Exotic animals like elephants were often depicted very inaccurately in the bestiaries. Elephants might be given hooves, peculiar

tails or strange multi-lobed ears. The visual depiction was as faulty as the description of the animal's habits, and was obtained from

the literary tradition rather than life.Sometimes, as in the illustration, it appears

that the artist had actually seen an elephant. The traditional fighting castle on this

elephant has been replaced with a carrier for a bunch of crazy looking people who are

apparently in party mode. King Henry III of England was actually given an elephant by King Louis IX of France. It didn't live very

long, but it was paraded around the streets of London. This must have seemed like the

bestiary coming to life, and one can imagine its presence strengthening belief in many of the other peculiar creatures from the literary

tradition.

DEPICTION OF AN ELEPHANT IN A 13TH CENTURY BESTIARY 

The image represents the bestiary story of

the apsidochelone, or whale. The helpless sailors are busily

boiling their cooking pot on the creature's disguised back. It is assumed that the reader will know what happens next. The creature dives, drowning the sailors. The image is part of a familiar folklore, albeit

derived from literate sources.

MARGIN OF AN EARLY 14TH CENTURY PSALTER, KNOWN AS QUEEN MARY'S

PSALTER

This marginal illustration shows birds chasing away an owl. It looks innocently bucolic, but it

also refers to a bestiary description. The owl was taken to represent the Jews, blind in the light of

day or knowledge. The persecution of the owls by other birds was taken to legitimise medieval

Christian attitudes to the Jews. So a pretty little picture of birds and trees is transformed via an

allegorical reading in a Christian text to a justification for intolerance and prejudice against fellow humans. It is illustrating a passage from the Psalms, a Jewish text in origin, of course.

 FROM THE SAME SOURCE