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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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I ordered a medium and they’re actually a size large. And they are just too large. I should’ve gotten the small, as recommended I thought I was ordering medium and I think I would’ve been OK with a medium, but where I usually wear a small and they sent me a large. It was just ridiculously large. They are lightweight and they are warm. I’m a senior and I’m thin so I get cold very easily especially in early morning and evening, so I like to wear them in the morning for my walks/yoga , they also work nicely under a longish skirt so it’s not so sheer… will definitely get more but will go with the small size. Just for reference, I’m 5 foot seven I usually wear a small or a size 5/6 usa size so these were too large, particularly in the waist just overall they were too large, but I think even if I got a small size they’re still gonna be kind of large in the stomach. I have an hourglass shape just for reference, but they are very comfortable, and I love the fabric. I am keeping them because I like the fabric and I really need them. I just will not wear them out of the house right now because they’re not fitting properly but next go round we’ll get the right size. Price was right they were having a sale so it was a bit of an impulse buy. But hello it was only 10 bucks! so that’s why it’s not worth sending it back for me. Overall, very nice quality and would recommend. Cats like the fabric too! 😸
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