Bestiary

This medieval bestiary collects descriptions of animals, birds, and stones - some observed, many fabulous - and attaches a moral or theological lesson to each. Lions, elephants, foxes, unicorns, and the phoenix sit beside ordinary creatures; each entry typically gives the beast's supposed habits and then reads them as an allegory of virtue, vice, or Christian doctrine. The work belongs to a Latin and vernacular tradition that treated natural history as a book of instruction. It is an encyclopaedia of moralised nature rather than a zoological field guide or a single narrative.

Quarter bound in dark blue buckram, cream paper boards printed with a colour picture. Dark blue endleaves. Dark blue slipcase. The Presentation Volume for 1993.