Theobaldi Physiologus

One of the most popular and widely read books of the Middle Ages, Physiologus contains allegories of beasts, stones, and trees both real and imaginary, infused by their anonymous author with the spirit of Christian moral and mystical teaching. Accompanied by an introduction that explains the origins, history, and literary value of this curious text, this volume also reproduces twenty woodcuts from the 1587 version. Originally composed in the fourth century in Greek, and translated into dozens of versions through the centuries, Physiologus will delight readers with its ancient tales of ant-lions, centaurs, and hedgehogs—and their allegorical significance. “An elegant little book . . . still diverting to look at today. . . . The woodcuts reproduced from the 1587 Rome edition are alone worth the price of the book.”—Raymond A. Sokolov, New York Times Book Review

The only known text witness of the Novus Phisiologus which was written between 1294 and 1298, in all probability in Germany, is the MS 2780 of the Darmstadt Library. The work cannot, despite its title, be included among the known Latin versions of the Physiologus. In contrast to the old Latin Physiologus this Novus Phisiologus leaves out the trees and stones, but on the other hand treats the animals which it and the Latin Physiologus take on board in the descriptive part but also in the allegorically interpretative part in far more depth and detail than is the case in the Latin Physiologus. The Novus Phisiologus provides a mass of detail, of which the Latin versions of the Physiologus do not even seem to be aware. The Novus Phisiologus is a poem of 1400 lines composed partly of hexameters and partly of couplets, and contains the following parts: Prologus, De homine, De quadrupedibus, De avibus, De reptilibus, De minutis animalibus and De anima.

Sarah Kay s interests in this book are, first, to examine how medieval bestiaries depict and challenge the boundary between humans and other animals; and second, to register the effects on readers of bestiaries by the simple fact that parchment, the writing support of virtually all medieval texts, is a refined form of animal skin. Surveying the most important works created from the ninth through the thirteenth centuries, Kay connects nature to behavior to Christian doctrine or moral teaching across a range of texts. As Kay shows, medieval thought (like today) was fraught with competing theories about human exceptionalism within creation. Given that medieval bestiaries involve the inscription of texts about and images of animals onto animal hides, these texts, she argues, invite readers to reflect on the inherent fragility of bodies, both human and animal, and the difficulty of distinguishing between skin as a site of mere inscription and skin as a containing envelope for sentient life. It has been more than fifty years since the last major consideration of medieval Latin and French bestiaries was published. Kay brings us up to date in the archive, and contributes to current discussions among animal studies theorists, manuscript studies scholars, historians of the book, and medievalists of many stripes."