.jpg){kind=link}
16,952
edits
m
→''De Natura Animalium'': clean up
(Created page with "{{Short description|Roman author and teacher (c.175–c.235)}} thumb|Imaginary likeness of Aelian from a 1610 edition of the ''Varia Historia'' '''Claudius Aelianus''' ({{lang-grc|Κλαύδιος Αἰλιανός}}, Greek transliteration ''Kláudios Ailianós'';<ref><!--confirmation of Greek name-->Η φυσιογνωμία ενός λαού θεμελιών. Μύθοι για την Ελιά. Retriev...") Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit |
CleanupBot (talk | contribs) m (→''De Natura Animalium'': clean up) |
||
| Line 16: | Line 16: | ||
Aelian's anecdotes on animals rarely depend on direct observation: they are almost entirely taken from written sources, not only [[Pliny the Elder]], [[Theopompus]], and [[Lycus of Rhegium]], but also other authors and works now lost, to whom he is thus a valuable witness.<ref>The third volume of the Loeb Classical Library translation gives a gazetteer of authors cited by Aelian.</ref> He is more attentive to marine life than might be expected,{{According to whom|date=February 2016}} though, and this seems to reflect first-hand personal interest; he often quotes "fishermen". At times he strikes the modern reader as thoroughly credulous, but at others he specifically states that he is merely reporting what is told by others, and even that he does not believe them. Aelian's work is one of the sources of medieval natural history and of the [[Bestiary|bestiaries]] of the Middle Ages.<ref name="Cohen2008">{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Simona |title=Animals as Disguised Symbols in Renaissance Art |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FOZVPjSTznwC&pg=PA39 |year=2008 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-17101-5 |pages=38–39}}</ref> | Aelian's anecdotes on animals rarely depend on direct observation: they are almost entirely taken from written sources, not only [[Pliny the Elder]], [[Theopompus]], and [[Lycus of Rhegium]], but also other authors and works now lost, to whom he is thus a valuable witness.<ref>The third volume of the Loeb Classical Library translation gives a gazetteer of authors cited by Aelian.</ref> He is more attentive to marine life than might be expected,{{According to whom|date=February 2016}} though, and this seems to reflect first-hand personal interest; he often quotes "fishermen". At times he strikes the modern reader as thoroughly credulous, but at others he specifically states that he is merely reporting what is told by others, and even that he does not believe them. Aelian's work is one of the sources of medieval natural history and of the [[Bestiary|bestiaries]] of the Middle Ages.<ref name="Cohen2008">{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Simona |title=Animals as Disguised Symbols in Renaissance Art |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FOZVPjSTznwC&pg=PA39 |year=2008 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-17101-5 |pages=38–39}}</ref> | ||
The surviving portions of the text are badly mangled and garbled and replete with later interpolations.<ref>"Aelian's text, riddled as it is with corrupt passages and packed with interpretations,provides ample scope for reckless emendation", D. E. Eichholz observed, reviewing Sholfield's Loeb Library translation in ''The Classical Review'' 1960:219, and praising the translator for restraint in this direction.</ref> [[Conrad Gessner]] (or Gesner), the Swiss scientist and natural historian of the Renaissance, made a Latin translation of Aelian's work, to give it a wider European audience. An English translation by A. F. Scholfield has been published in the [[Loeb Classical Library]], 3 vols. ( | The surviving portions of the text are badly mangled and garbled and replete with later interpolations.<ref>"Aelian's text, riddled as it is with corrupt passages and packed with interpretations,provides ample scope for reckless emendation", D. E. Eichholz observed, reviewing Sholfield's Loeb Library translation in ''The Classical Review'' 1960:219, and praising the translator for restraint in this direction.</ref> [[Conrad Gessner]] (or Gesner), the Swiss scientist and natural historian of the Renaissance, made a Latin translation of Aelian's work, to give it a wider European audience. An English translation by A. F. Scholfield has been published in the [[Loeb Classical Library]], 3 vols. (1958–59). | ||
==''Varia Historia''== | ==''Varia Historia''== | ||