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...

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Main Author: Buquet, Thierry
Other Authors: 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
Language:English
Published: HAL CCSD 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01708475
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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
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