Many translations of the Physiologus have therefore been made, but it must be admitted that few of us read 13th century "French" fluently. Also, failing to find a French translation carried out according to the rules of the art which is at the same time in the Public Domain, I fell back on a translation which was carried out in the 19th century – as a curiosity for an individual – on an Armenian text and was not intended to be published. Luckily, Father Cahier (SJ), who had a long-standing interest in the symbols that adorn churches – and for that reason had spotted what they must in the Physiologus – chose to insert this translation in one of his numerous studies in 1855. I dug it up and, at the cost of some modernizations of the language, I present yhe Physiologus according to the Armenian transmission, well aware that the text proposed below would certainly not give complete satisfaction to the researcher or the scholar. However, it will be enough for a first discovery, a first contact. This “Physiologus according to Armenian transmission” being full of biblical quotations, I have endeavored to identify them, and have reported them as best I can. It goes without saying that the Physiologus cites Holy Scripture from the Greek version of the Septuagint, like all the authors of his time. This posterity is reflected in certain decorative elements of churches, In addition, and to complement it, I have added - under the title "Le physiologue normand" - the series of summaries that Professor Hippeau gave, in 1852, of the long rhymed notices in Romance languages of Guillaume's "Bestiaire divin", Norman priest. To make it less difficult to use, I have added a comparative table between these two texts. - [Author]

Language: French