The Bestiario moralizzato di Gubbio is a moralized 14th or 15th century bestiary in verse, in the Umbrian dialect of Italian. The author is unknown. The Gubbio in the title refers to a town of that name in central Italy, where the text was probably written and where the manuscript was held until the late 19th century.

The text is in the form of 64 rhymed sonnets of 14 lines. Each sonnet starts with a description of an animal, followed by a moralization. The descriptions are of necessity very brief. They are usually similar to the descriptions in other animal texts, like the Physiologus or the bestiaries. Some of the descriptions are taken from the encyclopedias of Thomas of Cantimpré and Bartholomaeus Anglicus.

Manuscripts and Editions

The Bestiario does not seem to have been popular in its time or after. The only manuscript where it appears is Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma, Vitt.Em.477 (15th century), which also contains several other texts.

There do not appear to have been any early printed editions. The first modern edition by Giuseppe Mazzatinti was published in 1889, when the manuscript was still in a private collection. A more recent French edition by Sylvain Trousselard was published in 2002.

Animals

Some animals appear more than once, sometimes under different names. The animal names are often unusual or have unusual spellings that are unlike the names found in other Italian texts.

This list of the birds, fish, serpents and animals is based on the Mazzatinti edition. The numbers in [brackets] after some entries refer to the notes below the list.

1. Leone (lion)
2. Leone (lion)
3. Alifante (elephant)
4. Unicorno (unicorn)
5. Yenna (hyena)
6. Serta (sawfish)
7. Volpe (fox)
8. Riccio (hedgehog)
9. Castore (beaver)
10. Formica (ant)
11. Antalupo (antelope)
12. Capra (wild goat)
13. Satiro (satyr)
14. Cervo (stag)
15. Pantera (panther)
16. Tigra (tiger)
17. Mosteto (monocerus) [1]
18. Orsa (bear)
19. Bonatio (bonnacon)
20. Linceo (lynx)
21. Donnola (weasel)
22. Lammia (lamia)
23. Scimmia (ape)
24. Manticora (manticore)
25. Ale (yale)
26. Lupo (wolf)
27. Cane (dog)
28. Aignello (lamb)
29. Lupo (wolf)
30. Porcello (pig)
31. Pontecha (uncertain) [2]
32. Raigno (spider)
33. Grifone (griffin)
34. Aquila (eagle)
35. Tortore (turtledove)
36. Corbo (crow)
37. Perdice (partridge)
38. Falcomcelli (little falcon)
39. Calandro (caladrius)
40. Pellicano (pelican)
41. Lampo (stork) [3]
42. Ales (ibis) [4]
43. Noctola (owl)
44. Serene (siren)
45. Galina (hen)
46. Paone (peacock)
47. Camelon (ostrich)
48. Luppica (hoopoe)
49. Struço (ostrich/thamur) [5]
50. Api (bee)
51. Mosca (fly)
52. Arçillo (horse-fly) [6]
53. Gufo (owl)
54. Parpalione (butterfly) [7]
55. Lodola (lark)
56. Nibio (kite)
57. Rusignolo (nightingale)
58. Avoltone (vulture)
59. Balena (whale)
60. Salamandra (salamander)
61. Vipera (viper)
62. Dragone (dragon)
63. Aspido serpente (asp)
64. Tiro (asp)

1. Mosteto: The name is unknown. The text says: "The beast that has this name, I will show you / has a horn right on its forehead, / which is strong, full of splendor, / that can pass through blades and swords; / and cannot remain captured or hidden...", which could describe the monocerus.
2. Pontecha: Uncertain. Trousselard (page 133) identifies this as the "Rat d'Euxin", rat of the Black (Euxine) Sea. The name pontecha may relate to the Latinized Greek name of the Black Sea, pontus euxinus. The text is no help in identifying this animal; it says "The pontecha is hunted by men / By knowledge of stone and branch, / And the man willingly embraces it / For fear it will gnaw his pocket".
3. Lampo: Trousselard (page 149) identifies this as the stork. The text says that storks care for their chicks so ardently that they lose their feathers while brooding. This is consistent the description given by Bartholomaeus Anglicus.
4. Ales: Trousselard (page 151) identifies this as the ibis. The text says "Ales is a bird of evil nature, / It eats nothing but rotten flesh, / Anything that is found by chance / on the shore of the sea. / It devours carrion and dead flesh: / That is the life which it is used to; / It does not know how to swim and does not care, / It flees the clear and delicate water". This is characteristic of the ibis, as described by Guillaume le Clerc.
5. Struço: This name is similar to other names of the ostrich (strucione, strutio). The text says "The struço bird, as I have heard, / lost its young when they were imprisoned / in a vial made of glass, / without any crack or lesion, / and it searches in Egypt / and brings a worm and pours its blood / into the vessel: immediately it is broken, / and gives freedom to its young". This story is of the thamur worm, described by Thomas of Cantimpré.
6. Arçillo: Trousselard (page 168) identifies this as the horse-fly (French taon). The text suggests that if oxen are bitten by the arçillo, they will break their bonds. This is consistent with the description by Isidore of Seville: "The horse-fly is associated with cattle, and is very troublesome with its stinging ... in Latin it is called the asilus...".
7. Parpalione: Trousselard (page 170) identifies this as the butterfly. The text is ambiguous. The word parpalione is similar to the French papillon; the modern Italian equivalent is farfalla.