Aquatic animals in the Catalan Bestiari - Institut Interuniversitari de ...

1994, I presented my doctoral thesis with a study on Catalan animalistic tradition, 4 its
background and its effects on different literary genres during the Middle Ages, mostly
lyrical and works of a didactic-doctrinal nature. Over the last few years, some specific
works have appeared based on the way animalistic images are used in different literary
genres. 5
The historiography of Catalan bestiaries begins in 1924 with Ramon d’Alós
Moner’s speech at Barcelona’s Real Academia de Buenas Letras, which was
fundamental in the discovery of this type of works and is even today considered a
starting point of the study on animalistic texts. D’Alós’ main contributions can be
summarised in the following two points: On the one hand, the discovery in several royal
library inventories of books whose titles migtht be related to bestiaries 6 and, on the
other, the belief that the Catalan versions are derived from Tuscan texts, as McKenzie
and Garver 7 had ascertained some years before, in 1912. This association appears to be
confirmed when the Catalan versions are compared with the Tuscan descriptions of
animals and their teaching-moralising nature, which differs considerably from the 12 th
and 13 th centuries French versions. 8
4
L. Martín Pascual, La tradició animalística en la literatura catalana medieval (Alacant: Universitat
d’Alacant, Conselleria d’Educació i Ciencia de la Generalitat Valenciana-Institut de Cultura Juan Gil-
Albert, 1996).
5
See, for exemple, A.D. Deyermond, ‘Las imágenes del bestiario en la poesía de Joan Roís de Corella’,
Homenaje al Profesor José Fradejas Lebrero (Madrid, 1993), pp. 95-106. And the same autor, ‘The
Marine Bestiary in Medieval Spain’, Études de Langue et de litterature médiévales offertes à Peter T.
Ricketts à l’occasion de son 70ème anniversaire, editées par Dominique Billy et Ann Buckley (Turnhout:
Brepols, 2005); Poesía de Cancionero del siglo XV. Estudios seleccionados, ed. R. Beltrán, J. L. Canet &
M. Haro (Valencia: 2007).
6
In the Inventari dels béns mobles del rei Martí I, published by J. Massó i Torrents in 1905, there are
several entries of books entitled: De la cognició dels animals, Libre de natura de bèsties, De propietats
de bestias. There is also a Lapidary: De natura de pedras e de matalls, a genre which is frequently related
to bestiaries. Finally, there are several copies of Trésor by Brunetto Latini in French.
7
K. McKenzie & M. S. Garver, “Il Bestiary toscano secondo la lezione del codici di Parigi e Roma”,
Studi Romanzi, 7 (1912), pp. 1-100.
8
Here, reference is made to the Bestiaries by Philippe de Thaün, William the Clerk of Normandy and
Pierre de Beauvais. The latter exists in two versions: a long essay and another shorter version which has
been studied recently (B. Van den Abeele ‘Deux manuscits inconnus du Bestiaire atribué à Pierre de
Beauvais’, Bestiaires médiévaux. Nouvelles perspectives sur les manuscrits et les traditions textuelles,
edité par Bandouin Van den Abeele, Louvain la Neuve, Université Catholique de Louvain, Publications
de l’Institut d’Études Medievales, 2005, pp. 183-199). However, it would appear that yet another French
bestiary related to the Court was more well-known in Spain: the Bestaire d’amour by Richard de
Fournival. This text transfers animal characteristics to the world of courtship and applies them to the
lessons of love. Occitan poetry discovered in animal imagery a constant source of metaphors and
comparisons: Le Bestiaire d’Amours di Maistre Richart de Founival, ed. C. Segre (Milano 1957) and also
X. Muratova, “Un nouveau manuscrit du Bestiaire d’Amours de Richard de Fournival”, en Bestiaires
médiévaux. Nouvelles perspectives sur les manuscrits et les traditions textuelles, edité par Bandouin Van
den Abeele (Louvain la Neuve, Université Catholique de Louvain, Publications de l’Institut d’Études
Medievales, 2005), pp. 261-281.
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