Caroline Macé and Jost Gippert, Physiologus. Turnhout: Brepols, 2021, 661 pp.

Scholars of the European Middle Ages are well acquainted with bestiaries. These compendia of pithy stories about animal lore told in the service of catechetical instruction were especially popular in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Manuscripts of them survive in the dozens, many of them with lavish illustrations of the animals, plants, and fantastical beasts described therein. A recent exhibition of medieval bestiaries at Getty Museum in Los Angeles yielded a sumptuous catalogue (