Natural History from Greeks to Medieval Europe

Minoan fresco on Crete 1500 BC

For next Tuesday

• Watch 49 minute video linked on Wiki space• Homework assignment will be sent by

tomorrow on email

Aristotle• (384 BC – 322 BC)

•-was a student of Plato (Greek philosopher)

•taught Alexander the Great.

Geocentric Universe

Aristotle (Greek, 384-322 BC)

Aristotle on the Soul?

When the crocodile yawns, the trochilus flies into his mouth and cleans his teeth. The trochilus gets his food thereby, and the crocodile gets ease and comfort; it makes no attempt to injure its little friend, but, when it wants it to go, it shakes its neck in warning, lest it should accidentally bite the bird.

Matt• The woodpecker …pecks at the bark of trees to drive out

from under it maggots and gnats; when they emerge, it licks them up with its tongue, which is large and flat. It can run up and down a tree in any way, even with the head downwards, like the gecko-lizard. For secure hold upon a tree, its claws are better adapted than those of the daw; it makes its way by sticking these claws into the bark.

Other contributions to zoology

Greek, Roman and Medieval Depictions of Nature

Aquatic Animals Fish and Dolphins

Minoan fresco on Crete 1500 BC

Before 79 AD

Pompeii

Rome

3rd to 4th C from Flavian Amphitheater

16th C Roman Fountain

1200 Canterbury Psalter

13th C Basilica San Marco, Venice

Medieval Books of Nature

• Herbals• Bestiaries

Dioscorides (Greek circa 40—90 AD) wrote herbal used for centuries

This copy from 625

Plants, both wild and cultivated, played important roles in medicine and magic

Herbals in Arabic, Greek and Latin were created for hundreds of years

14th Century Italian Herbal

Plant used for sutures and to stop bleeding

Illustrated Herbals used to identify plants and their uses

Leonhart Fuchs published a famous “herbal” in 1542

                                  

Herbarum Vivae Eicones of Brunfels

1530

Harley Bestiary at British Library

c. 1230.

The one who is on duty holds a stone up with one claw; if the watcher falls asleep the stone will fall and wake him.

Medieval Bestiaries

Aberdeen BestiaryEnglish c. 1200

Pre-Renaissance ImagesBestiaries

Pliny the Elder (Natural History, Book 10, 86):

• “The salamander is a shaped like a lizard, but is covered with spots.

• A salamander is so cold that it puts out fire on contact. It vomits from its mouth a milky liquid; if this liquid touches any part of the human body it causes all the hair to fall off, and the skin to change color and break out in a rash.

• Salamanders only appear when it rains and disappear in fine weather.”

http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast276.htm

Harley Bestiary

1230-1240

• The whale remains floating at the surface for long periods and sailors, thinking the whale to be an island, land there and build a fire to cook their food.

• After a time the heat penetrates the whale's thick skin, and it dives to cool itself. The ship is dragged down with it and the sailors drown.

• When the whale is hungry it opens its mouth and emits a sweet odor, which attracts small fish. The fish swim into the whale's mouth, which closes on them.

• Allegory/Moral• The whale who deceives sailors and drags them down to their deaths

signifies the devil, who deceives those he drags down to hell. Those of weak faith who give in to the sweet odor of worldly desires will be swallowed up by the devil.

Renaissance Natural History-

more later