A fascinating work on animal lore, including many strange and unusual cryptozological creatures compiled from various naturalists from the 5th century to the present all beautifully rendered in drawings, woodcuts, prints, and paintings. The work covers many reflections on various animals, would be a beautiful book for those who appreciate nature and have an interest in ancient and sometimes unusual accounts of animals.

 

The World of AnimalsA Treasury of Lore, Legend, and Literature by Great Writers and Naturalists from the 5th Century B.C. to the PresentCompiled by Joseph Wood KrutchPublished in 1961

 

••••••••Partial Contents•••••••• Behemoth• Medieval Lion• Holy Cats• The Old Man of the Woods• Unnatural History• A Witches Familiar

"Lycanthropia, which Avicenna calls Cucubuth, others Lupinam insaniam, or Wolf-madness, when men run howling about graves and fields in the night, and will not be persuaded but that they are wolves or some such beasts…This disease perhaps gave occasion to that bold assertion of Pliny, some men where turned into wolves in his time, and from wolves to men again…"

Bound hardback in decorated black. 508 pages in length. A terrific book for those interested in accounts of animals, many quite odd and entertaining from the ancients to now.