Dear Serban Marin
The Gryphon is always described and depicted in medieval Bestiaries. Most
of the text being normally a quotation from Isidorus. Before you proceed
with your studies is it worth taking a look at the text. It was generally
known to all educated people from the early 13th-15th century.
There is a link on my website to a facsimile edition in The Royal Library
in Copenhagen:
http://www.chd.dk/gui/gks1633_guide.html
(go down to folio 8, where a click on the folio number to the left will
fetch you a facsimile picture of the page in an English Bestiarium.
Text: "Grifes vocatur eo quod sit animal pennatum et quadrupes. Hoc genus
ferarum in hyperboreis nascitur locis vel montibus. Omni parte corporis sui
leoni. Alis vero et facie, aquilis simile. Equis vehementer infestum. Nam
et homines visos decerpit."// [Isidorus XII,ii,17]
Best wishes
Erik Drigsdahl
At 21:29 +0200 29/01/2001, Serban Marin wrote:
>I have a question: could anybody give some examples of medieval works that
>mention the denomination of "griffoni" or "griffons"?
>I mention that generally these "griffoni" could have a double connotation:
>an ethnical one (meaning "Greeks") and a social one (meaning "peasants"),
>both of them leading directly or indirectly to a pejorative sense: persons
>of law condition.
_____________________________________________________________________
Mag.art. Erik Drigsdahl CHD Center for Haandskriftstudier i Danmark
Kapelvej 25B 3.tv Phone: +45 +35 37 20 47
DK-2200 Copenhagen N Email: <[log in to unmask]>
DENMARK http://www.chd.dk
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