Fontes Anglo-Saxonici

Transmission:: There has been much controversy about the sources of the Old English Partridge (including the identification of the animal described and the limits of the text itself - are all lines normally printed under that title really part of the same text?). Nevertheless, one main source can probably be seen in the passage on the Partridge in the Latin Physiologus. As with the Old English Panther and Whale, the precise version (or versions) of the Latin text used by the Anglo-Saxon author remains unidentified and may not have survived; the two versions cited here, B and Y, can be regarded as close approximations. (The classification of the Latin versions and the sigla referring to them are themselves a matter of dispute; see, for instance, Wirtjes 1990). Homiletic models and biblical and patristic material may furthermore have influenced the structure and thematic unity of the Old English text. For extensive phraseological echoes and formulaic analogues in other Old English poems, see Squires 1988, who also reprints relevant Latin passages.
Bibliography:: Marchand 1991; Squires 1988, 14-22, 26, 97-101; Ebert 1883; Perry 1941, 1119-23; Cordasco 1949; Frank 1971, 35-47, 150-54; Campbell 1978; Letson 1979; d'Aronco 1984; Orlandi 1985; Biggs 1989; Wirtjes 1990

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