examples, the salient feature of a bird or animal becomes an allegory for some element in
sacred history or the life of Christ, or for the salvation of the soul.
Bestiary material also appears in vernacular encyclopedias, such as Brunetto Latini’s
Li livres dou tresor and the Livre des propriétés des choses, a 1372 translation by Jean
Corbechon of Barthélemy l’Anglais’s Liber de proprietatibus rerum.
The principal examples of love allegory in the bestiary tradition are Richard de
Fournival’s Bestiaire d’amours, dating from the mid-13th century; the related Response
au bestiaire; and the Bestiaire d’amour rimé, a verse adaptation of Richard’s Bestiaire.
In these texts, the birds and animals retain their traditional attributes; but instead of
figuring events in sacred history or aspects of the moral and spiritual life of the soul, the
creatures of the natural world are interpreted as representing aspects of the love
relationship. For example, the weasel, said to conceive through the ear and give birth
through the mouth, is treated in religious bestiaries as an allegory for the Virgin Mary.
Richard de Fournival, however, makes of the weasel a figure for the recalcitrant lady: she
receives her would-be lover’s request through the ear and gives birth through the mouth
to her refusal.
Bestiary allusions appear in many works, such as Nicole de Margival’s Dit de la
panthère d’amours, in which the beloved lady is represented as a panther and the enemies
of love as a dragon. The trouvères incorporated bestiary allusions into their songs; in
Aussi com l’unicorne sui, Thibaut de Champagne compares his lovesick state to that of a
unicorn, lured to its death in the lap of a maiden.
Bestiaries are usually illustrated. The spiritual bestiary of Guillaume le Clerc is often
provided with two-part miniatures, each representing both the animal in question and its
allegorical significance. For example, the pelican is shown feeding its babies with its
blood, accompanied by an image of the Crucifixion; the turtledove mourning its mate is
accompanied by an image of Ecclesia mourning the death of her bridegroom, Christ.
Illustrations of the Bestiaire d’amours do not manifest this two-part format, but the lover
and lady are sometimes included in the miniature along with the animal.
Sylvia Huot
[See also: GUILLAUME LE CLERC; PHILIPPE DE THAÜN; PIERRE DE
BEAUVAIS; RICHARD DE FOURNIVAL]
Bianciotto, Gabriel, and Michel Salvat, eds. Épopée animale, fable, fabliau: actes du IVe Colloque
de la Société Renardienne. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984.
McCullough, Florence. Medieval Latin and French Bestiaries. Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1960.
BETROTHAL AND MARRIAGE
CONTRACTS
. Under Roman and canon law, the institution of marriage had a contractual dimension
that influenced Merovingian practices. Betrothal became part of Frankish marriage
customs, often formalized by written contract between families. Upon betrothal under
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 226