Medieval lore : an epitome of the science, geography, animal and plant folk-lore and myth of the middle age: being classified gleanings from the encyclopaedia of Bartholomew Anglicus on the properties of things [in J.Trevisa's translation] / edited by Robert Steele ; with a preface by William Morris.
- Bartholomaeus, Anglicus, active 13th century.
- Date:
- 1893
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Medieval lore : an epitome of the science, geography, animal and plant folk-lore and myth of the middle age: being classified gleanings from the encyclopaedia of Bartholomew Anglicus on the properties of things [in J.Trevisa's translation] / edited by Robert Steele ; with a preface by William Morris. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![MEDIEVAL NATURAL HISTORY.—ANIMALS. The eighteenth book of the «Be Proprietatibus' is devoted to Animal tlie properties of animals. It is composed of selectio?is from Folk-lc Pliny and Aristotle, from the ?uorks of the medieval physicians and romancers, such as Magister Jacobus de Vitriaco, from the ' Historia Alexa?idri Magnide Prceliis,''from Physiologus and the Bestiarium. The editor has been obliged to reduce some of these extracts to make room for others. Among these the reader will find many examples of those legends, which made up the popular ( Natural History of early days, originally imported from the East through Spain and Italy. The memory of these survives even now in our popular locutions. ' Licked into shape' refers to the tale we give in our account of the bear. The royal nature of the lion is a commonplace: Jonson and Spenser speak of the sweet breath of the panther. Drayton, in his ' Heroical Epistles] quotes the siren and the hyena as examples : ' To call for aid, and then to lie in wait, So the hyena murthers by deceit, By sweet enticement sudden death to bring, So from the rocks th' alluring ?nermaids sing.' Trevisa has invented an adjective for us that expresses the midnight caterioaul—' ghastfuV Bartholomew probably suffered from those two minor curses of humanity—the amorous cat, and the wandering cur. But he has preserved for us a noble eulogy of the dog, and has a reference to the tale of the dog of Moniargis, the standing example of canine fidelity a mong a chivalrous folk. 117](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24756039_0131.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
