Surgere fluctus excitari6/1/2023 ![]() The earliest illustrated example of this group is Oxford Bod., Laud Misc. The sequence of chapters in the first family begins with Leo, Antalops and the animals are not classified. Isidore's encyclopedic work was not moralised. So, a cat is called catus because he catches mice. Isidore, living in Spain in the seventh century, explained the true nature of animals by analysing their names. The first family consists of the Physiologus plus extracts from the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville. The following is based on McCulloch and deals with the English manuscripts: 1. McCulloch and George and Yapp have subsequently subdivided the groups (James, 1928, 10-13 McCulloch, 1962, 25-44 George and Yapp 1991, xi-xiv, 1-5). Studying their composition, M.R.James divided the Bestiaries into four families. The number of animals increases and so does the quantity of moralising comments. The Bestiaries use Physiologus as the core text but add increasing amounts of additional material from other books. The Families of Text No intermediate stages of development have survived between these Physiologus manuscripts and the Bestiary proper which emerges in the twelfth century. The earliest known illustrated Greek text, the Smyrna Codex, was made around 1100 but was burnt in 1922 (Strzygowski, 1899, 1-130 Demus, 1976, 235-257).ġb. The earliest surviving Greek version of the text (New York, Morgan 397) was copied in the tenth century and has no illustrations. It is from the B version that the text of subsequent English and French Physiologus manuscripts derive, though none of this group is illustrated (McCulloch 1962, 21-25). C is a corrupt Greek translation, the Bern copy having the earliest painted illustrations. The Brussels copy of A is important because it contains delicate Carolingian drawings to illustrate the text. The text of Y is very close to its Greek source but fell from use and had little influence on the other versions. 318, 9th century) and B version (Bern, Lat. 10074, 10th century), C version (Bern, Burgerbibliothek, lat. 611, 8-9th century), A version (Brussels, Bib. ![]() No early Greek copies survive and the earliest surviving texts are Latin translations. ![]() The accuracy of natural observation remains variable throughout, with many false statements (such as the swan's beautiful voice) repeated for centuries even where writers must have known the truth (George and Yapp 1991). Animals from northern Europe only appear in much later texts. All the identifiable animals in this Alexandrian text (except for castor/beaver and antalops/the blackbuck) would have been known in north Africa. A moralising Christian gloss was added to these stories by a person presumably known as Physiologus. Its stories come from very ancient sources: Indian, Hebrew and Egyptian animal lore and various classical natural philosophers like Aristotle and Pliny. It consisted of 48 or 49 chapters about beasts, birds and stones used as a vehicle for explaining Christian dogma. The Origin of the Text The Physiologus was written in Greek, probably in Alexandria, in about the fourth century. A great deal of its charm comes from the humour and imagination of the illustrations, painted partly for pleasure but justified as a didactic tool 'to improve the minds of ordinary people, in such a way that the soul will at least perceive physically things which it has difficulty grasping mentally: that what they have difficulty comprehending with their ears, they will perceive with their eyes' (Aberdeen MS 24, f25v).ġa. The Bestiary appeared in its present form in England in the twelfth century, as a compilation of many earlier sources, principally the Physiologus. Some observations may be quite accurate but they are given the same weight as totally fabulous accounts. Although it deals with the natural world it was never meant to be a scientific text and should not be read as such. A Bestiary is a collection of short descriptions about all sorts of animals, real and imaginary, birds and even rocks, accompanied by a moralising explanation.
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