The medieval illuminated manuscript known as the Aberdeen Bestiary is one of the most lavish of its kind. Heavily encrusted in gold leaf and filled with paintings of beasts that illustrate lengthy ...

Unicorns may be magical, majestic, beautiful, etc., but they have a serious weakness: virgin women. Indeed, ancient lore says that using a maiden as bait is the only way to snag yourself one of these ...

St. Anthony and tormenting demons, Yates Thompson 49, f.34v (courtesy The British Library Board) Beyond the borders of maps, where the limits of exploration fell to imagination, medieval artists and ...

The lion, king of the beasts, gives birth to dead pups. After three days, during which the young are licked into shape, the father breathes life into his offspring with a terrifying roar. Or so we're ...

While dragons and unicorns have long topped the A-list of mythical animals, medieval bestiaries are filled with an assortment of bizarre creatures that are scarcely remembered today. Ever heard of a ...

When Marco Polo headed off from Venice, Italy, for the sprawl of Asia in 1271, the inquisitive teenager was on the lookout for wondrous things. One that he found surprised him mightily. The unicorn he ...

The lion, king of the beasts, gives birth to dead pups. After three days, during which the young are licked into shape, the father breathes life into his offspring with a terrifying roar.

As the seasons turn and the nights draw in, the countryside of the British Isles seems alive with omens: an owl’s screech, or a bat above the hedgerows. For centuries, such creatures were cast as ...

Emory Allen is a Minneapolis-based graphic designer and the creator of An Exquisite Beast—an online, illustrated version of the Exquisite Emory Allen is a Minneapolis-based graphic designer and the ...

Editor’s Note: Keeping you in the know, Culture Queue is an ongoing series of recommendations for timely books to read, films to watch and podcasts and music to listen to. So you want to live like you ...

There’s no shortage of medieval-ish costumes, like knights, monks, peasants and royalty. But, if you’re a hardcore historian and you want to flaunt your credentials, nothing quite says “medievalist” ...