Bibliography Detail
The Book of the Beasts
in Anthony Bonner, trans., Doctor Illuminatus: A Ramon Llull Reader, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993, page 239-288
The Book of Beasts (Llibre de les besties) is a section of Llull's longer work, Felix or the Book of Wonders, which is "a work of social and spiritual criticism" dealing with the "medieval ladder of being: God, Angels, Heavan, Elements, Plants, Minerals, Beasts, Man, Paradise, Hell." The Beasts section is a series of animal fables, based on stories of oriental origin. Though the protagonist is a fox named Dame Reynard, the main character of the Reynard the Fox stories, Llull appears to have taken his fables from middle eastern sources such as the Book of Sinbad, the Thousand and One Nights, and an Arabic work titled Kalila and Dimna. Llull wrote in Catalan; this is an English translation.
The Ramon Llull Reader also contains biographical notes on Llull and translations of some of his other works, including The Book of the Gentile and the Three Wise Men and The Book of the Lover and the Beloved.
380 pp. Index. Black & white photographic plates.
Language: English
ISBN: 0-691-00091-3
Last update December 6, 2021