thumb|250px|Panther, [[Bern Physiologus, 9th century]]

The Physiologus () is a didactic Christian text written or compiled in Greek by an unknown author in Alexandria. Its composition has been traditionally dated to the 2nd century AD by readers who saw parallels with writings of Clement of Alexandria, who is asserted to have known the text, though Alan Scott has made a case for a date at the end of the 3rd or in the 4th century. The Physiologus consists 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 century

Some allegories set forth the deceptive enticements of the Devil and his defeat by Christ; others present qualities as examples to be imitated or avoided. Slavic, Syriac, Coptic, and Ethiopic are known.

Translations and adaptations from the Latin introduced the "Physiologus" into almost all the languages of Western Europe. An Old High German (Alemannic) translation was written in Hirsau in c. 1070 (ed. Müllenhoff and Scherer in Denkmäler deutscher Poesie und Prosa No. LXXXI); a later translation (12th century) has been edited by Friedrich Lauchert in Geschichte 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 as Dicta Chrysostomi. Fragments of a 9th-century metrical Anglo-Saxon Physiologus are extant (ed. Thorpe in Codex Exoniensis pp. 335–67, Grein in Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Poesie I, 223-8).

In the 12th and 13th centuries there appeared the Bestiaires of Philippe de Thaun, a metrical Old French version, edited by Thomas Wright in Popular Treatises on Science Written during the Middle Ages (74-131), and by Walberg (Lund and Paris, 1900); that by Guillaume, clerk of Normandy, called Bestiare divin, and edited by Cahier in his Mélanges d'archéologie (II-IV), also edited by Hippeau (Caen, 1852), and by Reinsch (Leipzig, 1890); the ', edited by Paul Meyer in Romania (I, 420-42); the Bestiare in prose of Pierre le Picard, edited by Cahier in Mélanges (II-IV).

The manuscript tradition

Modern study of Physiologus can 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 showed that a manuscript Sbordone had missed, at the Morgan Library, was the oldest extant Greek version, a late 10th-century manuscript from Grottaferrata. 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

The order and naming of these section headings pertain to the Curley (1979) translation.

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==References==<!--these need replacing with modern 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.&nbsp;106 seq.
  • J. Victor Carus, Gesch der Zoologie (Munich, 1872), p.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;199–290.
  • S. Epiphanius ad physiologum, ed. Ponce de Leon<!--Consalus Ponce de Leon, according to http://bestiary.ca/etexts/migne/epiphanius_physiologus.htm --> (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.&nbsp;180182, Hague, 1862);
  • G. Heider, in Archiv für Kunde österreichischer Geschichtsquellen" (5, 541–82, Vienna, 1850)
  • A. Karneyev, (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:[https://www.academia.edu/31322686/Stavros_Lazaris_Le_Physiologus_grec._VoI._I._La_r%C3%A9%C3%A9criture_de_lhistoire_naturelle_antique]
  • 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.&nbsp;141-167 |pdf : https://www.academia.edu/795328/_Quelques_considérations_sur_l_illustration_du_Physiologus_grec_
  • Maetzner, Altengl. Sprachproben (Berlin, 1867), vol. i. pt. i. p.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;17–55.
  • Emil Peters: Der griechische Physiologus und seine orientalischen Übersetzungen (Festschriften der Gesellschaft für deutsche Philologie; 15). Berlin, 1898.
  • B. Pitra, Spicilegium solesmense Th xlvii. seq., 338 seq., 416, 535 (Paris, 1855)
  • Meinolf Schumacher: "Der Biber – ein Asket? Zu einem metaphorischen Motiv aus Fabel und 'Physiologus'": Euphorion 86 (1992) pp.&nbsp;347–353 (PDF)
  • Ana Stoykova, The Slavic Physiologus of the Byzantine Recension: Electronic Text Edition and Comparative Study, 2011
  • O. G. Tychsen Physiologus syrus, (Rostock, 1795)

Translations

  • Only three chapters: "The Panther," "The Whale (Asp-Turtle)," and "The Partridge."
  • First translation into English of the Latin versions of Physiologus as established by Francis Carmody.
  • Translation from the Greek.
  • Also published as Schröder's dissertation at Würzburg University (2004).
  • T. H. White: The Bestiary: The Book of Beasts New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1954, 4/1960
  • Translation from the Greek.