Editing Physiologus (section)

==Early history==
About the year 400 the ''Physiologus'' was translated into [[Latin language|Latin]]; from Greek, the original language that it was written in. In the 5th century into [[Ethiopic]] [edited by [[Fritz Hommel]] with a German translation (Leipzig, 1877), revised German translation in ''Romanische Forschungen'', V, 13-36]; into [[Armenian language|Armenian]] [edited by Pitra in ''Spicilegium Solesmense'', III, 374–90; French translation by Cahier in ''Nouveaux Mélanges d'archéologie, d'histoire et de littérature'' (Paris, 1874)] (see also the recent edition: Gohar Muradyan, Physiologus. The Greek And Armenian Versions With a Study of Translation Technique, Leuven–Dudley MA: Peeters, 2005 [Hebrew University Armenian Studies 6]); into [[Syriac language|Syriac]] [edited by Tychsen, ''Physiologus Syrus'' (Rostock, 1795), a later Syriac and an [[Arabic]] version edited by Land in ''Anecdota Syriaca'', IV (Leyden, 1875)].<ref name=Catholic/> An Old Slavic (Old Bulgarian) translation was made in the 10th century [edited by Karneyev, {{Transliteration|cu|Materialy i zametki po literaturnoj istorii Fiziologa}}, Sankt Peterburg, 1890].

[[Epiphanius of Salamis|Epiphanius]] used ''Physiologus'' in his ''Panarion'' and from his time numerous further quotations and references to the ''Physiologus'' in the Greek and the Latin [[Church Fathers]] show that it was one of the most generally known works of Christian [[Late Antiquity]]. Various translations and revisions were current in the [[Middle Ages]]. The earliest translation into Latin was followed by various recensions, among them the ''Sayings of [[St. John Chrysostom]] on the natures of beasts'',<ref>"Dicta Iohanni Crisostomi de natura bestiarum", edited by G. Heider in ''Archiv für Kunde österreichischer Geschichtsquellen'' (5, 552–82, 1850).<!--what is the modern edition?--></ref><ref name=Catholic/> A metrical Latin ''Physiologus'' was written in the 11th century by a certain [[Theobaldus]], and printed by Morris in ''An Old English Miscellany'' (1872), 201 sqq.; it also appears among the works of [[Hildebertus Cenomanensis]] in ''Pat.Lat.'', CLXXI, 1217–24. To these should be added the literature of the [[bestiaries]], in which the material of the ''Physiologus'' was used; the ''Tractatus de bestiis et alius rebus'', often misattributed to [[Hugo of St. Victor]], and the ''Speculum naturale'' of [[Vincent of Beauvais]].<ref name=Catholic/>