The History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents

This book is a consolidated version of two books written by Edward Topsell 'The History of Four-footed Beasts' (1607) and 'The History of Serpents' (1608), both published by William Jaggard.

The book describes and depicts a number of real and mythological animals and attempts to draw lessons from the animals' characteristics and behaviour.

In spite of the fact that it bears a Christian moralistic bias and makes value judgements about certain animals, it implies that even the animals considered bad by those standards play a constructive role in teaching people a lesson, getting rid of vermin, etc. Long before the concept of an ecosystem became important, it was understood that these animals were there and doing the things they did for a reason.