Published in 1658, more than thirty years after his death, this book brings together Edward Topsell’s The History of Four-footed Beasts (1607) and The History of Serpents (1608). Totalling more than 1000 pages, this epic treatise on zoology explores ancient and fantastic legends about existing animals, as well as those at the more mythic end of the spectrum, including the “Hydra” (with two claws, a curled serpent’s tail, and seven small mammalian heads), the “Lamia” (with a cat-like body and woman’s face and hair), and the “Mantichora” (with lion’s body and mane, a man’s face and hair, and a grotesquely smiling mouth). Topsell was not a naturalist himself (he in fact was a clergyman) and so relied heavily on the authority of others, in particular Konrad Gesner, the Swiss scholar who was also behind many of the brilliant illustrations which adorn the volume, and Thomas Moffett. On his utilising others for his work Topsell writes “I would not have the Reader,… imagine I have … related all that is ever said of these Beasts, but only so much as is said by many”. This approach leads him to repeat some wonderfully fantastic claims: elephants are said to worship the sun and the moon with their own rituals, apes are terrified of snails, and “…the horn of the unicorn … doth wonderfully help against poyson”. Although it is abound with such fanciful ideas, Topsell’s work, as John Lienhard explains “was actually an early glimmer of modern science. For all its imperfection, it represents a vast collection of would-be observational data, and it even includes a rudimentary rule for sifting truth from supposition.”
This is a grand look at early ideas of the natural world, and all the people busy trying to figure it all out. The artwork is marvelous, and retains much of that early Medieval illuminated flavour. Creatures real, and not real inhabit the pages, along with many grand, if terrifying remedies such beasties can provide for many an ill.
Gulon.
Some remedies utilising goat bits, particularly their dung.
A beautiful badger.
Cures which can be effected by use of badger bits.
Squirrels are depicted as dangerous and bloodthirsty. Appropriately, as Iris would say.
The book includes serpents and insects.
The whole book is available here, and select images here.
Via The Public Domain.
(Waves clawed paw) Badger power!
That antelope looks none too friendly, as well!
I’m intrigued by the gulon. I also immediately thought of the wolverine, because the wolverine’s Latvian name is āmrija, which means ‘glutton’. So that was interesting.
I will have to browse more later!
(Also love the badger commentary -- hee, “could never find a Greek name”! There’s a fairy-tale in there, all about Brock’s adventures seeking out that prestigious, everyone-else-has-one Greek name.)
Marcus Ranum@1, Surely you mean “Badger power!”
rq:
It may well have been a wolverine that was being described. I haven’t had time to get through the book, it’s massive, but I’ll have to see if there is a wolverine entered or not.
Of COURSE it’s a wolverine! Have you ever heard of any other Four-Footed Beaft that plays toothpaste tube to make more room for a meal? No, you haven’t! QED!
Yes, gvlon is a wolverine. Ahma in Finnish (the name has something to do with gluttony, ahmatti would be a glutton) and järv in Modern Swedish (gerff isn’t that far off, and with some words, what was g (like in English get) in the Middle Ages is now j (like y in York), also I think what was an f in the end of the words is nowadays often a v and written as such). The German and Russian names are also quite close to the modern ones.
Wolverines, being fairly slow, do eat mostly carcasses, but they can hunt reindeer when the snow is deep and soft, carrying their big paws while the feet of the reindeer will sink into the snow. For this they are not very well liked by reindeer herding people.
Ice Swimmer, thanks for that!
Wolverines are the best. Bite your toes off as soon as look at you. Always know where ya stand with a wolverine.
Also -- apparently -- prodigious crappers.
Raucous Indignation @ 9:
Yeah, it’s a little hard to miss that bit. Apparently they thought it was a straight in and out process.
Very interesting book. Thanks for posting, Caine.
Welcome!
Re: Wolverines
Fun fact: as in the examples mentioned above, the Spanish word for wolverine is “glotón”, glutton. This isn’t a very threatening-sounding name, so in the past the superhero Wolverine was sometimes localized with the names of different animals, most famously Lobezno (“wolf cub”) in Spain and Guepardo (“cheetah”) in Latin America.
Re: The book
Mouthwatering! I want to have it in my hands even if they degrade the old pages with their dirty sweatiness. For some reason I’m almost incapable of reading ebooks; I find it uncomfortable and I need to print them out.
Kreator:
I love ebooks, but this type of thing is much better in print. I would *love* a print copy of this!
I just pictured Hugh Jackman playing Glotón on the big screen, and cleaning out every all-you-can-eat buffet along the way. Not so sure how the film would handle the second half of that… Or maybe he can just eat all his enemies. Hm. Then squeeze them out in shapely cubes or sculptures or something (we’re discussing a superhero).
As for the book, well, yes. There’s reading books and then there’s looking books and this is a looking book (looking books usually get a lot of touching, too!). Want.