About the sources of the «exempla fabularia» of the «Disputa de l’ase»

Abstract

The Disputa de l’ase, by Anselm —Antelm? Telm?— Turmeda is ranged among the most singular works of fourth-century prose. This paper deals with the sources of the exempla quoted at the sixteenth argument, since the excellent study of Garcia Sempere and Martín Pascual did not find the origin of all of them. The true main source of these examples is Aelian’s On the Nature of Animals —source also of of the Greek Physiologos, as this was the source of the Latin version—, a text being transmitted in Western Europe from XIII century onwards. Beyond the numerous coincidences shown by the Turmedian text with the medieval bestiaries, the Latin Physiologus and the Arab Risala al-hayawanat, it is noteworthy to point up those places whose only source is Aelian, a matter that makes necessary a reassessment of our literary reception of this author.