| Notes | Didactic Christian text written or compiled in Greek by an unknown author, in Alexandria; its composition has been traditionally dated between the second and the fourth centuries. By the late fourth century, the text had been translated into Latin, and it was from Latin versions that medieval bestiaries derived their central content.
Drawing on observed or reported characteristics and behaviors of animals, the author of the Physiologus used this information as the foundation for moralization, extracting allegorical meaning and Christian doctrine from the natures and habits of familiar and fantastic creatures.
The conventional title Physiologus was because the author introduces his stories from natural history with the phrase: "the physiologus says", that is, "the naturalist says", "the natural philosophers, the authorities for natural history say".
In later centuries it was ascribed to various celebrated Church Fathers, especially Epiphanius, Basil of Caesarea, and St. Peter of Alexandria. |
