The Book of Beasts

By T. H. White,

Book cover of The Book of Beasts: Being a Translation from a Latin Bestiary of the Twelfth Century

Book description

8vo - over 7 3/4" - 9 3/4" tall. 296pp, illustrated.

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Book of Beasts as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This first complete English translation of a twelfth-century Latin bestiary has served me well as a partial map for following mythical beasts through time—from when the unicorn, griffin, and other fantastic creatures were considered part of God’s animal kingdom. T.  H. White supplements his translation of the moralized Christian bestiary with his own learned and entertaining footnotes and afterword. His “Family Tree” graph of Western animal studies highlights classical and medieval authors and ends with “Sir Thomas Browne’s Vulgar Errors,” the end of bestiary lore and the beginning of modern biology.

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