Turtledove, Rochester Bestiary, c.1230
The medieval bestiary records that the turtle dove avoids man. It is a shy bird which lives on mountain tops in the desert and woods in hollow trees. It covers its nest with the leaves of bulbous plants to protect it from wolves because wolves do not like this kind of leaf. If it loses its mate it will not take another (Barber 2008).
Transcription
Translation
per in montium iugis et in desertis solitudi-
nibus. et in silvis commoratur. Tecta hominum
et conversationem fugit. Que in hiemis tempore
deplumata; in cavis truncis arborum commora-
tur donec redeunte estus tempore exeat. hec
nido suo ne pullos suos incurset lupus squil-
le folia superiacit. quoniam huius folia lupi fugiunt.
The turtle is called by its voice, a chaste bird, always dwelling in the mountain ranges and in the desert deserts, and in the forests. He flees the shelter of men and the conversation. Which in the winter time is plucked; it dwells in the hollows of the trunks of trees until it is time to return, and the wolf lays over the leaves of the squirrel in its nest so that it does not attack its young. since the leaves of this wolf flee.
iiidiiitatis castimoniam; plusquam indue tempo-
ris nostri. De quibus dicit apostolus. Volo iiidu-
as iuniores nubere. filios procreare. matres fami-
lias esse. nullam occasionem dare adver-
sario. Et alibi. Bonum est. illis si sic permaneant.
Quod si se non continent; nubant. Melius est
enim nubere quam uri. Discant igitur mulieres qui rationem
habent. imitari turtures que etiam sine ratio
ne create; castitatem servant. Turtur non uri-
tur flore iuventutis. non temptatur occasio-
nis illecebra. Turtura nescit primam fidem ir-
ritam facere. semper oculos amoris in coniuga-
lem premortuam figens. plus doloris contra-
hens ex sodalis morte; quam contraxerit suavitatis
ex viventis dilectione. Fortis enim ut mors dilec-
tio. Fertur quod post mortem paris non sede-
at nisi super arida et in viis ubi non fuerit viror
herbe. non in ramis virentibus. se semper amore
indignam iudicans. et omnia que luxuriam com-
movere solent; fugiens.
This lost the par; others are not connected. keeping the chastity of iiidiiiity; more than the wear of our time. Of whom the Apostle says. I want to marry the two younger ones, to have children, to be mothers of families, and to give no chance to the adversary. And elsewhere. It is good for them if they continue like this. But if they do not control themselves; they marry For it is better to marry than to burn. Therefore, let women who have reason learn to imitate turtles, who do not create even without reason; they keep chastity. The turtle does not burn in the flower of youth. He is not tempted by the lure of opportunity. The turtle does not know how to invalidate the first faith, always fixing the eyes of love on the predeceased spouse, contracting more pain from the death of a member; which he contracted of sweetness from the love of the living. For love is as strong as death. It is said that after the death of a peer he does not sit down except on dry land and in roads where there is no green grass, not on green branches, always judging himself unworthy of love, and fleeing from everything that tends to stir up lust.