Natural history, lore and legend : Being some few examples of quaint and by-…
"Natural history, lore and legend" by F. Edward Hulme is a historical study of natural history folklore written in the late 19th century. The work explores how ancient and medieval writers understood animals, plants, and marvels, tracing beliefs from classical authorities through bestiaries, travel books, medical texts, and heraldry. It examines why earlier scholars prized moral lessons and medicinal “virtues” as much as facts, and how wonder, credulity, and theology shaped what
passed for zoology. The opening of the book argues that medieval naturalists were earnest seekers of truth whose errors often stemmed from limited tools and inherited authorities, not fraud. Hulme contrasts modern descriptive science with older aims—healing the body and saving the soul—illustrating moralized “nature” through bestiaries and sermons, and showing how astrology, travelers’ tales, and medical recipes (sometimes cruel) fed the lore. He surveys key sources and traditions—Pliny and Aristotle, Maundevile and Jordanus, Munster’s maps with elephants, Burton’s coca note, Hakluyt, Raleigh, and others—while noting the East’s “unchanging” customs and the aesthetic of old title-pages and maps. He then samples theological bestiaries (Guillaume, Philip de Thaun) and heraldic manuals (Guillim, Legh) before beginning the first creature-focus: the pygmies—sifting ancient claims, modern confirmations of dwarf peoples, and cautions about fakes—leading into Aldrovandus’s monstrous “unnatural history” and the era’s fascination with prodigies. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Hulme, F. Edward (Frederick Edward), 1841-1909 |
|---|---|
| LoC No. | 04006301 |
| Title | Natural history, lore and legend : Being some few examples of quaint and by-gone beliefs gathered in from divers authorities, ancient and mediæval, of varying degrees of reliability |
| Original Publication | London: Bernard Quaritch, 1895. |
| Credits | Tim Lindell, Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | QL: Science: Zoology |
| Subject | Science -- History |
| Subject | Zoology -- History |
| Subject | Animals, Mythical |
| Subject | Monsters |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 77830 |
| Release Date | Feb 1, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 295 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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