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The Book of Beasts: Being a Translation from a Latin Bestiary of the Twelfth Century

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The Book of Beasts: Being a Translation from a Latin Bestiary of the Twelfth CenturyIf a serpent swallows the spittle of a fasting man, it dies. Trees felled in the wrong season breed termites. If eels are drowned in wine, those who drink it get a loathing for liquor. These and similar flights of fancy were articles of faith in the twelfth century the era of the fascinating Latin prose bestiary translated in this volume. The translator is T. H. White, author of The Once and Future King and outstanding medievalist. Of The Book of

If a serpent swallows the spittle of a fasting man, it dies. Trees felled in the wrong season breed termites. If eels are drowned in wine, those who drink it get a loathing for liquor.
These and similar flights of fancy were articles of faith in the twelfth century -- the era of the fascinating Latin prose bestiary translated in this volume. The translator is T. H. White, author of The Once and Future King and outstanding medievalist. Of The Book of Beasts, White writes: No Latin prose bestiary has ever before been printed, even in Latin. This is the first and only English translation in print.
The bestiary was a bestseller in the Middle Ages, a kind of natural history cum-zoological survey that presumed to describe the animals of the world and to point out the human traits they exemplified. Combining the surprisingly accurate with the endearingly phantasmagorical, the bestiarists came up with a bewildering array of real and exotic creatures. The behavior or attributes of the animals often functioned as a metaphor for teaching religious, moral, and political precepts.
In addition to a multitude of real mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish, described here with varying degrees of zoological accuracy, the bestiarist introduces a swarm of fanciful denizens thought to haunt the Dark Ages: manticore, a creature with a man's face, a lion's body, and a ravenous appetite for human flesh; dragon or draco, the biggest serpent and the embodiment of the Devil; amphivia, a fish that could walk on land and swim in the sea; jaculus, a flying serpent; the familiar phoenix; the griffin; and other exotic fauna. Much of the charm of this edition lies in the copious footnotes compiled by T. H. White. With immense erudition, wit, grace, and a singular lack of condescension, the author illuminates literary, scientific, historical, linguistic, and other aspects of the bestiarist's catalog. He further enhances the volume with informative discussions of the history of the bestiary from its origins in remote oral traditions; through Herodotus, Pliny and Aristotle; during the medieval period and the Renaissance; and up to Sir Thomas Browne's Vulgar Errors (1646). Both amusing and amazing, The Book of Beasts is not only a rich survey of the proto-zoology on which much of our later science is based, but also a revealing, illustrated examination of how pre-scientific man perceived the earth's creatures.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 12/22/2010
ISBN: 9780486246093
Pages: 320
Weight: 0.81lbs
Size: 8.24h x 5.66w x 0.69d
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SKU: 62677757601

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Ryan Siriwardene
Birmingham, US
★★★★★ 5
moelicious
Format: Hardcover
i cant wait to read it!!!!! It came in great condition just like the ones I bought in australia
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Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2009
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Drewsci27
Chelsea, US
★★★★★ 3
not as funny as others
the other simpsons libary of wisdom books are better. but still a fun read and good for the price. Moe
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Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2013
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Grace
Los Angeles, US
★★★★★ 5
great for Simpsons fans and Christians with a sense of ...
Format: Hardcover
Hilarious, great for Simpsons fans and Christians with a sense of humor :)
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cormamin
Natrona Heights, US
★★★★★ 5
Great gift!
Format: Hardcover
Really nice quality, good illustrations. My boyfriend loved it.
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Guy P. Harrison
Houston, US
★★★★★ 4
Funny and not too harsh
Format: Hardcover
This is a funny little book that even most religious people should be able to enjoy. It doesn't go too far in poking fun. A highlight is the peek inside Flanders' head where one can inspect the varioius compartments of his mind. --Guy P. Harrison, author of Race and Reality: What Everyone Should Know About Our Biological Diversity and 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God -
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Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2008

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