This is an English translation of the short version of the French Bestiary of Pierre de Beauvais. The original text, the Physiologus was probably written during the 2nd century, in Greek, then translated to Latin, and then translated into Old French by de Beauvais. These are stories of animals given as symbols of Man's eternal fears and hopes. This bestiary can be used as a means of understanding the thought processes of people in the Middle Ages.

"Reading Spiegel's book is like seeing the scattered pieces of a jigsaw puzzle of history and literature suddenly assembled in a dazzling new image, a picture that could not have been made without the master piece, the manuscript that Professor Spiegel was the first person in almost 800 years to read and interpret. Her effort is a tour de force of no mean proportion."--Stephen G. Nichols Jr., author of Romanesque Signs

This in-depth exploration of key manuscript sources reveals new information about medieval songs and sets them in their original contexts.