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The Book of Beasts: Being a Translation from a Latin Bestiary of the 12th Century
by
T.H. White
A preeminent medievalist presents a wonderful catalog of real and fanciful beasts, including the manticore, griffin, phoenix, amphivius, jaculus, and many other exotic animals. White's witty, erudite commentary on scientific and historical aspects enhances this survey of proto-zoology on which science is based and pre-scientific perceptions of the earth's creatures. 128 bl...more
paper, 320 pages
Published
December 22nd 2010
by Dover Publications
(first published 1954)
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I remember reading this at UCLA but my book diary tells me that's not possible. I was already done with school by the time I read it.
Fascinating and, since the field of zoology has come a long way since the 12th century, unintentionally funny, like this description of the hyena:
"This is an animal called the YENA, which is accustomed to live in the sepulchres of the dead and to devour their bodies. Its nature is that at one moment it is masculine and at another moment feminine, and hence it is a dirty brute" (White 31).
Or this one:
"There is an animal called an ELEPHANT, which has no desir...more
"This is an animal called the YENA, which is accustomed to live in the sepulchres of the dead and to devour their bodies. Its nature is that at one moment it is masculine and at another moment feminine, and hence it is a dirty brute" (White 31).
Or this one:
"There is an animal called an ELEPHANT, which has no desir...more
This book is full of Medievil drawings of all animals and creaters they believed exsisted from A-Z. Unicorns, dragons, deer and dog. Need I go on? Yes, they also describe the animals quilities as they thought fit. Weirdos.
The Bestiary is a fascinating peek into the Medieval mind. The contents of this book represent how even the "learned" saw their world, and suggests the "logic" behind the thought of the pre-Rennaissance world.
White brings out-- or just matches, himself-- the wackiness of the Middle Ages.
Not a cover to cover read, but a great book. Flip it open and be amazed!
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Born in Bombay to English parents, Terence Hanbury White was educated at Cambridge and taught for some time at Stowe before deciding to write full-time. White moved to Ireland in 1939 as a conscientious objector to WWII, and lived out his years there.
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