Bibliography Detail
The Earliest Use of John of Salisbury’s Policraticus: Third Family Bestiaries
VIATOR, 2013; Series: 44.1
Medieval Latin bestiaries from the very moment of their formation incorporated excerpts from many different sources. Most of these additions have been discussed in the scholarly literature, but not the excerpts from the Policraticus, the text written by Thomas Becket’s secretary John of Salisbury in 1159. The excerpts, which are anecdotal in nature, appear in Third Family bestiaries written in the diocese of Lincoln at the beginning of the thirteenth century, in the circle of the famous teacher and theologian William de Montibus. It is surprising that the author of the bestiary would choose anecdotes from the Policraticus, whose main subject is what we now would call political science and social relationships. This article is devoted to the functions of the Policraticus in the bestiaries, as well as to the reasons the author of the Third Family bestiary archetype chose to use it as a source. - [Author]
Language: English
Last update September 28, 2022