Website Search
Find information on spaces, staff, and services.
Find information on spaces, staff, and services.
Terence Hanbury White
Bestiaries, a bestseller of the Middle Ages second only to the Bible in popularity, are richly illustrated stories offering a fascinating glimpse into pre-scientific man’s perception of the earth’s creatures. Bestiaries blend zoological studies, myths, and legends, inspiring such exotic animals as the manticore, a creature with a man’s face, a lion’s body, and a ravenous appetite for human flesh; the dragon or draco, the biggest serpent and the embodiment of the Devil; and amphibia, a fish that could walk on land and swim in the sea. Many of these creatures are a part of folklore and have been incorporated into literature and art.
Terence Hanbury White (1906-1964), translator of this twelfth century bestiary, The Book of Beasts, was an accomplished novelist and medieval scholar. White’s translation includes copious footnotes and a comprehensive Appendix detailing the history of bestiary. White’s fascination with Arthurian legends resulted in a quartet of novels based on King Arthur. The first, The Sword and the Stone (1939), was later adapted into a Walt Disney movie. He eventually revised all four books into one volume, The Once and Future King (1958), which became the basis for the Lerner and Loewe musical, Camelot.
The Parallel Press, an imprint of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, provides print-on-demand publications as well as parallel editions in electronic formats. This project is part of an ongoing commitment to make scholarly works available worldwide.