Claudius Aelianus’ De natura animalium treatise enjoyed great popularity until the Byzantine age due to its subject and the author’s reputation as a model for Atticist writers.

This volume contains the first critical edition of its scholia and glosses found in the mediaeval manuscripts, and of the rich exegetical commentary originally composed in the circle of Planudes and Moschopulus to accompany selections for textbooks in the Palaeologan age.