Back in the days of Middle French, ménagerie meant "the management of a household" or farm or "a place where animals are tended." By the 1670s, English speakers had adopted the word but dropped its housekeeping aspects, applying it specifically to the places where circuses and other exhibitions kept show animals. Later, the word was generalized to refer to any varied mixture, especially one that includes things that are strange or foreign to one's experience. - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/menagerie

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A menagerie was mostly connected with an aristocratic or royal court and was situated within a garden or park of a palace. The aristocratic menageries are distinguished from the later zoological gardens since they were founded and owned by aristocrats whose intentions were not primarily of scientific and educational interest. These aristocrats wanted to illustrate their power and wealth, because exotic animals, alive and active, were less common, more difficult to acquire, and more expensive to maintain. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menagerie

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Beasts of the Royal Menagerie
The Tower menagerie began as a result of medieval monarchs exchanging rare and strange animals as gifts. - https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/history-and-stories/t...


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Note added at 9 hrs (2018-11-04 01:36:03 GMT)
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old menagerie at Krakow Castle - https://goo.gl/Ha9WZJ

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