Studying the Arts in Late Medieval Bohemia: Production, Reception and Transmission of Knowledge

0544921 - FLÚ 2022 RIV BE eng M - Monography Chapter
Šedinová, Hana
Ut dicit Aristoteles: The Enigmatic Names of Animals in Michael Scot, Thomas of Cantimpré and Claret.
Studying the Arts in Late Medieval Bohemia: Production, Reception and Transmission of Knowledge. Turnhout: Brepols, 2021 - (Pavlíček, O.), s. 49-70. Studia Artistarum, 48. ISBN 978-2-503-59317-3
Institutional support: RVO:67985955
Keywords : Aristoteles * Historia animalium * Greek zoology * medieval zoology * medieval encyclopaedia * Michael Scotus * Thomas of Cantimpré * Bartholomaeus de Solencia dictus Claretus
OECD category: Specific languages
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SA-EB.5.122632

Some names of animals that we find in the Dictionary of medieval Latin in the Czech lands thanks to Claretus, a fourteenth century Bohemian author, represent a difficult problem for lexicographers. Claretus adopted these terms (of which Latin or Greek origin seems to be excluded at the first sight) from Thomas of Cantimpré’s encyclopedic work De natura rerum that names Aristotle as his main source for the descriptions of animals. The first step in identifying these names and animals is therefore a comparison with the Latin version of Aristotle’s zoological treatises translated from Arabic around 1220 by Michael Scotus. However, in the process of translation to Arabic and Latin, the text of Aristotle’s treatises was more or less changed. In some cases, the interpretation of medieval authors was wrong to the extent that they gave the former animals not only a new name, but also new characteristics as far as their appearance and behaviour is concerned.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0321842