ABSTRACT
In examining depictions of animals during the Middle Ages, it becomes apparent that an artist’s ability to reproduce nature is not necessarily the overriding consideration in his creation of a work of art. Scientific writers, on the other hand, focused on the physical animal itself, and were often desirous of actually seeing individual animals and reporting their impressions of their anatomy and behavior. The scientific view, on the other hand, can be said to derive from Aristotle’s studies of animals—the History of Animals, Parts of Animals, and Generation of Animals—though his works were not available in the Middle Ages until Michael Scot’s translations from Arabic texts in the early thirteenth century. The dragon is venomless and kills by winding itself around other animals. Even the elephant is not safe despite its great size, for the dragon lies in wait near paths frequented by elephants.
