term “zoophilia” to describe a persistent sexual fixation on animals. These are distinct concepts with no meaningful connection. If you searched for information about the historical study and symbolism of animals, the bestiary tradition is what you’re looking for.