By recommending “King Solomon’s Ring”, the book that made Konrad Lorenz and his research known to the general public, we want to talk precisely about the first steps that ethology, as a modern science, has taken.
Considered by many to be the founder of ethology, Lorenz was awarded the 1973 Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine, together with N. Tinbergen and K. von Frisch.
His studies on codes of behavior, territory, meaning of aggression, nature of instincts and above all on imprinting, in addition to his comparative studies between the behavior of animals and that of man, have changed the human vision of animal behaviour.
Publisher: Adelphi, 1989 | Pages: 274
Original title: Er redete mit dem Vieh, den Vögeln und den Fischen
EAN: 9788845906879
Published in Austria in 1949 with the title “Er redete mit dem Vieh, den Vögeln und den Fischen”, only in 1989 was it published in Italy by Adelphi as “L’anello di re Salomone”. It is currently in its twenty-second edition.
Those who have never read it, even though they may have followed documentaries and articles on wildlife, will still find it amazing to know that fish can be extremely passionate; that turtle doves are more ferocious than wolves with animals of their own kind; that a goose can believe that it belongs to the human species and, in particular, that it is the daughter of the scientist who hatched it.
Those who have already read it will gladly come back to read it, not only to discover things they probably didn’t notice during the first reading, but because Lorenz was a scientist who had the gift of the storyteller. He knew how to live with animals with a curiosity, an affectionateness towards every creature, a sense of play and a gift for telling their stories, which he never manifested so fully as in “King Solomon’s Ring”.
The author is funny but at the same time enucleates interesting theories, which when they were written were nothing short of revolutionary. “King Solomon’s ring” is an eclectic but not heavy book, popular for being anecdotal but at the same time rigorously scientific, both for animal studies and for the applications of these on the human animal. Lorenz tells us in his own way, with his passion, his work, the way he carries it forward, the adventures, the misadventures, the funny facts and the peculiarities that have characterized his life as an ethologist, observer and cohabitant with animals. Over and over though, throughout the book, he warns us not to be deceived and not to translate animal attitudes into human attitudes. But reading the stories and moving behaviors of some of them, it is really hard to imagine that they are not so distant from the feelings, passions and cognitive processes typical of man.
Credits
Author: Anna Lacci is a scientific popularizer and expert in environmental education and sustainability and in territory teaching. She is the author of documentaries and naturalistic books, notebooks and interdisciplinary teaching aids, and multimedia information materials.
Translation by Maria Antonietta Sessa
