The Medieval Church · c. 1132–1152
The Aviary
De Avibus
Hugh of Fouilloy · c. 1100–c. 1172
What it is
Birds read as figures of the spiritual life — the dove, the hawk, the pelican wounding itself to feed its young — written for lay brothers who could not read easily.
Why it lasted
One of the most copied and most heavily illustrated didactic works of the Middle Ages, designed so the pictures carried the teaching.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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