Search Result for "bestiary": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. a medieval book (usually illustrated) with allegorical and amusing descriptions of real and fabled animals;


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Bestiary \Bes"ti*a*ry\, n. [LL. bestiarium, fr. L. bestiarius pert. to beasts, fr. bestia beast: cf. F. bestiaire.] A treatise on beasts; esp., one of the moralizing or allegorical beast tales written in the Middle Ages. [1913 Webster] A bestiary . . . in itself one of the numerous medi[ae]val renderings of the fantastic mystical Zoology. --Saintsbury. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

bestiary n 1: a medieval book (usually illustrated) with allegorical and amusing descriptions of real and fabled animals