In collaboration with a ninth grade history class, I had students create Illuminated Manuscripts and allegories based on the Bestiaries of the Middle Ages. The first known collection of these texts was known as the Physiologus, written in Greek in the third century, It contained fifty beasts, and additional moral interpretations. It evolved over the years, and was very popular. The bestiary, or “book of beasts” goes beyond the Physiologus by describing the beast, using it as a basis for a religious allegory. It is often illustrated, sometimes lavishly, as the pictures served as a visual language for the illiterate public. Medieval animal illustrations were often not "realistic," as the artist often had never seen the animal described.
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