Understanding Animals, 1150-1350

The aim of the project was to analyse the major shifts in attitudes towards animals in the period 1150-1350. It could be demonstrated that these changes were not primarily the consequence of advances in knowledge, but reflected wider social and economic developments.
Within the sphere of learning, translations of classical Greek zoological texts were essentially used as additional stores of information that could be incorporated into familiar practices, using animals as moralistic and didactic examples. The growth of regional variation in attitudes is indicative of their close link with wider economic and cultural developments, and the proliferation of knowledge about animals.
This encouraged a move from the small set of traditional examples towards a far wider repertoire of animal-based Ideas and Images, featuring in particular those that played important roles in everyday life, whether in entertainment or economic contexts.
The main output is a book entitled Understanding Animals, 1150-1350, to be published by Palgrave Macmillan In 2007. This will be followed up by more detailed studies applying the results to specific animals or types of evidence, and in a new research project concerned with the role of animals in late medieval everyday life.