Fragmented Nature: Medieval Latinate Reasoning on the Natural World and Its Order

Mattia Cipriani, Nicola Polloni, Mattia Cipriani, Nicola Polloni

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9780367557034
• eBook ISBN: 9781000599978
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia del mundo

The Latin Middle Ages were characterised by a vast array of different representations of nature. These conceptualisations of the natural world were developed according to the specific requirements of many different disciplines, with the consequent result of producing a fragmentation of images of nature. Despite this plurality, two main tendencies emerged. On the one hand, the natural world was seen as a reflection of God's perfection, teleologically ordered and structurally harmonious. On the other, it was also considered as a degraded version of the spiritual realm – a world of impeccable ideas, separate substances, and celestial movers.

This book focuses on this tension between order and randomness, and idealisation and reality of nature in the Middle Ages. It provides a cutting-edge profile of the doctrinal and semantic richness of the medieval idea of nature, and also illustrates the structural interconnection among learned and scientific disciplines in the medieval period, stressing the fundamental bond linking together science and philosophy, on the one hand, and philosophy and theology, on the other.

This book will appeal to scholars and students alike interested in Medieval European History, Theology, Philosophy, and Science.

1 Zoological Inconsistency and Confusion in the Physiologus latinus

Emmanuelle Kuhry

DOI: 10.4324/​9781003094791-2

1.1 The history of the Physiologus

The Greek Physiologos is a catalogue of short chapters on animals compiling simple naturalistic information with a moral exegesis, often relying on biblical references.¹ It is the origin of the popular genre of the medieval bestiary. Its early history can be traced back to a redaction in Alexandria in the 2nd or 3rd century AD.² Between the 4th and the 7th century, it was translated into Latin, Ethiopian, Coptic, Syriac, Arabic, Armenian, and Georgian. Among the four Greek collections, the first one gave birth to the Latin, Ethiopian, Syriac, Arabic, and Armenian translations, and offers in most manuscripts a list of 48 beings, of which 40 are animals, six are stones, and two are trees. Sometime before 500 AD, when the apocryphal Decretum Gelasianum – mentioning a forbidden Physiologus text – was written, and surely before 727, when the oldest known manuscript of a Latin version of the Physiologus was copied, the text of the first Greek collection was translated into Latin.³

The Latin Physiologus comes in three versions (Y, B, and C) and one mixed recension (A, which combines B and Y chapters).⁴ The Y version is thought to be close to a Greek text, which would be similar to the text of the Π manuscript (fifth family of the first Greek collection). The C version seems to originate from a Greek text too, probably belonging to the third family of the first Greek collection, as would be the Ethiopian translation. The origin of the B version still remains uncharted. Recent research suggests that the Y and B version would originate from a lost common ancestor close to a Greek witness of the fifth family.⁵ The B version was the most successful in the Middle Ages as it forms the core of all the bestiary families that develop from the 10th century on and especially the 12th century, adding numerous extracts from Isidore of Sevilla’s Etymologiae and Ambrose’s Hexaemeron, while reorganising the content: B-Is, H, Second family, “Transitional,” Third family.⁶

One important discovery is the existence of the H-B-Is version, or H type of B-Is, which is probably a reworking of the B-Is version.⁷ The B-Is version is the first one to add extracts from the Etymologiae at the end of each chapter. Most of the later versions draw from that first development but also reorganise the content so as to comply with the Isidorian model: the described beings are divided into bestiae, birds, reptiles, insects and invertebrates, fish, though the order of the groups may vary.

1.2 The case of the otter and the crocodile, or how the otter becomes a water snake

The crocodile is one notable exception, because it resists the Isidorian classification. In the Etymologies, the crocodile appears among the fish (XII, 6), which also include cetaceans and shellfish, more precisely between the spider crab and the hippopotamus. In the longer bestiary families (in the Second family bestiary, but also in the “Transitional” bestiary – in the Third family, yet deeply influenced by the Etymologiae, the crocodile appears only among the bestiae), the crocodile appears twice, once among the fish as in Isidore’s Etymologiae, and once among the bestiae, which include wild and domestic quadrupeds.⁸

To understand this double appearance, one must travel along the multiple branches of the manuscript tradition.⁹ One junction is especially important for the development of the bestiary families: the H-B-Is version, which is the main source for the Second family bestiary. In the Physiologus’s tradition, the enhydros (nilvus or sullus in some Latin manuscripts – hyllos in some Greek versions – the animal is usually identified to the mongoose or rather and more recently to the otter) fights against the crocodile in an original way: it tears the crocodile’s viscera from the inside after having entered its mouth. In the Latin Y version of the Physiologus, as well as in the first Greek collection, the chapter about the enhydros fighting the crocodile is followed by the chapter about the ichneumon, which is generally thought to be the mongoose.¹⁰ In a quite similar scene (both animals cover up in mud to protect themselves before the fight), the ichneumon combats the dragon (the serpent in the Greek text). In the Latin B version and all its bestiary avatars, the chapter about the ichneumon has not been transmitted. In the Latin C version, neither the enhydros nor the ichneumon appears. Besides, the crocodile is the subject of no individual chapter in the ancient Physiologus, Greek or Latin. It appears only as the enemy of the enhydros, in this last animal’s chapter. Here is the text of the chapter about the enhydros in the Latin B Physiologus:¹¹

About the hullos [enhydros]. There is another animal in the river Nile, which is called hydrus. The Physiologus says about it, that because this animal is a great enemy of the crocodile, and it has this habit by nature: as it has seen the crocodile sleeping on the side of the river with its mouth open, it comes closer and wallows in mud so as to sink more easily in its jaws. So it approaches and leaps into its mouth. The crocodile out of surprise swallows it alive. The enhydros, thus tearing all its viscera apart, exits alive of its belly, the crocodile being already dead and all its guts being wrecked. Hence Death and Hell are portrayed by the crocodile, which is the enemy of our Lord and Savior. And therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ, assuming our earthly flesh, descending in Hell, tearing all its internal parts apart, has guided all of them who had been devoured and detained in Death, as testify the Evangelists: And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints were raised.¹² Thus He has destroyed Death itself, and He resurrected from the dead, and the prophet mocks Death with these words: O Death, I will be your plague! O Grave, I will be your destruction!¹³ And again elsewhere: Death is swallowed up in Your victory. O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?¹⁴

In the H-B-Is version, the chapter about the crocodile, originating from Isidore’s Etymologiae, follows the chapter about the enhydros (here hydrus). This chapter is therefore an addition characteristic of the H-B-Is version. This addition is integrated in the Second family bestiary, among the bestiae, while the list of aquatic animals coming from the Etymologiae is added to the ancient core of chapters, and this section includes the crocodile as I have already said.

But when one observes the text and illustration of the chapter on hydrus/enhydros in H-B-Is, one notes several discrepancies:

There is an animal in the river Nile, which is called hydrus, living in water. Indeed the Greek call water hudor. Thus hydrus is an aquatic snake, and those who are bitten by it swell up, a disease which is called liboa and for which a cure is beef dung. According to the philosophers, the hydra is said to be of multiple heads. Such a hydra lived in the Lerna swamp, in the Arcadian province, and Hercules wanted to kill it, but after cutting off one head, three heads would grow instead, but this is all fake stories. Indeed it is an established fact that the said hydra with multiple heads is a place spewing water in which if one channel was closed, a lot of other ones would gush forth. Having seen this, Hercules dried them out with the help of fire and closed the channels. So this hydrus is a great enemy of the crocodile, and he has this habit by nature. As it has seen the crocodile sleeping on the side of the river. […] The crocodile takes its name from the croceus color [saffron, golden yellow] and is born in the river Nile. It is a four-legged animal living on land and in water.¹⁵

First, the picture painted beside the text shows a snake or a three-headed winged hydra entering the mouth of the crocodile and emerging from its open side. In the text, the enemy of the crocodile is now described as a water snake, and reference is made to the legendary story about Hercules and the Hydra of Lerna.¹⁶ How did the otter become a water snake? A clue is given by version H-B-Is’ model: the B-Is version, which draws directly from B, but with additions from the Etymologiae at the end of each chapter (the beginning of the chapter is shortened as it is similar to B’s text):

There is another animal in the river Nile, which is called hydrus. The Physiologus says about it, that because this animal is a great enemy of the crocodile. […] O Death, where is your sting? Etymology. Hydrus is a snake living in water. Indeed the Greek call water hudor. Thus hydrus is an aquatic snake, and those who are bitten by it swell up, a disease which is called boa and for which a cure is beef dung. Hydra is said to be a dragon of multiple heads. Such a hydra lived in the Lerna swamp, in the Arcadian province. Hence it is called exhedra [excetra, a snake] in latin, because when one cuts off one head, three heads would grow instead, but this is all fake stories. Indeed it is an established fact that there was a place spewing water and ruining the surroundings, in which if one channel was closed, a lot of other ones would gush forth. Having seen this, Hercules dried them out with the help of fire and closed the channels. So the water is called hydra. The crocodile takes its name from the croceus color [saffron, golden yellow] and is born in the river Nile. It is a four-legged animal living on land and in water […].¹⁷

In this B-Is version, Isidore’s descriptions of the enhydris and hydros, two water snakes, and of the legendary Hydra, follow the chapter about the enhydros in the B form, but they do not include Isidore’s description of the enhydros (otter), which is located in the section about bestiae.¹⁸ On the basis of homophony between enhydros, enhydris, hydros and hydra, the compilator of the B-Is version actually copied the wrong content. In the H-B-Is version, these irrelevant descriptions are inserted by the compilator inside the text of the chapter about the enhydros/otter. The animal receives no physical description in the B version, unlike the Y version, in which it is described as looking like a dog (figuram habens canis). No conflicting information thus prevents the compilator of the H-B-Is version from turning it into a water snake.

The compilator of the B-Is version does not only add the descriptions of enhydris, hydros and hydra. He also picks the description of the crocodile from the Etymologies’s section about fish and aquatic animals, and copies it after the three water snakes, thus paving the way for the creation of an individual chapter about the crocodile in the H-B-Is version.¹⁹

Having become a water snake, the enhydros disappears from the section about bestiae in the Second family bestiaries, while the crocodile gains its place among the quadruped beasts. Consequently, beside a crocodile-beast chapter, the Second family bestiary also displays a hydrus chapter among the snakes, which contains the full chapter about enhydros coming from the H-B-Is version, and a second crocodile chapter, this time among the fish, whose content comes from the Etymologiae. The chapter about hydrus is then frequently illustrated by a snake or a winged dragon plunging into the guts of an unidentifiable crocodile (looking like a feline, or a bull), sometimes perforating its side with its head. The chapter about the crocodile-fish is usually unillustrated, as are most fish chapters.²⁰ In the “Transitional” family, the enhydros/hydrus chapter is preserved in the bestiae section, probably influenced by a B-Is model, because the text does not include the serpentine elements inserted by the H-B-Is version. As a matter of fact, the Isidorian descriptions about the water snakes enhydris and hydros disappear from this chapter, while the content about the legendary hydra follows the enhydros/hydrus and forms a distinct chapter, including the Isidorian crocodile. In this “Transitional” version, a second chapter about hydrus is included in the snake section, this time in an H-B-Is version similar to hydrus-snake chapter in the Second family bestiary. Although the text of the first chapter does not include any serpentine elements, it seems ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Introduction
• 1 Zoological Inconsistency and Confusion in the Physiologus latinus
• 2 Gerald of Wales and Saint Brigid’s Falcon: The Chaste Beast in Medieval and Early Modern Irish Natural History
• 3 Medieval Universes in Disorder: Primeval Chaos and Its Authoritative Coordinates
• 4 Animals under an Encyclopaedic Lens: Zoological Misinterpretation in Thomas of Cantimpré’s Liber de Natura Rerum
• 5 Learning from Bees, Wasps, and Ants: Communal Norms, Social Practices, and Contingencies of Nature in Medieval Insect Allegories
• 6 Defining and Picturing Elements and Humours in Medieval Medicine: Text and Images in Bartholomew the Englishman’s De Proprietatibus Rerum
• 7 Why Do Animals Have Parts? Organs and Organisation in 13th- and 14th-century Latin Commentaries on Aristotle’s De animalibus
• 8 La reproduction imparfaite: les “gusanes” et l’état larvaire des insectes chez Albert le Grand
• 9 Elixir as Means of Contrasting with Nature in Albert the Great’s Alchemy
• 10 From Prime Matter to Chaos in Ramon Llull
• Index