Hrabanus Maurus on Giraffe
Patrologia Latina Cursus Completus LXIII, 222B
Cameleopardus dictus, quod dum sit, ut pardus, albis maculis aspersus, collo equo similis, pedibus bubulis, capite tamen camelo est similis. Hunc Æthiopia gignit. Nec ab re est, quod bestiarum harum color et factura ad significationem variorum errorum atque vitiorum transferatur, si alicubi in scripturis illius mentio fuerit reperta.
Paraphrase and commentary
As one can suppose medieval authors had difficulties when they had to describe an animal that they had never seen with their own eyes. Such is the case with the giraffe. Romans in the imperial Rome knew how giraffe looked like and Pliny was able to give a fare description of the animal stating that it had neck of a horse, the legs and feet of the ox and the head of a camel. In addition Pliny remarked that it has a red coloured fur decorated with white spots.i In comparison to Pliny's and Isidore's account which he rendered almost word-for-word, Hrabanus also added the mystical explanation of mentioning the beast in the Bible.
- The camelopard (i.e. giraffe) is called like that for, while it has a fur with white spots like the leopard, it has the neck of the horse, the feet of an ox, but its head is like that of the camel. Its birthplace is Ethiopia. Nor is it irrelevant [to notice] that the colour of these beasts and the stature refers to the various sins and vices, if it should be mention anywhere in the Scripture.
Footnotes
i Pliny stated that in the time of Cesar's dictatorship in the ludi circenses Romans saw giraffes for the first time (Pliny, Natural History, book 8, 27).
