bestiary
[bes-chee-er-ee, bees-]
- a collection of moralized fables, especially as written in the Middle Ages, about actual or mythical animals.
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Origin of bestiary
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for bestiary
Historical Examples
The author of the Bestiary was acquainted with one or both of these.
This theme is found in the Physiologus, a 256 medieval bestiary.
Modern Spanish LyricsVarious
For the structure of this verse, see p. 327; the following is a restoration and scansion of the passages in the Bestiary.
A Bestiary of the beginning of the thirteenth century, enriched with many very curious paintings upon a ground of brilliant gold.
Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A.D. 1598-A.D. 1867William Dunn Macray
Bestiary, a name given to a class of books treating of animals, viewed allegorically.
The Nuttall EncyclopaediaEdited by Rev. James Wood
bestiary
- a moralizing medieval collection of descriptions (and often illustrations) of real and mythical animals
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for bestiary
n.
"medieval treatise on beasts" usually with moralistic overtones, 1818, from Medieval Latin bestiarium "a menagerie," also "a book about animals", from bestia (see beast). A Latin term for such works was liber de bestiis compositus. Roman bestiarius meant "a fighter against beasts in the public entertainments."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper