The present collection of essays rides the tide of accelerated academic interest in the medieval bestiary witnessed during the last couple of decades. ... The goal of the present collection is not to hand down truths on the ultimate significance of the bestiaries or to argue for one consistent symbolic meaning for a given animal or to suggest but a single function for these books. Rather, the individual studies all expose accumulated layers of meaning developed in the bestiary stories and attached to the animals themselves and seek therefore to make visible their numerous ambiguities and contradictions as compelling testimony to the flexibility and power of the genre. ... Emphasis in all of these essays is on art historical and literary analysis. Equal consideration is paid to texts and images with an eye toward connecting specific artistic and literary features of the bestiaries with broader issues in medieval art, life, and literature. ... I have grouped the essays into four distinct categories... - [Editor]

Articles by: Margaret Haist, Mariko Miyazaki, Carmen Brown, Debra Hassig, Valerie Jones, Pamela Gravestock, J. Holli Wheatcroft, Alison Syme, Michele Bolduc.

Language: English

ISBN: 0-8153-2952-0; LC: PA8275.B4Z631999=DDC=809.93362-dc21; LCCN: 98-36629