A closer look
Because nothing says 'trust our serious religious teachings' quite like an elaborately painted lion that looks suspiciously like a depressed human wearing a wig. The Aberdeen Bestiary was a masterclass in medieval bookmaking, dripping in wildly expensive gold leaf and vibrant pigments. However, the monks illustrating it weren't trying to create an accurate zoology textbook. They used terribly drawn elephants, aggressive unicorns, and incredibly confused crocodiles purely as Christian metaphors. They essentially treated the entire natural world as an interactive, highly dramatized morality play to keep illiterate peasants sufficiently terrified.
