The Marian Bestiary

The Bestiaire Marial is part of the Rosarius manuscript, an Old French verse text dedicated to the Virgin Mary. "Rosarius" (or rosarium) is Latin for "rose garden". In the Middle Ages the rose was a symbol of Mary; the "rosary", a beaded necklace used for prayers of devotion to Mary is derived from this symbolism. There several songs with musical notation in the manuscript. The manuscript was produced in the 14th century (after 1328); the author is unknown.

The Bestiaire is a bestiary of 14 animals. Each animal is described very much as in other bestiaries, the Physiologus and in medieval encyclopedias, but where Latin bestiaries follow the description with a moralization or allegory based on the animal's characteristics, the animal properties in the Bestiaire are used to highlight one or more virtues of Mary.

From the edition by Angela Mattiacci:

The author of the Bestiaire marial, a Dominican from Soissonnais, places Mary at the heart of his innovative work, that is the only one that uses a bestiary to praise Mary. ... It must be said that if the author of the Rosarius innovates in the choice of a bestiary as an instrument of his praises to the Virgin, he does not do so in the terms themselves. He is only following a long tradition of devotion to the Virgin ... The Bestiaire marial is also different in its internal organization. First, the bestiary is inserted in various chapters of a larger work: the Rosarius. In the chapters that contain the elements of the bestiary, the description of the animal, on average twenty-four verses, comes at the head of the chapter below the rubric and the order number. This is followed by the moralization of the animal in relation to the qualities of Our Lady. Unlike all other medieval bestiaries, the author of the Rosarius allows himself lengthy discussions and, on three occasions, exceeds four hundred verses. The average is about three hundred verses on each animal. Other elements sometimes interrupt this moralization (a pious tale once, a sermon once and a song four times), which is not found in other bestiaries.

The Rosarius manuscript also has a partial lapidary with descriptions of four stones, and a short poem loosely based on the stories of Reynard the Fox, known as Le dit de la queue de Renart.

Manuscripts and Editions

The Bestiaire Marial text is found in the Rosarius manuscript, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 12483, starting on folio 25v. The manuscript has been badly trimmed, causing the loss of text on some lines.

An edition of the Bestiaire part of the Rosarius manuscript is in Angela Mattiacci, Le Bestiaire Marial tiré du Rosarius, Paris ms. B.N. f. fr 12483. A transcript of the poem, based on the Mattiacci edition, is available online.

An edition of the Bestiaire and the lapidary of the Rosarius manuscript is in Sven Sandqvist, Le Bestiaire et le lapidaire du Rosarius (B.N. fr. 12483).

Animals

There are 14 animals, all commonly found in other bestiaries.

1. Panthère (panther)
2. Hirondelle (swallow
3. Cigogne (stork)
4. Brebis (sheep
5. Baleine (whale)
6. Calandre (caladrius)
7. Salamandre (salamander)
8. Abeille (bee)
9. Cygne (swan)
10. Rossignol (nightingale)
11. Colombe (dove)
12. Tortue (turtledove)
13. Chameau (camel)
14. Faucon (falcon)