Animals early modern literature. 3700-AZm-FAK-ZLN

This semester's classes will discuss the allegorical understanding of animal figures, the significance of their moral, fairy-tale, legendary and religious symbolism. There will also be a discussion of the synthesising, ‘compendial’ nature of medieval culture, in which there was a synthesis of biblical and ancient traditions. Topics that will make up the content of the class will also include the problem of the animal-symbol, the animal as an ethical and emotional indicator of human behaviour and the animal as a scientific, research and iconographic object.
During the class, the topics will be discussed in chronological order, according to the time of their creation on the basis of source texts and scientific studies
1 Peter Krescentyn and his "Ksiegi o gospodarstwie".
2. animal symbolism in early modern iconography.
3. fauna in Stefan Falimirz's herbarium.
4. fauna in Jesuit literature
5 Early modern nature conservation.
6. the animal kingdoms.
7. Jaku Spanmüller and Stanisław Grochowski's "Wirydarz duchowny"
8. Konrad Gesner and his Historia animalium
9. Ulysses Aldrovandi and his encyclopaedic studies
10. John Jonston's "Historiae naturalis de quadrupedibus"
11 Michel de Montaigne and St Francis de Sales on animals. Late humanism.
12. Concept of the animal-machine
13 The animal-human domestic and literary subject.
14. Zoology in Jan Amos Komensky's Orbis Pictus
15. "Nowe Ateny" by Benedykt Chmielowski