BASILISK
Basiliscus
A verified image witness from folio 66 recto of the Aberdeen Bestiary. This record does not treat the basilisk as proof about modern systems; it remains inside the historical animal/manuscript layer.
The Commons file describes the image as an Aberdeen Bestiary folio 66 detail. The University of Aberdeen’s commentary places the basilisk picture on f.66r. Public-domain faithful reproduction via Wikimedia Commons.
ISIDORE / ETYMOLOGY
ISIDORE XII.4.6–9. The basilisk’s entry sits in Book XII, De animalibus, section 4, De serpentibus. The Latin is linked under Sources. No transcription or translation is published on this page.
EARLIER SOURCES / PHYSIOLOGUS
A basilisk chapter has not been verified in a named Physiologus version, so no Physiologus layer is claimed here.
LATER ALLEGORY / MANUSCRIPT WITNESSES
The Aberdeen MS 24 witness appears above, and the university’s folio page is linked under Sources. No other witness is shown. A later manuscript picture is not an illustration of Isidore’s seventh-century text.
HOW WE KNOW WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW
Isidore’s basilisk is at XII.4.6–9, checked in the LacusCurtius Lindsay text. No transcription, translation or Physiologus layer is published here.
University of Aberdeen · MS 24 · Aberdeen Bestiary · approx. c. 1200. Catalogue and image witness verified for this record.
Folio 66 recto detail (basilisk), placed on f.66r by the University of Aberdeen’s commentary. Public-domain faithful reproduction on Wikimedia Commons.
DIGITAL FACSIMILE of the selected folio (University of Aberdeen MS 24). The file presented is the Wikimedia Commons reproduction.
The specific image file used here is a Wikimedia Commons reproduction marked public domain. This is not a blanket University of Aberdeen institutional reuse determination. Institutional terms may apply to other views of the same manuscript.
The transmission stack, status labels, and interface framing are authored by Make It Believable. They are not historical testimony.
WHAT WE DO NOT KNOW YET
- Which Physiologus version, if any, lies behind the Aberdeen basilisk.
- Which other manuscripts carry the basilisk, and on what terms their images can be reused.
