The existence of a Romanian Physiologus remains unknown to scholars who have researched the history of this curious zoology; and the publication of the text, which now follows here, would intend to fill this gap. The manuscript, which I possess, dates back to 1777 and appears to be the only one preserved so far. This codex shows to be a copy of more ancient texts, which were written by a certain Andonache Berheceanul ... in Bucharest. In fact, some scattered clues, which we will discuss in more detail below, point to the existence of this Physiologus among the Romanians in an earlier age. Our text is not at all complete, lacking chapters, the existence of which can nevertheless be demonstrated and one of which has even penetrated popular songs. On the other hand, it appears to be broken, unfortunately, due to several inconsistencies. The title, which sounds like Bird Stories, refers only to some chapters. The copyist, apparently, first transcribed the entire first chapter alone; and he probably then copied the remaining part from another text, because we see the first chapter return again, slightly changed, in the third chapter. ... And it is added that the copyist did not always read the ancient Romanian copy well and particularly misunderstood the archaic expressions, thus sometimes making the text even more unclear. - [Author]

Language: Italian