The Eurasian Lynx ( Lynx Lynx ) in early modern Scotland
Gessner's Historia animalium preserves scholarly opinions from naturalists and humanists from across sixteenth-century Europe. One such view comes from Bonarus of Balice, south-east Poland. Bonarus attests that although the Eurasian Lynx (Lynx Lynx) is common throughout central and eastern Euro...
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credinunivpr:10.3366/anh.2017.0452 2023-09-26T15:24:12+02:00 The Eurasian Lynx ( Lynx Lynx ) in early modern Scotland Raye, L. 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/anh.2017.0452 https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full-xml/10.3366/anh.2017.0452 en eng Edinburgh University Press https://www.euppublishing.com/customer-services/librarians/text-and-data-mining-tdm Archives of Natural History volume 44, issue 2, page 321-333 ISSN 0260-9541 1755-6260 Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous) History Anthropology journal-article 2017 credinunivpr https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2017.0452 2023-08-31T13:44:07Z Gessner's Historia animalium preserves scholarly opinions from naturalists and humanists from across sixteenth-century Europe. One such view comes from Bonarus of Balice, south-east Poland. Bonarus attests that although the Eurasian Lynx (Lynx Lynx) is common throughout central and eastern Europe, the best skins come from Sweden and, surprisingly, Scotland. After exploring evidence about who Bonarus was and why he might have written to Gessner, this essay builds up two possible explanations for Bonarus's opinion that Lynx populations were present in sixteenth-century Scotland: Either, native populations of European Lynxes may have still been present in Scotland in the sixteenth century; British Lynx remains have been dated to the sixth century. The Lynx could possibly have survived longer without being noticed in records if it was customarily called a “cat”, like other large felids. However, other than Bonarus's attestation, there is only tentative positive evidence consistent with this interpretation; most importantly the ambiguous testimony of Robert Sibbald in 1684. Or, Scotland may have “tricked” Bonarus by importing and then re-exporting fine, exotic furs. There is evidence that Scotland had a major fur industry. Eurasian Lynx fur had a high status. Furs were commonly re-exported in the fourteenth century. Scots merchants often imported high-status furs like Lynx into Poland in the sixteenth century, suggesting that Bonarus had the highest possible chance of seeing Scottish-fashioned Lynx furs. This essay argues that, on balance of the evidence, the second interpretation is the stronger of the two, although the first is also possible. Article in Journal/Newspaper Lynx Lynx lynx lynx Edinburgh University Press (via Crossref) Sibbald ENVELOPE(165.383,165.383,-73.900,-73.900) Archives of Natural History 44 2 321 333 |
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Open Polar |
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Edinburgh University Press (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
credinunivpr |
language |
English |
topic |
Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous) History Anthropology |
spellingShingle |
Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous) History Anthropology Raye, L. The Eurasian Lynx ( Lynx Lynx ) in early modern Scotland |
topic_facet |
Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous) History Anthropology |
description |
Gessner's Historia animalium preserves scholarly opinions from naturalists and humanists from across sixteenth-century Europe. One such view comes from Bonarus of Balice, south-east Poland. Bonarus attests that although the Eurasian Lynx (Lynx Lynx) is common throughout central and eastern Europe, the best skins come from Sweden and, surprisingly, Scotland. After exploring evidence about who Bonarus was and why he might have written to Gessner, this essay builds up two possible explanations for Bonarus's opinion that Lynx populations were present in sixteenth-century Scotland: Either, native populations of European Lynxes may have still been present in Scotland in the sixteenth century; British Lynx remains have been dated to the sixth century. The Lynx could possibly have survived longer without being noticed in records if it was customarily called a “cat”, like other large felids. However, other than Bonarus's attestation, there is only tentative positive evidence consistent with this interpretation; most importantly the ambiguous testimony of Robert Sibbald in 1684. Or, Scotland may have “tricked” Bonarus by importing and then re-exporting fine, exotic furs. There is evidence that Scotland had a major fur industry. Eurasian Lynx fur had a high status. Furs were commonly re-exported in the fourteenth century. Scots merchants often imported high-status furs like Lynx into Poland in the sixteenth century, suggesting that Bonarus had the highest possible chance of seeing Scottish-fashioned Lynx furs. This essay argues that, on balance of the evidence, the second interpretation is the stronger of the two, although the first is also possible. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Raye, L. |
author_facet |
Raye, L. |
author_sort |
Raye, L. |
title |
The Eurasian Lynx ( Lynx Lynx ) in early modern Scotland |
title_short |
The Eurasian Lynx ( Lynx Lynx ) in early modern Scotland |
title_full |
The Eurasian Lynx ( Lynx Lynx ) in early modern Scotland |
title_fullStr |
The Eurasian Lynx ( Lynx Lynx ) in early modern Scotland |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Eurasian Lynx ( Lynx Lynx ) in early modern Scotland |
title_sort |
eurasian lynx ( lynx lynx ) in early modern scotland |
publisher |
Edinburgh University Press |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/anh.2017.0452 https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full-xml/10.3366/anh.2017.0452 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(165.383,165.383,-73.900,-73.900) |
geographic |
Sibbald |
geographic_facet |
Sibbald |
genre |
Lynx Lynx lynx lynx |
genre_facet |
Lynx Lynx lynx lynx |
op_source |
Archives of Natural History volume 44, issue 2, page 321-333 ISSN 0260-9541 1755-6260 |
op_rights |
https://www.euppublishing.com/customer-services/librarians/text-and-data-mining-tdm |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2017.0452 |
container_title |
Archives of Natural History |
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44 |
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2 |
container_start_page |
321 |
op_container_end_page |
333 |
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1778150709554839552 |