Physiologus

Panther,Bern Physiologus,9th century

ThePhysiologus(Greek:Φυσιολόγος) is adidacticChristiantext written or compiled in Greek by an unknown author inAlexandria.Its composition has been traditionally dated to the 2nd century AD by readers who saw parallels with writings ofClement of Alexandria,who is asserted to have known the text, though Alan Scotthas made a case for a date at the end of the 3rd or in the 4th century. ThePhysiologusconsists of descriptions of animals, birds, and fantastic creatures, sometimes stones and plants, provided with moral content. Each animal is described, and an anecdote follows, from which the moral and symbolic qualities of the animal are derived. Manuscripts are often, but not always, given illustrations, often lavish.

The book was translated into Armenian in 5th century,into Latin by the early 6th century or possibly even by the mid-4th centuryand intoEthiopicandSyriac,then into many European and Middle-Eastern languages, and manyilluminated manuscriptcopies such as theBern Physiologussurvive. It retained its influence over ideas of the "meaning" of animals in Europe for over a thousand years. It was a predecessor ofbestiaries(books of beasts). Medieval poetical literature is full of allusions that can be traced to thePhysiologustradition; the text also exerted great influence on the symbolism of medieval ecclesiastical art: symbols like those of thephoenixrising from its ashes and thepelicanfeeding her young with her own blood are still well-known.

Allegorical stories

The story is told of the lion whose cubs are born dead and receive life when the old lion breathes upon them, and of thephoenixwhich burns itself to death and rises on the third day from the ashes; both are taken as types ofChrist.Theunicornalso which only permits itself to be captured in the lap of a pure virgin is a type of theIncarnation;thepelicanthat sheds its own blood in order to sprinkle its dead young, so that they may live again, is a type of the salvation of mankind by the death ofChrist on the Cross.This motif is known as the Pelican in her Piety.

Some allegories set forth the deceptive enticements of theDeviland his defeat by Christ; others present qualities as examples to be imitated or avoided.

Attributions

The conventional titlePhysiologuswas because the author introduces his stories fromnatural historywith the phrase: "the physiologus says", that is, "the naturalist says", "the natural philosophers, the authorities for natural history say",a term derived from Greek φύσις (physis,"nature" ) and λόγος (logos,“word” ).

In later centuries it was ascribed to various celebratedFathers,especiallyEpiphanius,Basil of Caesarea,and St.Peter of Alexandria.

The assertion that the method of thePhysiologuspresupposes the allegoricalexegesisdeveloped byOrigenis not correct; the so-calledLetter of Barnabasoffers, before Origen, a sufficient model, not only for the general character of thePhysiologusbut also for many of its details. It can hardly be asserted that the later recensions, in which the Greek text has been preserved, present even in the best and oldestmanuscriptsa perfectly reliable transcription of the original, especially as this was an anonymous and popular treatise.

Early history

About the year 400 thePhysiologuswas translated intoLatin;from Greek, the original language that it was written in. In the 5th century intoEthiopic[edited byFritz Hommelwith a German translation (Leipzig, 1877), revised German translation inRomanische Forschungen,V, 13-36]; intoArmenian[edited by Pitra inSpicilegium Solesmense,III, 374–90; French translation by Cahier inNouveaux Mélanges d'archéologie, d'histoire et de littérature(Paris, 1874)] (see also the recent edition: Gohar Muradyan, Physiologus. The Greek And Armenian Versions With a Study of Translation Technique, Leuven–Dudley MA: Peeters, 2005 [Hebrew University Armenian Studies 6]); intoSyriac[edited by Tychsen,Physiologus Syrus(Rostock, 1795), a later Syriac and anArabicversion edited by Land inAnecdota Syriaca,IV (Leyden, 1875)].An Old Slavic (Old Bulgarian) translation was made in the 10th century [edited by Karneyev,Materialy i zametki po literaturnoj istorii Fiziologa,Sankt Peterburg, 1890].

EpiphaniususedPhysiologusin hisPanarionand from his time numerous further quotations and references to thePhysiologusin the Greek and the LatinChurch fathersshow that it was one of the most generally known works of ChristianLate Antiquity.Various translations and revisions were current in theMiddle Ages.The earliest translation into Latin was followed by various recensions, among them theSayings ofSt. John Chrysostomon the natures of beasts,A metrical LatinPhysiologuswas written in the 11th century by a certainTheobaldus,and printed by Morris inAn Old English Miscellany(1872), 201 sqq.; it also appears among the works ofHildebertus CenomanensisinPat.Lat.,CLXXI, 1217–24. To these should be added the literature of thebestiaries,in which the material of thePhysiologuswas used; theTractatus de bestiis et alius rebus,often misattributed toHugo of St. Victor,and theSpeculum naturaleofVincent of Beauvais.

Translations

ThePhysiologushad an impact on neighboring literatures: medieval translations intoLatin,Armenian,Georgian,Slavic,Syriac,Coptic,andEthiopicare known.

Translations and adaptations from the Latin introduced the "Physiologus" into almost all the languages of Western Europe. AnOld High German(Alemannic) translation was written inHirsauin c. 1070 (ed. Müllenhoff and Scherer inDenkmäler deutscher Poesie und ProsaNo. LXXXI); a later translation (12th century) has been edited byFriedrich LauchertinGeschichte des Physiologus(pp. 280–99); and a rhymed version appears in Karajan,Deutsche Sprachdenkmale des XII. Jahrhunderts(pp. 73–106), both based on the Latin text known asDicta Chrysostomi.Fragments of a 9th-century metricalAnglo-SaxonPhysiologusare extant (ed. Thorpe inCodex Exoniensispp. 335–67, Grein inBibliothek der angelsächsischen PoesieI, 223-8).

About the middle of the 13th century there appeared a Middle English metricalBestiary,an adaptation of the LatinPhysiologus Theobaldi;this has been edited by Wright and Halliwell inReliquiæ antiquæ(I, 208-27), also by Morris inAn Old English Miscellany(1-25).There is anIcelandicPhysiologuspreserved in two fragmentary redactions from around 1200.

In the 12th and 13th centuries there appeared theBestiairesofPhilippe de Thaun,a metricalOld Frenchversion, edited byThomas WrightinPopular Treatises on Science Written during the Middle Ages(74-131), and by Walberg (Lund and Paris, 1900); that byGuillaume, clerk of Normandy,calledBestiare divin,and edited by Cahier in hisMélanges d'archéologie(II-IV), also edited by Hippeau (Caen, 1852), and by Reinsch (Leipzig, 1890); theBestiare de Gervaise,edited byPaul MeyerinRomania(I, 420-42); theBestiarein prose ofPierre le Picard,edited by Cahier inMélanges(II-IV).

An adaptation is found in the oldWaldensianliterature, and has been edited byAlfons MayerinRomanische Forschungen(V, 392 sqq.). As to the Italian bestiaries, a Tuscan-VenetianBestiariushas been edited (Goldstaub and Wendriner,Ein tosco-venezianischer Bestiarius,Halle, 1892). Extracts from thePhysiologusinProvençalhave been edited by Bartsch,Provenzalisches Lesebuch(162-66). ThePhysiologussurvived in the literatures ofEastern Europein books on animals written inMiddle Greek,among theSlavsto whom it came from theByzantine(translations of the so-called Byzantinian redaction were made in Middle Bulgarian in the 13th-14th century; they were edited in 2011 by Ana Stoykova in an electronic edition, see reference), and in aRomaniantranslation from a Slavic original (edited byMoses Gasterwith an Italian translation inArchivio glottologico italiano,X, 273-304).

The manuscript tradition

Modern study ofPhysiologuscan be said to have begun with Francesco Sbordone's edition, 1936,which established three traditions in the surviving manuscripts of the text, a "primitive" tradition, a Byzantine one and a pseudo-Basil tradition. Ben Perry showedthat a manuscript Sbordone had missed, at theMorgan Library,was the oldest extant Greek version, a late 10th-century manuscript fromGrottaferrata.Anna Dorofeeva has argued that the numerous early Latin Physiologus manuscripts can be seen as evidence for an 'encyclopedic drive' amongst early medieval monastic writing centres.

Contents

1. We begin first of all by speaking of theLion
2. On theAntelope
3. OnPiroboli Rocks
4. On theSwordfish
5. On theCharadrius
6. On thePelican
7. On theOwl
8. On theEagle
9. On thePhoenix
10. On theHoopoe
11. On theDonkey
12. On theViper
13. On theSerpent
14. On theAnt
15. On theSirenandOnocentaur
16. On theHedgehog
17. On theIbis
18. On theFox
19. On thePeridexion treeand theDoves
20. On theElephant
21. OnAmos the Prophet
22. On theRoe
23. On theAgate-stone
24. On theOyster-stoneand thePearl
25. On theAdamant-stone
26. On the Other Nature of the Wild Ass and theMonkey
27. On theIndian-stone
28. On theCoot
29. On theFig Tree
30. On thePanther
31. On theAspidoceleon
32. On thePartridge
33. On theVulture
34. On theAnt-lion
35. On theWeasel
36. On theUnicorn
37. On theBeaver
38. On theHyena
39. On theRiver Nile
40. On theEchinemon
41. On theLittle Crow
42. On theOstrich
43. On theTurtle-dove
44. On theSwallow
45. On theStag
46. On theFrog
47. On the lizard, that is, theSalamander
48. On theMagnet
49. On theAdamant-stone
50. On theDoves
51. On theEel

See also

• List of illuminated manuscripts
• Naturalis Historia

References

• Cahier and Martin, Mélanges d'archaeologie, &c. ii. 85 seq (Paris, 1851), iii. 203 seq. (1853),iv. 55 seq. (r856);
• Cahier, Nouveaux mélanges (1874), p. 106 seq.
• J. Victor Carus,Gesch der Zoologie (Munich, 1872), p. 109 seq.
• Classici auctores I ed. Mai, vii. 585596 (Rome, 1835)
• Michael J. Curley,Introduction,Physiologus. Translated by Michael J. Curley. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979). ix-xliii.
• Dahlerup, Verner:"Physiologus i to islandske Bearbejdelser". In: Aarbøger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie (ANOH) 1889, pp. 199–290.
• S. Epiphanius ad physiologum, ed. Ponce de Leon (with woodcuts) (Rome, 1587) another edition, with copper-plates (Antwerp, 1588);
• S. Eustathu ni hexahemeron commentarius, ed.Leo Allatius(Lyons, 1629; cf. I-F van Herwerden, Exerciti. Crstt., pp. 180182, Hague, 1862);
• G. Heider,in Archiv für Kunde österreichischer Geschichtsquellen "(5, 541–82, Vienna, 1850)
• A. Karneyev,Materialy i zametki po literaturnoj istorii Fiziologa(Sankt Peterburg, 1890).
• J. P. N. Land,Anecdote syriaca (Leiden, 1874), iv. 31 seq., 115 seq., and in Verslager en Mededeelingen der kon. Akad. van Wetenschappen, 2nd series vol. iv. (Amsterdam, 1874);
• Friedrich Lauchert, Geschichten des Physiologus (Strassburg, 1889)
• S. Lazaris, Le Physiologus grec, t. 1. La réécriture de l'histoire naturelle antique (Firenze, 2016, Micrologus Library 77) - pdf:[1]
• Stavros Lazaris: ″Quelques considérations sur l'illustration du Physiologus grec″, in:Bestiaires médiévaux: Nouvelles perspectives sur les manuscrits et les traditions textuelles. Actes du XVe colloque international de la Société Internationale Renardienne, Louvain-la-Neuve, 18-22 août 2003,B. Van den Abeele (ed.), Louvain-la-Neuve, 2005 (Textes, études, congrès 21), p. 141-167 |pdf:https:// academia.edu/795328/_Quelques_considérations_sur_l_illustration_du_Physiologus_grec_
• Maetzner,Altengl. Sprachproben (Berlin, 1867), vol. i. pt. i. p. 55 seq.
• Guy R. Mermier, "The Romanian Bestiary: An English Translation and Commentary on the Ancient 'Physiologus' Tradition,"Mediterranean Studies,Vol. 13 (Penn State University Press: 2004), pp. 17–55.
• Emil Peters:Der griechische Physiologus und seine orientalischen Übersetzungen(Festschriften der Gesellschaft für deutsche Philologie; 15). Berlin, 1898.
• B. Pitra,Spicilegium solesmenseTh xlvii. seq., 338 seq., 416, 535 (Paris, 1855)
• Meinolf Schumacher: "Der Biber – ein Asket? Zu einem metaphorischen Motiv aus Fabel und 'Physiologus'":Euphorion86 (1992) pp. 347–353 (PDF)
• Ana Stoykova,The Slavic Physiologus of the Byzantine Recension: Electronic Text Edition and Comparative Study,2011
• O. G. TychsenPhysiologus syrus,(Rostock, 1795)

Translations

• Francis Carmody.Physiologus, The Very Ancient Book of Beasts, Plants and Stones.San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1953.
• A. S. Cook.The Old English Physiologus.Yale Studies in English, vol. 63. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1921.
• Michael J. Curley:Physiologus.Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979. First translation into English of the Latin versions of Physiologus as established by Francis Carmody.
• Emil Peters:Der Physiologus(aus dem griech. Orig., mit einem Nachw. vers. vonFriedrich Würzbach). München: Musarionverl., 1921
• Christian Schröder:Der Millstätter Physiologus. Text, Übersetzung, Kommentar(Würzburger Beiträge zur deutschen Philologie; 24; zugl.: Würzburg, Univ., Diss., 2004). Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2005
• T. H. White:The Bestiary: The Book of Beasts New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1954, 4/1960
• French translation: Arnaud Zucker,Physiologos. Le bestiaire des bestiaires. Texte traduit du grec, introduit et commenté par Arnaud Zucker,Jérôme Millon, 2005 (Series Atopia).https://books.google /books?id=Z8hwbgnpr-kCISBN9782841371716