Medieval Natural History Bestseller 825 – 850

A folio from the Bern Physiologus. (View Larger)
A folio from the Bern Physiologus. (View Larger)

The Bern Physiologus, an illuminated copy of the Latin translation, preserved at the Burgerbibliothek, Bern, Switzerland, was probably produced at Reims about 825 CE. It is one of the oldest extant illustrated copies of the Physiologus, a didactic text written or compiled in Greek by an unknown author in Alexandria, between the second and fourth centuries.

"The Physiologus consists of descriptions of animals, birds, and fantastic creatures, sometimes stones and plants, provided with moral content. Each animal is described, and an anecdote follows, from which the moral and symbolic qualities of the animal are derived. Manuscripts are often, but not always, given illustrations, often lavish."

The book was translated into Latin in about 400, then into European and Middle-Eastern languages. Numerous illuminated manuscript copies survive. For over 1000 years the text —a predecessor to bestiaries — retained its influence in Europe over ideas of the "meaning" of animals. Medieval poetical literature is full of allusions that can be traced to the Physiologus tradition, and the text also exerted great influence on the symbolism of medieval ecclesiastical art: symbols like the phoenix rising from its ashes and the pelican feeding her young with her own blood remain well-known.

"Epiphanius used Physiologus in his Panarion and from his time numerous further quotations and references to the Physiologus in the Greek and the Latin Church fathers show that it was one of the most generally known works of Christian Late Antiquity. Various translations and revisions were current in the Middle Ages. The earliest translation into Latin was followed by various recensions" (Wikipedia article on Physiologus, accessed 11-27-2008).

Filed under: Manuscript Illumination, Manuscripts & Manuscript Copying, Natural History,

atd..http://www.historyofscience.com/G2I/timeline/index.php?category=Natural+History

The Naples Dioscorides (Codex neapolitanus Ms. Ex Vindob. Gr. 1 Salerno) preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale, Naples, is an early seventh century Greek herbal based on the De Materia Medica of the first-century Greek military physician Dioscorides (Dioscurides) containing descriptions of plants and their medicinal uses. Until the early 18th century the manuscript was preserved in the Augustine monastery of San Giovanni a Carbonara in Naples. In 1718, the Habsburgs plundered it for the Viennese Court Library. At the conclusion of the peace negotiations after World War I, in 1919, the codex returned to the Biblioteca Nazionale in Naples.

"Unlike De Materia Medica, the text is arranged alphabetically by plant. The codex derives independently from the same model as the Vienna Dioscurides, composed ca. 512 for a Byzantine princess, but differs from it significantly: though the illustrations follow the same infered model, they are rendered more naturalistically in the Naples Dioscurides. Additionally, in the Naples manuscript, the illustrations occupy the top half of each folio, rather than being full page miniatures as in the Vienna Dioscurides. The plant descriptions are recorded below the illustration in two or three columns. The style of Greek script used in the manuscript indicates that it was probably written in Byzantine-ruled southern Italy, where ancient Greek cultural traditions remained strong, although it is not known exactly where it was produced. Marginal notes indicate that the manuscript had contact with the medical school at Salerno in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries" (Wikipedia article on Naples Dioscurides, accessed 02-03-2009).

Full Bibliographic Record
Author Schedel, Hartmann, 1440-1514
Title Destruccio Iherosolime [cartographic material]
Added title Jerusalem zerstorung [cartographic material]
Imprint [Nuremberg] : [Anton Koberger], [23 Dec. 1493].
Phys. Desc. 1 map in text page ; 26 X 54 cm.
Note Woodcut
Note An imaginary view of the destruction of Jerusalem. Shows the Temple ablaze.
Note The map is the same as in the first Latin edition, except added title in German.
Note From: Schedel, Hartmann. Liber chronicarum. German. Nuernberg. Anton Koberger, 1493. Fol.LXIIII. The illustrations and the maps are cut in wood by Michael Wolgemut
Added entry Wolgemut, Michael, 1434-1519

(popisek k tem smrtkam)
Michael Wolgemut (1434/37-1519), "Totentanz", 1493 (Holzschnitt, 19,4 x 22,5 cm); Nürnberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum

Soest Braun-Hogenberg

Regensburg

Hogenberg + Georg Braun

4 novembre 1576 : pillage d'Anvers lors de la "furie espagnole" (gravure de Frans Hogenberg)

d�cembre 1573 : d�part du duc d'Albe (gravure de Frans Hogenberg)

Slag op de Zuiderzee - Battle of the Zuiderzee in 1573

(Schwäbisch) Hall ca. 1580. Coloured copperplate engraving

Massacre of Naarden (1572) - Bloedbad van Naarden (Frans Hogenberg)

De aanval op Hulckraid - Zerstörung Hülchrath 1583 - (Frans Hogenberg)

http://de.academic.ru/dic.nsf/dewiki/461970

4 novembre 1576 : la "furie espagnole" ? Anvers (gravure de Frans Hogenberg)

LIMONADA: Mohla bych dostat odkaz do pošty prosím?

Keeping an eye on Comet Holmes means keeping an eye on Algol too. The comet is in the constellation Perseus. Perseus is the wing-footed hero who saved beautiful Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus. He had first slain the evil snaky-haired Medusa, who was so ugly that anyone who looked directly at her turned to stone. Perseus chopped off her head while looking at her reflection in his shield. He then carried the head around in a bag, using it for his own advantage to turn his enemies into stone -- including Cetus. (And the lovers lived happily ever after.)

But look at the eye of Medusa on this old star map. This is the Ghoul Star, Algol (al-gol, the ghoul), supposed to be the most demonic and malevolent star in the sky, a perfect star for Halloween. Ghoulish because it changes brightness dramatically every three days, by nearly a magnitude and a half.