The Catalan bestiary is a direct translation into the language of Catalonia from the vernacular Italian Tuscan Bestiary. The manuscripts featuring the two bestiaries date mostly from the 14th and 15th centuries. The Catalan bestiary does not include all of the animal chapters from the Tuscan bestiary (61 for the Tuscan bestiary and 45 for the Catalan bestiary), and the Catalan bestiary does not include any of the fables found in the Tuscan bestiary.

Manuscripts and Editions

Manuscripts

There are seven known Catalan Bestiary manuscripts, either complete or fragments. The manuscripts have been categorized using codes to identify each manuscript.

Manuscripts A and B are complete texts; the others are fragments of varying lengths. Manuscript D is the only known copy of the Catalan bestiary to be illustrated.

Editions

Saverio Panunzio, Bestiaris

Animal Chapters

The bestiary has from 2 to 45 animal chapters, all except one also found in the Tuscan Bestiary. The Esparver (sparrowhawk) chapter is not in the Tuscan bestiary, and in the Catalan bestiary it appears only in manuscript A. For the most part, the Catalan chapter order matches the Tuscan bestiary chapter order. Manuscript B has two chapters on the crane (9 and 22). Manuscripts D and E both have the same animals in the same order. It is not known how many chapters the manuscript fragments (all but A and B) originally had.

The table below is adapted from the bestiary chapter list in Llúcia Martín Pascual, Nuevas aportaciones sobre la transmisión del Bestiari catalán (page 166-167). The "LdN" column is the matching chapter number in the Libro della natura degli animali (Tuscan Bestiary).