The Fabulous Natural History of the Middle Ages

by Thomas Wright, Esq., M.A., F.S.A.

originally published as part of
The Archaeological Album; or, Museum of National Antiquities
pages 174-186
London: Chapman & Hall, 1845

This short article is a general introduction to natural history in the Middle Ages. It is of interest as an early example of the nineteenth-century scholarship on animals in the Middle Ages; it also has useful information on the unicorn, elephant and mandrake, as well as some images from manuscripts.

This digital edition is not a complete copy of the print edition of Wright's book. Only the chapter titled "The Fabulous Natural History of the Middle Ages" is included the digital edition.

Full edition (2.5 MB file)

The print edition of this text was published in London in 1845; the digital edition was created from the original in 2008 by David Badke. The original print edition by Thomas Wright (1810-1877) is believed to be in the public domain. The digital edition is copyright 2008 by David Badke, but can be used for any non-commercial purpose without further permission. See the copyright notice in the digital edition for more information.

The text was converted from the scanned page images in Google Books of the book The Archaeological Album (http://books.google.com/books?id=BooJAAAAIAAJ) edited by Thomas Wright.

The digital edition has been published as a PDF (Portable Document Format) file. To read it, you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 4+), available from the Adobe Web site.