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Tag Archives: Christianity

Doves

01 Sunday Jul 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in Angels, Love, Symbols, War

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Aphrodite, Book of Genesis, Christianity, Etiological texts, Holy Spirit, Judaism, Noah's Ark (survival), Olive branch, Picasso's Dove of Peace, Raven and Dove, Release Doves, Winged Creatures

Anthony_van_Dyck_-_Daedalus_and_Icarus_-_Google_Art_Project

Dædalus and Icarus by Anthony van Dyck, c. 1620 (Art Gallery of Ontario)

As a subject matter, doves are very complex, biologically and otherwise. First, they are subspecies in the large family of columbidae and “subspecies” of the domestic pigeon (Columba livia domestica), known by scientists as the rock dove. (See Columbidae, Wikipedia.)

The pigeon, endowed with an innate homing ability and “selectively bred for its ability to find its way home over extremely long distances,” is derived from the rock pigeon. (See Homing pigeon, Wikipedia.)

In Britannica,[1] we read that

Although ‘dove’ usually refers to the smaller, long-tailed members of the pigeon family, there are exceptions: the domestic pigeon, a rather typical pigeon, is frequently called the rock dove and is the bird called the ‘dove of peace.’

Picasso being the creator of Guernica (1937), an anti-war painting, he was asked to produce an image that would represent peace. He designed a dove, and his design was chosen as a symbol of peace during the First International Peace Conference, held in Paris (1949).

The rock pigeon or rock dove is not necessarily white. White doves are bred to be white. But Picasso, the creator of the “dove of peace” coloured his dove the colour white, white itself constituting a symbol: purity and innocence mainly.

But Picasso went further. He rolled away millenia by putting an olive branch in the beak of his dove, le pigeon (masculine). The olive branch symbolises peace, or the cessation of hostilities. Those who surrender carry a white flag. The white flag might help explain the otherwise contradictory juxtaposition of military and pacifist groups. Wars, a constant plight, have often been fought against cruel invaders and demented dictators.

dove-of-peace

The Dove of Peace by Picasso, 1949 (Photo credit: www.pablopicasso.org)

The Military

Let us begin with the military.

The rock dove is, due to its relation to the homing pigeon and thus communications, the main image in the crest of the Tactical Communications Wing, a body within the Royal Air Force. Below the crest is the wing’s motto, ‘Ubique Loquimur,’ or ‘We Speak Everywhere’ (see Doves as Symbols, Wikipedia).

During World War I, a “homing pigeon, Cher Ami [Dear Friend], was awarded the French Croix de guerre for her heroic service in delivering 12 important messages, despite having been very badly injured.”

Cher Ami (masculine), may have been a female fighting with the boys, but she was a Joan of Arc among homing pigeons, or rock doves, and fully deserved her Croix de guerre.

[I]n World War II, hundreds of homing pigeons with the Confidential Pigeon Service were airdropped into northwest Europe to serve as intelligence vectors for local resistance agents. Birds played a vital part in the Invasion of Normandy as radios could not be used for fear of vital information being intercepted by the enemy.

Hence the motto engraved on the crest of the Tactical Communications Wing, of the Royal Air Force: Ubique Loquimur, “We speak everywhere.”

Avro_Lancaster_pigeons_WWII_IWM_TR_193

Crewman with homing pigeons carried in bombers as a means of communications in the event of a crash, ditching, or radio failure (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Speech is associated with homing pigeons or the rock dove because they are messengers. They have been messengers since the story of the flood and Noah’s Ark, perhaps earlier. God nearly destroyed the world He created, but humanity survived and there followed a series of covenants, or talks: Ubique Loquimur. For the purpose of this post, we need only tell that a dove was the first creature who brought a sign. It brought Noah a sign, as in semiotics, indicating that life on earth had been preserved. For the purposes of this post, we need only tell that a dove was the first creature who brought Noah a sign indicating that life on earth had been preserved.

The Dove of Peace & the Olive Branch

As noted above, Picasso‘s first depiction of his Dove of Peace showed a white dove carrying an olive branch, the olive branch being another symbol of peace. In Picasso’s subsequent portrayals of the Dove of Peace, his dove is whiter but it still carries an olive branch. Picasso thereby rooted his symbol of peace in one of the world’s most powerful etiological texts, the Book of Genesis, which contains the story of Noah’s Ark.

Etiological texts explain origins and causes. I have noted elsewhere that children’s literature is a rich source of pourquoi stories such as Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories. Yet, the Bible, the Book of Genesis in particular, is a pourquoi (why) story.

Man has always sought an explanation to the human condition, his mortality, giving himself a past, a process called anamnesis, which, at times, may be his only sustenance.

320px-Millais_-_Die_Rückkehr_der_Taube_zur_Arche_Noah

The Return of the Dove to the Ark by John Everett Millais, 1851 (WikiArt)

Genesis: Noah’s Ark

  • Genesis: Noah’s Ark
  • the Raven and the Dove
  • the Olive branch

“The Noah’s Ark narrative is repeated, with variations, in the Quran, where the ark appears as Safina Nūḥ (Arabic: سفينة نوح‎ ‘Noah’s boat’).” (See Noah’s Ark, Wikipedia.) As for the flood, it appears in several etiological texts or myths.

In Judaism (Genesis 8:11), the first Abrahamic religion, there was once a competition that opposed a raven and a dove. During the flood, Noah’s Ark sheltered every animal, a male and a female of each species. When the water receded, Noah dispatched a raven to ascertain whether the flood was over and the land dry. The raven, a scavenger, did not return, which may have cost several crows, such as the crow in the Crow and Fox, their reputation. Noah then entrusted a dove to seek dry land.

[A]nd the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so, Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.
(Genesis 8:11)

In the Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2100 BCE or earlier), “Utnapishtim releases a dove and a raven to find land; the dove merely circles and returns. Only then does Utnapishtim send forth the raven, which does not return, and Utnapishtim concludes the raven has found land.” (See Doves as Symbols, Wikipedia.)

Doves, or the homing pigeon, have therefore been messengers since Noah’s Ark, if not earlier. God nearly destroyed what He had created, but humanity survived and entered into a series of covenants. For our purpose, however, we need only tell that a dove, who may have been white, was the first animal to bring Noah a sign indicating that life had been preserved. This dove was a messenger.

There are conflicting versions of this account, i.e. Noah’s Ark. One features two doves, but I have chosen the one-dove account. In Judaism, the first Abrahamic religion, and Christianity, the second Abrahamic religion, a dove, carrying an olive branch, brought Noah, a fine message: life had been preserved. The Ark is a sign of survival. The sacred text of the third Abrahamic religion, Islam, is the Quran, and it contains a Noah’s Ark narrative. A flood is a central event in many mythologies.

The Dove of Peace & the Olive Branch

As noted above, Picasso‘s Dove of Peace is white and carries an olive leaf or branch in its beak.

Picasso’s first depiction of his Dove of Peace showed a dove carrying an olive branch. In Picasso’s subsequent portrayals of the Dove of Peace, his dove is whiter and surrounded by olive leaves that one could mistake for flowers. Picasso thereby rooted his symbol in one of the world’s most powerful etiological texts, the Book of Genesis.

Etiological texts explain origins and causes. I have noted elsewhere that children’s literature is a rich source of pourquoi stories such as Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories. Yet, the Bible, the Book of Genesis in particular, is a pourquoi (why) story. Man has always sought an explanation to the human condition, his mortality.

Bartolomé_Esteban_Perez_Murillo_003

The Holy Spirit as a dove in the “Heavenly Trinity” joined to the  “Earthly Trinity” through the Incarnation of the Son, by Murillo, c. 1677 (The Yorck Project [2002])

Doves in Christianity and the Release Dove

In Christianity, a white dove represents the Holy Spirit and the Trinity, where he is one of the person of God. Christianity is a monotheistic religion, as are all three Abrahamic religions, but the Christian God consists of three consubstantial (hypostasis) persons,  “each person itself being God.” (See The Holy Spirit in Christianity, Wikipedia.) The Christian dove is white, as are angels, mythical winged creatures, and the Unicorn, who can only be tamed by a virgin.

Doves are also used in ceremonials. These doves are called release doves. During Pope John Paul II‘s 1984 visit to Montreal, white doves were released and a sixteen-year old Céline Dion sang Une Colombe. Release doves have an innate homing instinct.

Junge_Frau_mit_Taubenpost (1)

Young lady in oriental clothing with a homing pigeon (19th century painting) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Doves, as the Symbol of Love and “Language”

  • “Ubique Loquimur”
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein: a Private Language
  • Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin: Æsopian
  • music

Aphrodite, Venus in Roman mythology, is “the ancient Greek goddess of love, beauty,  pleasure, and procreation.” Love’s symbology consists of myrtles, roses, doves, sparrows, and swans. (See also Aphrodite, Britannica.)

As messengers, doves have spoken since time immemorial. Homing pigeons, or rock doves, carry a message, but doves roucoulent or coo. It is a rather muted sound. They may therefore be telling the ineffable, speaking a private language, as understood by Ludwig Wittgenstein. A private language “must be in principle incapable of translation into an ordinary language.” (See Private Language Argument, Wikipedia.)

They may also be speaking Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin‘s (27 January  1826 – 10 May 1889) aesopian, a term first used to describe a language unclear to outsiders, thereby allowing authors to say what they please with relative impunity. In La Fontaine‘s fables, many of which are retellings of Æsop‘s fables, animals are as eloquent as they are silent. Louis XIV punished La Fontaine, who asked that Nicolas Fouquet be spared too harsh a punishment. La Fontaine was not elected to the Académie française until 1682, when he was more than 60 years old.

Music

Lovers are indeed at a loss for words. In love as in war, humans need a camouflaged language. Music may, in fact, be a lover’s main recourse, be it opera or the humble song. We had trouvères (langue d’oc) in southern France and troubadours (langue d’oïl) in northern France. In medieval German-speaking lands, the Minnesang was a love song performed by Minnesänger. Guillaume Apollinaire’s Marie: the Words to a Love Song (29 June 2015) is an example of the power of music and poetry. Other examples, in the French language, are Les Feuilles Mortes, performed by Yves Montand and Jacques Brel‘s poignant Ne me quitte pas. 

lg_1095667

White Doves by Henry Ryland, 1891 (Courtesy Leighton Fine Art Galery)

Conclusion

I have also discussed mankind’s wish for wings or his need to have wings. Icarus flew too close to the sun, the god Helios. His wings being attached to his body with wax, the wax melted and he fell into the sea. Yet humankind has since built sophisticated aircrafts, and messages may be forwarded in a matter of seconds.

“Ubique Loquimur”

Love to everyone ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

  • Fables, Parables and the Ineffable (12 June 2018)
  • Marie: the Words to a Love Song (29 June 2015)
  • Winged Creatures: Pegasus and Icarus (20 November 2014)
  • Angels & Archangels: Michael, Lucifer… (14 November 2014)
  • Anthropomorphism and Zoomorphism (25 August 2013)
  • Vaux-le-Vicomte: Fouquet’s Rise and Fall (20 August 2013)
  • Jacques Brel’s “Ne me quitte pas” (7 July 2012)
  • Thursday’s News & Chansons (5 July 2012) (Yves Montand)
  • The Idea of Absolute Music (14 October 2011) (the ineffable)

Sources and Resources

  • The Epic of Gilgamesh is an Internet Archive publication
  • Homing Pigeon & Pigeon Intelligence, Wikipedia
  • Empowered by Colour (white)
  • Meaning of the Colour White (Jennifer Bourne)
  • The featured image is Britannica‘s

_________________________

[1] https://www.britannica.com/animal/dove-bird

Ludwig van Beethoven‘s Symphony No 6, 2nd movement

 

800px-Homing_Pigeon_on_path

A homing pigeon on a path outside (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
1st July 2018
WordPress

Céline Dion chante Une Colombe, 1984

117053-004-9BDDBB1A

 

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Christians leave the Middle East

24 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by michelinewalker in Beast Literature, The Crusades, The Middle East

≈ 25 Comments

Tags

Arabisation, Christianity, Corneille's Cid, El Cantar de Mio Cid, La Chanson de Roland, Orlando Furioso, the Coptic Church, the Crusades

Wright-WarTerrorismandtheChristianExodusfromtheMiddleEast-690St. George Church in Tanta, Egypt, after a suicide bombing on April 9th.
Credit PHOTOGRAPH BY NARIMAN EL-MOFTY / AP

War, Terrorism, and the Christian Exodus from the Middle East, The New Yorker
by Robin Wright (15 April 2017)
Please click on the title to read Robin Wright’s article.

Le Roman de Renart is a mock-epic. It is the underside of the chansons de geste and courtly love. This post excludes courtly literature to concentrate on France’s first and most important chanson de geste, the anonymous Chanson de Roland. Roland, King Charlemagne‘s nephew, and his twelve Paladins were defeated at the Battle of Roncevaux (778). Roland died.

It has been said that the Chanson de Roland is now forgotten. The Internet tells another story. It is still the subject matter of masterpieces of European literature. As we saw in my last post, Roland is Ludovico Ariosto‘s masterpiece Orlando Furioso. The Chanson de Roland may at times have been put aside, but Orlando Furioso has endured and inspired several authors down to this very day. Wikipedia’s entry on Orlando Furioso is a who’s who chronicling the arabisation of North Africa and the decline of Eastern Christianity rooted in the Fall of Constantinople to the Seljuq Turks on 29 May 1453.

The Millet protected Christians under Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, called the Conqueror, but Anatolia was not a Muslim country before the fall of Constantinople. The Ottoman Empire was defeated during World War I and dissolved under the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres.

800px-Orlando_Furioso_20

Ruggiero rescuing Angelica by Gustave Doré (Wikipedia)

260px-Cantigas_battle

A battle of the Reconquista from the Cantigas de Santa Maria (Wikipedia)

El Cantar de Mio Cid is a celebration of the Reconquista. The Moors were in the Iberian Peninsula from 711 until 1492. In literature, el Cid is also Pierre Corneille’s Le Cid (1936). The play was produced shortly after Richelieu founded the Académie-Française. Le Cid, a very successful play, created the first querelle. It violated the rule of the three unities: time (24 hours), action (minimum) and place (single). Rodrigue, Le Cid, succeeds in pushing back thousands of Moors.

The Crusades are the backdrop to Le Roman de Renart. Crusaders aimed to recover the Holy Land from Islamic Rule. (See Crusades, Wikipedia.) Renart talks himself out of a death sentence by claiming he must go to the Near East and expiate before he is put to death.

According to The New Yorker‘s Robin Wright, Christians are leaving the Near East. The Coptic Church was founded in 42 CE (Christian era).

Love to everyone ♥

combat_deuxic3a8me_croisade

A battle of the Second Crusade (illustration of William of Tyre‘s Histoire d’Outremer, 1337 (Wikipedia)

Sources and Resources 

  • Orlando Furioso is a Gutenberg publication [EBook #615]  EN
  • Chanson de Roland / Song of Roland [EBook #391] EN
  • El Cantar de Mio Cid pdf SP

Cantigas de Santa Maria
Cantiga 10 “Rosa des Rosas”
Performers: Malandança (Unha noite na corte do rei Alfonso X)

MALaute1

Cantigas de Santa Maria (Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
24 April 2017
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Natural Histories

03 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Beast Literature, Bestiaries, Illuminated Manuscripts

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Books of Hours, Christianity, David Badke, Illuminated Manuscripts, Lists of Historians, Marco Polo, Natural Histories, The Golden Legend, The Physiologus

m_03
Livre d’images de madame Marie Hainaut, vers 1285-1290 Paris, BnF, Naf 16251, fol. 22v. La naissance du Christ est annoncée aux bergers, aux humbles. “Et voici qu’un ange du seigneur leur apparut [.]. Ils furent saisis d’une grande frayeur. Mais l’ange leur dit : “Ne craignez point, car je vous annonce une bonne nouvelle [.]” (The Birth of Christ announced to the Shepherds) (Photo credit: the National Library of France [BnF])

 —ooo—

Introduction

I am providing you with a list of natural historians. There are other historians than those I have listed. Moreover, some of the authors of Medieval Bestiaries were historians. My sources are the Medieval Bestiary and Wikipedia.

The Contents of Natural Histories

Nature included not only animals, plants, flowers, but “the moon, stars, and the zodiac, the sun, the planets, the seasons and the calendar[.]” (Vincent de Beauvais). I have already noted that our humble calendars were cultural monuments. Jean de France’s Livre d’heures (Book of Hours) is probably the chief example of humanity’s need to chronicle its hours and the labours of the months. Les Très Riches Heures de Jean de France, Duc de Berry and the Book of Kells are genuine treasures. The beauty of the Book of Kells never ceases to amaze me. It is always new. As for Jean de France, Duc de Berry’s Livre d’heures, it is also an extremely beautiful book and it features the zodiac, thereby attesting to the continuity between “paganism” and Christianity.

The Testimonial of Explorers: Marco Polo

The authors of the Natural Histories relied to a large extent on the testimonial of earlier natural historians, which did not make for accuracy, but was acceptable in the Middle Ages. Predecessors were masters one strove to equal. Marco Polo‘s (15 September 1254 – 8–9 January 1324) Book of the Marvels of the World (Le Livre des merveilles du monde), c. 1300, was also a source for natural historians who lived during Marco Polo’s lifetime and afterwards.

Marco Polo, however, did not have a camera and it would appear that few artists accompanied him. His descriptions could therefore be edited. Discovering trade routes, the silk road, was a more important mission for him than cataloguing animals. Last September (2014), it was suggested that Marco Polo discovered America. (See The Telegraph.)

The Bestseller of the Middle Ages: The Golden Legend

Although Natural Histories listed mythical animals and much lore, I would not dismiss the accounts of the natural historians of Greece, Rome, early Christianity, and the Christian Middle Ages. Their books reveal various steps in our history. For instance, the bestseller of the Middle Ages was Jacobus de Voragine’s (c. 1230 – 13 or 16 July 1298) Golden Legend, which contained mostly inaccurate hagiographies (lives of saints). Although it was rather fanciful, it served as mythology and humans need mythologies. They need to trace their roots.

Claudius Alienus’ On the Characteristics of Animals is available in print: Book 1, Book 2. But it may be read online at Internet Archive (Book 1, Book 2, Book 3). So are other books. For my purposes, On the Characteristics of Animals (EN) was extremely useful. It is the natural history I used when I prepared my course on Beast Literature.

lat_8878_014
Beatus de Saint-Sever. Manuscrit copié à Saint-Sever, XIe siècle, avant 1072 BnF, Manuscrits, Latin 8878 fol. 14 (An “historiated” letter: note the “eternal” knots and Renart standing on its back legs.) (Photo credit: the National Library of France [BnF]) 
Guillaume de Machaut, Rondeaux. Manuscrit copié à Reims, vers 1373-1377.  BnF, Manuscrits, Français 1584 fol. 478
Guillaume de Machaut, Rondeaux. Manuscrit copié à Reims, vers 1373-1377.
BnF, Manuscrits, Français 1584 fol. 478 (Renart sits inside an historiated initial.) (Photo credit: BnF)

Natural Histories

Among historians, we can name:

  • Aelian (Claudius Alieanus) (c. 175 – c. 235 CE);
  • Æsop’s Fables (620 and 560 BCE);
  • Saint Ambrose (c. 340 – 4 April 397), Bishop of Milan;
  • Augustine of Hippo or St Augustine (13 November 354 CE – 28 August 430);
  • John Chrysostom c. 347 – 407);
  • Gervaise (end of 12th century), Bayeux, a Bestiaire);
  • Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales, Gerald of Wales or Gerald de Barri) (c. 1146 – c. 1223);
  • Guillaume le Clerc (early 13th century), Anglo-Norman, Bestiaire divin, written around 1210 or 1211);
  • Hugh of Fouilloy (early 12th century), Anglo-Norman, Livre des Créatures, or Liber de Creatures, c. 1119, De avibus [birds]); 
  • Hugh of Saint Victor
  • Hrabanus Maurus (c. 780-856), Archbishop of Mainz, De rerum naturis (On the Nature of Things), or De universo, an encyclopedia in 22 books, written between 842 and 847);
  • Isidore of Seville (St. Isidore) (c. 560 – 4 April 636 CE), Archbishop of Seville, Etymologiæ;
  • Lambert of Saint-Omer (c. 1061 – 1250), Liber floridus (“book of flowers”), Le Livre fleurissant en fleurs;
  • Lucan (3 November 39 CE – 20 April 65 CE), Roman, Pharsalia (unfinished);
  • Jacob van Maerlant (c. 1235 – 1291), greatest Flemish poet of the Middle Ages, Der Naturen Bloeme, a translation in Middle Dutch of Thomas of Cantimpré’s Liber de Natura Rerum;
  • Konrad von Megenberg (early 14th century), Bavaria, studied in Paris, Das Buch der Natur, his source was Thomas of Cantimpré;
  • Ovid (20 March 43 BC – 17/18 BCE), the author of the Metamorphoses;
  • Philippe de Thaon (early 13th century), Anglo-Norman writer, Livre des Créatures, or Liber de Creatures;
  • the author of the anonymous Physiologus;
  • Pliny the Elder (23 CE – 24 or 25 August 79 CE), Naturalis Historia (mentioned below);
  • Strabo (63/64 BCE – c. 24 CE), Greek, Geographica;
  • Theophrastus (c. 370 – 285 BCE), Enquiry into Plants (9 books), On the Causes of Plants (six books) (Theophrastus will be discussed separately);
  • Thomas of Cantimpré (early 13th century, Brussels), Liber de Natura Rerum (19 books in 1228, 20 books in 1244);
  • Vincent of Beauvais (c. 1190 – 1264?), a French Dominican friar, Speculum [mirror] naturale. His Speculum Maius was the main encyclopedia used in the Middle Ages.
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is vincent_de_beauvais.jpg
Vincent de Beauvais (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bestiary.ca

My list is the Medieval Bestiary‘s list. It can be found by clicking on Bestiary.ca. The following authors are fascinating:

  • Pliny the Elder (23 CE – 79 CE) wrote a Naturalis Historia, a History of Nature. Pliny died in the eruption of Vesuvius, on 24 August 79 CE. Accounts differ. Pliny the Elder may have been studying the eruption, but he was also trying to rescue friends. Pliny the Younger, Pliny the Elder’s nephew, wrote two letters on the eruption of Vesuvius that he sent to Tacitus. Pliny the Younger was a witness to the eruption of Vesuvius, but survived. (See Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, and Tacitus, Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia.)
  • Claudius Alienus (c. 175 – c. 235 CE) known as Aelian, is the author of On the Characteristics of Animals. Aelian, however, used written sources, one of which was Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia. Aelian told how beavers castrate themselves to escape hunters. As mentioned above, Aelian’s On the Characteristics of Animals is an Internet Archive publication Book 1, Book 2, Book 3. (See Claudius Alienus, Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia.)

RELATED ARTICLES

  • Allegorical Illuminated Manuscripts: the Medieval Bestiaries (20 February 2013)
  • The Book of Kells Revisited (17 March 2013) ♥
  • Books of Hours, a Rich Legacy (8 February 2013)
  • Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (21 December 2012)
  • Jacques de Voragine & the Golden Legend (6 February 2012)
  • The Fitzwilliam Book of Hours (20 November 2011)
  • The Book of Kells (18 November 2011)

Sources and Resources

  • The Medieval Bestiary or Bestiary.ca (David Badke)
  • Beast Index (David Badke) in Bestiary.ca
  • Dogs, The Medieval Bestiary
  • Aelian’s On the Characteristics of Animals is an Internet Archive publication. (Book 1, Book 2, Book 3).
  • List of “naturalists” or historians who wrote Natural Histories: Bestiary.ca

My kindest regards to all of you.

—ooo—

Guillaume de Machaut – Complainte: Tels rit au matin qui au soir pleure (Le Remède de Fortune) (He laughs in the morning who cries when evening comes)   

 

Beatus de Saint-Sever. Manuscrit copié à Saint-Sever, XIe siècle, avant 1072  BNF, Manuscrits, Latin 8878 fol. 14
© Micheline Walker
3 October 2014
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Animal Lore, or “Beasts override Genre”

30 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Beast Literature, Fables

≈ Comments Off on Animal Lore, or “Beasts override Genre”

Tags

Animal Lore, beast literature, Christianity, courtly love, Genre, Jan M. Ziolkowski, Legendary Animals, Love Bestiaries, Medieval Bestiary, Moral/Allegory

 
 

Physiologus Cambrai, vers 1270-1275 Douai, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 711, fol. 17

Physiologus, Adam nomme les animaux (Adam names the animals)
Cambrai, vers 1270-1275
Douai, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 711, fol. 17 (Photo credit: BnF) (click)

The Fable

One particular collection of fables, the Ysopet-Avionnet, was used in the schools of medieval France and continued to be published for centuries (see “The Cock and the Pearl,” La Fontaine cont’d). The word “Ysopet,”[1] was a diminutive for “a collection of fables by Ésope,” or Æsop. The term Ysopet, or Isopet, was first used to describe a collection of 102 fables by Marie de France (late 12th century), written in Anglo-Norman in octosyllabic couplets. As for the word Avionnet, it was derived from Avianus (c. 400 CE), the name of a Latin writer of fables whose fables belong to the Babrius (Greek) tradition and “identified as a pagan.” (See Avianus, Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia). The goal of fabulists was the Horatian “to inform or delight.” Horace advocated a mixture of both: information and pleasure.

Beast Literature and Christianity

Medieval Bestiaries
the Moral
legendary or mythical animals
St. Augustine
 

Bestiaries differ from fables in that they contain a Christian moral/ allegory, but like fables, they are a form of instruction. The fox is the devil, and the lamb, Christ, etc. However, Bestiaries closely resemble fables because both genres feature animals and are more or less a form of teaching. The presence of animals sets a distance between the reader and the teaching provided by a fable or a bestiary. The moral is instructive in both genres, but not directly. The animal functions as a buffer.

Moreover, as we have seen, the attributes of animals were defined by “universal popular consent.” Such was particularly the case with Medieval Bestiaries. Animals dwelling in fables and Bestiaires are neither zoological animals, nor humans in disguise. They are allegorical and most are zoomorphic, especially Christian Medieval Bestiaires. (See The Medieval Bestiary, David Badke, ed.)

Interestingly, Medieval Bestiaries feature a large number of legendary or mythical animals. The better-known are the Unicorn, the Dragon, the Griffin and the Phoenix, but Christian Medieval Bestiaries featured several other fantastical beasts, now mostly forgotten. It would be my opinion that Christianity had its prerogatives and that the relatively new Church needed several animals to exemplify human and sinful conduct.

Moreover, many Natural Historians were Christians. At any rate, the Bonnacon shown below was not exactly real and its manners were questionable.

img155

Kongelige Bibliotek, Gl. kgl. S. 1633 4º, Folio 10r

“A beast like a bull, that uses its dung as a weapon.” (F 10r) (Photo credit: The Medieval Bestiary)

St. Augustine and Truth

Allow me to quote Book 21, Chapter 5 of  Augustine of Hippo‘s City of God. Augustine of Hippo was St. Augustine and he writes “[t]hat There are Many Things Which Reason Cannot Account For, and Which are Nevertheless True.” Augustine of Hippo published his City of God in 426 CE. (See City of God, Wikipedia.)

This kind of truth is what I have grown to describe as “poetical” truth (my term).

Bestiaires d’amour

However, some Medieval Bestiaries were love Bestiaries and were therefore associated with courtly love and the very popular  Roman de la Rose. The Roman de la Rose, authored by Guillaume de Lorris (c. 1200 – c. 1240) and Jean the Meun(g) (c. 1240 – c. 1305), was allegorical:

“At various times in the poem, the “Rose” of the title is seen as the name of the lady, and as a symbol of female sexuality in general. Likewise, the other characters’ names function both as regular names and as abstractions illustrating the various factors that are involved in a love affair.” (See Roman de la Rose, Wikipedia.)

In my last post, I featured a lion belonging to a Bestiaire d’amour. It was breathing life into dead offspring. This is what a lady was to do to revive a man after lovemaking, or “petite mort.” Petite mort is an orgasm. The symbolism attached to Beasts dwelling in Love Bestiaries (Bestiaires d’amour) was, therefore, less Christian than the symbolism of animals inhabiting other Bestiaries. The most famous Love Bestiary is Richard de Fournival‘s (1201 – ?1260).

Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 1951, Folio 18r

Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 1951, Folio 18r (Richard de Fournival)

“‘le lyon [above] qui fait revivre ses lyonciaus’ – The lion revives its dead cubs. In the Bestiaire d’amour the man says that in the same way the woman can revive him from his love-death.” (fol. 18r) (Photo credit: BnF)

The courtly love traditional therefore incorporated animal lore, just as it included the lyrical poems of troubadours, trouvères, the Minnesingers, and lyric poets associated with movements such as trobadorismo or trovarismo. By the way, there were women troubadours: the Trobairitz.

Troubadours (Berlin) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Vilém9

William IX of Aquitaine portrayed as a knight, who first composed poetry on returning from the Crusade of 1101. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Animal Lore

Jan M. Ziolkowski writes that “beasts override genre.”[2] He does so on page 1 of his Introduction to Talking Animals). Professor Ziolkowski is perfectly right. In Medieval Bestiaries, beasts were mostly the same from genre to genre: fables, Medieval Bestiaries and the satirical Roman de Renart. Beasts even override paganism and Christianity as well as the Old and the New Testaments. After all, Christmas replaced the pagan Roman Saturnalia. There had to be a feast on the day of the longest night.

To return to “beast literature” (Ziolkowski, p. 1), “The Dog and its Reflection” is included in the Æsopic corpus (Perry Index 133)[3] and is also a fable told in Kalīlah wa Dimnah, and, according to one source, it is included in Le Livre des Lumières or Les Fables de Pilpay, philosophe indien, ou la conduite des rois (a 1698 edition [1644]), Æsop was a Levantin, i.e. from the Levant. With respect to fables, West meets East.

Kalīlah wa Dimnah is an Arabic rendition, by Persian scholar Ibn al-Muqaffa’, of the Sanskrit Panchatantra and Jean de La Fontaine, the author of Le Chien qui lâche sa proie pour l’ombre  (1.VI.17), read fables by Pilpay. Yet, the Christian Medieval Bestiary tells that dogs leave the prey they have caught for a prey they may not catch. It may be a mere shadow.

When I was assigned a course on best literature, I divided my material in the following the following genres, roughly speaking:

  • fables (Æsop and retellers),
  • beast epics (Reynard the Fox and fabliaux),
  • the Medieval Bestiaries (The Ashmole Bestiary, etc.),
  • and Natural Histories (The Physiologus, etc.), yet to be listed.

However, I had to mention mythological beasts, lycanthropes, and also discussed children’s literature.  Kenneth Grahame created a “reluctant dragon,” and the use of a toad as the protagonist of The Wind in the Willows made for an upside-down-world, a mundus inversus.

Moreover Æsop, who lived in Greece, was a “Levantin.” There is an Eastern tradition to Æsop’s fables even though, according to some sources, there never lived an Æsop. I was on sabbatical writing a book on Molière when I was assigned a course on Beast literature. I could not refuse to teach it. I therefore joined the International Reynard Society and gave a paper at the forthcoming meeting of the Society, in Hull, England.

A Dutch colleague steered me in the right direction, but the course nevertheless ended my career as a teacher. Would that I could have changed the course into animals in Charles Perrault’s Contes de ma mère l’Oye and Madame de Villeneuve’s La Belle et la Bête, but someone else was teaching a course on fairy tales. Beast literature includes fairy tales.

My  kindest regards to all of you. ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

  • The Fox by Universal Popular Consent (25 September 2014)
  • The Codex Manesse (20 September 2014)
  • Dogs a Long Time Ago (12 September 2014)
  • La Fontaine’s “The Dog that dropped the Substance for the Shadow” (10 September 2014)
  • “The Cock and the Pearl” La Fontaine cont’d (11 October 2013)
  • Le Roman de la Rose (8 March 2013)

Sources and Resources

  • Bibliothèque nationale de France
  • The Roman de la Rose is a Gutenberg project publication (EBook #16816) FR
  • an Internet Archive publication FR
  • a Medieval Skills publication: Roman de la Rose digitized EN ♥
  • The Ysopet-Avionnet is an Internet Archive publication Latin FR
  • Les Fables de Pilpay, philosophe indien, ou la conduite des rois [FR]
  • Les Fables de Pilpay, philosophe indien, ou la conduite des rois [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5674720s] FR

—ooo—

[1] “Ysopet”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 29 sept. 2014
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/654299/Ysopet>.

[2] Jan M. Ziolkowski, Talking Animals: Medieval Latin Beast Poetry, 750 – 1150 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), p. 1.

[3] Ben Edwin Perry (1892–1968) catalogued Æsop’s fables.

E, Dame Jolie & Douce Dame Jolie
Love song 13th-14th century
Chanson d’amour du Moyen-Âge.

Vilém9
 
© Micheline Walker
30 September 2014
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Happy Easter

08 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Music

≈ 629 Comments

Tags

Christianity, Easter, Flickr, God, Holiday, Jesus, Religion and Spirituality, Wikipedia

 Pâques©mw

Pâques, by Micheline Walker

I would like to wish all of you a very Happy Easter.  To the left, you will find a fanciful and unfinished painting.  I did it without a model and it is poorly photographed.  But, it is colourful and depicts Easter in a humble way.

Today, I hope to go to Mass at Saint-Benoît-du-Lac.  I am privileged in that I live a short drive away from a Benedictine Abbey.  Two of the Monks are excellent organists, so I sit near the organ and I listen to Gregorian Chant. 

May this Easter be a joyful celebration.

J.S. Bach – Easter Oratorio, BWV 249  

 (please click on the title to hear the music) 

Saint Benedict Abbey, Saint-Benoît-du-Lac, tak...

Saint Benedict Abbey, Saint-Benoît-du-Lac, taken on June 8, 2008. Uploaded to Flickr by its author, colros (Colin Rose), under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Français : Abbaye de Saint-Benoît-du-Lac (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

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