Albertus Magnus "On Animals": A Medieval "Summa Zoologica"

by Albertus Magnus, Kenneth F. Kitchell Jr. (Translator), Irven M. Resnick (Translator)

Dating from the mid-thirteenth century, Albert the Great's monumental treatise on living things, their characteristics, and their place in the natural order stands as one of the most valuable contributions to the history of science, ranking in importance with the writings of Aristotle and Linnaeus. Yet until now--more than seven hundred years after his death--Albert's De Animalibus has never been completely translated from the original Latin. Drawing on all available source materials, Kenneth F. Kitchell, Jr., and Irven Michael Resnick present the first complete, fully annotated English translation of this magisterial work. It is, as they explain, a summa in two senses of the word. First, it is a "summary,"a summation of all contemporary knowledge in a given field. Albert writes of human anatomy, reproductive theories, equine and canine veterinary medicine, folk remedies against household pests, cures for rabies and sterility, how to train a falcon, whether an ostrich will eat iron, and much, much more. At the same time, this work is a summa in that it is the epitome or highest expression of this sort of work. It represents the first passage to the Latin West of Aristotle's natural works. Yet it adds to the received text the vast knowledge Albert acquired in a lifetime of observing, testing, and recording. The result is unique, highly reflective of the period in which it was written, and remarkably forward looking. The work is scholarly, to be sure, but it can also be highly entertaining, offering useful insights into medieval life not seen elsewhere. Whether Albert writes of his early experiences in falconry or relates what he learned in conversations with fisherman, soldiers, and craftsmen, we are drawn into a real, day-to-day world where the lure and lore of animals are of paramount importance. The subjects range from castrated, philandering priests who nonetheless manage to produce children to medical marvels and physiognomic trails. Do bats have legs and birds bladders? Can partridges really become impregnated via the wind? Why do children's teeth grow back, but those of adults do not? How do people pretend to wiggle their ears? Why are people occasionally produced with too many fingers, and what causes what today are called Siamese twins? Albert's interest in the world around him was truly universal and in this way, too, he is the Doctor Universalis.

1920 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

born in perhaps 1206

German religious philosopher Saint Albertus Magnus, originally Albert, count von Bollstadt, and also noted as the teacher of Saint Thomas Aquinas, sought to apply methods of Aristotle to current scientific questions.

Also known as Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, this member of the Catholic order of preachers (Dominicans) served as friar and from 1260 to 1262 as bishop of Regensburg. During his lifetime, people knew him as doctor universalis and doctor expertus and later appended the term magnus ("the great") to his name. Scholars, such as James Athanasius Weisheipl and Joachim Roland Söder, referred to this greatest theologian of the Middle Ages. The Church honors him among its 35 doctors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albertu...

Reviews

[Perry Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas's mentor, church bishop, and sometimes called the "Universal Doctor" out of respect for his encyclopedic knowledge, wrote widely on matters philosophical, religious, and, yes, science, in particular, what would now be called biology. This work, a massive two-volume translation of the huge work Magnus produced as a summation of knowledge about the creatures of the natural world, is a splendid achievement both on the part of the original author and the translators/editors (Irven Michael Resnick and Kenneth Kitchell) who bring Magnus to those of us who can't find a way through the Latin original.

The handsome two volumes, coming home at nearly 2000 pages and produced by The John Hopkins University Press, is a credit to the publishing profession, and the quality of the work at all levels is impeccable.

Due to the mass of the work and limits of time, I was able only to sample various books and chapters through the two volumes, but found it highly informative regarding the impressive breadth and depth of natural philosophical knowledge of the scholastic era. Granting that there are some bits of information a modern finds, well, amusing, it must be said that there remains much of abiding interest, especially as it reveals how connections between ideas and particles of knowledge were formed and used at the time.

If you're interested in this sort of thing, and can find the time at all, it's highly recommended.

[Abby Ang · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book I have ever read