Gessner’s Giraffe. The Bible, the sources and the Iconography
International audience The paper will stress on three aspects of the chapter on the camelopardalis by Conrad Gesner (Historia animalium, De quadripedibus viviparis).1) Gesner’s sources: Gesner’s account on the giraffe is the first quite complete compilation of Antique sources citing the camelopardal...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Other Authors: | , , |
Format: | Conference Object |
Language: | English |
Published: |
HAL CCSD
2016
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01708475 |
id |
ftccsdartic:oai:HAL:halshs-01708475v1 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftccsdartic:oai:HAL:halshs-01708475v1 2023-05-15T13:13:46+02:00 Gessner’s Giraffe. The Bible, the sources and the Iconography Buquet, Thierry Centre Michel de Boüard - Centre de recherches archéologiques et historiques anciennes et médiévales (CRAHAM) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Caen Normandie (UNICAEN) Normandie Université (NU)-Normandie Université (NU) Zürich, Switzerland 2016-06-06 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01708475 en eng HAL CCSD halshs-01708475 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01708475 Konrad Gessner https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01708475 Konrad Gessner, Jun 2016, Zürich, Switzerland Konrad Gessner Giraffe Renaissance Historia animalium History of Zoology Iconography of the giraffe [SHS.HIST]Humanities and Social Sciences/History info:eu-repo/semantics/conferenceObject Conference papers 2016 ftccsdartic 2021-11-07T03:14:31Z International audience The paper will stress on three aspects of the chapter on the camelopardalis by Conrad Gesner (Historia animalium, De quadripedibus viviparis).1) Gesner’s sources: Gesner’s account on the giraffe is the first quite complete compilation of Antique sources citing the camelopardalis; the use of medieval sources is rather scarce, in comparison to sixteenth Century authors. In addition to this, we will study the few emendations and new material added to the second editions of the first volume of the Historia animalium.2) The giraffe in the Bible: Gesner was puzzled by the identification of the Hebrew zoonym zemer to the camelopardalis as it was translated in Greek and Latin versions of the Bible, and as it was mainly interpreted by medieval scholars. Gesner made his own philological enquiry, using Hebrew scholars, to finally admit that the zemer was probably a giraffe, criticizing Hebrew interpretations, and contradicting the new translations of the Old Testament, for example Luther’s one, which has translated the zemer into an elk (Alces alces). Gesner also studied this question in the chapter dedicated to the Alces.3) Iconography: Gesner used two pictures to illustrate the giraffe. Urs B. Leu studied the story of the second picture of the second edition (from Melchior Lorichs). But the origin of the picture of the first edition (a spotted giraffe with big curved horns) is less known. It was probably inspired by an engraving by E. Reuwich illustrating the edition of the travels of Bernard Breydenbach. But Gesner mentioned as the source of the image an anonymous Italian travel account, probably (as we will demonstrate, comparing Gesner’s text to its source) the one written by Niccolo da Poggibonsi (14th C.), printed many times during the 15th Century, sometimes under the name of Noe Bianchi (or Bianco). But the illustrations of the editions of Poggibonsi or Bianchi are very different from the giraffe’s picture in Breydenbach edition, thus from the engravings used by Gesner. We will try to find ... Conference Object Alces alces Archive ouverte HAL (Hyper Article en Ligne, CCSD - Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) Bianchi ENVELOPE(-55.500,-55.500,-63.350,-63.350) Melchior ENVELOPE(-62.983,-62.983,-64.333,-64.333) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Archive ouverte HAL (Hyper Article en Ligne, CCSD - Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) |
op_collection_id |
ftccsdartic |
language |
English |
topic |
Konrad Gessner Giraffe Renaissance Historia animalium History of Zoology Iconography of the giraffe [SHS.HIST]Humanities and Social Sciences/History |
spellingShingle |
Konrad Gessner Giraffe Renaissance Historia animalium History of Zoology Iconography of the giraffe [SHS.HIST]Humanities and Social Sciences/History Buquet, Thierry Gessner’s Giraffe. The Bible, the sources and the Iconography |
topic_facet |
Konrad Gessner Giraffe Renaissance Historia animalium History of Zoology Iconography of the giraffe [SHS.HIST]Humanities and Social Sciences/History |
description |
International audience The paper will stress on three aspects of the chapter on the camelopardalis by Conrad Gesner (Historia animalium, De quadripedibus viviparis).1) Gesner’s sources: Gesner’s account on the giraffe is the first quite complete compilation of Antique sources citing the camelopardalis; the use of medieval sources is rather scarce, in comparison to sixteenth Century authors. In addition to this, we will study the few emendations and new material added to the second editions of the first volume of the Historia animalium.2) The giraffe in the Bible: Gesner was puzzled by the identification of the Hebrew zoonym zemer to the camelopardalis as it was translated in Greek and Latin versions of the Bible, and as it was mainly interpreted by medieval scholars. Gesner made his own philological enquiry, using Hebrew scholars, to finally admit that the zemer was probably a giraffe, criticizing Hebrew interpretations, and contradicting the new translations of the Old Testament, for example Luther’s one, which has translated the zemer into an elk (Alces alces). Gesner also studied this question in the chapter dedicated to the Alces.3) Iconography: Gesner used two pictures to illustrate the giraffe. Urs B. Leu studied the story of the second picture of the second edition (from Melchior Lorichs). But the origin of the picture of the first edition (a spotted giraffe with big curved horns) is less known. It was probably inspired by an engraving by E. Reuwich illustrating the edition of the travels of Bernard Breydenbach. But Gesner mentioned as the source of the image an anonymous Italian travel account, probably (as we will demonstrate, comparing Gesner’s text to its source) the one written by Niccolo da Poggibonsi (14th C.), printed many times during the 15th Century, sometimes under the name of Noe Bianchi (or Bianco). But the illustrations of the editions of Poggibonsi or Bianchi are very different from the giraffe’s picture in Breydenbach edition, thus from the engravings used by Gesner. We will try to find ... |
author2 |
Centre Michel de Boüard - Centre de recherches archéologiques et historiques anciennes et médiévales (CRAHAM) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Caen Normandie (UNICAEN) Normandie Université (NU)-Normandie Université (NU) |
format |
Conference Object |
author |
Buquet, Thierry |
author_facet |
Buquet, Thierry |
author_sort |
Buquet, Thierry |
title |
Gessner’s Giraffe. The Bible, the sources and the Iconography |
title_short |
Gessner’s Giraffe. The Bible, the sources and the Iconography |
title_full |
Gessner’s Giraffe. The Bible, the sources and the Iconography |
title_fullStr |
Gessner’s Giraffe. The Bible, the sources and the Iconography |
title_full_unstemmed |
Gessner’s Giraffe. The Bible, the sources and the Iconography |
title_sort |
gessner’s giraffe. the bible, the sources and the iconography |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01708475 |
op_coverage |
Zürich, Switzerland |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-55.500,-55.500,-63.350,-63.350) ENVELOPE(-62.983,-62.983,-64.333,-64.333) |
geographic |
Bianchi Melchior |
geographic_facet |
Bianchi Melchior |
genre |
Alces alces |
genre_facet |
Alces alces |
op_source |
Konrad Gessner https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01708475 Konrad Gessner, Jun 2016, Zürich, Switzerland |
op_relation |
halshs-01708475 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01708475 |
_version_ |
1766260308547993600 |