The Middle English Physiologus: A Critical Translation and Commentary

The tradition of the Physiologus is an influential one, and informed medieval literature —not to mention medieval art and architecture—more than we know. The Physiologus was “an established source of Medieval sacred iconography and didactic poetry ” and still continues to rank among the “books which have made a difference in the way we think ” (Curley x). Thus, our understanding of the Physiologus and its subsequent tradition becomes increasingly important to the fields of medieval literature, humanities, and art. Considering the vast importance of the Physiologus tradition in the Middle Ages, one would expect to find that scholars have edited, translated, and studied all of the various versions of the Physiologus. While most of the Latin bestiaries and versions of the Physiologus have been edited, translated, studied, and glossed, the Middle English (ME) Physiologus—the only surviving version of the Physiologus in Middle English—has neither been translated nor strictly studied as a literary text. In light of the Physiologus tradition’s importance, it would seem that the only version of the Physiologus that was translated into Middle English would be quite significant to the study of medieval literatur