Jill Mann
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199217687
- eISBN:
- 9780191712371
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199217687.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature, European Literature
The Introduction provides a concise survey of the historical development of beast literature in western Europe, which will serve as background for later chapters. It traces the medieval tradition of ...
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The Introduction provides a concise survey of the historical development of beast literature in western Europe, which will serve as background for later chapters. It traces the medieval tradition of beast fable from its origins in the late Roman writer Phaedrus (first century ad), and Avianus (fourth/fifth century ad), through later Latin adaptations and expansions, to translation into the vernacular languages of Europe. In contrast to the venerable ancestry of fable, beast epic is a purely medieval creation: some of its narrative material can be glimpsed in short animal‐poems dating back to the Carolingian period, but its real starting point is the Ysengrimus (1148 × 1152), which gave rise to the French Roman de Renart and other vernacular epics, making Reynard a household name. A final section deals with the essentially independent tradition of bestiaries.Less
The Introduction provides a concise survey of the historical development of beast literature in western Europe, which will serve as background for later chapters. It traces the medieval tradition of beast fable from its origins in the late Roman writer Phaedrus (first century ad), and Avianus (fourth/fifth century ad), through later Latin adaptations and expansions, to translation into the vernacular languages of Europe. In contrast to the venerable ancestry of fable, beast epic is a purely medieval creation: some of its narrative material can be glimpsed in short animal‐poems dating back to the Carolingian period, but its real starting point is the Ysengrimus (1148 × 1152), which gave rise to the French Roman de Renart and other vernacular epics, making Reynard a household name. A final section deals with the essentially independent tradition of bestiaries.
Sarah Kay
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226436739
- eISBN:
- 9780226436876
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226436876.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This book explores the relations between humans and other animals as they appear to a reader of medieval bestiaries, given that almost all of them are realized as parchment books and that parchment, ...
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This book explores the relations between humans and other animals as they appear to a reader of medieval bestiaries, given that almost all of them are realized as parchment books and that parchment, although made from animal skin, looks much like human skin. Using Didier Anzieu’s concept of the Skin Ego and a theory of reading as assuming a second skin, the book explores how a supposedly human identity can be challenged by a reading process that inserts the reader into an animal skin. It examines the treatment of bestiary creatures in relation to the pages on which their entries are copied, showing how bestiarists’ teachings may be confirmed or undermined by the interaction between a text’s content, which is often focused on animals’ skins, their illustrations, which often outline or highlight those skins, and its material support, an actual instance of skin. The pages of many different manuscripts, transmitting numerous bestiary versions, are read closely in order to bring out possible interconnections between word, image, and parchment. Each chapter addresses an aspect of human-animal relations that is thematized both by medieval bestiaries and by modern theorists of the posthuman such as Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Derrida. In-depth coverage of Latin and French bestiary versions produces a new overall account of the development of the Physiologus tradition in Western Europe, one which attributes more importance to Continental traditions than previous Anglophone scholarship.Less
This book explores the relations between humans and other animals as they appear to a reader of medieval bestiaries, given that almost all of them are realized as parchment books and that parchment, although made from animal skin, looks much like human skin. Using Didier Anzieu’s concept of the Skin Ego and a theory of reading as assuming a second skin, the book explores how a supposedly human identity can be challenged by a reading process that inserts the reader into an animal skin. It examines the treatment of bestiary creatures in relation to the pages on which their entries are copied, showing how bestiarists’ teachings may be confirmed or undermined by the interaction between a text’s content, which is often focused on animals’ skins, their illustrations, which often outline or highlight those skins, and its material support, an actual instance of skin. The pages of many different manuscripts, transmitting numerous bestiary versions, are read closely in order to bring out possible interconnections between word, image, and parchment. Each chapter addresses an aspect of human-animal relations that is thematized both by medieval bestiaries and by modern theorists of the posthuman such as Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Derrida. In-depth coverage of Latin and French bestiary versions produces a new overall account of the development of the Physiologus tradition in Western Europe, one which attributes more importance to Continental traditions than previous Anglophone scholarship.
John S. Wilkins
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520260856
- eISBN:
- 9780520945074
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520260856.003.0002
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology
This chapter discusses the biological species concepts debates during the medieval period. The period was characterized by a revival of the universals debate and nominalist school. The nominalists ...
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This chapter discusses the biological species concepts debates during the medieval period. The period was characterized by a revival of the universals debate and nominalist school. The nominalists rejected the view that universals are real things that exist apart from the substance of the things that are within them. William of Ockham, the most influential nominalist, claims that logical species are just a way to recollect similar individuals already encountered, and a general term cannot be abstracted from a single individual, but only a number of individuals encountered. The chapter also discusses the development of herbals and bestiaries, both of which were precursors to biological classification.Less
This chapter discusses the biological species concepts debates during the medieval period. The period was characterized by a revival of the universals debate and nominalist school. The nominalists rejected the view that universals are real things that exist apart from the substance of the things that are within them. William of Ockham, the most influential nominalist, claims that logical species are just a way to recollect similar individuals already encountered, and a general term cannot be abstracted from a single individual, but only a number of individuals encountered. The chapter also discusses the development of herbals and bestiaries, both of which were precursors to biological classification.
Jay Geller
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780823275595
- eISBN:
- 9780823277148
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823275595.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
Framed by Heine’s staging of the fictional exchange of animal epithets between Rabbi Judah and Friar José in “The Disputation” this chapter depicts the provisioning of the Bestiarium Judaicum. It ...
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Framed by Heine’s staging of the fictional exchange of animal epithets between Rabbi Judah and Friar José in “The Disputation” this chapter depicts the provisioning of the Bestiarium Judaicum. It first traces its development in the patristic and scholastic Adversus judaeos traditions through medieval bestiaries and church iconography (e.g., Judensau) to early modern anti-Jewish polemics, broadsheets, and proverbs. The chapter then charts the changes in the figuration with the emergence in modernity of the biologistic worldview (the shift in reference from the satanic to the diseased and parasitic), the development of new media (such as the postcard, the mass-produced picture poster, and the illustrated humor magazine), the laws requiring while circumscribing Jews’ adoption of surnames (e.g., German equivalents of animals emblematic of the twelve tribes), and the taxonomic determinations of the “Jude” (Viehjude, Geldjude, Kornjude, etc.). It also addresses the use of animal-human hybrids in medieval Jewish iconography as well as the Jewish appropriation of classical and Islamic animal fable traditions.Less
Framed by Heine’s staging of the fictional exchange of animal epithets between Rabbi Judah and Friar José in “The Disputation” this chapter depicts the provisioning of the Bestiarium Judaicum. It first traces its development in the patristic and scholastic Adversus judaeos traditions through medieval bestiaries and church iconography (e.g., Judensau) to early modern anti-Jewish polemics, broadsheets, and proverbs. The chapter then charts the changes in the figuration with the emergence in modernity of the biologistic worldview (the shift in reference from the satanic to the diseased and parasitic), the development of new media (such as the postcard, the mass-produced picture poster, and the illustrated humor magazine), the laws requiring while circumscribing Jews’ adoption of surnames (e.g., German equivalents of animals emblematic of the twelve tribes), and the taxonomic determinations of the “Jude” (Viehjude, Geldjude, Kornjude, etc.). It also addresses the use of animal-human hybrids in medieval Jewish iconography as well as the Jewish appropriation of classical and Islamic animal fable traditions.
Stanley Finger
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190464622
- eISBN:
- 9780190464646
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190464622.003.0003
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
Gall considered his new science a part of physiognomy, the idea that physical features are revealing of character. This idea, accepted by Hippocrates and promoted by the Aristotelians, can also be ...
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Gall considered his new science a part of physiognomy, the idea that physical features are revealing of character. This idea, accepted by Hippocrates and promoted by the Aristotelians, can also be found in Galen’s influential writings from the second century AD, as well as in later books with pictures of men having features like cows and lions and personalities to match. Lavater’s well-illustrated physiognomy books from the 1770s were still very popular when Gall developed his doctrine. But unlike his predecessors, who he depreciated, Gall focused entirely on the head, and related cranial features to distinct higher brain parts, which he associated with different functions. In brief, his physiognomy, with its emphasis on the brain and its functions, represented a major break with past formulations and was presented as revolutionary.Less
Gall considered his new science a part of physiognomy, the idea that physical features are revealing of character. This idea, accepted by Hippocrates and promoted by the Aristotelians, can also be found in Galen’s influential writings from the second century AD, as well as in later books with pictures of men having features like cows and lions and personalities to match. Lavater’s well-illustrated physiognomy books from the 1770s were still very popular when Gall developed his doctrine. But unlike his predecessors, who he depreciated, Gall focused entirely on the head, and related cranial features to distinct higher brain parts, which he associated with different functions. In brief, his physiognomy, with its emphasis on the brain and its functions, represented a major break with past formulations and was presented as revolutionary.
