KEEP THE LAYERS DISTINCT
01 · HISTORICAL TEXT
Isidore and other verified early sources. Encyclopaedia, not allegory.
02 · PHYSIOLOGUS LINE / LATER BESTIARY
Allegory, later moralization, imagery, transmission, and physical witnesses. See the lineage →
03 · CONTEMPORARY PORTAL
Our interface, staging, questions, and fiction. Never silently substituted for the record.
PRIMARY ENTRANCES
LIVE · 20 OF 20 RECORDS OPEN
ANIMALS
Enter because you like lions, tigers, bees, or strange pictures. Canonical records deepen underneath: Isidore, the Physiologus line and the manuscript, kept distinct.
EXPLORE →LIVE · BOOK XII.2
READ / DE BESTIIS
Read the beasts section of Book XII with verified material, source layers and unresolved gaps kept visible.
READ →LIVE · COLLECTION 01
MANUSCRIPTS
Ten initial witnesses with separate access and rights states. Catalogue description is not the same as direct folio inspection or verified reuse.
OPEN COLLECTION →LIVE · RESEARCH LAYER
SOURCE LINEAGE
Greek Physiologus → Latin versions → B-Isidore → Second Family bestiary → Aberdeen MS 24. Where the animal stories come from, and which streams joined them.
OPEN THE LINEAGE →ANIMALS BEFORE THE LAW — RESEARCH, NOT PART OF THE ANIMAL LIBRARY
Three research pages on how early law treated animals: as defendants, as pests, and as evidence against people. They sit beside the 20 animal records and are not counted among them.
RESEARCH · SECULAR AND CHURCH COURTS
ANIMALS ON TRIAL
One pig before a town court; a field of rats before a bishop. Two kinds of proceeding, and how well each case is evidenced.
READ →RESEARCH · ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT LAW
FAMILIARS
How the 1604 Act turned an alleged spirit in animal form into evidence against a person. The person was prosecuted, not the animal.
READ →RESEARCH · A 1647 PAMPHLET
THE DISCOVERY OF WITCHES
Matthew Hopkins answers his critics. The critics’ questions and his answers, side by side, read as a defence.
READ →WHY THIS CHANNEL?
PUBLIC SYSTEMS DEPEND ON NAMES, CATEGORIES, RULES, RECORDS, AND THE PEOPLE WHO INTERPRET THEM.
LAW & BEASTS LOOKS BACKWARD: AT EARLIER SYSTEMS FOR NAMING, CLASSIFYING, RECORDING, AND INTERPRETING LAW AND ANIMALS.
IT DOES NOT CLAIM THAT MEDIEVAL AND CONTEMPORARY SYSTEMS ARE EQUIVALENT.
THE CONNECTION IS THE ACT OF MAKING ORDER VISIBLE.
