At the beginning of the thirteenth century, Pierre de Beauvais translated the very popular Physiologus, a description of animals and stones with a Christian interpretation, into Old French. On this animal book Richard de Fournival later based his Bestiaire d'amour . The first text emphasizes the moral lesson that can be learned from the behavior of animals, the second applies the characteristics of animals to aspects of love. If the caladrius looks at a sick person, he will recover; if he averts his gaze, the sick person will die. In Pierre the bird is the symbol of Christ who turned his gaze away from the Jews, in Richard of the beloved who kills her admirer with her indifference. These two bestiaries (translated into modern Dutch) provide an interesting and amusing picture of medieval faith and superstition and the different ways in which nature could be interpreted. - [Publisher]

Language: Dutch

ISBN: 90-6550-845-7