Ostrich, Rochester Bestiary, c.1230

The medieval bestiary records that the curious ostrich has feathers but cannot fly and has feet like a camel. They will only lay eggs when the stars are right.

They digs into the earth and lay eggs then cover them with sand. If they get up from the eggs and leave they forget where they are and never return to them (Barber 2008).

Transcription

Translation

Est animal quo dicitur assida quod greci stra-
tecamelon vocant. latini vero strucion. ha-
bet quidem pennas sed non volat. Pedes autem
cameli similes. Cum vero venerit tempus ut ova
sua pariat; elevat oculos suos ad celum. et in-
tendit si stella que dicitur virgilia appareat.
Non enim ponit ova sua nisi quando oritur stella illa.
Quando autem viderit circa mensem iunium ipsam
stellam; fodit in terram ova sua. et cooperit
sabulo. Cum ascenderit de loco illo; statim ob-
liviscitur eorum. et numquam redit ad ova sua.
Tranquillitas ad quidem aeris et temperies hoc pres-
tare videtur. ut estate calefacta arena; ex-
coquat ova sua. et fotu pulveris animentur.
et producat pullos. Si ergo assida cognoscit
tempus suum et obliviscitur posteritatis sue.
ac terrena postponens sequitur celestia; quanto
magis o homo tibi ad bravium superne vocatio-
nis tendendum est; Propter quem deus homo
factus est. ut eriperet de potestate tenebrarum
et collocaret cum principibus populi sui in
regno glorie sue. Strutiones etiam dicuntur ypocrite.

There is an animal which is called assida, which the Greeks call stra-tecamelon. but the Latin ostrich has indeed wings but does not fly. And the feet are like those of a camel. But when the time comes for her to lay her eggs; he raises his eyes to the sky and looks to see if the star called Virgil appears. For she lays her eggs only when that star rises. But when he saw the star itself about the month of June; she digs her eggs into the ground and covers them with sand. When he ascended from that place; it immediately molts from them, and never returns to its eggs. The tranquility of the air and temperature seems to presuppose this, as in summer heated sand; it cooks its eggs, and feeds them with dust, and produces chicks. If, then, the assailant knows his time and forgets his posterity, and putting aside the earthly, follows the heavenly; how much more, O man, should you be inclined to the bravery of your calling above. Because of whom the god became man, that he might deliver him from the power of darkness and place him with the princes of his people in his glorious kingdom. Wherefore concerning the hypocrites

59r

sice anime deo militantes. et seculi negotiis se in-
plicantes. Unde de ypocritis qui alas et speciem sci -
tatis habent set non rem; dicit ysaias contra perversam
mentem; sub spetie iudee. Erit cubile draconum. et
pascua strutionum. Et iterum per prophetam. Glo-
rificabit me bestia agri. dracones et strutiones
hinc dominus ad iob. Penna strutionis; similis est. penne
horodii et accipitris. Item iob. Frater sui draconum.
et sotius strutionum. Sancti enim quandiii sunt in hoc
seculo; habitare noverunt et pacem habere cum
draconibus id est aperte sevientibus. et cum strutionibus
id est fictis et ypocritis et occulte malis. Hec avis;
in levitico inter inmundas reputatur. nec comme-
di debet; quia nemo militans deo inplicans se
negotiis secularibus; imitandus est. Inmundus enim
est; qui religionis habitum habet et lectionibus
in celestibus fertur. et tamen per vite cupiditatem; cira
terram sempter habitat.

who have wings and the appearance of knowledge, it is not a matter; says Isaiah against a perverse mind; under the supervision of the Jews. It will be a bed for dragons and a pasture for ostriches. And again by the prophet. The beast of the field, the dragons and the ostriches, the lord from here to now, will glorify me. A pen of construction; it is like the feather of a hawk and a hawk. Also the job. A brother of his own dragons, and a friend of ostriches. For there are some saints in this age; they know how to live and have peace with dragons, that is, those who live openly, and with ostriches, that is, with false and hypocritical and secretly evil ones. This bird; in Leviticus it is considered among the unclean, and must not be eaten; because no one who works for God involves himself in worldly affairs; it is to be imitated. For he is unclean; He who has a religious attitude and is carried away by lessons in the heavens, and yet through the vine lust; cira has always inhabited the earth.