8 ms·

Medieval Bestiary

76 points by rougka 4y ago

zwieback 4y ago
The weird style - was it on purpose or were they really bad at drawing stuff?
SoftTalker 4y ago
Medieval Bestiary would be a good name for a band...
- ackbar03 4y ago
  I dunno man, I came to check out the comments first because I wasn't sure if it was safe to click
  - joe-collins 4y ago
    Bestiary, not bestiality.
jansan 4y ago
I was really into this during my teenage years, inspired by early role playing games. It was super hard to find information living in a small town with a small library before the internet existed. For some beasts I never found out if the beasts were based on myths, taken from fantasy fiction or simply invented by the authors. Can east asian beasts be included? If so, I would suggest Qilin (Chinese) or Kirin (Japanese) (yes, the one on the beer label).
- gerdesj 4y ago
  I own a first edition Monster Manual (and DMG and PH). "It does not include beasts from non-European sources unless those beasts are the basis of Bestiary, Physiologus, or other Western beast legends." That's a shame because there is a bit of an overlap throughout history of beasties finding a new home - far away from where they originated, thanks to an enterprising traveller spreading stories in passing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qilin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qilin and keep on reading and clicking to lose a few hours!
gerdesj 4y ago
https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastsource422.htm https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastsource422.htm Sailors talk some complete twaddle at the best of times (I live close to HMS Heron) but blaming a six inch fish for delays in deployment or delivery takes some neck! I love this resource. I'll be hunting down a beast that delays IT systems deployment. Some sort of insect is indicated ...
- hansvm 4y ago
  The funny thing is small marine growths and attachments do actually have a massive impact on ship speed and efficiency.
  - gerdesj 4y ago
    That'll be barnacles and lack of maint. Seawater is a fluid with a mass of more than 1 Kg per 10cm^3. I have customers that worry about hull shapes etc. Increase the coeff. of friction a small amount has a massive effect. Can't remember exactly now but I think friction is proportional to the square of ... something. The difference here is that these little beasties magically make a ship run slowly. I would bet real money that their invention was to cover up late delivery or whatever. Basically, an excuse that no land lubber of the time could possibly refute.
anfractuosity 4y ago
I really like how they thought that hedgehogs picked up grapes etc. with their spines to carry to their hoglets. There's a cool little animation based on this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57BTS-W_2QI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57BTS-W_2QI
zwieback 4y ago
Two Medieval Monks were also very interested in this topic: https://the-toast.net/2015/04/01/two-medieval-monks-invent-bestiaries/ https://the-toast.net/2015/04/01/two-medieval-monks-invent-b...
TaylorAlexander 4y ago
This page displays very poorly on my iPhone (12 Pro Max). I can’t zoom out to the full width of the page, which makes it immediately very frustrating to try to browse. It looks like a very cool site! Sadly not very useful to browse on mobile for me.
- ghostbrainalpha 4y ago
  It also displays very poorly on my Tablet. Which is not an electronic device but a traditional stone tablet.
- watwut 4y ago
  Same here.
iLoveOncall 4y ago
Here is the list of beasts in case you struggle to find it like I did because the splash image just takes you to an about page: https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastalphashort.htm https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastalphashort.htm
- lelandfe 4y ago
  You know you should rethink your site's navigation when you have to add a "Help Using This Site" page https://bestiary.ca/help.htm https://bestiary.ca/help.htm
triyambakam 4y ago
Lynne Kelly in her book "Memory Craft" shares that the medieval bestiaries were used as a mnemonic to aid in memorizing the religious texts.
thamer 4y ago
Elephants often have interesting shapes in medieval art. In some (most?) cases it seems like the artist was likely drawing from someone else's description of the animal since they had never seen one themselves (e.g. #14, #22, #34 and more in the gallery below). https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastgallery77.htm https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastgallery77.htm
- teruakohatu 4y ago
  I am sure some of them never saw an Elephant, but Elephants did exist in Europe. Charlemagne was famously given one. Louis IX gave Henry III one for the Tower of London which they managed to kill by feeding it too much wine.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - jaclaz 4y ago
    But that a few kings in Europe were given an elephant means that very likely a live elephant was like the most precious (and rare) gift in the world.

Medieval Bestiary

76 points by rougka 4y ago

zwieback 4y ago

The weird style - was it on purpose or were they really bad at drawing stuff?

SoftTalker 4y ago

Medieval Bestiary would be a good name for a band...

ackbar03 4y ago
I dunno man, I came to check out the comments first because I wasn't sure if it was safe to click
- joe-collins 4y ago
  Bestiary, not bestiality.

jansan 4y ago

I was really into this during my teenage years, inspired by early role playing games. It was super hard to find information living in a small town with a small library before the internet existed. For some beasts I never found out if the beasts were based on myths, taken from fantasy fiction or simply invented by the authors. Can east asian beasts be included? If so, I would suggest Qilin (Chinese) or Kirin (Japanese) (yes, the one on the beer label).

gerdesj 4y ago
I own a first edition Monster Manual (and DMG and PH). "It does not include beasts from non-European sources unless those beasts are the basis of Bestiary, Physiologus, or other Western beast legends." That's a shame because there is a bit of an overlap throughout history of beasties finding a new home - far away from where they originated, thanks to an enterprising traveller spreading stories in passing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qilin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qilin and keep on reading and clicking to lose a few hours!

gerdesj 4y ago

https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastsource422.htm https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastsource422.htm Sailors talk some complete twaddle at the best of times (I live close to HMS Heron) but blaming a six inch fish for delays in deployment or delivery takes some neck! I love this resource. I'll be hunting down a beast that delays IT systems deployment. Some sort of insect is indicated ...

hansvm 4y ago
The funny thing is small marine growths and attachments do actually have a massive impact on ship speed and efficiency.
- gerdesj 4y ago
  That'll be barnacles and lack of maint. Seawater is a fluid with a mass of more than 1 Kg per 10cm^3. I have customers that worry about hull shapes etc. Increase the coeff. of friction a small amount has a massive effect. Can't remember exactly now but I think friction is proportional to the square of ... something. The difference here is that these little beasties magically make a ship run slowly. I would bet real money that their invention was to cover up late delivery or whatever. Basically, an excuse that no land lubber of the time could possibly refute.

anfractuosity 4y ago

I really like how they thought that hedgehogs picked up grapes etc. with their spines to carry to their hoglets. There's a cool little animation based on this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57BTS-W_2QI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57BTS-W_2QI

zwieback 4y ago

Two Medieval Monks were also very interested in this topic: https://the-toast.net/2015/04/01/two-medieval-monks-invent-bestiaries/ https://the-toast.net/2015/04/01/two-medieval-monks-invent-b...

TaylorAlexander 4y ago

This page displays very poorly on my iPhone (12 Pro Max). I can’t zoom out to the full width of the page, which makes it immediately very frustrating to try to browse. It looks like a very cool site! Sadly not very useful to browse on mobile for me.

ghostbrainalpha 4y ago
It also displays very poorly on my Tablet. Which is not an electronic device but a traditional stone tablet.
watwut 4y ago
Same here.

iLoveOncall 4y ago

Here is the list of beasts in case you struggle to find it like I did because the splash image just takes you to an about page: https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastalphashort.htm https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastalphashort.htm

lelandfe 4y ago
You know you should rethink your site's navigation when you have to add a "Help Using This Site" page https://bestiary.ca/help.htm https://bestiary.ca/help.htm

triyambakam 4y ago

Lynne Kelly in her book "Memory Craft" shares that the medieval bestiaries were used as a mnemonic to aid in memorizing the religious texts.

thamer 4y ago

Elephants often have interesting shapes in medieval art. In some (most?) cases it seems like the artist was likely drawing from someone else's description of the animal since they had never seen one themselves (e.g. #14, #22, #34 and more in the gallery below). https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastgallery77.htm https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastgallery77.htm

teruakohatu 4y ago
I am sure some of them never saw an Elephant, but Elephants did exist in Europe. Charlemagne was famously given one. Louis IX gave Henry III one for the Tower of London which they managed to kill by feeding it too much wine.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- jaclaz 4y ago
  But that a few kings in Europe were given an elephant means that very likely a live elephant was like the most precious (and rare) gift in the world.