The Multilingual Physiologus
Studies in the Oldest Greek Recension and its Translations
Edited by Caroline Mace Edited by Jost Gippert
This book uncovers new material about the ancient Christian work known as the Physiologus and affords new insights into its multilingual transmission and reception. Ten chapters and accompanying new editions of sample texts treat the oldest Greek recension of the Physiologus and its early translations into Latin, Armenian, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Arabic, and Old Slavonic. Produced by a team of specialists in these areas, the book will remain for years to come a Physiologus reference work and a model for dealing with ancient texts transmitted in multiple languages. The Physiologus is an ancient Christian collection of astonishing stories about animals, stones, and plants that serve as positive or negative models for Christians. Written originally in Greek, the Physiologus was translated in ancient times into Latin, Armenian, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Arabic, and Old Slavonic. Throughout its transformations and adaptations, the Physiologus has never lost its attraction. The present volume offers an introduction to the significance of the Greek text, a new examination of its manuscript tradition, and a completely revised state of the art for each of the ancient translations. Two chapters of the Physiologus, on the pelican and on the panther, are edited in Greek and in each translation. These editions are accompanied by a new English rendering of the edited texts as well as short interpretative essays concerning the two animals. The volume affords new insights into this fascinating book’s diffusion, transmission, and reception over the centuries, from its composition at the beginning of the third century CE in Alexandria to the end of the Middle Ages, and across all regions of the Byzantine Empire, the Latin West, Egypt and Ethiopia, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Slavia orthodoxa.
This book uncovers new material about the ancient Christian work known as the Physiologus and affords new insights into its multilingual transmission and reception. Ten chapters and accompanying new editions of sample texts treat the oldest Greek recension of the Physiologus and its early translations into Latin, Armenian, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Arabic, and Old Slavonic. Produced by a team of specialists in these areas, the book will remain for years to come a Physiologus reference work and a model for dealing with ancient texts transmitted in multiple languages. The Physiologus is an ancient Christian collection of astonishing stories about animals, stones, and plants that serve as positive or negative models for Christians. Written originally in Greek, the Physiologus was translated in ancient times into Latin, Armenian, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Arabic, and Old Slavonic. Throughout its transformations and adaptations, the Physiologus has never lost its attraction. The present volume offers an introduction to the significance of the Greek text, a new examination of its manuscript tradition, and a completely revised state of the art for each of the ancient translations. Two chapters of the Physiologus, on the pelican and on the panther, are edited in Greek and in each translation. These editions are accompanied by a new English rendering of the edited texts as well as short interpretative essays concerning the two animals. The volume affords new insights into this fascinating book’s diffusion, transmission, and reception over the centuries, from its composition at the beginning of the third century CE in Alexandria to the end of the Middle Ages, and across all regions of the Byzantine Empire, the Latin West, Egypt and Ethiopia, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Slavia orthodoxa.
- Edited by Caroline Mace
- Edited by Jost Gippert
Other Titles in this Series
In Defence of Faith, Against the Manichaeans
Critical Edition and Historical, Literary and Theological Study of the Treatise Aduersus Manichaeos, Attributed to Evodius of Uzalis
Volume 79
Litterarum dulces fructus
Studies in Early Medieval Latin Culture in Honour of Michael W. Herren for his 80th Birthday
Volume 85
Latin Anonymous Sermons from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (AD 300-800)
Classification, Transmission, Dating
Volume 86
Biblical and Manichaean Citations in Titus of Bostra’s Against the Manichaeans
An Annotated Inventory
Volume 78
Eriugena and Creation
Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Eriugenian Studies, held in honor of Edouard Jeauneau, Chicago, 9-12 November 2012
Volume 68
Hieronymus Romanus
Studies on Jerome and Rome on the Occasion of the 1600th Anniversary of his Death
Volume 87
Philosopher-monks, episcopal authority, and the care of the self
The Apophthegmata Patrum in fifth-century Palestine
Volume 80
Les sermons du manuscrit de Vienne (ONB Ms lat. 4147)
Interrogations sur leur unite, leur datation et leur origine avec une nouvelle edition critique et une traduction annotee des vingt-deux sermons Leroy
Volume 95
L’ecclesiologie d’Anselme de Lucques (1063-1086) au service de Gregoire VII
Genese, contenu et impact de sa Collection canonique
Volume 69
The Manuscripts of Leo the Great’s Letters
The Transmission and Reception of Papal Documents in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Volume 83
Organising a Literary Corpus in the Middle Ages
The Corpus Nazianzenum and the Corpus Dionysiacum
Volume 96
Knowledge, Contemplation, and Lullism
Contributions to the Lullian Section at the SIEPM Congress, Freising, August 20-25, 2012
Volume 67
Les formes laiques de la philosophie
Raymond Lulle dans l'histoire de la philosophie medievale
Volume 81
A catalogue of works pertaining to the explanation of the creed in Carolingian manuscripts
Volume 63
Ordres et desordres dans les chaines exegetiques grecques
Order and Disorder in Greek Exegetical Catenae
Volume 100
A Supplement to Morton W. Bloomfield et al., ‘Incipits of Latin Works on the Virtues and Vices, 1100-1500 A.D.’
Volume 50
Vox praedicatoris
Latin Patristic Sermons, Their Transmission, and Their Reception (4th-15th Centuries)
Volume 98
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