An Animal-Keeper's Library (cont'd)

All of these books are in Latin. Historia Animalium and Hippiatrica were originally written in Greek, and if a character can find a Greek copy, the Quality increases by 1.

The Kitab al-Hayawan (The Book of Animals) is an Arabic translation of three of Aristotle's works: Historia Animalium, De Partibus Animalium, and De Generatione Animalium. Like the Latin translation mentioned earlier, each of the three parts can be read as a tractatus of Quality 10. In 1220, copies of this text are only available in the Levant and parts of Spain.

A magus may find this collection more useful to his staff than himself, and may require grooms and animal handlers to read certain books. To read a book for retained knowledge — allowing it to act as a Source Quality for advancement — a character must be able to read (Artes Liberales 1) and be fluent in the language in which it was written (Latin 4). In the overall scheme of things, it would make sense for a magus or scribe to translate these texts into the staff's vernacular language, removing the obstacle of knowing Latin. Rules for translating texts can be found in Art & Academe (page 87).

Bestiaries are extremely popular, and any good library will have a lion's share of them. Unlike the previous texts, bestiaries do not instruct in the care and management of beasts, but rather describe their fantastic nature, magical sympathies, and theological correspondences. At the storyguide's discretion, a good bestiary could serve as a tractatus on Magic Lore, since every beast described is a Beast of Virtue rather than a mundane specimen.

Roman de Renart is a popular cycle of poems written in the French vernacular by several anonymous authors. The poems recount the adventures of Renart the Fox and include a cavalcade of characters: King Noble the lion, his wife Queen Fiere, Tibert the cat, Bernart the Donkey, and Renart's everpopular foil Isengrin the wolf. The tales describe several moralistic and clever episodes, highlighting the particular character's personality and habits, and can be read as a tractatus on Magic Lore, Quality 4. Versions exist in German, Reinhart Fuchs, and Italian, Rainardo e Lisengrino, but it has not been translated into English in 1220. No Latin copies of the poem exist.