Bestiary

Bestiary: Books that had a great vogue between the

eleventh and the fourteenth centuries describing the

supposed habits and peculiarities of animals both

real and fabled, with much legendary lore and moral

symbolism. They ultimately derived from the Greek

Physiologus, compiled by an unknown author before

the middle of the second century.

— Ebenezer Brewer, Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1870)