Man’s scientific interest in animals goes back centuries, although no exact date can be given for the beginning of zoology as a pseudo-science, and only later on as a science. Herodotus in the fifth century did not make many scientific observations and as a matter of fact he is responsible for many strange stories. But, as he often claimed: “I am simply writing about what I have heard or read." The early stories about animals were more a curiosity and only later progressed to a kind of pseudo-science. The texts of the Physiologus tradition belong to that period, when the science of zoology was not yet born. Many Greek authors interested themselves in the animal kingdom, but their reports were at best second hand and completed by what they imagined. ... With the preceding background we come to the central purpose of this study, the presentation of the Romanian Bestiary in English translation, accompanied by commentary that situates the Romanian text in the context of the Physiologus tradition. - [Author]

Language: English