Remember, you can browse our Darwin rare books room stock online too, by heading over to our Antiquarian and Rare book collection on Abe books.
by Diane Newland, Darwin Bookseller
Medieval Lore: An Epitome of the Science, Geography, Animal and Plant Folk-Lore and Myth of the Middle Age. Edited by Robert Steele, and Published by Elliot Stock in 1893.
Last week, while writing about ‘Folk-lore in the Old Testament’, I dived deep into our massive warehouse, looking for other books on folk-lore, or folk-tales. One of the books I found was this one on medieval lore, which I thought so interesting I saved it for this week’s Darwin featured book.
It is based on Properties of Things by Bartholomew, an English Franciscan, which was one of several huge encyclopedias written in the middle of the thirteenth century, probably before 1260. Written originally in Latin, it was translated into French by order of Charles V, then into Spanish, Dutch and English. It was written primarily for people with little education, to explain references in the Scriptures to natural objects, and was hugely popular as it spoke about the wonders of strange lands.
This book had immense importance to Elizabethan writers, who used whole extracts from the book, or created descriptions that directly allude to it. Shakespeare, Jonson, Spencer, Marlowe and many others all used this book heavily in their writing.
It fell out of favour in the sixteenth century, as commercial interests expanded and merchants wanted basic facts about the products they were buying, rather than wonderful stories of how the product was obtained.
As someone with deep poetic sensibilities, I personally, would rather hear that cinnamon was “shot from a phoenix nest”, than know its provenance and exactly what price I could buy it first hand, however medieval that makes me sound!
“Medieval Lore” is a real immersion into the mental attitude of the people of the Middle Ages, towards nature. It tells of the popular medieval theories in Astronomy, Physiology, Physics, Chemistry, Geography, and Natural History.
For example, the chapter on Medieval Science explains; “In the brain there are three ventricles or chambers, the former being the ‘cell fantastike’ of the Knight’s Tale, the second the logistic, and the third, the chamber of memory….”
Describing the spirit of man; “Whiles by heat working in the blood, in the liver is caused strong boiling and seething, and thereof cometh a smoke, the which is pured, and made subtle of the veins of the liver. And turneth into a subtle spiritual substance and airily kind, and that is called the natural spirit.”
In the chapter on Medieval Medicine; “The lungs be the bellows of the heart...for it keleth the heart, and by subtlety of its substance, changeth the air that is drawn in..”
“In the liver is the place of voluptuousness and liking of the flesh.”
“..by the spleen we are moved to laugh, by the gall we are wroth, by the heart we are wise, by the brain we feel, by the liver we love.”
In the chapter on Medieval Geography in relation to Ethiopia; “For the sun is nigh, and roasteth and toasteth them. And so the colour of men showeth the strength of the star..”
Of Iceland; "..there be mountains of snow froze as hard as ice or glass; there crystal is found..”
In the Chapters on Medieval Natural History... Trees; "... ash has so great virtue come not in shadow thereof in the morning nor at even. And if a serpent be set within a fire and ash leaves, he will flee into the fire sooner than into the leaves.”
“Beans be damned by Pythagoras’ sentence, for it is said that by oft use thereof, the wits are dulled and cause many dreams.”
Birds and fishes; “...ravens’ birds are fed with dew of heaven all the time that they have no black feathers…”
“...this bird phoenix cometh wilfully into the burning nest, and is there burnt to ashes among these burning sticks, and within three days a little worm is gendered of the ashes, and waxeth little by little, and taketh feathers and is shapen and turned to a bird.”
The peacock; “..he has the voice of a fiend, head of a serpent, pace of a thief.”
The whale; “..when strong tempest ariseth, while his whelps are tender and young, he swalloweth them up into his own womb. And when the tempest has gone and fair weather come, then he casteth them up whole and sound.”
And animals; There are descriptions of elephants, dogs, horses and wolves. And then also griffins, mermaids, satyrs and dragons!
“The dragon is most greatest of all serpents..and riseth up into the air, and the air is moved by him, and also the sea swelleth against his venom.”
“Satyrs be somewhat like men, and have crooked nose and horns in the forehead, and like to goats in their feet.”
What a rich amalgamation of fact and the fantastical under one roof, all described in the colourful, fluted and floral linguistic style of the Middle Ages, which to my contemporary ear sounds like an astounding heady mix of poetry and children’s fantasy writing.
“Medieval Lore” is available in our shop, as well as online, for £91.50, so if you want to immerse yourself in the medieval mind-set, and see the world through medieval eyes, this is the perfect book.
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