Bestiary

Bes"ti*a*ry, n. [LL. bestiarium, fr. L. bestiarius pert. to beasts, fr. bestia beast: cf. F. bestiaire.]

Defn: A treatise on beasts; esp., one of the moralizing or allegorical beast tales written in the Middle Ages.

A bestiary. . . in itself one of the numerous mediæval renderings of the fantastic mystical zoölogy. Saintsbury.