Information relating to Northern Fauna in the Liber de natura rerum by Thomas of Cantimpré.

The arctic fauna, very rarely mentioned in Classical texts, is progressively discovered by medieval scholars trough maritime and commercial contacts with Northern peoples. This new information sometimes allows Latin authors to enhance the sketchy data transmitted by Aristotle, Pliny or Solinus. This paper focuses on this kind of zoological information found in Thomas of Cantimpré's Liber de natura rerum (LDNR) through the geographical data given by the author, and through the zoological identification of the species. Thomas’ references on Northern fauna are compared to those found in books on animals written by Alexander Neckam, Vincent of Beauvais, Bartholomaeus Anglicus andAlbertus Magnus, to evaluate which information they share or not in their approach of Northern fauna. - [Abstract]

Language: French

2557-8839; DOI: 10.4000/rursuspicae.1445