¿Qué tienen en común el caballo de Troya y los jabalíes de Obélix, la famosa loba romana y el monstruo del lago Ness? ¿Qué sabemos realmente de los animales de la Biblia (la serpiente del pecado original), la mitología (el Minotauro) y los cómics (Mickey, Donald…)? Gracias a su cordial erudición, el gran historiador Michel Pastoureau nos deleita, como en un diálogo que no quisiéramos abandonar nunca, con tradiciones, leyendas y sucesos reales. Emocionante y ameno, con un lenguaje que nos hace «cómplices» de lo que se nos está contando, éste es uno de esos libros que no puedes dejar de recomendar en cuanto lo acabas. No tiene, además, la ambición de ser una historia general de los animales, sino una historia muy particular, rica en anécdotas y que suscita fértiles conversaciones. Los elefantes del cartaginés Aníbal, el rinoceronte de Durero, Milú (el fox terrier amigo de Tintín)… Incluso Dolly, la oveja clonada. What do the Trojan horse, Obelix boars, the famous Capitoline wolf, and the Loch Ness Monster have in common? What do we really know about animals in the Bible, ancient mythology, and comics? Historian Michel Pastoureau offers a delightfully specific history sure to spark plenty of conversations.
Author
Pastoureau was born in Paris on 17 June 1947. He studied at the École Nationale des Chartes, a college for prospective archivists and librarians. After writing his 1972 thesis about heraldic bestiaries in the Middle Ages, he worked in the coins, medals and antiquities department of the French National Library until 1982. Since 1983 he has held the Chair of History of Western Symbolism (Chaire d'histoire de la symbolique occidentale) and is a director of studies at the Sorbonne's École pratique des hautes études. He is an academician of the Académie internationale d'héraldique (International Academy of Heraldry) and vice-president of the Société française d'héraldique (French Heraldry Society). When he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Lausanne in 1996, he was described as an eminent scholar who has made a radical contribution to several disciplines. Professor Pastoureau has published widely, including work on the history of colours, animals, symbols, and the Knights of the Round Table. He has also written on emblems and heraldry, as well as sigillography and numismatics.
