medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear All
I am looking for one motif in medieval art- a squirrel
crossing a river.( Sometimes the squirrel is described as using a boat made
from a nutshell, using her tail as a sail, or else - sometimes - a leaf).
This text appears in bestiaries of the third fam- 1220-1240 and in 2
encyclopedias- Alexander Neckam and Thomas von Cantimpre. Druce in his
article " The medieval bestiaries and their influence on
ecclesiastical decorative art, II" p.67 says that this tale appears also in
2 mss of 14c ( Collections of the moral tales, part of them were included in
Gesta Romanorum)
- BL Harley 7322 and BL Royal E 21, but alas, does not note folios numbers.
Of course, it is a little bit late for me, since i want to trace this story
back to
pre-XIIIth century sources, but i take it as a starting point and hope it
will lead me somewhere.
I would like to ask You whether by any chance You worked on these mss., or
else, maybe, You have encountered this motif elsewhere, especially in fables
and tales.
As to the representation of this motif in art:
According to Druce, a representation of this story appears in Winchester,
Norwich,
Lincoln, Ulm and other place which Druce did not mention.
( I already have the Norwich pic and a picture of a souvenire copy of the
one from Lincoln
and would be very interested to know whether You have come across a
misericord or other pic like this.
Thank You,
Ilya
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|