Myth and Reality

«&*

Rüdiger Robert Beer

 >$lß.^S

UNICORN:
Myth and Reality
by Rüdiger Robert Beer
by Charles M. Stern
translated

Though it never roamed the earth, the

unicorn has fascinated both storyteller

and artist for thousands of years. How
and where was this beast of fable
created What contrasting beliefs has it
?

symbolized? What needs did it fulfill for

those who believed in it ? What was it ptotHii*

supposed to have looked like ? (The

single horn was variously thought to
curve as well as to grow straight out;
to issue from the nose as well as the
forehead).
This lavishly illustrated history, the
result of over a decade of research,
reveals much that is surprising: the
existence of the unicorn was so rooted in
Grecian culture, for instance, that even •mawiiu^

Aristotle developed a theory about the

singularity of the horn. The author
traces the unicorn's first appearances in
Europe, centuries before the birth of
Christ, to its arrival in The Cloisters in
New York and into the pages of
entieth-century poetry books. Its

unage is brought to life in references to

the literature of East and West, through
the use of ancient illustrated manu-
woodcuts,
scripts, tapestries, sculptures,
engravings, church decorations and arch-
itectural bas-reliefs.

nOatr J>C 1 «*<

Jacket design by Les Lawrence
Beer, Rudiger Robert fO PUBLIC LIBRARY
l'nicorn mvth and realitv
^fBEER 3 1111 00794 3440

SALITO PUBLIC LIBRARY

UNICORN
All, all in Life's but repetition,
Fancy sole is new in ev'ry stage.

What in past days nowhere came to vision,

That alone doth never age!

Friedrich von Schiller

From: To My Friends
UNICORN
Myth and Reality

Rüdiger Robert Beer

Translated by Charles M.Stern

VAN NOSTRAND REINHOLD COMPANY

2SE New York Cincinnati Toronto London Melbourne

A James J Kery Book

EffiBÄErro PUBLIC LIBRARY

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 77-8173 The Author tenders his sincerest thanks to those many friends
ISBN 0-442-80583-7 whose suggestions and advice have for more than a decade-
fostered and encouraged his researches on the Unicorn.
All rights reserved. No work may be reproduced
part of this
or used in any form or by any means —
graphic, electronic, or Originally published in West Germany 19~2 .is

mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping Einhorn: Fabelwelt und Wirklichkeit

or information storage and retrieval systems without written — © 1972 Verlag Georg D. W. Callwey. München
permission of the publisher.
Der Silberdistelwald aus Gedichte — Oskar Loerke
Printed in the United States of America. © S. Fischer Verlag GmbH. Frankfurt am Main, 1954
Einhorn-aus Heir-Hilde Domin © S. Fisher Verlag GmbH
Published by Van Nostrand Reinhold Company Frankfurt am Main. 1954
1 35 West 50th Street, New York, NY 10020, U.S.A.
The poem Unicorn Hunt by Eckart Kiessmann was quoted
by kind permission of the author. The original is from the
Van Nostrand Reinhold Limited volume of poetry Einhornjagd (Unicorn Hunt). Stuttgart,
1410 Birchmount Road 1963.
Scarborough, Ontario MlP 2E7, Canada

Van Nostrand Reinhold Australia Pty. Ltd.

17 Queen Street
Mitcham. Victoria 3132, Australia

Van Nostrand Reinhold Company Limited

Molly Millars Lane
Workingham, Berkshire, England

16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Beer, Rüdiger Robert.

Unicorn.
Translation of Einhorn: Fabelwelt und Wirklichkeit
Bibliography: p.
Includes index. The jacket illustration is a woodcut
I. Unicorns. I. Title. taken from Tierbuch (Animal Book),
GR830.U6B4413 700 77-8173 by Michael Herr, Strassburg, 1546.
 1 31

Contents

1. A Fascinating Figment 7 9. The Costly Horn 1

1

ion to the contradictory nature of the How Unicorn's horn was priced as a medicine for
beast centuries

2. Reports from the East 1

10. On Helm and Scutcheon 137
Firsr appearances of the unicorn in Europe The age of chivalry adopts the unicorn as symbol
through Greek accounts of the Indian wild ass of knightly strength and womanly virtue

3. The Biblical Beast 20 11. Wild Men and Women's Wiles 143
The Septuagint translation brings the unicorn Traditional tales and artistic motifs of
into the scriptures, the patristic writings, and enticement of the unicorn
the enduring symbols of the Church
12. 'My Sole Desire' 1 5
4. Tales from Physiologus 44 In search of the meaning of the famous Gobelin
The early Christian Xatnral Philosophy text tapestry, 'The Lady with the Unicorn''
fixes notions of the beast through the Middle
-Ages down to the present time
13. Captured Yet Free 159
The loveliest unicorn in the world comes from
5. Monstrous Symbols 71
New York
Europe to The Cloisters, in
The unicorn in the assemblage of other monsters
appearing in medieval churches
14. The Living Unicorn i
79
6. The Road to Mysticism 78 A survey of the existence of the unicorn from
/ antiquity to the present day
The \ irgin and the unicorn as symbols for the
Madonna and Christ

7. The Celestial Hunt 98

An archangel drives the Christ unicorn into Unicorn Bibliography i
96
Mary's bosom and the beast into a new motif of
Annunciation and Conception
Commentary on the
8. EyeWitnesses 109
Illustrations 203

The evidence of Hoi) Land pilgrims and a

reconstructed skeleton Index 214
 1. A Fascinating Figment
0, here's the beast that no existence hath.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, pt. 2

the unicorn is as old as the knowledge of ancient China and still appears
in contemporary literature, butit has never actually roamed the earth. It is a
creature which never existed but has nonetheless fascinated man for thousands
of years.
In childhood we learn about unicorns; for many of us, our first encounter
with the beast may be through the fairy tale of the bold little tailor who had
to fulfill three tasks to gain the hand of the princess. One of those tasks was
to catch a unicorn which was devastating her father's realm. With axe and
rope in hand, the provokes the beast, and at the
tailor enters the forest,

crucial moment jumps behind a tree. The infuriated animal charges, rams
the trunk with his horn, and thus becomes helpless to evade the rope by
which the tailor will lead him to the king. The idea of trapping the creature
by such a rugged method predates any European tale; from time immemorial
the lion used similar ruses in his legendary battles with the unicorn. There
is, as we shall see, a neater and more clever way of overcoming the unicorn,

but in any case, it was always the king who had prior claim to the spoil;
unicorn hunting was indeed a royal prerogative.
The creature of fable is very much with us outside of books too. The
German poet Christian Morgenstern is wrong in his contention that the
unicorn survives "only on tavern signboards." You can, for example, today
buy your medicine at scores of "Unicorn" pharmacies in Western Europe
and elsewhere. Before house numbers came into use, dwellings were
frequently identified by animal names, and anyone setting up a business, say
a tavern or printing house, accordingly took over the original name and
sign. Through
their relationship to the evangelists, symbols such as the bull,
eagle, and lion had some religious connotation, as did the unicorn.
Apothecaries without doubt were particularly happy to acquire the unicorn
symbol, for it had gained both a spiritual and medical significance.
In many a church, the elegant beast is present in the coats of arms or
crests of tombstone escutcheons. In more houses of worship, it is
still

present in the words of the service. Libera me de ore leonis: et a cornibus

unicornium humilitatem meam says Psalm 21 of the Palm Sunday tract in the

Three-inch tall ibex, Persian, middle Roman missal; it is rendered in the vernacular as"Deliver me from the lion's
of second century b.c. mouth: and my lowliness from the horns of unicorns." In the King
James version this is Psalm 12:11, "Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou

has heard me
from the horns of the unicorns," but in modern Protestant
versions the animal is weakened to- a wild beast or wild ox. This was the
psalm recited by Christ on the cross. If your eyes are sharp enough, you can
spot him in sacred precincts and in museums more frequently than you
might imagine. The unicorn is clearly something greater than a mere
curiosity. What is it then ?
The image of the unicorn has evolved variously in the cultures of mankind.
Although nobody knows for certain, it presumably reached Europe from
the ranges and plains of India, travelling along three more or less parallel
routes until these contracted, intersected, and merged. It originally appeared
as a literary creation; pictorial representation came later. The first route of
the unicorn was through the classical antiquity of the Greeks and Romans,
the second through the Bible, and the third through an early Christian
manuscript on natural history, the Physiologus, or "Natural Philosopher,"
which also emanated from the Near East. We shall be delving further into
each of these routes as well as following the journey of the fabulous beast
through Western civilization, even to its ramifications in America.
The form of the animal varies little in the representations we can
physical
ordinarily discover around us: an equine body, cloven hooves, often a
goatee, always the long, tapering, spiraling horn. But once this was not the
case. Occasionally he bore some resemblance to a kid, ram, or stag. His horn
did not always point straight up or forward but sometimes curved backward
either gently or in a was even shown sometimes as growing from
bold arc; it

the nose. But this did not make

a rhinoceros out of him. Nevertheless, in
medieval literature the terms unicorn and rhinoceros were often synony-
mous. At times the unicorn was described as large as a mountain, or small
enough for a damsel to fondle in her lap. Sometimes it was hybrid, a combina-
tion of parts from various species. Since it had a special association with
water in both a medical and religious sense, it was occasionally given the
tail of a fish. And in Asia, the unicorn sprouted wings. Nor has its coloration
remained constant; it developed from white, as described in ancient reports,
to the yellow of boxwood, and later to the brownness of a stag. In its latest,
noblest, almost overrefined form it regained its dazzling white of the
fairytale era. In modern novels the unicorn sometimes turns up as a female

despite the inherent maleness of the beast. Perhaps this is a reverberation of

its grammatically female character in some languages (as la licorne in French).

Predominant in accounts of the unicorn are the practical qualities of the
animal's horn as an effective antidote and cure-all. (Hence the significance
of the unicorn in pharmacies.) Naturally it is tempting to imagine the
unicorn's horn as belonging in the alchemist's armamentarium. The mystics
 could scarcely ignore that magical token which penetrated esoteric cabals
such as the Rosicrucians. The horn was a treasured love potion and even
today represents an aphrodisiac, although chamois horn is now its accepted
substitute. From the very beginning, the unicorn appeared everywhere as a
symbol of fertility, potency, and trenchant virility. The phallic symbolism of
the horn persists even in later ecclesiological evolutions of the myth.
The unicorn was viewed by the ancients. Its diverse,
coolly and scientifically
protean, symbolic, and mystic meaning came essentially from Christianity. At
a very early date, it became an ideograph for Christ, yet it stood also for
Death and the Devil; in this last case Asiatic influences were powerfully at
work. The unicorn represented the all-conquering power of the Lord, yet
at the same time it stood for meekness clad in the sinful garb of mankind. It

could be incorporated into armorial bearings as a sign of knightly courage

but might equally well symbolize monastic seclusion. Becoming associated
with the Virgin through the Son of Man, the unicorn was, further, a symbol
of chastity. But because of its boundless strength it also embodied unlimited
licentiousness: the horn as aphrodisiac in yet another guise. The contra-
dictory nature of the creature is manifold. It could symbolize Christians and
the unity of the Church as well as their adversaries, Jew or Gentile. In the
Middle Ages it could play two roles - one deadly earnest, the other loutish
buffoonery. Myth brings with it ambiguity. In man's primordial conscious-
ness, the divine verges on the sinister. Take the Latin wordwefr, for example;
both "holy" and "accursed" are among its meanings. And though the lion
symbolizes Christ's sovereignty, the devil, too, roams like a roaring lion.

The age of Romance and of nineteenth-century symbolic art made use of

the beast in a rather contrived manner. This seems true also for those specu-
lations which retrospectively interpreted the lion and the unicorn as a
coupled symbol for the sun and the moon. Right through to the present
day, the unicorn has been a stimulus to the arts, both fine and applied, to
painting and sculpture, poetry and music. In the words of the German
writer GustavRene Hocke, it is one of the most fascinating, protean symbols
in the European history of ideas.
The fabulous beast will elude any investigator who is informed solely by
reason, by his personal modern education and acquired knowledge. No, to
give the unicorn his due, one must try to put aside prejudice and become
steeped instead in the innocence and credulity of the centuries of men and
women who took the manifold forms of the beast in Only
all seriousness.

Virgin and unicorn from Hortus then is one rewarded in the pursuitand only then does one sense that the
samtatis (Garden of Health;, Mainz unicorn enjoyed a high degree of reality - and possibly still does! For the
fifteenth century unicorn is not a creature of logic.
 3- Chapter opening from Albertus
Magnus's bestiary Summa de creaturis
(German edition, 1545)

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2. Reports from the East

Its body, at least as big as a horse, was white. It had a scarlet head and
startlingly blue eyes. Its horn was a cubit long, white at the base, black in
the middle, blood-red at the tip. This was the Indian wild ass - the first

single-horned beast to appear in European geography and natural science.

As extraordinary as its coloring was its fleetness of foot. Because of the
ever-increasing momentum of its speed when pursued, the only way to
capture the animal was by encircling herds as the elder beasts led foals to
pasture. Instead of dashing for safety, the sires would fight with horn, hoof,
and jaws, costing the lives of many a horse and rider, although they
succumbed finally to the superior force of bows and arrows. [111. 4]
What could be so precious that men were willing to expose themselves to
such dangers ? The flesh of the one-horned ass was too bitter-tasting to be
eaten with enjoyment. But there were other parts of the sought-after beast
which served human needs. One of the fetlock bones, the quite heavy,
cinnamon-colored ankle bone, was popular for use as dice. We know
Romans played with cubes made from the bone, known in modern anatomy
as the talus, though as far as they were concerned, it did not come from the
unicorn but from the cow. The hunters' prize was, however, the horn,
which could be made into a magical drinking vessel. According to ancient
and oft-repeated reports, a draft from such a beaker warded off cramps,
epilepsy, and a gamut of other diseases. Most important among its powers
was that of neutralizing poison and protecting one using the vessel from any
contaminated drink. Obviously such a prophylactic was in great demand at

the courts of Asian rulers. Centuries later, Charles the Bold of Burgundy
and other spiritual and secular princes of the Renaissance were still demand-
ing a fragment of unicorn and a unicorn place setting to be always present
on their dining tables.
Perhaps the Greek historian whose writings introduced the unicorn to
European knowledge saw a unicorn goblet in use at the Persian court he
attended, although he never exactly asserted he saw the beast or even
visited its habitat in India. Ctesias of Cnidas was, like his fatherand grand-
father, a physician by profession, as was fitting for such a family his —
pedigree could be traced back to Aesculapius, the god of medicine. Ctesias
himself spent eight years as physician-in-ordinary to Artaxerxes II (Mnemon),
king of Persia, whose reign began about 405 b.c. When that monarch was
wounded in 401 B.c. at the battle of Cunaxa by a spear hurled by his brother
Cyrus, it was Ctesias who dressed his wounds.
This Greek evidently conducted himself with aplomb in the conniving
company of courtiers and Greece a wealthy man. He
in 398 b.c. returned to
returned not to his native island but to the Peloponnesus, where he began
writing his Persica, a history of Assyria and Babylonia. There he set down
his own experiences and the things he had learned from other sources,
including stories of India and the Far East told by merchants and envoys to
the Persian court, and the result enjoyed wide readership over a long period.
Alexander the Great is said to have devoured those reports on the mysterious
East —and that of course had consequences more far-reaching than is the
usual case when young people start reading of alien worlds.
Alexander's tutor Aristotle was obviously sceptical of Ctesias's writings
and quoted them with perceptible reservation in his own book on animals.
Although Ctesias maintained that he would not report anything he had not
seen for himself or learned from trustworthy sources (and that he had indeed
omitted several well-vouched items in order to avoid any suspicion of
implausibility), he does not enjoy any particular reputation for reliability in
the world of learning. Labelled as conceited, mendacious, and too indolent
for serious studies, he has nevertheless been cited frequently with or without
acknowledgment. For centuries natural scientists, physicians, and artists
based theirwork on his commentary on the unicorn.
What was the foundation of Ctesias's information? It is easier to determine
what did not contribute to his picture of a one-horned ass. For one thing,
although hunting the wild ass was one of the favored diversions of Near
Eastern monarchs, as confirmed by spirited Assyrian friezes, those asses had
neither single nor multiple horns. Was a unicorn suggested by depictions
seen on travels with the king? Certainly Ctesias had seen pictures in
Nineveh and
Persepolis and possibly also in the by-then ruined stones of
on the walls of Babylon. Modern excavations have made accessible once
more the Ishtar (Earth Mother) Gate from Babylon. Visiting the Islamic
Department of the Bode Museum in East Berlin, one can see one-horned
beasts advancing in solemn procession down a street towards the gate. Also
revealed is a remarkable dragon-faced hybrid with erect horn. But these
animals can scarcely have been the prototypes for Ctesias's description,
despite occasional suggestions to that effect. Those one-horned beasts do
not look like asses but more like bulls, and the head of that hybrid has been
identified as an enormously enlarged head of a viper (with two horns).
Furthermore, the bull-like beasts may well possess two horns, seen in profile

as one. If we join the scholars who insist they are one-horned, we might
venture too we take these as unicorns, the number and form of
far afield. If
the fabulous beast may exceed all bounds: countless reliefs and cylinder
seals from the regions of India, contemporary Pakistan, various Near
Eastern cultures, and Egypt provide us with a plethora of profiles of horned
beasts.
A relief in silver on a huge sacrificial cauldron found in Denmark offers
one of the innumerable unicorns in profile. The circular growth of hair
around the horn seems to indicate we should interpret it as a unicorn. Of
that we can't be sure, but it is an oriental beast. The cauldron was scuttled
in a bog on the Jutland peninsula as a votive offering to the gods and was
rediscovered near Gundestrup. It is not a product of the north, however. It

must have been manufactured in the territory of the eastern Kelts in the
Balkans or by the Black Sea, since battle depicted appears to stem from the
world of Keltic myths and Presumably it dates from the first century
rites.

B.c.The work is now Danish National Museum, Copenhagen.

in the
The one-horned bull attacked from behind by a lion, or the rampant
leonine monster which a struggling king is gripping by its mane (or by the
horn?) might have served Ctesias - and particularly later writers - as
corroboration for the existence of single-horned beasts. Yet once again,
these were not the primary foundation for the Grecian physician's report.
His unicorn was of a different stripe. To conclude with what his unicorn
was not, we should note that Ctesias's writings say nothing of such animals
in the form of rams or bucks. That absence is interesting, for there do exist
one-horned ibexes made in bronze long before his time. Such figures
originating from the northern part of what we now call Iran are droll,
aggressive miniature creatures about three inches tall. [111. i ]

One thing Ctesias expressly states was the habitat of the

is that India
curious animals. We know he never went there himself but must have heard,
either face to face or second or third hand, from merchants, travelers, and
probably drinking companions, a great deal about the wonderland of India.
We must also suppose he added a few touches of personal imagination. If
we read him carefully, we find he claims only to have seen one specimen
for himself, that almost cubical bone from the fetlock joint, reddish-brown
throughout yet similar to that of horned cattle. All in all, then, his account
of the unicorn raises many fundamental questions and problems. Neverthe-
less, ithad considerable influence.
About a hundred years after Ctesias's first presentation of what was
assumed evidence, Megasthenes, a Greek of rank and authority who moved
in royal circles and conversed with sages, did in fact visit India. He went
there on a diplomatic mission for Seleucus I, who founded a large, though
short-lived, empire in the Near East after the partition of Alexander's
realm. Upon return, he wrote Ind'tka in four books, the most complete
account of India then known to the Greeks. Alexander's campaigns had
greatly stirred their imaginations, and Megasthenes's more topical reports
must have caused a sensation. His own personality gave them the seal of
reliability, but unfortunately his dispatches have come down to us only as
extracts in the writings of others and must be carefully reconstructed. Among
items attributed to him is one account of a peculiar type of Indian unicorn
called cartazoon in the local language. We can attribute to him the description
but no personal observation whatsoever; once again the unicorn comes to
us through recourse to still other authorities, in this case learned Brahmans.
Though again the size of a horse, maned, and dun-colored, Megasthenes's
creature seems quite distinct from Ctesias's one-horned ass. Specific speed
is not mentioned but the beast is credited with excellent hoofs which were,
like the feet of the elephant, Its tail was curly as
without distinct segments.
a hog's. The horn grew between on the nose, and was
the eyebrows, not
black, extremely sharp, and impregnably strong. Megasthenes was the first
to mention a detail which worked its way into classic representations of the
unicorn spirals on the horn. He was also the first to speak of the animal's
:

exceedingly raucous bray, which finds its echo in many later accounts.
The characteristics of the feet and tail might be interpreted as relating to
the rhinoceros. However, Megasthenes has a separate chapter devoted
specifically to the rhinoceros, which is distinguished from the cartazoon by

its conflicts with other species, notably with the elephant for grazing
grounds. Brutal fights ended with the rhino disemboweling its antagonist
(a feat later transferred to the unicorn). His unicorn kept to itself in the
impassable mountains in the hinterland of India, where animals known to
Europeans as domestic stock, namely dogs, goats, sheep, and cattle,
roamed at large.
Though remarkably gentle towards other species of animals, the cartazoon
was pugnacious towards its own kind, and battles to the death often ensued.
Only in the rutting season was the beast mild with its mate, grazing quietly
alongside her. As soon as consummation had taken place, he again became
unsociable and wild. Nowhere in these accounts do we read that an adult
beast was captured, although colts and fillies were frequently brought to
the palace and displayed in festivals.
One can only speculate to what degree the love of solitude which
Megasthenes ascribes to the cartazoon stemmed from the beliefs of his
Brahman sources. This quality was probably an important element of
Hindu cults long before the advent of Buddhism. It is reflected in the book
by Bengt Berg, the Swedish writer on zoology, who relates how he went
in search of (and of course found) his own unicorn in the Indian rhinoceros.

14
 :

i. Unicorn hunt in India: Engraving by

van der Straet
J. Collaert, after J.
There he quotes a "Hymn of Buddha" with end- verse refrain; the first stanza
(1523-1605) who drafted cartoons for
reads
Gobelin tapestries

Like a lion, without fear of the howling pack,

Like a gust of wind, ne'er trapped in a snare,
Like a lotus blossom, ne'er sprinkled by water,
Let me, like a unicorn, in solitude roam.

15
The animal mentioned in the refrain is scientifically translated as rhinoceros.

In the following chapter we shall see how the confused and confusing usage
of unicorn and rhinoceros persisted through the Middle Ages. It is debatable
whether any genuine hymns of Buddha are now known but the poem
quoted by Bengt Berg is included in the sacred writings of Buddhism.
The mildness and need for solitude which the Brahmans described,
whether factually of the rhinoceros or of the legendary cartazoon, has
retained its religious significance. In the Buddha legend there is a gazelle
which on its knees in order
is to listen to the Master's original sermon in
Benares. The horn between its ears is seen as a symbol of Nirvana. In the
Rietberg Museum in Zurich there is a seventeenth-century Tibetan statuette
of a unicorn on bended knees. no resemblance to the rhinoceros but
It bears
may have evolved from mountain sheep. Like the gazelle it seems to be
a
in quiet contemplation, and its expression of mildness could not be more
profound. [111. 38]
Did the notion of a one-horned animal travel eastward from India in the
same way that it came westward? Or, conversely, could China have been
the original home of the unicorn ? The first notice of the beast in China
(where its horn is said to have been marketed as an aphrodisiac even down
to this century) has been placed as far back as 2697 b.c. Extant descriptions
of chi-lin, the Chinese unicorn, remind one of European conceptions of the
animal: a body like an axis deer, horse's hoofs, an oxtail, as well as a horned,
wolf-like head. King of the 360 animal species then recognized, chi-lin was
reputed to reach 1000 years of age. We are told it could emit beams of the
five sacred colors. Perhaps with equal fantasy it was thoroughly good-
natured and possessed a musical voice. It kept to the beaten path, careful
not to trample on living creatures and plants during its travels. The role of

this marvelous beast was similar to that of the stork in Europe - to bring
children (at any rate male babies) into the world. The birth of Confucius was
but one of those announced by a chi-lin.

Chronologically midway between Ctesias and Megasthenes, our two chief

classical sources regarding the antiquity of the unicorn, stands Aristotle, who
exerted a tremendous influence on the medieval mind in both the Occident
and the Arabic worlds. Aristotle may have been reserved in his reliance on
Ctesias and may not have accepted the idea of a unicorn goblet protecting
the user from poison and disease, but he did believe in the unicorn's
existence. He even produced a theory to fit the case. He explained how
solipeds such as the ass were naturally fitted to be single-horned, more so
than cloven-hoofed animals, since hoof and claw consist of the same sub-
stance as horn. That is, the solid hoofs of a soliped use more horny substance,
leaving less for the horn itself, and so the ass tends to be only one-horned

16
 (when horned at all). Aristotle does, however, allow one exception. He has
heard of another unicorn, the oryx, which, like other antelopes, wascloven-
hooved but one-horned. Writers in later ages sided mostly with Megasthenes
in assuming that the unicorn had a cloven hoof, though ascribing to it the
form of a horse. When medieval scholastics in Germany (especially Albertus
Magnus, probably the most influential scholar of the Middle Ages)
resuscitated Aristotle's philosophy, they disseminated his theory on animals
as well. [111. 3]
Inheritors of those ideas have, like Aristotle, turned to Africa and Arabia
to seek the home of the unicorn, with the oryx antelope as its prototype.
Several years ago an expedition leftEngland for Arabia with the object of
protecting the last specimens of the oryx from extinction. Its story is told
by Anthony Shephard in The ¥light of the Unicorns. Bengt Berg, who, strictly
speaking, was seeking the unicorn in some other animal, photographed a
black buck standing with its beautifully spirated horns in profile and he
actually produced a lovely "unicorn" picture - a useful warning against
those numerous oriental unicorn silhouettes.
But let us return to the journey of the unicorn from ancient Greece.
Coming into the Roman world, we find Pliny has provided a third model of
single-horned creatures: the Indian ox. His impassively scientific manner
allows no digression into the miraculous and questions the prophylactic
properties of the horn. The unicorn is also mentioned by Caesar, in the
famous chapter of tall tales in his Gallic War where he speaks of the denizens
of the Hyrcanian forest. He describes a deerlike ox; its single horn rises
firmly midway between the ears and at the end it branches into the shape of
a hand with several points. Caesar's unicorn is not, however, devoid of knee
joints, as is occasionally asserted; that would apply rather to the elk, whose

relationship to this image of the unicorn is hardly mistakable.

The real transmitter of Grecian unicorn lore to the world of imperial
Rome and through that to Christian authors of the Middle Ages was Aelian,
an Italian of the second century a.D. One of his chief works is De animalium
natura, a collection of curious tales of animal life often illustrating a moral.
He was a zealous compiler of excerpts, especially scientific writing, and
bequeathed to later generations of philologists the tasks of discovering the
sources of his learning and of reconstructing the works of earlier writers
from the fragments they had left behind them. He was an industrious man,
and although he never went outside Italy, he is said to have spoken Greek so
5- Dispute between four-footed and excellently that he might have been taken for an Athenian. Certainly Aelian
winged beasts : Woodcut from put the works of Ctesias to some use. And it was he who supplied us with
German illustrated edition of
that chapter attributed to Megasthenes making the unicorn suspiciously
Aesop's Fables, ca. 1476
similar to the rhinoceros.

17
 Yet in the course of half a millennium, views on the nature of the unicorn
had been further increased without clear knowledge of the sources.
According to Aelian, there are single-horned horses as well as asses in
India, the horns of each being used for drinking vessels. The use of valuable
unicorn goblets is Hindus of the highest caste and
reserved, he writes, for
"they decorate the horn with golden rings at intervals as though adorning
the arms of a beautiful statue with ribbons." This custom continued into
Renaissance Europe when gold and silver chased goblets of unicorn horn
were still produced. In the seventeenth century the German poet Andreas
Gryphius wrote a nuptial ode to some friends of his in which he was

still celebrating that night,

\\ hen almost engulfed in joy and rapture,
II e supped the bouquet oj noble wine from gold and unicorn.

Leaning on Ctesias, Aelian describes the asses more precisely than the horses
and modifies some details; the horn now becomes a cubit and a half long
and the fetlock bones are not cinnamon-colored but black throughout. As
before, however, unicorns remain the fastest of all animals and to pursue
them is to chase the unattainable. [Ills. 140, 143]
At least one later Roman, an itinerant miracle worker credited with a

penchant for magic, saw the famous animal himself. This was Apollonius of
Tyana, a disciple of the School of Pythagoras, who lived during the first

century A.D. His biographer tells us that Apollonius also travelled to India
where he encountered the gymnosophists, or naked philosophers whom we
and saw the unicorn in the alluvial region of the Hyphasis (the
call fakirs,

river, now called the Beas, reached by Alexander on his march to India). He

also heard of the qualities of the horn. When a student travelling in his
company asked what might be thought of that, he replied, "I am inclined
to believe it if they tellme that the king of these Hindus is immortal. For
would one who can offer me or anyone else so healthy and therapeutic a
draft, have any reason not to draw it for himself every day and drink from
such a horn to the verge of intoxication ?" That sounds lesr. like a sorcerer

than an intellectual.
Neither Greeks nor Romans have left any pictorial record of the unicorn.
Either through oriental influences or their own imagination, they did give
form to all sorts of unfamiliar or improbable things in nature - centaurs,
sphinxes, and ram-headed fauns - but it is fruitless to look for the unicorn
on vases in their temple friezes. It did not invade myth, fable, and fiction; it
had no place in their cultural world but remained confined to the realm
of scientific and geographic speculation. A unique freak such as the one-

18
horned ram that, according to Plutarch, was born on the estate of Pericles
was simply a welcome object for priests and soothsayers. As one German
professor states somewhat austerely, "In the truly classical period the unicorn
plays a wholly subordinate part, for at a creditable level of erudition, its aura
had to disappear like ghosts vanishing at the coming of daylight. The
heyday for this curious figment of the imagination was the eclipse of medieval
scholasticism." That indeed is true. It must be said that despite an unbroken
tradition, the medieval unicorn was really something quite distinct from the
beast it had been in antiquity. One almost hesitates to use the same term for
the two creatures.

*9
 1

3. The Biblical Beast

God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of a

unicorn. Numbers 23 :zi

His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the
horns of unicorns; with them he shall push the people together to the ends

of the earth. Deuteronomy 33 :i7

Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide bj thy crib? Canst
thou bind the unicorn with his hand in the furrow? or will he harrow
the valleys after them? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is

great? or wilt thou have thy labor to him? Wilt thou believe him, that
he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?

Job 39:9-12
Save me from the lions mouth; for thou hast heard me from the horns
of the unicorns. Psalm 22 (2 1 ) 2 2* :

The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars; yea, the Lord breaketh the
cedars of Lebanon. He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon
and Sirion like a young unicorn. Psalm 29 (28) : 5
-6

But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn.

Psalm 92 (91) : 1

The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness,
and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of
rams; for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bo^rah, and a great slaughter in

the land of Idumea. And the unicorns shall come down with them, and
the bullocks with the bulls. Isaiah 34:6-7

If you turn to some of the modern translations of the Bible in search of

unicorns, you will be disappointed. There is no mention at all of them, only
of wild oxen or buffalo. Yet, as we see from the quotations at hand, one
translation flatly calls the unicorn a unicorn. It was the Bible prepared by
Martin Luther, who of course lived in an age familiar with the idea of the
beast.

* Figures in parentheses indicate Vulgate numbering of the Psalms.

20
 Luther's work was influenced also by the Vulgate and earlier Septuagint
versions of the scriptures. The latter was commissioned in the third century
B.c. by Ptolemy II of Egypt (285-242 B.c.). A Macedonian by birth, he sent

seventy-two learned Jews onto the island of Pharos near Alexandria to

produce a Greek translation of the Old Testament within seventy-two days.
Their translation of the Hebrew word re'em was monoceros, that is to say,
unicorn. Many modern versions prefer "wild ox" (aurochs), which is now
said to be the correct meaning of the term, but the men of the Septuagint
did not know that animal, which by their time was extinct in the Near East.
Perhaps the cattle those ancient sages did know seemed inadequate to
express the idea of the strength and majesty commanded by this particular
creature. We can't tell where they got their idea of the unicorn: possibly
from the Greek writers or from Indian accounts which might have reached
Egypt by the caravan routes. Perhaps they knew the African (not truly
single-horned) rhinoceros. Whatever the circumstances, these men led the
unicorn into the Bible.
The Septuagint term was adopted by the standard Latin version of the
Bible in the Roman Catholic Church, the Vulgate, and that is how the
unicorn got into the Palm Sunday mass. The Vulgate on the labors of
rests

St. Jerome, who reportedly began work in A.D. 383 and carried on during

time spent as a recluse in Syria. He might have learned something of Asiatic

concepts of the unicorn during that sojourn, but he could not have had a
particularly clear picture of the beast in his mind's eye. He used the Greek
terms monoceros and rhinoceros indiscriminately alongside the Latin
unicornis. That remained a practice for centuries. Even in the late Middle

Ages, we can see illustrations of an equine creature with a tapering horn on

its forehead labelled rhinoceros.
Only once tongue does the Old Testament mention an
in its original
animal with one horn. The prophet Daniel speaks of the vision in which he
saw himself conveyed to the palace at Susa. There he saw a ram with two
tall horns, one taller than the other. "No beasts might stand before him . . .

he did according to his will and became great." Then a he-goat came from
the west with a "notable horn between his eyes." He bore the ram to the
ground and smashed his two horns. Now the he-goat waxed very great "and
when he was at his strongest, the great horn became broken." In its place
four majestic horns sprouted. Daniel heard a voice interpreting this
apparition as indicating the destruction of the kingdoms of Media and
Persia by the "king of Grecia," obviously Alexander; Alexander the Great
is represented by the first single horn of the mighty he-goat, the four horns
growing in its place stand for his successors, the Diadochi. That is, of
course, a hindsight prophecy. It is found in the eighth chapter of a book
which was written long after the events "foreseen" in it had indeed
occurred. [111. 19]
This sole "genuine" Biblical unicorn has seldom been depicted. At the
end of the tenth century, Spanish monks produced impressive illustrations
for a commentary on the book of Daniel ascribed to St. Jerome. You can
see the prophet in the palace at Susa, the arrogantly strutting ram with its
two distinct horns which are broken off by the he-goat, who carries not only
his mighty single horn but also the four small ones which are already visible.
Moorish influence is quite evident in the adornment of these miniatures;
the East has had an effect on their content and their form.
The unicorn maintained a place in the Church and thus in art through the
monoceros of the Septuagint translation. Because this text or its Vulgate
version were the sources available to the Fathers of the Church when they
began their Bible commentaries, the unicorn became incorporated into early
medieval theology. Classical accounts, particularly the versions of Aelian and
Pliny, may have become interwoven into the patristic writings. In the main,
however, the Church Fathers appear to have nurtured an independent branch
of unicorn lore. However many times the beast appears in the scripts of the
Fathers (and even the most assiduous reviewers of their works can cite only
a few quotations), they stick to St. Jerome's vague notions of the pheno-
menon. Their contributions to unicorn tradition were not universally
accepted. For example, they frequently describe the horn as set on the nose,
but people in antiquity and the Middle Ages had so rarely seen a real
rhinoceros that it could not permanently affect the unicorn image.
From what we can read, none of the Fathers of the Church saw a unicorn.
But apparently in the sixth century one of them did come very close to doing
so. He name has
lived in Alexandria during the reign of Justinian and his
come down to us as Cosmas. A merchant, he made lengthy trips across the
Red Sea to Arabia, East Africa, and even as far as India; on that account,
his fellow countrymen are reported to have given him the nickname of
"Indian Sailor." His latter days were spent in a priory in Sinai, where he
wrote a conscientious account of the experience and knowledge he had
gained during his lifetime. Conservatively he defended the old and established
concepts of the universe and incorporated them into the composition of his
Topographia christiana to oppose such newfangled ideas as the Ptolemaic
system or that absurd conception that the earth might be spherical in shape.
In relating his own experiences he wrote he had seen statues of unicorns in
the four-towered palace of the ruler of Ethiopia, in a region where even
during the nineteenth century some European scholars were investigating
reports of the beast. Through Cosmas one particular trait of the unicorn's
defiant character has been recorded for our delectation. Cosmas was informed
 that when a unicorn is surrounded by hunters and no other recourse is left,

it somersaults into the nearest abyss, breaking the fall with its horn, and
thus making good its escape.
We have no pictorial representations of the unicorn from the first centuries
of Christendom, just as we have none from antiquity, but it was repeatedly
used in symbolism in the East and the West. The beast could stand for both
good and evil. Principally it is an image of irrestrainable strength. Man -
take Job for example - is unable to tame it. This was a favorite motif when
the unicorn began, about the ninth century, to appear in illustrated manu-
scripts of the Book of Psalms and the Gospels. We saw earlier that in Psalm

22, the first words of which supplied the cry from the cross, there is a plea

The unicorn in paradise, from Johann

Joachim Becher' s Parnasus lllustratus
fAtdtctnalu. (Ulm, 1663)

23
for rescue from the horns of unicorns. In the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah 7- Detail of 8

unicorns appear as one symbol for the heathens which the prophet is

threatening in so formidable a manner. The unicorn was identified by the

Church Fathers with everything resisting the domination of Christ and
contrary to the Church. In Psalm 37, Jerome speaks of enemies of the Lord
who are as overweening as unicorns, although this interpolation does not
appear in the original text. Jews also, with their more austere monotheism,
were symbolized by the one horn. Ecclesiastical antisemitism, which has
banefully travelled down the ages, is revealed here too, perhaps more
subtly than elsewhere. Finally, the Devil himself is represented as a unicorn
in patristic works and Coptic incantations. [Ills. 13, 17]
Pope Gregory the Great called the Prince of Darkness a unicorn (and
likewise the domineering princes "the mighty ones of our generation").
Grego r y rediscovered the contradiction of the unicorn's power for good
and for evil in a historical character. In a lengthy theological treatise, he
compared Saul of Tarsus to a unicorn when he frenziedly persecuted
Christians. But God succeeded in tethering this unicorn to the manger, fed
it the fodder of the holy script, and harnessed it to his plough. Thus Saul
became converted into Paul - God placed his trust in that unicorn.
The unicorn had become a positive symbol long before Gregory. The high
spirits and strength of the young unicorn in Psalm 29(28), poetically extolled

in the Vulgate as a "son of unicorns," referred to Christ. Christus spiritualis

unicornis is an etherealized formula not of coarse identification but of symbolic
treatment begun by early Fathers of the Church. St. Ambrose, bishop of
Milan in the fourth century, inquired, "Who then has one horn, unless it be
the only-begotten son, the unique word of God, which has been next to God
from the very beginning ?" Standing apart from the beliefs of his time, he
raised serious doubts about the unicorn, for indeed "the unicorn itself, so
experts say, is not to be found among generations of beasts." Even after a
millennium and a half he has still been classified as an "enemy of the
unicorn." But his doubt actually led him to a spiritual interpretation; the
growth of the horn indicated a process of attaining full growth and maturity.
"If therefore horns grow in some sense out of the head of our soul, then
they apparently denote a process of perfecting the virtues." Ambrose
exploits the phonal similarity between unicorn and unigenital, so that the
horn later came to imply the unique might and the unique realm with which
Christ is endowed. Augustine and others perceived in the single horn a
symbol for the unity of the faith, and all those who adhered to this unique
faith were called unicorns on that account but at the same time the enemies
of that faith were similarly identified: quite early the horn had also been
compared to the cross or to its upright.
24
 Wild Man killing unicorn on damsel's
lap : Franconian woven tapestry,
ca. 1450. Hunter, with lover's knot
round his head, embodies lust in this
secular depiction

26
9- Miniature from Physiologus manuscript,
ca. twelfth century. Unicorn
description based on Megasthenes
and/or Aelian
 Ekventh-century tapestry of creation,
MM Cathedral, Spain. Adam is

naming the animals in right central

|ioi*t*V 4,ojijl
0I

& t^autt «771 J

ii iz. Virgin and unicorn in rvro

Byzantine manuscripts, ninth century.
Khludov psalter (right) and
Pantocrator psalter (below)

ULI '«DM ii »cijlJi

% —f * f

29
3°
 :

«j. From the Avcrbode Book of the

Four Gospels, twelfth century, the
opening miniature to St. Matthew

4. Possibly the earliest Christian unicorn

fragment of relief on choirstall, sixth

or seventh century Roman

5. So-called abbot's crosier of St.

<3 Boniface, Fulda, Germany, ca.

thirteenth century

6. Pillarwith mythical beasts from

Souvigny Abbey, France, twelfth
century. Horn of unicorn (between
griffin and elephant) is broken off

31
im im
://,

)\
:,' &7Ü
X

!*
Ss
a
j^j

tf»-'

«V

1
i-. Miniature for Psalm 22 (21) in
< Stuttgart psalter, France, early ninth
century

Eleventh-century foot at present in

Freudenstadt Church.
Baden- Württemberg. Bavaria

19. Daniel's vision from a Spanish

miniature completed 970
 -">..

34
Portion of mythological
bestiary in mosaic floor of
Otranto Cathedral,
Italy, twelfth century. Monk shown
with unicorn possibly the artisan,
$5
Friar Pantaleone
36
22. Detail of Arabian ivory casket,
^ ea. a.D. toco

2 j. Dedicatory stone, ca. I ioo, of former

> Holzkirchen (Germany) Abbey Church

24. Twelfth-century relief originally from

French abbev

37
-.-•-•

25. Altar frontal with sacred beasts,

<
LX J
ca. a.D. 1300, now in Thun Castle,
Switzerland

26. Fourteenth-century chest front from

Westphalian region of Germany
Detail of the "M-ütercr" Tapestry,
to. The virgin taming the
unicorn is port of a long fabric
depicting various feminine wiles

39
 Two specimens of the rampageous
iöMJMiryu 28/29.
unicorn, his horn caught in a tree
trunk: ink sketch miniature for
Psalm 28 (29) in the Utrecht psalter,
ninth century, and a refectory pew
in Praglia abbey, Italy, eighteenth
century

40
 Both the unicorn and the lamb of God are symbols of the Savior,
stemming from comparisons made by early theologians. The venerable
evidence showing that this parallel was accepted by subsequent periods
includes the crosier shown in illustration 15. Although worshipped in the
sacristy of Fulda cathedral as the abbot's staff of St. Boniface (according, by
the way, to a not particularly ancient legend), that crosier cannot have been
used by the Apostle of Germany. In his day, the eighth century A.D., such
accessories were unusual, in Germany at any rate, and this item comes from
a substantially later period, probably from the eleventh or twelfth century.
It was presumably made during the reign of the Hohenstaufen emperor
Friedrich II, in Sicily, where the traditions of Oriental craftsmanship were

carried on. Artisans there would naturally have been prepared to fulfill the
demands of Christian customers. The crook of the ivory crosier curves back
into a viper biting the already collapsing unicorn. This portrayal of sacrificial
death became one of the proofs of Christianity in Germany, where the faith
was still incipient. Although in this case the silhouette may leave some
ultimate shadow of doubt as to whether the assumed unicorn is not in fact
a gazelle, its similarity in motif to the paschal lamb does admit christological
interpretation.
Fulda monastery appears certainly to have had some early connection
with the unicorn, whether it actually embodied the Lord, or more abstractly,
stood for monastic solitude and discipline. Holzkirchen cloister near
Würzburg, subordinated to Fulda by Charlemagne, has bequeathed a stone
reliefwith unicorn, most likely of earlier date than the Fulda abbot's staff.
Already in the Carolingian period under Louis I the Pious, the unicorn
appeared in Fulda monastery in its other meaning as a symbol for a tough,
violent man like Saul of Tarsus. One of Boniface's earliest successors was
Ratgar, a highly gifted architect whose proficiency in reconstruction of the
church so deeply impressed the friars that they unanimously elected him
their abbot. In so doing, however, they cut a rod for their own chastisement.
In his mania for construction, the new abbot so bullied his monks that they
had hardly any time for prayer, much less leisure for meditation, and they
therefore labelled him a "rampageous unicorn." He was portrayed as such
in the chronicles of the abbey: he is shown standing, crosier in hand, in the

narthex of his church - on the right half of the picture, however, the savage
unicorn is smashing his way through the timorous, sheeplike flock of monks.
The original miniature has been lost, but there is a replica in early seven-
teenth-century style which brings the incident and the symbol vividly to
Tbc unicorn refusing to board Noah's
In the end, Ratgar was discharged by Emperor Louis
life. at the persistent
ark: woodcut by Tobias Stimmer
urging of the exasperated monks. [111. 3 1 ]
(Baiel, 1576)

4i
4. Tales from Physiologus

The phoenix sets itself aflame to rise from its ashes with new life;

The pelican stabs its very breast to quicken its brood with its own
life's blood;

The hungering fox shams dead to lure birds too near its lair;

The turtledove and turtledove do live in harmony together. . . .

One may have little idea of the richness of the literature and art surrounding
the unicorn, but mention ofthat creature usually brings to mind the story
of its capture by a damsel. That narrative, statements such as those above,
and description of the unicorn are bedfellows in the book we have cited as a
primary natural history source: Physiologus. The title does sound scientific
as does the writing, at least on the face of it. Actually it is a collection of
stories based on marvelous peculiarities of various natural objects, real or
imaginary. Early preachers relied on its information to explain scriptural
passages, and it eventually enjoyed a circulation second only to that of the
Bible. The number of texts and variants is almost incalculable. It was
translated into the languages of the Near East, particularly Arabic, Coptic
and Armenian. Through Latin it penetrated widely into European vernac-
ulars, Italian, French, German and even old Norse, as well as the Slavic
tongues and Georgian. It inspired later bestiaries, and thus incipient
science, natural history, and geography became mingled with the reports of
ancient authors. Symbolic and allegorical contents were extracted by
theologians who, within abbeys and monasteries, were often the same men
who were artists, miniaturists and sculptors looking for inspiration. What
use is it to us today, though ? Its importance is assured by its being that third

avenue which brought the unicorn to Europe from the Near East. But before
we place Physiologus alongside the other extant depictions or evidence of the
unicorn, the nature of the unique documentation should be re-examined.
Physiologus is a sum volume, author unknown, and date and place of
original publication conjectural. As far as one knows, the original was a 32. Seizure of the unicorn, from the
Greek manuscript; there may have been a still older version in an oriental ninth-century Bern Physiologus

44
language but this cannot be proven. The stories themselves may have been
derived from popular fables, and some Indian influence is clear, as in the

introduction of the elephant and the paradisiacal tree, and the unicorn. The
character "The Natural Philosopher" appears in the book, but it is impossible
to determine if the original author was using the third person to refer to
himself or some other man of science. A few commentators thought Aristotle
was probably this fictionalized author; a later version expressly names
Solomon.
Long and arduous research has not satisfactorily resolved the problem of
authorship - or even place of origin. For a time it was assumed that
Physiologus had been written by a Christian in Alexandria in the first half of the
second century A.D. (It was cited by writers subsequent to that period.)
Alexandria was a traditional center of learning from antiquity to the Christian
era and also a focus of trade where communications with the Near East and
India could facilitate the passage of influence from those regions. But
meticulous re-evaluation of source material aroused doubt. Indeed, some
critics have vehemently asserted that the place of origin could only have been
some Syrian city, most probably Caesarea, the time, the end of the fourth
century a.D., and the original version, possibly Hebrew. Nevertheless, the
balance of opinion now seems rather to veer once more to the earlier date

and Egypt.
No extant manuscript is completely acceptable as the original Physiologus
although there are numerous copies from various periods. Likewise, we have
only copies of works by authors who are supposed to have used Physiologus
as a source. And just think how monkish copyist could now and
easily a
again surreptitiously interpolate some own. One can gather some
idea of his
idea of the infinite labor such philological study demands from the Recensions

of the Greek Physiologus edited by Francesco Sbordone, the Italian who

disentangled underlying original texts from seventy-seven Greek manuscripts
of which twenty-one alone had been preserved in monasteries on Mount
Athos. He produced three editions which must, independently from each
other, have had their source in some common original: (i) the earliest,
containing forty-eight chapters, which came into existence presumably in the
second century A.D. (2) a Byzantine version of twenty-seven chapters which
;

appeared in the fifth or sixth century; and (3) a version of thirty chapters
from the tenth or eleventh century. This last had been ascribed erroneously
to St. Basil, a great figure of the Eastern Church, who was archbishop of
Caesarea in the fourth century. Sbordone further compiled in two parts a
total of thirty-nine chapters which could not be fitted into any of the fore-

going editions, and, finally, yet another rendering, in verse.

Varying in number of sections and content according to the different

45
4. Tales from Physiologus

The phoenix sets itself aflame to rise from its ashes with new life;

The pelican stabs its very breast to quicken its brood with its own
life's blood;

The hungering fox shams dead to lure birds too near its lair;

The turtledove and turtledove do live in harmony together. . . .

One may have little idea of the richness of the literature and art surrounding
the unicorn, but mention ofthat creature usually brings to mind the story
of its capture by a damsel. That narrative, statements such as those above,
and description of the unicorn are bedfellows in the book we have cited as a
primary natural history source: Physiologus. The title does sound scientific
as does the writing, at least on the face of it. Actually it is a collection of
stories based on marvelous peculiarities of various natural objects, real or
imaginary. Early preachers relied on its information to explain scriptural
passages, and it eventually enjoyed a circulation second only to that of the
Bible. The number of texts and variants is almost incalculable. It was
translated into the languages of the Near East, particularly Arabic, Coptic
and Armenian. Through Latin it penetrated widely into European vernac-
ulars, Italian, French, German and even old Norse, as well as the Slavic
tongues and Georgian. It inspired later bestiaries, and thus incipient
science, natural history, and geography became mingled with the reports of
ancient authors. Symbolic and allegorical contents were extracted by
theologians who, within abbeys and monasteries, were often the same men
who were artists, miniaturists and sculptors looking for inspiration. What
use is it to us today, though ? Its importance is assured by its being that third
avenue which brought the unicorn to Europe from the Near East. But before
we place Physiologus alongside the other extant depictions or evidence of the
unicorn, the nature of the unique documentation should be re-examined.
Physiologus is a slim volume, author unknown, and date and place of
original publication conjectural. As far as one knows, the original was a 32. Seizure of the unicorn, from the
Greek manuscript; there may have been a still older version in an oriental ninth-century Bern Physiologus

44
language but this cannot be proven. The stories themselves may have been
derived from popular fables, and some Indian influence is clear, as in the

introduction of the elephant and the paradisiacal tree, and the unicorn. The
character "The Natural Philosopher" appears in the book, but it is impossible
to determine if the original author was using the third person to refer to
himself or some other man of science. A few commentators thought Aristotle
was probably this fictionalized author; a later version expressly names
Solomon.
Long and arduous research has not satisfactorily resolved the problem of
authorship - or even place of origin. For a time it was assumed that
Physiologe had been written by a Christian in Alexandria in the first half of the
second century A.D. (It was by writers subsequent to that period.)
cited
Alexandria was a traditional center of learning from antiquity to the Christian
era and also a focus of trade where communications with the Near East and
India could facilitate the passage of influence from those regions. But
meticulous re-evaluation of source material aroused doubt. Indeed, some
critics have vehemently asserted that the place of origin could only have been
some Syrian city, most probably Caesarea, the time, the end of the fourth
century A.D., and the original version, possibly Hebrew. Nevertheless, the
balance of opinion now seems rather to veer once more to the earlier date

and Egypt.
No extant manuscript is completely acceptable as the original Physiologus
although there are numerous copies from various periods. Likewise, we have
only copies of works by authors who are supposed to have used Pbysiologus
as a source. And just think copyist could now and
how easily a monkish
again surreptitiously interpolate some own. One can gather some
idea of his
idea of the infinite labor such philological study demands from the Recensions

of the Greek Physiologus edited by Francesco Sbordone, the Italian who

disentangled underlying original texts from seventy-seven Greek manuscripts
of which twenty-one alone had been preserved in monasteries on Mount
Athos. He produced three editions which must, independently from each
other, have had their source in some common original: (i) the earliest,
containing forty-eight chapters, which came into existence presumably in the
second century A.D.; (2) a Byzantine version of twenty-seven chapters which
appeared in the fifth or sixth century; and (3) a version of thirty chapters
from the tenth or eleventh century. This last had been ascribed erroneously
to St. Basil, a great figure of the Eastern Church, who was archbishop of
Caesarea in the fourth century. Sbordone further compiled in two parts a
total of thirty-nine chapters which could not be fitted into any of the fore-
going editions, and, finally, yet another rendering, in verse.
Varying in number of sections and content according to the different

45
 :

versions that have survived, the text contains a few dozen sections each
dealing with one creature, plant, or mineral linked individually to a Biblical
text. In reality, the scientific matter is merely a vehicle for the Christian
theological and ethical commentaries which are the essence of the work. It
speaks of the birth of dead lion cubs that come to life three days later at
their sire's breath or roar - a symbol of the Resurrection. The fox's trickery
of the birds (according to P by siologus) represents Satan the wily. Such stories
may quite appropriately have embellished popular sermons in the period
when the text came into existence. It cannot, however, be considered a
theological text; it is too unsophisticated for that. It frequently reveals the
poetic ingenuousness of fable.
The various compilations overlap abundantly in subject matter and
some noteworthy deviations
frequently also in wording, although there are
as well. This is the case with the unicorn. Let us use the oldest rendition
produced by Sbordone. Its twenty-second chapter is typical of the structure
and narrative style oiPhjsiologus. First, the Biblical quotation: "The Psalmist
sayeth: My horn shall be exalted like a unicorn's." Next, the "scientific data"
The unicorn is described as a small beast like a young he-goat and exceedingly
mettlesome. Huntsmen cannot approach him because he is so strong. A
single horn stands midway on his head. How can he be caught ? A damsel is
brought into the vicinity, and the unicorn leaps into her lap. The damsel
quiets him and takes him along to the palace and into the king's presence.
Finally, there is the practical Christian application: "The beast is transformed
into the image of our Savior 'and has erected a horn of salvation in the house
of his servant David,' and the horn of salvation grew toward us. The angels
and the (heavenly) host could not constrain him, but he entered the body of
the truly eternal virgin Mary, 'and the word became flesh and lived among
us.' " No mention is made of the unicorns the Christ child, but gospel

and psalter manuscripts of the ninth century do show the Virgin with the
unicorn alongside Old Testament citations. The Pantocrator psalter from
Mount Athos even shows the Virgin Mary suckling her unicorn child.
[Ills. 2, 12,27,32,34]
The actual content of Physiologus, the shape and theme of its stories, may
provide a more reliable clue to its origins and authorship than do the efforts

of the philologists. For one thing, what Vhysiologus has to say about the
unicorn is definitely not derived from Greek or Roman sources ; this natural

scientist did not, as has been sometimes assumed, collect the classical legends

and convert them into Christian parables, at least not where the unicorn was

concerned. The volume does Greek writings we have examined

not, as the
did, refer to either horse or ass or gazelle, and the elephant's feet which
Megasthenes describes are nowhere to be found in the physiologist's account

46
 of the unicorn. Pbysiologus does, however, contain a small, literally capricious

beast similar to those bronze statuettes from ancient Iran; this is pictured as
cloven-hoofed like the oryx unicorn of Aristotle, and so it remained even
when once more it achieved the stature of a horse in the Western world.
Furthermore, the profoundly effective and durable legend of the capture of
the unicorn by the Virgin and its religious implication did not come to us
by way of the classics, for Greeks and Romans knew nothing about it.
Alexandria is increasingly deemed to be where Physiologus was written, for
there was an Indian community living there and such a story could well have
come into hellenistic Egypt through the merchants among them.
Listen to the following fable: Once upon a time, in ancient and faraway
company.
India, a virtuous hermit lived in the forest with only the animals for
A gazelle was wonderstruck at the sight of his well-favored body and
thereafter gave birth to an offspring which had the figure of a man - with a
horn growing from the middle of his forehead. For that reason he was called
Unicorn. He too became a hermit.
A wicked monarch ruled the land, and for his sins the gods send down
a severe drought. Brahman sages advised the king to have Unicorn brought

to court, for this would end the punishing drought. So the king sent his
beautiful daughter to the hermit whom she approached ostensibly as a
repentant disciple. She succeeded in enticing the inexperienced ascetic to
rapture and love, lured him onto a raft, and led him to the Court. Everything
had a fairy-tale ending; the rains poured down, and the handsome holy man
married the princess. (In some variants it is not the king's daughter but some
other lady of the court who undertakes the seduction of the anchorite, but
in all cases he certainly has to be taken to the king.)
This without doubt the source of the Physiologus narrative. Trade
is

communications between India and Egypt adequately explain how the legend
may have reached the land on the Nile. Somewhere along the line of its

journey this story became not one about a man called Unicorn but one of the
fabulous beast unicorn. In this case, something was gained in translation.
What an intriguing parallel between the effects of this error and the emer-
gence of the unicorn in the Septuagint version of the Bible ! Known thus
through such dependable sources as Grecian writers and the Bible, the
unicorn was easily accepted into early Christian literature and science.
Realizing that the unicorn owes its existence to error need not detract from

the charm of the story which it is captured by a damsel. But it does

in
illustrate the remarkable ways of the imagination which nurture an immaterial
reality.

There are many versions of this fable. Japanese mythology also knows a
j. The water prodigy single-horned demon in human form who is subdued and shackled by the

47
hero Momotaro aided by some animals. In the eighteenth century a No play
was produced about Ikkaky the sorcerer. He is depicted as living in Benares
(India) and is the son of a doe. When he traps all the dragons and their ruler

in a grotto, rain ceases to fall on the land. In this story, a beautiful lady of the
court circle seduces the sorcerer, as commanded by the king, and robs him
of his magical powers, thus liberating the dragons and allowing rain to pour
down once more.
A number of versions predate Buddhism and were incorporated
the era of
into that literature. One Buddhism may have adopted the
scholar holds that
legend simply as evidence for its favorite theme of the baseness of woman;
the story does appear in medieval Europe as an example of woman's wiliness,
naturally with the unicorn as an animal. The story has even been made to
come from the mouth of Buddha himself. He, after several transfigurations,
resolved to devote his final earthly pilgrimage to the salvation of man and
entered the womb of a woman to accomplish that. Thus he might have been
embodied in the hermit Unicorn; the presence of the gazelle could have been
included to explain the naming of the young hermit. Originally "Unicorn"
may have had a purely symbolic significance, just as the rhinoceros, in fact,

is adopted by Buddhism as a symbol for a quiet, powerful spirit inclined to

solitude.
What was originally perhaps pure symbol became part of man's body of
knowledge, a describable creature, which then gained an extraordinary, often,
as we have suggested, contradictory range of symbolic value.
The allegory of the Savior's incarnation which appears in the most effective

and widest spread story in Physiologus became an element of Christian

mythology and scholastic theology for centuries. One phrase from that story
has aroused much comment: the statement that "the heavenly host" could
not restrain the Son made theologians speculate that the author of Physiologus
might have been an adherent to Gnosticism. That religio-philosophical
system, with which early Christianity waged a bitter battle, a struggle for
survival, really, postulates a heavenly power between the Supreme Deity and
the universe. Speculations about Gnostic authorship are relevant in deciding
the date of Physiologus. If the book had been written later than the middle of
the second century A.D., such Gnostic influences would necessarily have been
more frequent and explicit. Until well into the nineteenth century, the
question "Could the author of Physiologus have been a heretic ?" was discussed
by theologians and other scholars, occasionally with something approaching
high passion.
Whoever the author, the symbolism is the important element in Physiologus.
The capture of the unicorn by the virgin is by no means purely idyllic. If it is
taken to be the incarnation of Christ, it is also the beginning of his calvary.

48
 It is not always the virgin who catches the unicorn, leading it gently to the
king. Although it was her maidenly presence that lured and bemused the
beast, brutal hunters prostrate the defenseless creature. Thus the event
becomes a symbol of the earthly stations of the Master's cross. Religious
allegory and terrestrial zest for pursuit lie intimately entwined and not
always distinct from each other in artistic portrayals. [Ills. 7, 8, 43-50]
was the inspiration for numerous medieval bestiaries where
Physiologus
animal stories were distilled against a distinct background of Christian
allegory. (Some unadulterated bestiaries have in their turn undergone many
variations including references to plants and even stones.) In these the erotic
character already innate in the Indian origins of the capture story is more
accentuated. When the unicorn enters the Virgin's bosom, it takes the place
of the Child that she will eventually bear; its horn is the definite symbol
of virility subsiding into her body. The damsel lures the unicorn through her
scent, shows him her knee and breast, actually taking him in as a lover or
j4- The unicorn subdued pet, and offers him her milk which so drugs the animal that it drops asleep
in her lap. In other sequels, the unicorn transfixes the traitress with its horn
when it realizes that this playmate is not truly a virgin.
The story of the maiden and the unicorn is the most fertile though not the
only traditional unicorn tale emanating from Physiologus. One which supports
the theory of Indian origins is the tale of friendship between the unicorn and
the elephant. This elephant has no knee joint, and so he develops the
habit of resting against a tree when going to sleep. Like the Germanic elk
hunters mentioned by Caesar, hunters come and partially saw the tree so that
the elephant, trumpeting loudly, tumbles to the ground with its lost support.

Up rush the hunters from their blind, snatch the ivory from the jaws of the
defenseless beast, and hastily make their escape to prevent "the unicorn
catching up and making a hearty meal of them." If the unicorn does arrive
in good time, it kneels beside its fallen comrade, tenderly works its horn
beneath the pachyderm's body, and lifts him to his feet. Here, then,
we have the Savior notion: "Our Lord Jesus Christ is denoted as a royal
horn. When he sees man fallen and pitiable, our Lord of all Creation comes
and sets him up again." The mastery with which the author of this story
dismisses the question of contradictoriness of his allegories is noteworthy.
The beasts themselves are not objects of comparison, only their qualities.
"Animals have good and bad The good ones are compared to
qualities.

Christ and his saints, the bad to demons and wicked men." No equivocation
there. The allegories are his concern, and they are based on the complexity
of attributes within each creature [111. 39].
Here is another important tale, extracted from the fragments Sbordone
gathered in making his Physiologus compilations: "There is a great lake in

49
those regions, where the animals congregate for drinking. However, before
they assemble, the serpent approaches and spits her venom into the water.
The animals detect the poisonand dare not drink, but await the arrival of the
unicorn. Up he comes, goes straight into the water and makes the sign of the
cross with his horn, detoxicating thevenom. The unicorn sips some of the
water, and then all The Greeks already
the other animals too can drink."
knew of the purifying power of the horn from Indian sources. Now, how-
ever, the power depends on the living creature which is set so expressively
in opposition to the serpent in her legitimate role, as it were, of foe of
goodness and good people. That power actually becomes effective only
through an act of sanctification. The absolving action of the sign of the cross
links the unicorn yet again to Christianity. This scene is not commented on
in Phjsiologus. The healing symbol is effective enough and combines with the
older naturalistic notion of the antidotal potency of the unicorn goblet to
contribute to the horn being highly honored as a medicine for hundreds of
years. It added a glimmer of religious magic to the superstition of the
ancients. [Ills. 33, 128]
Physiologus stands as a sort of funnel. Perhaps a loom would be a closer

analogy. Its contents become part of the fabric of occidental tradition even
as the volume collects strands of tradition which went before. In the version
erroneously believed written by the Church Father St. Basil, accounts from

the Septuagint and from antiquity are clear, only to further demonstrate the
ambiguity of the unicorn allegory.
The which David prays for
so-called Basil version alludes to that psalm in
his rescue or, as is now customary to say, the salvation of his soul from the
unicorns and continues: "The unicorn is evilly inclined toward man. It
pursues him, and when it catches him up it pierces him with its horn and
devours him." What a contrast that makes to the figure of the Redeemer!
The author purported to be Basil in his commentaries pushes this contradic-
tion to its full "Take care then, O Man, to protect thyself from the
extent:
unicorn, that is to say from the Devil. For he is ill-inclined toward man and
skilled in doing him harm. For he stands by the way day and night and by
permeating man with his sophistries severs him from God's command-
ments." Thus the same creature that denotes the Redeemer is also a
symbol for his adversary. When the nineteenth-century German poet
Friedrich Rückert wrote that a man was travelling in the land of the Syrians
when a camel came by and chased him into the well, he is using a tale that
travelled westward from India by way of Syria. In it the unicorn becomes a
symbol of death, and this may well be the source for the so-called Basil
manuscript and also the prototype for the unicorn with the crescent moon
which foretold the fall of Byzantium.
5°
;<. Page from Dtftttsoritim imnoltttm

rrrptBUtis Maria* (Compurgation of

the Unsullied Virginity of Mary)
showing other miracles of nature to
.ntirkally" establish the
bility of Virgin Birth (see also
mmentvies on the
Illustrations"^

35onafa fi ok feta amare daret« mr

ßi vtnu in fanguine couerfum fo:c
darct.cur tpm verü bomine virga angeli ej: o:e vgo no generaret. yUdo?
nö gcnerareuuftinu9.Uib;o.cap. rus.f ij.etbimologia$.7 gregon9 W
nil.? Valerius majcimiis . b;o.jtjcjc.

ßif lomco in cruojc tbolofe verfu5 1ftinoce:on fi vgini fir tndinare valet,
claret cu r rga icfle flo*e virgo non
.
cur vcrbu patris celid virgo no gene
generaret giibcrwa m croniciö. raret vudows % alanus.
51
 In the twelfth century a written oracle current in Byzantium concerned 36. Fiftccnth-ccntury cushion cover

the imminent fall of the Comnenus was ascribed to Emperor Leo

dynasty. It

VI, the philosopher who reigned about a.D. 900. One such prophecy was
accompanied by a sketch of a unicorn bearing aloft the emblem of Islamic
peril, the crescent. Apparently two ideas are being synthesized here: treat-

ment of the unicorn as a symbol of power among the early Church Fathers
and its use as an image for Satan in the pseudo-Basilian version of Pbysiologus.
The later Pbysiologus of the Waldenses (a twelfth-century Roman Catholic
sect) identifies the unicorn with Satan, but the Basilian volume allows an
alternative; as we have seen, the unicorn there is concurrently a symbol for
Satan and for the Savior.
The death symbol is obvious in the following anecdote which interestingly
enough also came from India originally:

Once there was a wan, Barlaaw by name, who lived in the desert near

Senaah and who often preached against the illusory pleasure of the world.
Thus he spoke of a wan fleeing in haste frow a unicorn who would
devour him. Vailing into an abyss or well he happened to catch hold of a
bush but failed to find adequate foothold. With the raging unicorn glaring
down on him frow the rim of the well, he caught sight of a dreadful
fiery dragon waiting with open waw for him to drop. Frow the narrow
ledge on which he ivas teetering, four serpents distend their fangs. A pair
of wice, one black and the other white, gnaw away at the roots of the
bush to which he is still clinging, while the bush itself is about to break

off. But as he lifts his eyes, he spots honey dripping frow the branches of
the bush and forgetting all about his peril he surrenders hiw self fully to

the sweetness of the honey.

The unicorn, as Barlaaw expounded in his parable, was death which

pursues wan everywhere. The well was the world filled with every evil.

The bush ivas huwan life eventually extinguished by the constant erosion

of the hours of night and day represented by the black and white wice.
The four serpents represented the huwan body cowposed of the four

elements which wust disintegrate if they become disturbed. The dragon is

the bottomless pit of Hell threatening to swallow up mankind. But the

honey is the worldly pleasure to which man surrenders forgetting all peril.

Thus wrote Giacopo da Voragine (James of Viraggio), archbishop of

Genoa, who in the thirteenth century published a selection of tales and
anecdotes, entitled Legenda aurea ("The Golden Legend"). He elucidates the
parable of Man who, encompassed by death in the midst of life, forgets all
concern about his eternal salvation - a story which was also frequently retold
and illustrated elsewhere in the Middle Ages. [111. 59]
52
K
jjjfk
V
t^B l| I
<WT
iL

r
' i c
Vm
^p^.j
~2 :

wi F ^£?& -• y'B
*
k fl i '^
,.

'''Äl
Hk
1
•

V J ;;-:.-.f:".
 37- Painted Romanesque beam (detail).

Barcelona, fourteenth or fifteenth

century

54
<$. Seventeenth-century Tibetan unicorn;
the horn between the ears is

symbolic of Nirvana

55
 39- Elephant luring unicorn, Persian
wall tile of probable thirteenth-
century dating

40. Shadhahvar, the musical horn, appears

on a fourteenth-century Arabian
miniature

I
sj,\\#t ••
^Piai; £_U 4^^^-^*^=»-*^^

^> J _!

I I

56
Alesand« the Great righting the
Carcadann. Persian miniature, early
fourteenth century
42. Horseman fighting the unicorn on
cap of water jar from Mosul,
ca. twelfth century

43. Miniature from twelfth-century

£> Physiologus manuscript in the British
Museum
 Death of the Unicorn

44. Detail from a French fourteenth-

century box

45. Detail on an Italian miniature,

ca. fourteenth century

jnnf d\ous quuv in Uux&um <mtm nutnem

60
6. Detail on three-inch wide enamelled
silver salver, fourteenth century

6l
62
Sacrifice of the Unicorn Two Pieces by Pisanello

47. Detail on choirstall, Cologne 49. Medal combines chastity symbols to

< cathedral, early fourteenth century t> honor Cecilia Gonzaga of the
reigning Mantuan family

50. Sketch: Innocence protects the

V unicorn

63
Few Dare Fight a Unicorn Without Wild Man fighting unicorn on an
the Virgin Decoy early fifteenth-century woven
tapestry from Strassburg
j I. Detail from frieze in Strassburg
V Minster

64
 ' •

>.\

3Ü
V/Mm

Iju^j^

65
 The Unicorn

53. Detail on wall bracket in St. Vitus

Cathedral, Prague, fourteenth century

54. Thirteen-century floor mosaic from

<3 the Chruch of S.Giovanni
Evangelista (St. John the Evangelist),
Ravenna, Italy

5 5 . North portal of Altotting Collegiate

Church, early sixteenth century

66
Annuniciation. as shown on
mid-thirteenth-century altar frontal
(mrrprndhim) tt finm Austria. Det.ul
includes the declaration "Abbess
Cunicund made me."

6?
57. Swiss Garden-of-Eden rug, ca.

1500, with unicorn signifying

future redemption

68
 Sharply contrasted, for example, would be a marble relief depiction from
Ferrara cathedral, probably made shortly after Giacopo's masterpiece, and
a pictureby the Dutch engraver Bolsworth who gives it definite dramatic
though unintentional baroque humor. The legend as such is still one of the
finest parables for human existence. [111. 5 9 ]

The man may take refuge in a tree instead of a well. A thirteenth-century

manuscript from Iraq which is now in the possession of the Bibliotheque
Nationale in Paris shows this as in a filmstrip. The top line depicts the man
still dining with friends, and below in three stages he is in flight onto the
tree. The same scene appears in a mural painting in the church of the vineyard
village of Bischoffingen (Germany). The man, magnificently garbed and
carrying a falcon at his wrist, stands in a tree, the tree of life, while angels
and demons contest for his soul, mice nibble at the root, and the unicorn
charges at the trunk. Death, "Fear" too, ready to pluck the man like ripe

fruit, carries a basket on his back similar to those the vintners take to the
vintage.
The unicorn myth from the orient remained an exchange between East
and West. It is not always clear which was the original stimulus. While the
unicorn appeared in ninth-century Byzantine and Carolingian miniatures
and occasionally in ivory insets, comparable Arabian reliefs are encountered
only around the end of the first millennium, but there might
have been earlier Arabian representations. In the eleventh and twelfth
centuries when Pbysiologus was circulating throughout Europe in numerous
translations and manuscripts, its effect is also traceable in the Moslem world.
The unicorn appears in manuscript miniatures, in stances similar to those of
the West, though also in other positions and forms. A twelfth-century
earthen vessel shows a horseman slaying a charging unicorn. A slightly
later Persian miniature shows the legendary hero Iskandar (none other than
Alexander the Great - after more than a millennium and a half!) fighting a
unicorn. The monster has a long tapering horn between its ears and huge
wings on its shoulders. In another picture, a female figure is suckling a small
graceful unicorn. At first glance this recalls the rare representation of the
Virgin Mary in the Pantocrator psalter, but the text clearly deals with a
scene of seduction. [Ills. 12, 41]
The myth of water purification by the unicorn did not merge into Moslem
literature, although that element plays such an important part traditionally
in the Orient. On the other hand, there is a slight echo of it in the cosmology
of the Parsees, that sect which migrated to India in the eighth century from
what is now called Iran and which still exists in its second homeland. Their
Bundahish myth of the creation first came into existence in Pahlavi in the
ninth century a.D. According to that legend, a three-legged ass, tall as a

69
mountain, with six eyes and nine muzzles, stands in the midst of the ocean.
It has a golden horn with openings from which a hundred smaller horns
sprout varying in size from that of a camel, a horse, a bull, to an ass. With
the horn it crushes all hostility of ill-intentioned animals. When it lowers
its head into the ocean, it causes a great commotion in the waters, which

then surge over the shores. When it calls out, all good female aquatic
animals become pregnant and all the bad ones barren. When it urinates into
the waters, theybecome purified, and if it does not make water, they all
become tainted with the venom of Ahriman. In the dualist Zoroastrian
religion, a one-horned ass stands beside Ormuzd and the powers of good.
As the unicorn concept rebounded from Europe to the Near East, other
unicorn images were encountered that had emerged partly under Chinese
influence since the days of Ctesias and Megasthenes. There was a whole
gamut of single-horned beasts, not only large, strong ones but even hares.
But these were apparently literary inventions more than anything else. The
unicorn in action, in the mythical sense, was the Carcadann, large, strong
and of ill temper, blessed also with magical powers - that was the beast with
which Iskander (Alexander) fought. The figure, derived from a steer or
buffalo, was frequently endowed with wings and possessed or —
acquired — similarities to the occidental unicorn. It could be caught when
lured into charging a tree or when entrapped by a maiden. It was strong
enough to defeat an elephant. Its horn converted into goblets or ground to
powder was therapeutic and strengthened sexual vigor. In addition, a belt
made from the beast's hide was useful as a defense against disease as with —
St. Hildegard of Bingen on the Rhine. Several features are clearly taken

from occidental accounts; others found their way into Western lore prob-
ably through Africa and Spain. Yet altogether the Moslem unicorn seems to
lack a certain quality. That seems to be the spiritual character which
Christendom bestowed on its European avatar, on its embodiment of a
model owing so much to the information provided by our National Philoso-
pher. [Ills. 41, 58, 60]

7°
5. Monstrous Symbols

What is the weaning of those absurd monstrosities, that astounding,

amorphous plethora of form, that formal opulence of shapelessness
standing in front of the eyes of studious monks in the cloisters-' What
are those obscene apes doing there? Those savage lions? Those centaurs

and half-men? The striped tigers? And the fighting warriors? And the
horn-blowing huntsmen? There ire can see many bodies with one head and,

conversely, many heads on a single body, here a quadruped with a serpent's

tail, over there a fish with a quadruped''s tail. Over there a beast, horse
in front and goat behind, and again, a horned beast with a horse's rump.
Everywhere is such a rich and amazing profusion of different shapes, that

one would sooner leant from the statues than from books, sooner spend
the whole day doing that alone rather than contemplate the commandments
of God. Bj God, though people be not ashamed of these absurdities, why
at least do they not flinch at the expenditures?

Saint Bernard, founder and abbot of the twelfth-century monastery of

Clairvaux, was the iconoclast thundered out this invective in an open
who
letter to Abbot William of Cluny. Bernard was a leader of the strict, puristic
reformed order set against the newly rich disciples of older reformers he ;

was a man of intense and personal mysticism, opposed to external show,

crusading against waste of money on superfluous ostentation. [111. 16]
Nevertheless, he was astute enough to allow instructive images for
the benefit of lay people. Those monsters adorned the facades of Roman-
esque churches, crawled around the capitals of the pillars inside, and gazed
down from the timbered roofs. Three roads antiquity, the Bible, and —
Physiologus —
had intertwined, bringing more than the unicorn into
the European experience. In the West, with its not overly mature, not too
deeply penetrated Christian tradition, where many a pagan lay barely
skindeep, they collided with relics of another, world. This produced a
medley from which it was scarcely possible to unravel the original compo-
nents, and in which concrete Christian tenets seemed in any case to be
thoroughly lost. The uncivilized images appeared only to interfere with the
desire of the flowering mysticism for direct communication of the soul with
God. And yet those images became a gateway to such an encounter.
7i
 That was a process which took centuries, and it had not yet fully matured
in Bernard's day. Its probably started with Pope Gregory I (a.D. s 90-604).
The real initiator of the spread of papal power was a magnificent churchman
though possibly not a great theologian. He came from a Roman patrician
family, was well educated, and certainly not prone to superstition. In his
discussion on Paul, for example, he used the unicorn purel\ as a symbol.
Presumably he did not favor making allegory too clear. But this pope, who
was prepared to travel through northern Europe in order to convert
illiterates, may have sensed in allegory something of future value for

preachment and clerical instruction. He did not consecrate a figure such as

the unicorn, but he did legitimize it by using it in his writings. The precise
details of such usage would be the concern of those who followed. He
spread the story of the snaring of the unicorn by the maiden but did not
link it to Christ.
That was the work of a somewhat younger contemporary, St. Isidore,
Archbishop of Seville around a.D. 600. In particular, Isidore's Etymologiae is an
encyclopedia of human and divine subjects, which transmitted an abundance
of ancient beliefs and subject matter, both sacred and profane, to the Middle
Ages. Isidore retold old stories of the unicorn's savagery, of itspride which
drove it to death if captured, of its fighting the elephant, and even its
entrapment by the maiden.
Medieval unicorn lore was fashioned from the writings of Gregory and
Isidore. This continued up to the time of Albertus Magnus, who appeared
an expert naturalist in his bestiarium and maintained that tradition when
turning to mystic theology.
Only a small number of sculptural specimens from the early Middle Ages
survive,and these are partly open to question as to date and meaning. Apart
from miniatures in psalter and gospel manuscripts (dating somewhat later
than the eighth century) are the animal images which Bernard considered
scarcely pertinent to devotional studies. We can see some of these in churches
and cloisters but their significance is not always clear: ancient traditions,
pagan superstition, and curiosity about foreign lands allowed the content of
Christian symbolism to penetrate only gradually. Motifs of the transitional
period characteristically intermingle in the rug-pattern mosaic flooring in
Otranto cathedral in southeastern Italy. That magnificent mosaic was begun
in 1 163, ten years after Bernard's death and was completed about three years
later. It depicts Adam and Eve, Noah, and other Old Testament characters

and includes Alexander the Great in his legendary attempt to hover in the
air with the aid of griffins, a centaur, symbol of paganism, shooting the

Christian stag, and also a unicorn and a monk - possibly Pantaleone, who is
known to have been the creator of this carpet in stone. [Ills. 20, 21]
72
 A contemporary of St. Bernard, Honorius of Autun (France), called the
Great Unknown of the twelfth century, offered a literary example of the
mixing of motifs. In Speculum eccksiae he expounds the role of the maiden in
trapping the unicorn as described previously in Pbysiologus and thus expanded
the development of iconography. In his great geography De imagine mundi

("Picture of the World") on the other hand, he presents the unicorn in that
wild irrational fauna said to inhabit distant India. This is a conglomeration
of centuries of hunters', mariners', and soldiers' yarns, and it is doubtful
whether any of it ever came direct from some truly Indian source. This
wonderland is populated with humanoid animal hybrids and deformed
people, but comparatively few pure animal figures. There are dog-headed
humanoids with curling snouts covered with fur who howl like hounds;
sciapods who, though one-legged, run faster than the wind and when they
rest, they provide shade for themselves with their gigantic foot; other
creatures without heads but with eyes in their shoulders and two holes in
the chest instead of a nose and mouth; serpents so large that they eat a stag
whole; ceucrocore, a creature with an ass's body, a stag's shanks, a lion's
chest and forelegs, a gigantic cleft horn, pure gold teeth, and withal an
almost human voice. Several beasts have pairs of mobile horns which they
protrude and retract alternately for fighting purposes. The manticore has a
human face, three rows of teeth, a lion's body, and a scorpion's tail; it eats
human flesh and can take an emergency. Tortoises are so huge
to flight in
that spacious houses could be built from the shell. Compared with these
monsters, which wemany types of gargoyle, the elephant and the
see in
unicorn stand harmonious and credible images. Honorius de-
as rather
scribes the unicorn essentially in the form reported by Megasthenes, that is
to say with elephant's feet, a curly tail like a hog's, a long, tapering horn
about forty-eight inches long, and a ghastly roar.
Some people have assumed that Honorius was outlining the basic concept
for a pillar carved in relief of which, unfortunately, only the top portion
remains at Souvigny in central France, once one of the foremost Cluniac
priories. The various facets of this twelfth-century pillar show the duties
for each month, a favorite motif in later prayer books, together with the
and monsters from Asia and Africa as described
zodiac, mythical characters,
by Honorius. The pillar could scarcely have stood within the church but
could reasonably have been a support for a sundial somewhere near the
middle of the cloister, where the monks raising their eyes from their
breviaries could see it as a manifestation of the world outside. On the pillar
the unicorn stands midway between a griffin and an elephant, its damaged
Cardunn from a thirteenth-century
Iraki manuscript
horn points backward, its ungainly feet are attached to slender legs, its tail

is long and flourishes smartly with the coil like a hog's at its tip. [111. 16]
73
 Possibly the oldest and certainly the most impressive representation of the
unicorn on German soil (dating to about noo) appears on a baptismal font
now in the seventeenth-century city church of Freudenstadt in the Black
Forest. The sandstone material of the font indicates that it is of Black Forest
origin, but nobody knows for which church it was originally intended. Its
beautifully proportioned sandstone basin, with its pedestal forty inches tall,

is supported by figures of wild beasts and humans. On the outside it bears

symbolic patterns blending Christian and pagan motifs. Prominent among
these is the unicorn, a powerful animal modeled somewhat on the lines of a
rhinoceros, charging another animal resembling a lion. This has been
interpreted as Satan roving around like a roaring lion seeking whom he
may devour, while the unicorn symbolizes Christ fighting for the soul of
the newborn. It is comforting to see Christ represented as a militant beast

rather than the patient lamb, evidence indeed of the influence of the Eastern
church which puts the King of Kings, Lord of the Universe, at the center
of its Man of Sorrows. But this interpretation is open
creed in place of the
to question, and something more suitable for the atmosphere of childbirth
and christening is derivable from the prayer in Psalm 22 (21) of the Stuttgart
psalter: "Rescue me from the lion's mouth and protect me against the
unicorns' horns." The unicorn seems rather to belong among the spellbound
demoniac figures banished to the outside of the sanctuary. [Ills. 17, 18]
The other reliefs on the Freudenstadt font are difficult to interpret. Plainly
visible behind the unicorn is a stag devouring (or spitting out ?) a serpent.
According to Pliny, the stag was among other things a serpent-killer and in
that role early acquired a place in Christian symbolism. In Phjsiologus it is

described as a destroyer of the devil. On the other side of the font, there is a
relief of men and dragons. Two dragons are seen tangling with each other,
while in each case the tail is in the grasp of a man whose body is out of sight.
One of these men clutches at the throat of the other monster with his free
hand, while his companion's right hand clasps the foreleg of a unicorn whose
foot appears to be planted on his own head. Both men are bearded and have
long plaited pigtails. No definite interpretation has been offered as to what
these figures represent, although they have often been viewed as incarnations
of the Christian God or pagan demons or as a merging of paganism and
Christianity.
Similar enigmas arise in the case of a skillfully carved relief in Holzkirchen
church near Wii'rzburg, Franconia. In the seclusion of a small village in the
Spessart region, amid picturesque ruins of Romanesque monastery, a small
structure by Balthazar Neumann, the Wii'rzburg master of Baroque ar-
chitecture, stands on the site of the former church. Built into it
is a stone relief which may have stood as a votive image in the ancient

74
59. Tb* Man in tbt Well engraved by
B. A. Bobrworth

75
priory church since the end of the eleventh century. Holzkirchen priory
was founded by one Troandus, supposed to have been high sheriff of
in 775

the Waldsassen canton. It was later ceded to Charlemagne, who gave the

priory to St. Boniface, "the Apostle of the Germans" and bishop of Fulda
(Hesse), where a certain unicorn tradition was beginning to develop.
What the unicorn signified in Holzkirchen has not been definitively
elucidated. The horseman in flowing cloak in the upper of the two panels
may, of course, be identified as Christ on the way to Jerusalem. The
inscription reads : Aequester aedibus in nostris sit tua dextera Christe, "May thy 60. Detail from fourteenth-century

right hand, o knightly Christ, rest upon our house." No specific inscription Syrian glass receptacle

applies to the lower panel, where a bearded man is holding a unicorn whose
horn curves backward. The church today, rather wary of mysticism, is

inclined to identify the bearded man as Troandus, the priory's founder and
the unicorn as a symbol of monastic seclusion or as an emblem of the
Waldsassen canton where it was said to be a local denizen of the forest. It
could even be a memorial to Troandus' son, who was reportedly killed by
one. All these interpretations seem a little forced. The unicorn might
boldly be interpreted as an image for Christ and the man holding it as God
the Father. The unicorn in these circumstances is certainly not simply a
monster, and this stone in its most ancient environment may be counted 61. Sylvan ass from John Jonston's
Bestiary
among the loveliest and most exciting German representations of the
unicorn. [111. 23]
Finally, a comparatively modern example illustrates once again the
encounter between lion and unicorn and, like the earlier Freudenstadt font,
contains a merging of Christian and non-Christian traditions. It is to be
found in the brilliantly painted, barrel -shaped, timbered ceiling of a Jewish
house of prayer from Horb-am-Main (Germany). Looking at it gives the
impression of entering some enchanted German forest where the unicorn is
consorting with the denizens. The unicorn here is fighting the lion and has
just pierced his throat with his horn. The painter of this scene, Elieser
Susmann, came from what is now the western Ukraine, where traditional
Talmudic and folklore preserved the notion of the unicorn. In the
tales
ceiling, painted in 1735, the lionand the unicorn may well be a reminder of
a mutual Judeo-Christian tradition, e.g., Psalm 22, where David is pray-
ing for protection against the savage beasts. The Horb tabernacle, which
had occasionally been used as a barn, survived every vicissitude after 1914
in the museum at Bamberg until it was exhibited at the great Monumenta
Judaica exhibition in Cologne in 1963-64. Because of its tremendous
historic importance, it has meantime been transferred to the Israel Museum
in Jerusalem. [111. 142] 62. Two varieties of maned unicorn
Our brief look at extant' ecclesiastical depictions of the unicorn in (Jonston)

76
 association with other animals brings us back to the questions raised by the
concerned St. Bernard. Perhaps definite meaning eludes us in many exam-
ples, but it is clear the stone menagerie offers something beyond "absurd
monstrosities" and "formal opulence of shapelessness."

5 J. Vater unicorn from painted ceiling

of church at Zillis (Switzerland),

twelfth century

77
6. The Road to Mysticism

In the twelfth century, the period of St. Bernard and Honorius, lived
Hildegard, abbess of Bingen, a mystic also known as the "Sibyl of the
Rhine." She recorded many of her mystic visions in the manuscript Scivias,
and in Physica, a book of natural science, is found a version of the capture of
the unicorn which is more charming than any before or since. In her story
a naturalist studying the animal world could never, to his great surprise,
find a unicorn. One day, however, he went on a country outing with a
company of men, women, and girls. The younger women wandered away
from the main party to amuse themselves among the flowers. A unicorn,
catching sight of this group, stops suddenly and sits stock still on his
haunches to gaze at the young girls. "When indeed, a unicorn sees a damsel
in the distance, he is astonished at the sight of such a beardless being in
human form. If, moreover, two or more girls are together, he is still more

astonished and can be caught all the more quickly while he sits there staring
at them as though petrified." In such circumstances, even our naturalist can
approach and seize the stupefied unicorn from behind.
Who could shrug away the charm of so sweet a tale ? It is clearly a refined
and embellished version of the savage beast especially for nun and novitiates
who are taught that entrapment of unicorns is not a job for buxom peasant
girls but for daughters of the gentry.
No connection with Christ was forced into this story, but the unicorn
nevertheless has something of sacred mystery about it. According to St.

Hildegard, its great strength, which makes it superior to all other animals,
is due to its going once yearly into the country where the waters of paradise
flow. There it seeks out the best herbs and vegetables, paws them loose
from the soil, and devours them. When otherwise seen from naturalistic
and medical viewpoints, the animal has some trace certainly of the alchemy
emanating from Arabia based on the "four humors. " Hippocratic pathology
defined those four fundamental humors as blood coming from the heart and
representing heat, phlegm from the brain representing cold, yellow bile
from the liver for dryness, and black bile from spleen and stomach for
wetness. For the Pneumatists, on the other hand, blood was the hot, moist
humor, phlegm the cold, moist humor, yellow bile the hot, dry humor,
and black bile the cold, dry humor.

78
 Hildegard's unicorn is "hot rather than cold." Of course, hot and cold
were deemed incompatible, but Hildegard seems to regard those qualities
as mixed together in the unicorn. Hildegard's successors in the nunneries
cherished the unicorn as part of their adoration of the Virgin, but they may
also have deeply felt in it a mysticcommunion with their Redeemer. They
embroidered the sacred beast on vestments, wove it into altar frontals and
refectory cloths, and stitched it on pillow covers. The adoration and love

of the Brides of Christ for their Lord produced a symbol and substitute
which also embodied a sublimation of the mystic bond. There are no accounts
of any reactions exceeding pathological bounds, something which was by no
means foreign in cloistered atmospheres. Employing the unicorn as symbol
of Christ divests the creature of crude reality and etherealizes the mystic
bond. [Ills. 36,56]
While the world of scholasticism, true to the attitude of its master
Aristotle, was concerned with precise academic portrayal of the unicorn,
mysticism contemporaneously rediscovered in the unicorn the sacred token
for Christ. Both viewpoints could be housed in the same individual. Honorius
himself, who described the unicorn in its Indian fairyland, also wrote a
widely used miscellany of sermons to serve less learned or less diligent
confratres not so capable of sustaining the burdens of their offices. In that
Speculum ("Mirror of the Church") is an address for the Feast of
ecclesiae

the Annunciation, the first part of which contains various prophetic

utterances dealing with this particular event. That section, considerately
labelled "for optional use" by Honorius, contains the story of the capture
of the unicorn by the maiden. "Christ is represented by this beast, His

invincible might by its horn. Just as the animal is taken in the Virgin's lap
by the hunters, so is He found in human form by those who love him."
Here the old allegory of Physiologus is revived to become an element of the
sermon and, like the secular account from India, it becomes a pattern for
the plastic arts. During the Middle Ages, as architects and artists were hewing
and painting their illustrations of the Bible in the stones and murals of
churches, the unicorn continued as a hieroglyph for Christ. It was a sacred
seal which even illiterates could recognize and classify properly in meaning

and importance. Honorius, who rather than an original, creative personality

was more of a compiler like Aelian the Italian, united in his writings the
unicorn's lifelines. Thus, it now set foot with symbolic authority within the
very precincts of the Church.
Albertus Magnus, the great theologian, was certainly a more important
scholar than Honorius. Even when he discarded the naturalistic, scholastic
view of the unicorn and introduced its figure into the ecclesiastic theory of
the universe, he did so warily and with due scientific care. He seeks his

79
sanction from the Bible and uses Biblical quotations to illustrate his notion 64. Detail from sanctuary altar to the
t> Virgin Mary, originally at Cologne;
of the unicorn as a symbol of Christ, as a creature in whose being the forceful,
probably produced during early
impatient, and indeed wrathful side is deeply imprinted:
fifteenth century

This unicorn is Christ whose »light, typified by its horn, is irresistible.

Thus, in this connect/on, Isaiah 2:23 ends with the words "Cease ye

from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be

accounted of.'" and the psalm tells us be is as beloved as the offspring of
unicorns; of which Numbers 23 :22 (Luther's version) also states that
his joyousness is as the joyousness of the unicorn. Jewish unicorns,
particularly faithful Jo the law, were the ascendants of Mary and her son,
the only-begotten of Cod, the Father who said, according to Matthew
3:17: "This is my beloved son." This unicorn appeared wild and unruly
when, at the mere thought of Lucifer's arrogance, it drove Adam out of

theGarden of Lden for biting the apple, and destroyed the original
world with the blood. Thus also did it destroy the Sodomites with
hellfire and brimstone. Thus did that unicorn rampage in heaven and on
earth until our glorious I ' irgin accepted it into her lap when it entered
her citadel, that is to say into the womb of her chaste body so that she
could nurse it in her bosom and drape it with modest flesh, wherein in
accordance with divine decree the unsellable creature might be captured
by its hunters, namely by jews and Gentiles, and yield voluntarily to death by

crucifixion. Thus for example, in Job 39:9-24 "Will the unicorn be

willing to serve thee or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn

with his hand in the furrow? . . . He swalloweth the ground with

fierceness and rage." Thus Christ died from the rage he felt against sinners.

As a sign of the high medieval revival of Physiologus, whose christological

interpretation of the unicorn hunt persists alongside the materially, quite
skeptically retold narration or even exults over it, this scene was abundantly
adopted by the plastic arts in the many variants available: as a calmly
contented association and as a hard pursuit to the death. From Latin
versions accessible only to the learned, the Physiologus fables penetrated
almost explosively into the European languages and thence into still wider
circles. They were clearly spiced by the whimsical events of the charmingly
natural manner of narration and the pervading ethico-Christian commen-
taries. From literati, the stories certainly travelled by word of mouth and

repetition into the general population; it is not necessary to suppose that

every craftsman engaged in the reproduction of the Physiologus animal
kingdom in churches and abbeys had necessarily read the original book!
And although their hands were undoubtedly guided by clerics, it is frequently

80
8i
The Virgin Mary with the Unicorn

65. In Maulbronn choirstall

66. In Cismar priory church

67. Detailfrom Lochner's fresco in

Cologne cathedral
68. On a keystone of St. Stephen's
Church, Vienna
 Savage woman and unicorn on
choirstall in Konstanz Minster

On opposite side of pew from Fig. 69:

Savage woman caught in thicket and

demons (Detail)
threatened by

84
71. Christmas icon with symbols of the
Virgin Miry. Mid-twelfth-century
(unicorn at lower right)
 Unicorn altar at Erfurt cathedral.
Mystic Unicorn Hunt 73.
[> Ca. 1420, one of the earliest
72. Lower Rhineland fifteenth-century representations of the Holy Hunt
tapestry showing Gabriel and
Mary
y motif
in conversation

* V*

86 \+ '
t*>
 '
p..
/*
/
 :

74. Fakonetto's fresco with mystic

unicorn hunt in Church of St. Peter
the Martyr, Yeroru. Sixteenth
century. (Detail)

75. Fresco with mystic unicorn hunt.

Church of Our Lady, Memmingen,
cm. 1460-
76. Fifteenth-century tapestry from Basel, 77. Feminine cunning. Capital of column
V with symbolic beasts (wild bear, lion, [> from St. Peter's Church in Caen
unicorn, stag). (Normandy). Detail: Virgil in the
basket, and unicorn hunt

78. Damsel with unicorn. Detail from a

t> Basel tapestry

90
91
79- Rhenish trinket casket from latter half 80. Female savage with unicorn. Late
of fifteenth century. Queen of the fifteenth-century Strasshurg tapestry
Savages mounted on a unicorn (chairback cover)
 *"M3fr

~M^

, :

X"S .w*
y^i

* I

-
 -,
,
mP
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Of
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. -l f

W»h
Savages in the inclosed garden, hard to decide in a particular case whether a scene is intended to portray
Htrtmt tmchutu. Fifteenth century something spiritual or profane, say Our Lord's Passion or simply a hunt, a
love idyll or an allegory on the Conception. Conception — meaning that the
incident is to be seriously taken in the sense of a mystic identity of the
image and the meaning. Of course some aids for the interpretation are
offered by the surroundings and the contiguous figures, but considering
the closely juxtaposed or practically coincident spiritual and mundane
existence in medieval man, the context may be deceptive.
There is a clearly religiousmeaning in the slaying of the unicorn on a
quatrefoil in the choirstall of Cologne cathedral; even the influence of
oriental style in the apparel of the hunter who is dispatching the animal
with his bow and arrow seems to indicate that this scene is intended to
portray the death of Christ. The frequently depicted scene appears also on
a misericord in Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon, England. Shakespeare
was buried in that churchyard, and it is almost certain that he had seen that
carving during his lifetime, for he mentions the beast many a time in his
works, albeit with a touch of enlightened skepticism. [Ills. 47, 48]
In contrast, there is a portrayal of the unicorn slaughter generally held to
be purely profane by contemporary science. But it is particularly impressive
and its power of attraction makes this hard to believe. The piece in question
is a small, circular, strikingly colored, silver-enamel salver from a four-
teenth century Rhenish (or conceivably French) atelier now in the Bavarian
National Museum, Munich. The hunter is standing on a tree and thrusting
his spear through the nape of a powerfully drawn beast whose knees are
giving way. The maiden is still clasping its long straight horn, and in her
raised right hand she holds a circular object which reappears in other
representations. Its meaning is unclear. If we regard the subject purely as
mundane, and that could apply for example to a set of Parisian trinket
boxes showing the unicorn hunt alongside a scene from Tristram and heult,
one might think the object was a garland which the maiden is handing to the
victor. The interpretation of the circular object as the Holy Grail into which
Christ's blood dripped is not too convincing. On the Munich silver tray,
this item could be a mirror; the spotless mirror is one of the symbols of the

Virgin Mary, who is the unsullied glass in which God saw his own image
for the first time. [Ills. 44, 46]
The step into mystic understanding of the hunting scene was described in
literature with particular clarity by a man who had himself undergone a
mystic experience, although not necessarily with this particular object.
Detail from Deftnsorium virginitatis
Conrad of Megenberg (1309-1374), prebendary of Regensburg cathedral,
(Compurgation of the Marian
experienced a miraculous cure during a mass in which two anthems
Virginity)
composed by him were being sung. Though he had lived previously in
95
Paris and Vienna, Regensburg is the city where he remains respected as a
pillar of the church, where on occasion he acted as mediator to the Antipope
at Avignon on behalf of the Abbey of
Emmeran. His popular Book of
St.

Nature, reputably the first natural history text in German, was largely
responsible for thi fifteenth century becoming immediately the Age of the
Unicorn in Germany. Conrad relates the story along the lines of Gregory
and Isidore but with embellishments of his own which prove he had studied
the matter more deeply than either of his predecessors. In the maiden's
presence the unicorn forgets all his fury "and honors the purity of her

chaste, coy body by laying his head in her lap and falling asleep then and
there." Thus the hunters capture the beast "and take it into the royal palaces
to be put on show and exhibited to the populace," just as Megasthenes had
described unicorn rolts being taken into the king's presence and exhibited
in gala performances. Conrad applied this to Christ, who, after ascending
to the palace of the King of Heaven, "Vouchsafed a seraphic appearance to
the host of all the Saints and Angels." But Christ is also the unicorn because
"before becoming man, he harbored wrath and fury against the vanity of
the angels and against the stubbornness of the people on earth." The change
from fury* to meekness found by Gregory the Great in Saul-become-Paul is

here applied to the Savior himself. Those "heavenly hosts" that brought
the unknown author of Physiologus under the suspicion of gnosticism are
here carefully placed in the correct canonic hierarchy as angels.
The intimate, peaceful communion of maiden and unicorn - we may now
say of Mother and Child - without any menacing hunters about became
particularly dear to Germans. On a medallion on the altar at Cismar in
Holstein there is an austere, bolt upright Virgin. The finest keystone of
St. Stephen's cathedral in Vienna is enhanced by the Virgin in the form of a
buxom rustic beautv; on the choirstall in Maulbronn Abbey, the best
preserved medieval cloister in Germany, located in the Black Forest, the
Virgin is an entrancing vision. Hassocks originally from Cologne show the
maid and unicorn corralled inside a strong border or thicket of thorn, safe
in 'heir miniature garden of Eden with lilies of the valley and other com-
patible blooms while nettles grow in the wicked world on the outside. On
Stefan Lochner's Epiphany altar in Cologne cathedral, the maid is wearing
a breast ornament for fastening her cloak. This brooch has a pearl and
precious stone inlay of the Virgin and the unicorn, again therefore the
Mother and Child now indicating His supernatural origin. None of the
worshippers can detect that detail; the image is too far off. There it is in
front of everybody's eyes yet seen by none - truly a "sacred open secret."
[Ills. 36, 64, 65, 66, 61, 68]
Though associated with the Virgin Mary, the unicorn is occasionally

96
 connected with other holy women, especially those whose chastity is meant
to be glorified, such as St. Justine. A Gobelin tapestry at Triibau in Moravia
shows our beast in the retinue of the Queen of Sheba. In St. Michael's
Church, commanding a view of the Susa valley west of Turin (Italy), a

sixteenth-century fresco depicts John the Baptist in the wilderness preaching

to the animals, among which is a white unicorn. A 1545 Gobelin at Langres
Cathedral, France, dedicated to St. Mammes, includes a unicorn among the
other creatures listening to that saint's sermon.
The unicorn may thus be an embodiment of virtue or a symbol for
Christ or, for example, a standing guard over human saints such as
Stephen on a Gobelin in the Cluny Museum, Paris; the exquisite creature
has become a useful and potent part of Church language, written or artistic.
[Ills. 126, 126a]

83. Sixteenth century, from Spain

97
7. The Celestial Hunt

Stmt ma tri 's conditur, Unfetter 'd by the world —at rest,

Qui mundo non clauditur, Peaceful on the mother's breast.

Pietate trahitur, By his artless trust betrayed,

Utero concluditur, In the trap her bosom made,

Unicornis capitur. Such is the Unicorn's arrest!

From an ancient missal at Neuhausen near Pforzheim (Germany)

Just before the middle of the thirteenth century, the ruling house of
Babenberg (which had been dominant since 936 in what is now Austrian
territory)was at the point of extinction with the death of the childless duke
Frederick II, and many a hand was undoubtedly ready to seize his estates.
Among these was the abbey of Göss in the southeast Austrian province of
Styria. Cunigund the abbess, in her temporal and seignorial capacity, had
many concerns, but these apparently were no hindrance to her spiritual
zeal and genius for religious creation. Among the works of art produced at
Göss under her direction (for it is doubtful whether her many duties ever
gave her time to set her own needle to the work) is a frontal bearing the
inscription CHUNEGUNDIS ABATISSA ME
FECIT, "Abbess Cunigund
made me." Among the sumptuous cloths and priestly vestments made by
the sisters of the convent, this ideological document is an outstanding
example of the high quality of late Romanesque handicraft. The unexcelled
embroidery of silk completely covering the linen ground in lustrous colors
of brilliant yellow and deep blue affects the visitor most impressively even
now. It is a remarkable and unique precursor of a group of motifs which
two hundred years later singularly expressed the German mystic cult for
Christ and the Virgin Mary. [111. 56]
The unicorn frequently appears on the priestly vestments from Göss, in
company with and of equal standing with the other ornamentation. On the
antependium or altar frontal before us it occupies a central position in the
familiar representation of the Annunciation. The angel approaches the
Virgin and greets her "Hail Mary ..." and between these two figures is a
little unicorn, graceful as a thoroughbred, with distinctly cloven hoofs. It is

as though, at this instant of the Annunciation, the person so heralded was

himself leaping toward the woman who was to be his earthly mother. The
98
dove of the Holy Ghost hovers ovet the thtee of them. That much abused
wotd "unique" does seem fitting hete; we know of no other representation
that expresses the essence of the matter with such delicate and sensitive
restraint. The whole meaning of the composition is indicated in utmost
conciseness and stylization, the symbolic content of the two animal figures
being obvious. was not mere chance that this work originated in a
It

convent. The beast, which is amenable to virginal purity, became a symbol

and a mystic incorporation to the nuns of their love for Christ. Cunigund
herself was probably well acquainted with the original German edition of
Physiologus and thus was able to combine into one image with a bold hand
the love of Christ and the cult of the Virgin that was spreading into the
Occident from the east.
This cult was already finding literary expression during the twelfth
century. Religious poetry, such as the Marienlied, the Melk Abbey hymn to
the Virgin, contains these symbols: the Burning Bush where Moses, like
Mary much later, was submissive to the call of the Lord; the Closed Portal of
Ezekiel through which "the king passed gloriously in and out"; and
Gideon's Fleece, which "God sprinkled with his celestial dew" as he did
with Mary. (These two quotations are from Walther von der Vogelweide's
Poem to the Trinity.) These symbols appear together around 1 140 in a missal
for St. Michael's AbbeyHildesheim (near Hanover). The scene is the
at
first Noel: Mary stands in the center beneath the manger, surrounded by

those prophetic indications of virgin birth. Joseph with his peaked Jewish
hat is also a part of the setting. "Since he took care of her, it is thereby
testified that she remained an unsullied virgin," in the words of Giacopo

da Voragine. In one of those pictures, however, the closeness of Virgin and

unicorn is again testimony for the supernaturality of this birth. [111. 71]
Before the final artistic imagery evolved, the mystic hunt was given form
by religious poetry. The Son of God is in the beginning unready to become
mortal and to suffer as a man, as is required of him. He has to be coerced,
nay, compelled to the task. Christ the unicorn is chased by the hunter
God-Father and then by Gabriel, at the latter's command, who drives him
into the Virgin's lap. The slaying of the unicorn was an ancient symbol for
Christ's martyrdom. Thus the unicorn hunt becomes a celestial event and
at the same time an image of the Annunciation and Conception within the
earthly body. This Christian, mystic unicorn hunt mingles with pagan
traditions, with the role of the "Wild Huntsman" who thunders through the
fall nights over hill and dale, forestand fell. In more recent times, the "Wild
Hunt" has been known in some Westphalian localities as the "angelic
steeplechase," and in the Midlands shire of Stafford in England, "Gabriel's
Hounds."
99
 This spiritual chase culminates in the Hortus conclusus, the "garden inclosed"
of the Song of Solomon, which harbors the mother of God, in many other
forms as a bower, a bed of rosebushes, a garland, or a hedge — a dual
symbol, as it not only offers the Virgin protection against the world
but also signifies according to the Old Testament her own bosom in which
she carries and shelters the Child. This garden becomes the scene of the
Annunciation. The archangel Gabriel appears in the vestments of a deacon,
as a hunter with spear and hunting horn (rarely with a scepter instead of his
weapon or with the horn alone). He leads his pack on the leash, and only
exceptionally do any of his hounds run free.
The Virgin sits in the garden, her hair unbound as a token of virginity,
and which the angel has been hunting - the
in her lap she shelters the beast
unicorn. The was not to slay the animal but to drive it
object of the chase
into the Virgin's bosom. So, Gabriel the Hunter raises his spear instead of
driving it home, and, setting his horn to his lips, he sounds the mort.
Annunciation and Conception are completed at one blow. Inside the garden,
outside and by the wall or fence surrounding it are a number of prophetic
it,

coming of Christ and the Virgin birth; there are considerably

allusions to the
more of them than were found in that early Hildesheim miniature. Fre-
quently, God the Father looks down in benediction from the heavens,
sending the Christ child bearing a cross down on a beam of light to his
mother, and thus Christ is, so to speak, doubly present in mortal and in
spiritual form, if one does not wish to assume that the unicorn is now
representing the procreative spirit as the third element of the Trinity.
Nevertheless, the dove alsois occasionally present. In some portrayals, the

child mounted on the unicorn rides toward his mother, and such a plethory
of motifs may cast some doubt on whether the old master responsible for
the painting was fully aware of its whole meaning. Christian legend,
fraught with millennial tradition, a mystic combination of profane and
sacred components taken together, converts the representations of the
unicorn hunt into a remarkable document of the later Middle Ages - within
the conflicting context of folk poetry, sincere belief, and intellectual pro-
fundity - as charming as it is, so to speak, ludicrous. [111. 75]
Certainly this motif has a unique place in the huge amount of religious
iconography which flourished during the two centuries immediately prior
to the Reformation.
The unicorn before us now is not bound by definite form or size. It may
sometimes look like a toy animal, and elsewhere it can be huge enough to
dominate the whole setting. Ram, stag, and horse contributed jointly and
individually to its composition. Sometimes the horn looks extremely fragile,
but mostly it is straight and strong; it also exhibits the peculiar whorls
mentioned by Megasthenes which became an essential unicorn feature in
the Middle Ages. The hounds remaining with the hunter outside of the wall
sometimes press on with him into the garden and are often depicted by
stripes and strokes. They are the symbols for Christian virtues, and there is
a certain amount of irony in the iconoclast Bernard of Clairvaux having been

the source of the concept for this particular symbolism. His annotations to
Psalm 8 5 contain a parable of those virtues and their conflict in regard to
iniquitous mankind. Truth and Righteousness voted to condemn Man,
Placidity and Compassion pleaded in his behalf — finally all are united
by Christ for the work of redemption. These virtues are not always four in
number. According to the mind's eye of the artist or his patron, probably
also for reasons of space, there may be three or two or occasionally only
one hound. Sometimes, though, out of the mundane hunt the gun dog appears
as an additional fifth, its duty being to start the game. [Ills. 72, 73]

The Marian symbols, to which we have already referred in passing, arose

from the Song of Songs and other portions of the Old Testament, and
occasionally additional symbols of Christ are introduced from Physiologus,
namely the lion, pelican, and phoenix. This portion of the iconography
probably owes its existence to a remarkable book by the Viennese Dominican,
Professor Francis de Resza (from Retz on the Enns); namely Defensorium
Mary"), a
imiolatae virginitatis Mariae ("Defence of the Intact Virginity of
thesis founded on accounts of miracles, each of which invariably conclude
with "If that was then feasible, why should it not ." Picture and text . .

illustrate the various events, such as how King Xerxes's wine turned into

blood, how the bird Bonafa mates by osculation (one item which had already
been labeled fable by Albertus Magnus), and "Virginal purity can trap the
unicorn. Thus was a virgin able even to conceive the Son of God."
"Rhinoceros" was the term used in the original Latin text, but the illustration
shows the now conventional figure of the unicorn. To each of these
fragments of nonsense its source of "authentication" is added, especially
ancient writers and Church Fathers. In the case of the unicorn, its witnesses
are St. Isidore of Seville (about 600) and Alanus ab Insulis (Alan of Lille), a
tasteful, erudite twelfth-century poet - though what could he have contributed

to the uncouth debate which he is here called upon to serve [111. 3 5 ] !

Francis of Resza died in 1425 and about that time or shortly thereafter,
the picture now regarded as the oldest extant example of the sacred hunt was
painted. This was the central panel for an altar of prothesis at Weimar, now
in the museum ofthat city. Search in Thüringen for the source of the weird,
legendary symbolism brought to light a whole series of specimens, and the
popular subject of the mystic unicorn hunt appears to have spread out from
there to all parts of Germany. It was executed in a tremendous variety of
art forms, as paintings, altar carvings, woven in antependia and other
tapestries, patches sewn on to a groundwork, and occasionally in bookcovers
and other craftwares. [Ills. 72, 73, 85, 117]
Apart from graphic and minor skilled handicrafts, a still undoubtedly
incomplete survey leaves us with some seventy major works showing the
sacred hunt now known. Much meantime has certainly perished or been
destroyed. The number of locations is small because at various times several
works were produced in one place (for example, the motif about which we
are speaking here was a special favorite in the nunneries of Lower Saxony).
Of the works of art now preserved in museums, origins in many cases remain
not fully authenticated. On the whole, however, these items do give some
idea as to where the mystic unicorn hunt enjoyed special favor. The motif
did not develop solely in Germany but continued broadly dominant wherever
German culture penetrated. There appear to be two somewhat loosely
associated zones of that culture. One of these centered in Thüringen, where
the former kingdom and the earlier province of Saxony became one, and
some ramifications range thence toward Silesia; northward, lower Saxony
joins in sending its influence toward Brandenburg, Mecklenburg and
Holstein, and thus into Denmark. One may well assume that an obviously
fairly late painted ceiling in the church at Hattula in Finland may have been
inspired from across the Baltic.

A second extensive area of the mystic unicorn hunt covers the upper
Rhineland plain and the alpine regions between the Vosges mountains and
;

the Black Forest, the unicorn was greatly favored in yet another form. A
painting from Schongauer's studio and now in the Unterlinden Museum
at Colmar is credited with some influence in the dissemination of the
sacred unicorn hunt motif. One workshop on the central Rhine appears to
have manufactured various antependia with the unicorn hunt and to have
supplied these to churches during several decades. In the south-
ern Alps, Tyrol, and Carinthia, a few samples are also to be found.
With full Renaissance pomp, the prodigy made its way into the church of
St. Peter the Martyr in Verona. Here, next to other Old Testament prophecies,
the Gideon miracle takes a central position. The Virgin is like a Christian
Danae, with the Child descending toward her in a downpour from the
presence of God the Father; Gideon stands outside the Virgin's bower, the
Hortus conclusus, and the legend reads "He descends like rain upon my
fleece." [111. 74]
It was in Switzerland that this type of painting had its most remarkable
development. Toward the middle of the sixteenth century, in the reformed
region of the Swiss Confederation, tapestries were produced that again
adopted the motif that was offensively superstitious to Protestant eyes and
were even embellished with a variant. Now Adam and Eve enter the Hortus
conclnsus. Carriers of original sin, they first made the act of redemption a
necessity. That is strikingly represented by Adam driving his javelin into
the breast of the unsuspecting unicorn while Eve collects the blood in a
basin, a throwback to an enigmatic, especially French motif. Four such
tapestries are now National Museum in Zurich.
in the Swiss
No wonder there were reservations about the substance of those Swiss
tapestries,which were even the subject of a specially directed theological
verdict. Among theReformers Luther, who had already absorbed the unicorn
into his translation of the Bible and to whom mystic frenzy was nothing
extraordinary, inveighed violently against such pictures. Luther rampaged
against one work especially: the Grimmenthal Vallem furoris ("Valley of
wrath"). The portrayal of the hunt on a unicorn altar in the Lower Saxon
abbey of Grimmenthal was credited with miraculous powers and attracted
streams of pilgrims. It was said to cure the maimed, the halt, the blind,
cripples, paralytics, and even syphilitics, and reputedly 44,000 people
visited it in a year. The artist, Paul Lautensack (Master Paul of Bamberg),
who spent ten years on the masterpiece and further decorations in the
abbey, is said to have earned the enormous sum of 12,000 florins for his
labors. He reportedly died a fanatic Protestant in 1558 at Nuremberg. By
that time, Grimmenthal had ceased to be a shrine for pilgrims. In 1767 the
house of God with Master was destroyed by fire.
Paul's paintings
The Church had long drawn away from naive belief in miracles. At
since
its twenty-fifth session on December 3 and 4, 1563, the Council of Trent

passed a resolution covering the invocation, adoration, and relics of saints

and sacred images. Images and icons of Christ, the Mother of God and other
sainted beings were henceforth still to enjoy respect and veneration, but not
because they might be of divine character or because some favor might be
solicited from them "or because people might place their trust in images
just as in former times tribes had placed their hopes on idols," but because
the original paintings of such representations were worthy of honor. All
supersition in the invocation of saints was henceforth to cease; all wicked
traffic was to be eliminated, and especially, all lewdness was to be avoided.

The installation of unusual portrayals was in future to be subject to the

approval of the bishops. Introduced in a prudent and conservative manner,
this was still a condemnation of the fetishism which had become so dear to
medieval mankind. A facet of the Reformation thus was fulfilled; reform was
after all the task of the Council of Trent. The representation of the unicorn,
though not explicitly mentioned in the Trent resolution, was virtually
regarded as one of the "unusual portrayals." It became rare, and the mystic

hunt vanished from sight. Stripping away myth deprived the Church of
103
some of its charm, and even those who appreciate the historic need governing
that decision cannot fail to be slightly saddened at this turn of events. The
Verdict of Trent appears to have aftereffects even to this day. Some
Catholic scholars severely condemn the mystic unicorn imagery as tasteless.
But others, such as G. M. Dreves, a Jesuit, see it as one of the finest triumphs
of symbolism. "With the medieval predilection for this equally pensive and
popular code language, there is no need to wonder if such representation
enjoyed special favor," he says. "Not only with the artificers themselves but
also with the people."
Indeed the people had an affectionate attachment to this myth, which was
reflected not only in literature but also in popular poetry and fiction. This
may go back further than can be verified with any certainty nowadays. Such
connection was produced certainly earlier in literature than in pictorial art.

We are indebted for such expression to Master Heinrich of Meissen known

as Frauenlob, born around 1250, and the Franconian Conrad of Würzburg,
who lived many years in Basel in the thirteenth century, both early
specimens of a new profession: the writer. In their works and in early
folksongs possibly based on formal poetry, it is still God the Father himself
who drives Mary's bosom. Is there some vestige of Odin in this?
his son into
Later, theLord orders his archangel to take up the hunt. Thus, in one of
the folksongs collected by Ludwig Unland:

A huntsman will a-hunting go,

He's starting from the throne of Heav'n.
What's this encounter' d on the way?
Mary the Virgin, 'tis indeed.

The huntsman whom I mean,

To us is known his fame.

With an angel goes he hunting;

Gabriel's his very name.
The angel blows his tiny horn,

Er'ry note is well in place;

Greeting to thee, O Alary,
For thou art full of grace.

In thy child, thy father's hid,

Thy mother and thy nurse are same,

The unicorn and now the kid,

Both of them hath she made tame.

Again, in a Christmas carol by chaplain Heinrich of Laufenburg, later deacon

104
 .

of Freiburg, the unicorn enters:

unicorn, it's just been caught

In maiden 's lap, by cunning thought,

And - V was Jesus Christ!
Mary, that's thj due,

.bid worth thou well hast eam'd,

The stag with thee hai sheltered

Thou tender, pretty doe.

Clearly but one more step remains: for the mystic bond between mother and
son to become identity through the agency of the unicorn. To the Christ of
the spirit of the unicorn, there comes as a final step in the German mystic
adoration of the Virgin the appellation of the mother of God as Maria
unicornis (Mary of the unicorn).
In Protestant hymnals around the middle of the sixteenth century, there
were some unicorn lyrics presumably permissible for singing in church.
One song taken from the collection Bergkreyen ("Mountain songs") dates
most probably from the first three decades of the sixteenth century, though
it may be even older. Unfortunately, it suffered considerable garbling. In it

the stage is set — a pleasant mountain scene with roses and twittering
birds —and then it continues roughly as follows:

2. / heard the song of sweetest nightingale,

So well she sang, it echoed through the forest,

Right 'twixt two mountains and a deep ravine,

1 heard resound full many a noble tone.

3. The hunter too did note the sound,

And boldly hunts the unicorn with much delight,
That unicorn proudly noble, proudly highborn,

For God himself had chosen him.

4. The unicorn, by nature, and white as well,

Straight and ready there he blocks the narrow path,

No mortal man there is can trap him there,

hut yet a virgin pure could do it.

5 Were this unicorn for us not born,

Then all we sinners 'd be forlorn.

Unworthily, then, we take him in,

Cod help us all into his father's realm,

God save us all the same!

105
 conventional form in the
Here now is the unicorn fully developed into its
to be entrapped only by a spotless
western world: white, noble, unseizable,
virgin, symbol also for the Son of God. Independent from natural and
an production of the human mind.
historic prototypes, this unicorn is
artistic

84. Animals of the Holy Land, in von

Breydenbach's travel book. Woodcut
by Erhard Reuwich, end of fifteenth

century

106
85. Detail with unicorn hunt, from late
from
fifteenth-century altar frontal
Gelnhausen (Hesse, West Germany)

107
 86. The picture of the Pope with the
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Ccce-Vi WW Amu» ntvA lj -f
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i>
unicorn appears in all editions of the

so<alled Papal Prophecies of Joachim

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vomt oies inutta tvuoint- m nuvaa 1
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,

"vol um im touM&ctn ivajnons prmaruum mooic rnatxo civlcDir CDmufDCtf

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•.*•

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C iim-nnA Nvfni^AOvinoiii? mAiri tvuoint

P
108
8. Eye Witnesses

Of the accounts by people claiming to have seen the unicorn, two are
particularly significant, not only because they give a minute description but
because they both emanate from men of the cloth and ought therefore to be
trustworthy. Both originate from the Holy Land, both from pilgrims who
were able to travel there after the crusades were over.
One of these writers, a Dutch priest, Johannes van Hesse of Utrecht, was
in Palestine in1 389 when he saw the Water Prodigy: "Near the field Helyon

in thePromised Land is the river Marah, whose bitter waters Moses made
sweet with a stroke from his staff and the children of Israel drank thereof.
To this day, it is said, malicious animals poison this water after sundown,
so that none can thereupon drink any longer from the stream. But early in
comes out of the ocean, dips
the morning, as soon as the sun rises, a unicorn
hishorn into the stream and drives out the venom from it so that the other
animals may drink thereof during the day. This, as I describe it, I saw with
my own eyes." What a confirmation of his Grecian predecessors! What
encouragement for all those artists who repeatedly portrayed the mythical
incident as a symbol for absolution of sin-corrupted mankind! And what
evidence of the power of a horn which was to be employed pharmaceutical^
for hundreds of years! (see Exodus 15:23—25).
Not was Hesse's story printed in Cologne. The elegant
until a century later
incunabulum no more than a page and a half of demy octavo, but what a
is

great deal that traveler recorded - even the walls of Paradise itself! Only
toward the end of the nineteenth century was one learned scholar bold
enough to assert that Hesse had never even left his native Utrecht.
In 1483 Bernard of Breydenbach, deacon at Mainz, and a certain Count
Solms (youngest in years in the traveling party, but inferior to none in noble
mettle) were joined by a number of companions in a pilgrimage to Palestine.
Among the others was the chaplain Friar Felix Faber of Zurich, and as their
illustrator theDutchman Erhard Reuwich, a draftsman, blockmaker, and
printer. was he who published in Mainz Breydenbach's travel book,
It

providing it with woodcuts that, in the opinion of experts, "are not only
the largest in format but also technically the most perfect from the age of
incunabula." The book appeared in both Latin and German. Also, Chaplain
Faber, who had now made two journeys to Palestine, was persuaded by the
109
persistence of his colleagues in the Dominican monastery at Ulm to allow
his thrilling anecdotes to be printed. These volumes give a sparkling picture
of oriental travel during a comparatively peaceful period when the flow of
travelers benton pilgrimage was increasing steadily.
Crowds of people from various west European countries gathered in
Venice, where our little group concluded a contract with a certain Italian
Count Reni. The journey to Jerusalem and back cost forty-two ducats a
head including two meals a day (with liquor) and lodging. At landing places
on the way, the ship was not to moor for more than two or three days at a
time Anyone who decided after
for the charterer's other business matters.
arriving in Jerusalem to travel on to the famous abbey of St. Catherine on
—
Mount Sinai and thence to Egypt thus relinquishing the return trip was —
guaranteed a refund often florins. Every obligation was faithfully fulfilled,
and the travelers were particularly pleased with the care and attention they
received in the Holy Land itself, where they felt themselves at a disadvan-
tage on account of the language barrier and their helplessness among the
Arabs.
After a fairly long sojourn in Jerusalem, the travelers joined a new group
which now came to an agreement with an Arabian entrepreneur for the
further journey through St. Catherine's to Cairo. This too was a package
deal, twenty-three ducats from Jerusalem through Sinai up to Gazara oasis
near Cairo. However, the travelers had to bear the cost of wine out of their
own pockets, for a strictly orthodox Moslem could not properly be expected
to defile himself in that respect. Other extra-package demands were made
after the stay at St. Catherine's abbey, and finally even the Christian seamen
on whom they relied in Alexandria for the return journey made exorbitant
demands on them before the homeward voyage.
What happened on the twentieth day ^fter the departure of the caravan
from Jerusalem is significant. They reached a bleak mountain chain where
the only vegetation was thorny thickets just blossoming to refresh the pilgrims
with their perfume. It was said that Christ's crown of thorns had been woven
from such branches and so the pilgrims began to pluck token twigs. They
were thus already in mystic rapport when suddenly they saw a strange animal
in the sterile landscape of red- and black-streaked rocks. Friar Faber has
given a precise description of the phenomenon:

Toward noon we
peak. We
spotted an animal gating down at us from a mountain
thought it

alive in the wilderness,

was a camel and wondered how a camel might remain
and this speculation raised a discussion among us
fr»*, Al i corn. M
as to whether there might also be forest camels. Our guide Kalin 87. Detail from The Quadrupeds.

approached us, however, and stated that the animal must certainly be a Eighteenth century, Spain

I IO
 1

rhinoceros or a unicorn, and be pointed out to us the single horn which

jutted from the an/ mal' S forehead With great caution ire gained hack, at
this most noble creature, regretting that it was no closer for us to examine
:
it still more minutely. \ or in many respects this is quite a peculiar

animal. In particular, it is said to be very savage. It has a single horn

about four- foot long, so pointed and strong that it injures or bores right
through anything it meets and nails it to the rocks. Also, its horn has a

magical brilliance; fragments of it are as treasured as the most precious

stones and are mounted in gold and silver. The animal is so wild that no
artifice or cleverness of the hunter avails to catch it, but natural scientists
assure us that he may be caught by placing a chaste maiden in his path.

As he races towards her she exposes her bosom and he lies down there,

bereft of all wildness and so bemused that he stays defenseless against the
hunters'" spears which- now can slay him. If, however, they wish to take
him alive, force will be unavailing since he would die on the spot from
chagrin under such circumstances, for he is an intractable creature. He is

so strong that the Holy U rit (Numbers 23) compares the strength of
God himself with that of the unicorn, and so intractable is he that in

fob 19 asks '''Canst thou bind the unicorn with his hand in the furrow ..."
David speaks of the unicorn in terms both good and bad. It is a mighty
animal having the body of a horse, the feet of an elephant and the tail of
a hog. In color if resembles boxwood and it utters a fearsome roar. It
fights and vanquishes the elephant by thrusting its horn through the softer

tissues of its adversary. As previously mentioned, it is miraculously fond

of unspoiled maidens. Albertus Magnus in his book on animals relates

that Pompey the Great brought a unicorn to Rome for exhibition.
We rested for some time at the bottom of the mountain where the

animal stood regarding us as pleasantly as we regarded it, for it stood

still and moved not until we had gone on our way.

Unconcerned about Megasthenes's description, wherever Faber took it

from, Erhard Reuwich depicted the unicorn in the form of a horse on the
same sheet as other animals and flatly stated underneath the picture "These
animals are faithfully portrayed just as we observed them in the Holy Land."
And yet he was a scrupulous reporter. Near his drawing of a man with a

lion's head, he wrote "We know not what he is called." [111. 84]
How then could the unicorn, in view of these and similar eyewitness
evidences, have been drowned in the Deluge or have become extinct since
that catastrophe? Indeed, bones have been unearthed when tilling the
ground or excavating on a large scale for mining operations. In 1663, one
specimen came to light in a limestone cave in the neighborhood of

11
 !

Quedlinburg, north of the Harz mountains in Lower Saxony. This caused

quite a sensation. People flocked to the excavation and many pocketed a few
bones as souvenirs; bones there were to spare, for the cave was full of fossil

remains. Bitter litigation arose as to the rightful ownership of the property.

Finally the abbess of Quedlinburg was able to proceed with methodical
excavations, with no less an authority than the famous scientist Otto von
Guericke (known to this day for his experiment with the Magdeburg
hemispheres) undertaking to reconstruct a unicorn skeleton from the debris.
This skeleton has only two legs and relies for support on a powerful tail

into which its spine merges. And of course there was the horn. The philo-
sopher Leibnitz, who served the Hanoverian princes in several capacities,
included this drawing in his posthumously published Protogaea, a treatise on
the geological antecedents of their provinces. If we look closely enough, we
see that he prudently shelved any personal responsibility. [111. 88]
A few skeletal fragments found in Russia and Siberia belong to an animal
which has been given the scientific name of Rlasmotherium (literally "armor-
plated beast"). It was the size of an elephant but rather closer to the
rhinoceros in physique, although its nasal region was too weak to have
supported a horn. Nevertheless, skulls which have been discovered show
an extraordinarily thick osseous pad on the forehead, which was clearly
intended to support an immense horn.
It is within reason that this animal might have been exterminated by its

human neighbors There are reports that the elasmotherium has

in Siberia.
been found on rare occasions in the Rhineland, although we have no
knowledge of any museum where such remains may have been preserved.
Had our primitive ancestors actually seen such a monster, it might indeed
have been the source of a primeval conception of the unicorn

88. Reconstructed skeleton of "unicorn'

fossils found near Quedlinburg
 9. The Costly Horn

When mammoth bones were discovered in 1905 during excavations in the

Slovak region of Austria-Hungary, workmen broke off pieces - not as mere
souvenirs but to pulverize for use against intermittent fevers; they took
them home as remains of unicorn, so long the source of marvelous healing
substances. From the China Sea to the Atlantic shores of southwest Europe,
the unicorn springs up even into the present, maintaining itself as a

medicament, as a restorative for sexual potency, and, with its pronounced

phallic shape, also as a vigorous love symbol. An article that appeared in
1922 tells us that children in Asturias (Spain) were still protected against
the evil eye when the midwife poured water from a bone beaker called
alicorn. In Greece, youngsters were protected from the evil eye by a bone
cross called monokero, and however much philologists seek to derive the
word from monos kyrios, "the lord alone (assists)," the common people
think only of the single horn, the unicorn. When necessary, other horns
have been substituted. One cold winter when the chamois of the southern
Alps came down to shelter in the valleys, it is said they were slaughtered in
huge numbers solely for their horns which were pulverized to serve as an
aphrodisiac, as was the case with Ctesias's wild asses.
Unicorn's horn penetrated the consciousness of the West on its reputation
for purging poisons and healing diseases, as built up by Ctesias and
Megasthenes and countless others after them. What Physiologns understood
regarding decontamination of water by making the sign of the cross with
the horn confirmed that notion and fortified it with the Christian accent.
The curative power of the horn in classical antiquity did not find any
practical meaning, since in that epoch there were no unicorns. The Orient
did, however, have one - the rhinoceros, whose horn seems to have enjoyed
an unbroken tradition right down to our own time as a remedy and as a
stimulant to love. In China it is still presumably marketed as a medicament
and aphrodisiac, though whether that is feasible in the modern, revolutionary
China remains to be seen. In India, the Unesco Courier in September 1966
89. United in 1603, the English lion and reported, "Slaughter by savages has reduced the stock of single-horned
Scottish unicorn in the British coat of Game
Asian rhinoceros in Kaziranga Preserve (Assam) to less than 400. The
tan
animal is hunted for its horn, whose supposed yet thoroughly mythical

"3
properties as a medicine and aphrodisiac give it a blackmarket value of
one thousand dollars a pound."
Now the rhinoceros did have a certain though indirect effect on the
development of European concepts of the unicorn, but it never became the

European unicorn. This latter acquired its own purely fanciful figure. And
its own reality. There were the eyewitness accounts, and there was, as we

shall see, the presence of unicorn horns in the later Middle Ages. A quantity

of prescriptions was accordingly available, most of them probably trans-

mitted by word of mouth, some in printed form. Arabic alchemy, with its
attempts to transmute other elements into gold, had gained a foothold in
Europe, pervading general chemistry and medicine, and certainly contributed
to this state of affairs.
As mentioned in the chapter "The Road to Mysticism," St. Hildegard of
Bingen (1098-1 179) wrote that the unicorn is "more hot than cold," referring
thereby to one of the great alchemic antitheses for the classification of
elements and organisms. In the Latin edition of her works published by
Migne, Paris, 1855, unicorn prescriptions are available to us:

Take some unicorn liver, grind it up and mash with eggyolk to make
an ointment. livery type of leprosy is healed if treated frequently with
this ointment, unless the patient is destined to die or God intends not to
aid him. For the liver of that animal has a good, pure warmth and the
yolk is the most precious part of the egg and like a salve. Leprosy
however comes frequently from black bile and from plethoric black blood.

Take some unicorn pelt, from it cut a belt and gird it round the body,
thus averting attack by plague or fever.

Make also some shoes from unicorn leather and wear them, thus assuring

everhealthy feet, thighs andjoints, nor will the plague ever attack those
limbs.

Apart from that, nothing else of the unicorn is to be used medically.

A later reviser apparently added: "Anyone who fears being poisoned should
place a unicorn hoof beneath the plate containing his food or the mug
holding his liquor. If warm food and drink are poisoned, the hoof will make
them effervesce; if they are cold, it will make them steam. Thus one can
detect whether they are poisoned or not."
Among the cures tried by the knights of the Holy Grail for the arrow
wound of Amfortas was the carbuncle that grew beneath the horn of the
"monocirius" (recognized also in pastor Lambert's song to Alexander). This
remedy was predestined for the suffering monarch of the Grail. Can it be
no therapeutic properties at all in the part of a unicorn taken
that there are
for a carbuncle? St. Hildegard, however, knew nothing about that; she

114
 :

talks not of a gemstonc but of a crystal-clear bone (os) or, according to

another reading, a piece of bronze (aes). Surprisingly enough, the Rhenish
prioress did not see the miraculous beast's curative power in its most
outstanding feature, the horn; to her, the liver and pelt were the most
important. Where she acquired her wisdom or whether she perchance
misconstrued some Arabian source is still obscure.
By the time of Dr. Conrad Gesner, Zurich (15 16-1565), pharmacopoeia
had to deal with the problem of adulterated and genuine unicorn horn
The potency of the unicorn is more curative forward near the tip than
behind,and care should be taken to buy the whole or at any rate large
chunks of the horn, so as to run less risk of trickery. You will find only
1

small fragments in apothecaries' shops, and they say the more globular
pieces, whiter and softer than the rest, are the marrow. The outer portion,
however, like cortex is rougher and harder, blade-shaped, and of a pale
yellowish-white color. If this kind of horn is easily crushed when you bite

on it and is not tough like the horns, fraud is clearly indicated from its

color and other distinctive signs, for it can be in fact the burned horn of
some other animal, mixed with spices to make it palatable, or quenched

whitehot in perfumed water.

It is also false and deceitful for them to say that where unicorn's horn is

lying and poison comes into its vicinity, the unicorn will sweat; it may
well be that sometimes it does sweat, just like other solid bodies such as
stone and glass on which vapours and moistures can outwardly freeze and
then vanish again, without poison being any reason for that. For that

occurs also with the stone called serpentine which they say shows where

poison is present, but that is not so.

Some people test for genuine natural unicorn horn as follows: Give some
arsenic to a pair of doves, and give one of these a short drink of unicorn
horn: if this- dove remains alive, the horn is genuine and the other dove

will die. Wealthy people may well use this test if they wish, since unicorn
horn is so expensive, being sold weight for weight against gold, costing as

much as a florin, a crown or a ducat per quintli {a weight varying from

twenty-four to seventy-two pennyweights according to the district).

Genuine unicorn is good against all poison, especially, so some say, the

quality coming from the ocean isles. Experience proves that anyone having
taken poison and becoming distended thereby, recovered good health on
immediately taking a little unicorn horn. Thus one credible person told

Mr. Gesner of having suspected taking poison in some cherries he ate,

and feeling his stomach distended, which impelled him to take some
90. Arms of the house of Baldung unicorn horn marrow in wine, whereupon he recovered his health. j 1
<
 .

This horn is useful and beneficial against epilepsy, pestilent fever, rabies,

proliferation and infection of other animals and vermin, and against the
worms within the body from which children faint

Ancient physicians used their unicorn remedies against such ailments by

making drinking mugs from the horn and letting their patients drink
from them; nowadays such drinking vessels are unobtainable and the horn

itself must be administered either alone or mixed with some other drug.

As to falling sickness or epilepsy, Mr. Gesner states he benefited one

patient's health by making him a draft of unicorn to which he added

amber, ivory scrapings, beaten gold, corals and other ingredients which

he coarse-ground and put into a silken sachet, boiled down same in water
containing red currants, cinnamon and other items, and then administered.
Nor did he omit or neglect other remedies beside this.

Dr. Gesner's advice comes from the 1 563 Zurich edition of his bestiary, and
has been condensed here, spelled and phrased more in the modern manner
for easier reading.

For centuries then the horn remained linked with antidotal or toxognos-
tic power and supplied therapeutic medicaments. Not long after Hilde-
gard, around the beginning of the thirteenth century, the first unicorn
horns may have appeared in western Europe. In their straightness and with
a characteristically natural spiral they corresponded to the preconceptions
already in vogue about them: they had been so depicted in many an ancient
psalter and gospel manuscript. To a medical world employing mysterious
vegetable and animal extracts, portions of mummies, excrementa and the
like, the unicorn came most opportunely. Whence it came was of course
hard to verify: maybe from the East, like so many miraculous items?
Whatever the facts, there it was, and as it grew horns, the rare animal itself
must exist! Thus were the ancient accounts of its existence and the healing
potency of its horn fortified with authority, and the diligent pursuits of
theology and the sciences dependent thereon brought the ancient reports
once more to the knowledge of a wider, scholarly world.
So now they scraped away carefully on the valuable horn, mixed the
resultant powder into salves and potions, and occasionally cut off a ring to
mix with other ingredients pounded together in the mortar. It was diligently
prescribed against poisoning and epilepsy, just as the ancients had indicated.
But now also it was prescribed against fevers of all kinds, plague, colic, and
children's ailments so long as it was in stock. For a long time yet the horn,
although a truly magnificent supply kept flowing from unknown sources,
remained a rare and costly item and its use - as formerly in India - continued
116
to be reserved for royalty and the rich. Thus there opened up opportunities
for many a swindler who either supplied cow's hoots as unicorn horn or
produced fake horn, as Dr. Conrad Gesner angrily established when he
reported, "In Venice there are several wicked scamps and vagabonds who
mix a pulverized flint, lime or other stone with soap and make a paste

therefrom which thev sell as unicorn; for when they take a shaving off it

and drop it into wine, it starts bubbling." [111. 1 54]

If the horn did not neutralize poison straight away, it at least indicated

the danger, simply because the liquor began to effervesce. Cutlery with
unicorn handles would sweat on contact with poisonous food. Such a
defense was exceedingly important for temporal and spiritual rulers in the
Renaissance who must have witnessed the death by poison of so many of
their peers!
Eventhe proximity of the potent horn might have a beneficial effect, and
so became a favorite table decoration. Charles the Bold always had a piece
it

of the horn ready on his dining board, and when this dreaded overlord
visited Neuss (northern Rhineland) on one occasion, the townspeople knew
of no better present than a unicorn beaker. Such effective vessels were long
in demand, so that eventually they had to be counterfeited. Next to one
another in the Hamburg Museum for Arts and Crafts lie a genuine beaker
and one of ivory on which the spiral turns are artificially engraved. If need
be, precious goblets were embellished with the unicorn, the entire animal at
least figuratively enameled on the vessel itself or as a small sculpture on the

lid. Thus it might also serve as a centerpiece on the table. In his autobiography

Benevenuto Cellini tells of an order from the Pope (which however went to
another goldsmith) to mount a unicorn's horn as a gift for Francis I of
France. Unicorn settings were used for serving at table at the French court
right up to the Revolution, but toward the end that may only have been a

matter of form. [Ills. 140, 143, 146]

So potent a healing instrument naturally had a high market value, and
there is plenty of evidence to that effect. In the first year of the reign of
Queen Elizabeth I (1558) an inventory was taken at Windsor, in which a
unicorn horn was recorded with a value of £10,000 (equivalent to say
£50,000 or more, up to comparatively modern times). Her successor James I
paid a similarly high amount for a horn (in which connection one British
writer remarks that James was quite fittingly called "the wisest fool in
Christendom"). To test the efficacy of his expensive medicine, James gave
one of his servants a draft of poison with the unicorn powder and, when the
man fell dead, declared he had been deceived, for clearly the horn was not
genuine unicorn. Obyiously the great royal houses owned such treasure but
sometimes there was a certain amount of embarrassment. In 1588, the

"7
Stockholm stockpile was exhausted, and King |ohn III uregntly requested
his son, King Sigismund of Poland, to supply him with a new horn. Perhaps
it was easier to get one there nearer the East.
In Paris Ambroise Pare, experienced in many campaigns, physician to
several kings of France, was a gifted pioneer of medicine, the greatest surgeon
of the Renaissance and inventor of surgical instruments, of squint-correcting
spectacles, and of an artificial hand. He mistrusted such medicaments as
mummies and unicorn inherited from the Middle Ages but had to admit that
the public demanded them. "Physicians are frequently compelled to prescribe
unicorn or rather to allow patients to have them because they demand such
remedies. For if it happened that a patient who had made such a request
were to die without receiving what he wanted, the family would expel such
physicians and disparage them in gossip as 'quite out of touch'." He is said
to have spoken about this with a fellow court physician, saying that it was all
a lot of humbug to dip unicorn horn into the cup from which the king was

about to drink. His colleague replied that he was himself convinced of the
inefficacv of the alleged antidote, but when Pare asked him to publish
something attacking such foolishness, the other answered "I've got to look
after mvself! Anyone who writes against current public opinion is like an
owl coming out into the daylight where all the other birds can swoop down
and pluck him bare with their beaks."

Pare, who was then over seventy, decided therefore to campaign on his
own what he regarded as rank superstition, and in 1582 he published
against
his discourse on Mummies, Unicorns, Poisons and Plague. In that book he
reluctantly conceded that most probably unicorns did exist since the Bible
powers attributed to the horn were nonexistent
says so; but the miraculous
and certainly were no cure for the plague. However, the horn might
indirectly fortify the heart, since by virtue of its tellurian nature (alchemy
still retained some hold, even on Pare!) it could ha"e a contractive action
closing the veins and arteries through which poison and noxious air would
otherwise reach the heart. The Paris Faculty of Medicine vehemently
counterattacked Pare's dangerous passion for innovation. When, however,
they adduced the evidence of centuries in rebuttal, he replied "I would
sooner be right by myself alone than wrong with the scholars or indeed with
the rest of the world. For the grandeur of truth is so great that it surpasses
all human wisdom."
The next light came from the north. During the Thirty Years War, a fine
example occurred in Denmark of how unicorn frenzy could obsess entire
families. hen Professor Thomas Bartholin published his De unicomu
\\

observations novae (New Notes on the Unicorn) in Padua in 164s, not only
was his father Caspar one of the most cited authors with a book printed in
118
 :

Copenhagen in 1628, but Thomas could point with satisfaction to the fact
that his own son, .mother Caspar, was also occupied with the subject. Caspar
the younger indeed published a new
Thomas's text in 1678, this
edition of
time in Amsterdam. This book of thirty-seven chapters in its first edition
must certainly be labeled as obsessed with the unicorn. The learned exposi-
tion starts off with a discussion whether there can be people with one or
even two horns (although the alleged horns of Moses are explained in another
special chapter along with the error in translation which was their real
origin), and then runs through the whole of the animal kingdom down to
the "fossil unicorn." Citations from an immense number of authors lead to
the conclusion that the unicorn does exist though its horn did not possess
the curative power ascribed to it. Foremost, however, it is now clearly
stated what actually is sold by the apothecaries.
The relevant citation runs thus

In the vicinity of our island of Greenland and other northerly isles an

enormous marine creature is a frequent denizen, popularly known as the
narwhal because it feeds on dead bodies (när in Danish). This creature
resembling the whale in appearance and si-^e has a tusk of unusual s/\e
growing from a gap in its front teeth, similar in length and strength to

the horns we know so well . . . That tusk, however, is what so many have
sold as unicorn and which is preserved in the treasuries of various rulers
because of the singular appraisal of it as genuine unicorn. Such appraisal

occurred easily in former times because of the scarcity of the tusk which
only reached a foreign shore when the fish got stranded. Nowadays the

increase of commerce with Greenland and Spitsbergen in particular has

revealed the nature and frequent availability of the tusk. At all events,

our merchants hare filled ivhole cavgo vessels with this alleged horn of
recent years and would import it into hurope as genuine unicorn, had
not experts torn away the mask and recognised the tusk as originating

from the ocean.

Now trade increased further not only to Europe but as far as Japan. Ten
years after the appearance of Bartholin's book, the Merchants Guild of
Copenhagen procured a certificate from Professor Ole Wurm on the
commodity they were marketing as unicorn. If they had expected a kind of
Public Relations Certificate tor promoting sales, these merchants were
disappointed by the learned expert. He confirmed that it was a narwhal's
tusk. If those men of Copenhagen really did want to know exactly what they
were dealing in, then they appear in a more honorable light than Bartholin
imputed to them with his implication of conscious misleading of the public.
 —

Be that as it may, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, a large t]uanutv 91. From the Paris collection of

of "unicorn" specimens would have been foisted on the czar bv a Greenland Gobelins "Lady with Unicorn."
Five members of the series are each
company had not his personal physician exposed the true nature of the
supposed to represent one of the
goods in time and caused the deal to be cancelled.
This illustrates the sense
five senses.
The battle did not, of course, end right away with the Danish publications of sight
not even for Denmark itself possibly. Some time in the 1660s Frederick 111
had the throne of the Danish monarchs constructed of narwhal tusks. Was
that simply a matter of using a domestic product, or could it subconsciously
conceal an idea of "Who knows what it's good for . . .
?"

People concerned in the trade evidently protected themselves. In 1663,

Johann Joachim Becher, author of a famous medical treatise, energetically
protested against the narwhal theory, so long as they did not "bring such
horn from fishes in Novaya Zemlya and similar places, which so imitate our
presumptive unicorn in form, appearance, strength and action that we cannot
but conclude otherwise that all our known unicorn may be from those same
fish." Meantime, however, the price of the horn had dropped considerably
due to the importation of those huge shiploads. Guido Schonburger, to
whom we owe the preceding quotation, has traced the evolution in prices
for unicorn by the half ounce in Frankfurt apothecary shops thus: 1612 -
64 florins, 1626 - 32 fl., 1634 - 49 fl., 1643 _ 3 2 &•> an<^ 1669 -4ft.!
Pierre Pomet's Histoire generale des drogues (General History of Drugs)
which appeared in Paris toward the end of the seventeenth century could
only confirm the business of the narwhal, just as did the German edition
under the more generally appropriate title Der aufrichtige Materialist und
Spezerei handler (The Honest Grocer and Dry Goods Dealer). We may here
point out that the word "Materialist" in the German title refers not to a
materialistic philosopher, but to a Materialwarenhändler or wholesale
druggist. Zedler's large encyclopedia Grosses Unirersallexikon in the eighth
volume printed in 1734 doubts whether there really can be any quadrupedal
equine unicorn in addition to the narwhal. The medicinal efficacy of narwhal
tusk is equated to that of hartshorn and ivory but may nevertheless "be
used reasonably in cases of emergency for children against erysipelas and
measles, high fever, colic and other diseases (although in large doses than
heretofore)" Next to that quotation is a prescription carefully coded for the
use of apothecaries, covering the preparation of artificial unicorn "probably
superior to real unicorn in potency . .
." Clearly the concern was to distinguish
between genuine and ersatz unicorn rather than denying the existence of
unicorn itself. [Ills. 129, nj]

120
 • •
V
i
/
v * f
4L vV »•- .*»* >.. i '4. AßT - ..
*^
M
A
PET
A % .*

* * i'

: f*

( • 5

1
"#*

-Kjb-y^

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m i « n*i
The "Lady with I'nicorn" Series
9». Taste
93. Hea:
94. Smell
95. Touch
96. Dedication

123
124
 Lucas Kalian's sarcastic allegory on
the Pope. W urica bearing torch of
truth bars the w.iv

99. Piero della Francesca : Battista

'•.
- \:eenth-century relief from Castel Sforza's Triumph. Florence,
^ Sant' Angelo fifteenth century

125
 ioo. Allegory of Chastity by Giorgionc.
ca. 1500

126
 Sixteenth-century fresco in Castel
Sam' Angelo

102. Bernardo Luini Unicorn with

:

Procris, an association created by

Renaissance imagination

127
 "Debauchery"? 105. Francois Clouet's painting of Diane
103.
A relief in the church de Poitiers, sixteenth century. Note
at Halle (Belgium), ca. 1400 unicorn on chairback in background

104. Chastity fighting Immodesty in a

fifteenth-century broadsheet

128
•"*>,
 io6. Arms of Marx von Nussdorf, on
tombstone in Laufen (Salzach)

130
 io8. Unicorn tympanum, Clermont-
Ferrand

io9- Seal from Scbwabisch-Gmund in

Swabia. 1 3 19

1 10. Bhidenz bracteate, coin dated

ca. 1260
Casement sketch by Hans Holbein
the Younger
ii4 Detail from painting of Paradise by
Lucas Cranach the Elder

Side of pew in Salzburg cathedral

J
33
 115-/116. The unicorn as symbol of
Confirmation and Ordination on the
baptismal font of the municipal
church (formerly Church of Our
Lady), Reutlingen, ca. 1500

134
117- Unicom altar from Lübeck
cathedral, 1506

»35
 118. Probably Low German aquaemanicle
(for warming of water)

136
10. On Helm and Scutcheon

The Lion and the Unicorn

\\ ere fighting for the Crown;

The Lion chased the Unicorn

All around the town.

Some gave them white bread,

Some gave them brown,
Some gave them plum cake
And drummed them out of town.
Traditional English Nursery Rhyme
When knight errantry took shape and the Crusades accelerated the use of
visibleemblems rendered necessary by the form of battle, the Unicorn
appeared eminently suitable for denoting a pious and courageous hero.

Endowed with tremendous strength and invincible courage, distinguished

as a symbol of the Savior by the virtues of meekness clad in mortal attire

and of purity bowing only to the Virgin, it blazoned now on helm and
scutcheon. In Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parsival (Sir Percevale of the
Round Table, on whom also Wagner's Parsifal is modeled), Orgeluse laments
over the defunct Zidegast, "A unicorn of loyalty was this man, the object
of my desires. Humanity must lament the loss of this unicorn. Because of
his purity he had to suffer death." The unicorn is mentioned as an armorial
bearing in many of the early narratives and epics of chivalry.
In 1449 Jacques de Lalaing issued a challenge to knights on their way
through Burgundy for a jubilee in Rome. Not yet thirty years old, his inten-
tion was to defeat at least thirty knights in the tournament before he reached
that age. Near a tree dedicated to the memory of Charlemagne, he broke
ground for a spring which he called Lafontaine des pleurs ("The Fountain of
Tears"). In a tent nearby he set up figures of a seated woman with a unicorn
beneath an image of the Virgin Mary. On the first of each month for the
space of a year he awaited the arrival of antagonists. Each adversary, mounted
of course on horseback, had to fling his gauntlet at one of the three shields
standing by the Virgin tent; each shield indicated a particular and different
form of armed combat to which the opponent committed himself. A herald
stood ready to announce the acceptance of Sir Lalaing's challenge. Combat
then ensued according to a strictly established ritual, followed by a general

137
banquet in the bishop's palace of Chalon-sur-Saone, while the accouterments
used in the tourney were taken into a Lady Chapel. The proceedings were
therefore ceremonial, gallant, and overtly without loss of blood. Chronicles
relate that Lalaing vanquished twenty-two knights, an accomplishment
which under all the stated conditions must have required more than the
twelve assigned days unless he fought and feasted more than one antagonist
on some days. He achieved still further deeds of valor but died at the age
of thirty-two from gunshot in battle. This knight who under the aegis of
the Virgin and unicorn had challenged all comers fell victim to the advent
of technical warfare - a tragically ironic symbol not of triumphant but of
decadent knighthood tottering to its fall.

Don Quixote, before being dubbed so oddly a knight errant, pondered

over the names borne by some of his antecessors in the art - the knight of
the griffin, of the phoenix, and "he of the unicorn" - but eventually adopted
his squire's suggestion of "Knight of the Doleful Countenance" (or "of the
Mournful Mayard").
In Germany the armorial significance of the unicorn developed most fully.
In the Manesse manuscript of ballads, a silver-grey beast rampant on a blue
ground is allotted to the minnesinger Dietmar of Aist, who came from
Thiirgau where many families are identified by this bearing. If we go into
Franconia, Holstein, Swabia, or Austria, we find this handsome beast
everywhere - on coats of arms and tombstones where its image provided
and sculptors. It appeared in all sorts of mani-
attractive tasks for draftsmen
festations. During the Renaissance passion for ornament the animal was
delightfully embellished with two tails or sometimes even with a fishtail.
Middle-class families began to adopt the sign, especially physicians or
apothecaries who were acquainted with the assumed medicinal properties
of the horn. From heraldry it passed logically into the sixteenth - and
seventeenth-century symbology; it did service as a printers', publishers' and
papermakers' stamp or colophon in book ornaments and vignettes. When the
German poet Schiller was elevated to nobility, he adopted the unicorn as
his heraldic beast, not, as one might suppose, because he was a physician
nor even because it is it had already long been
a poetic beast, but because
used by his family, and indeed in a form similar to that used by a Tyrolese
baronial family named Schiller von Herdern. [Ills. 106-108]
By far the best known unicorn in heraldry is part of the British coat
of arms. When England and Scotland united at the beginning of the
seventeenth century and James VI of Scotland became James I of the United
Kingdom, a unicorn replaced one of the pair of lions supporting the shield.
The menacing lion and antagonistic unicorn from Psalm 22 thus became
fortuitously reunited in heraldry. The unicorn here came from the Scottish

138
coat of arms, which on each side as supporters. How and
still has a unicorn
when the unicorn first hy no means satisfactorily explained
reached Scotland is

though most probably this came about through some matrimonial connection
with France indirectly through an English family. It was in use anyway at
the beginning of the fifteenth century, when James I was reigning. Later in
the same century James III had a gold coin struck bearing the beast and
officially known as a unicorn. (A silver two-soldi piece minted in Ferrara in

1492 also bore the unicorn, taken in this case from the arms of the house of
Este). [111. 89]
The heraldic beast was prolific in tapestries that embellished both tent
and hall. The Borromeo princes in Italy ordered a set of tapestries for their
on Lake Maggiore to portray all kinds of wild animals (by
Isola Bella castle
no means omitting their own armorial beast, the unicorn) disporting in
jungles rather than in Paradise. From Italy the unicorn went to Austria
through marriage of one of the Borromei into the family of an archbishop
of Salzburg; thus it appears on every second pew in the cathedral, and the
park of Hellbrunn's castle has two leaping seventeenth-century unicorns
of elegant mien. [111. 113]
Despite the absence of family bond, clerics liked to choose the unicorn as
their emblem because of its religious connotation, and in those cases where
they owned landed estates they passed the same badge on to their city. That
was the case with the city of Saverne, second residence of the bishop of
Strassburg, and equally so for Amiens and Lyons. In the sixteenth century,
the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands was persuaded by the diocesan bishop
to adopt a pair of unicorns as supporters to its coat of arms. The design,
which included a hunting horn (and sometimes also a cornucopia or horn of
plenty), was joined in1538 by a pair of unicorns; it is not easy to find a
city like Hoorn where up so ubiquitously - on the city hall,
the unicorn turns
on the Weighbridge, on the orphanage, and on every public building.
Among German cities having the unicorn in their crest, Gmünd in
Swabia is especially well known. Its oldest municipal seal bore the rampant
beast from its origins in on
1277. This unicorn, ready to attack, rears
cloven hoofs, itsweapon pointing vigorously to the fore. The
distinctive
family of painter and engraver Hans Baldung, known as Grien or Grün
(from his prolific use of green), probably derived its arms from this
home town. The emblem can be seen beside the entrance to Lichtenthal
priory church near Baden-Baden, on the tombstone of the painter's daughter-
in-law, widow of Johann Baldung, mayor of Freiburg. [Ills. 90, 109]
The between gallant and seignorial man and the
spiritual connection
unicorn was expressed quite beautifully by the Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V. When a courtier pointed out in the St. Denis treasury a "Hand of

J
39
Righteousness" carved from unicorn's horn, he is reputed to have said,
"This may very well have been so pleasingly elaborated from such material,
not because that substance is nicely clean, pure and clear, but rather because
just as the unicorn counteracts all kinds of poison, so too may righteousness
overcome and punish all vice and depravity."
During the age of chivalry the unicorn did not belie its traditional arTinity
for the ladies. It became a symbol of virginal purity for female saints from
the Mother of God down. Also, on a Flemish tapestry in the Guildhall of
Moravska Trebova (Trübau in Moravia), the Queen of Sheba appears with
a unicorn as confirmation of her virtues in a favorite subject, her visit to

Solomon; it stands with quiet conspicuity among her retinue. Progressively

the unicorn became a symbol of womanly virtue in general. It became an
attribute not only of female saints but also of ladies of distinction for whom
the requirement of chastity may have been markedly bent. Diane de Poitiers,
mistress of King Henry II of France, allowed Francois Clouet to paint her
in the nude in the company of her child and the wetnurse; in the background
is a piece of needlework embroidered with the unicorn. In contrast, the
unicorn serves elsewhere as an emblem of chastity and simple virtue,
especially in Italian paintings and miniatures purely in the abstract manner.
Thus the image of purity associated with the Virgin appears in its original
sense though now with somewhat more worldly connotation. [111. ios]
The example of this newer mundane concept is perhaps a medal of
finest

Cecilia Gonzaga, daughter of the marquis of Mantua, cast in 1447 by Antonio

Pisano, otherwise known as
Pisanello. This artist is credited with being the
real father and same time the outstanding master of the art of medal
at the
engraving in the Italian Renaissance. The Gonzaga medal is regarded as the
best of his creations. Cecilia herself is engraved on the obverse, and on the
reverse we see a half-naked female figure, allegorically representing innocence
as is confirmed by the huge male unicorn which lies at her feet, with his
thick undulating pelt and horn thrusting straight forward. The damsel, with
the calm quiet manner of one who knows she is mistress of the situation, is

seen to be gripping the animal's horn at its point of emergence from the
forehead. Over the inaccessible mountains hovers a crescent moon, the
token of Artemis and symbol therefore of chastity. In this little
a further

masterpiece, archaic and Christian tradition merge harmoniously in a

manner appropriate to the era. One of Pisanello's sketches in possession of
the Uffizi gallery in Florence shows a still childish maiden in the role not of
decoy but as protectress of the unicorn, which has sought refuge in her lap.

Hounds and hunters respectfully retreat before her warning gesture. There
is a concept diverging from most of the earlier portrayals ; it is evident also
in the repose of the Gonzaga medallion. [Ills. 49, 50]
140
 One of Petrarch's poetical works was the effective impetus for the
adaptation of this motif, namely the link of the unicorn with chastity, in the
art ot the Tuscan painters. The loss of his Laura was the motivation for the
series of elegies which Petrarch entitled Trionfi. These are respectively the
triumph of chastity over love, of death over chastity, of fame over death, of
time over fame, and finally of eternity over time. These allegories have
frequently been depicted, and where chastity appears victorious over love
and prey to death, its chariot is drawn by unicorns. This concept was then
applied to worldly ladies; princesses of the Tuscan dynasties are shown
traveling by coach-and-unicorn through their territory. At a later date that
motif was adopted by the tapestry industry of the Low Countries. Gorgeous
collections of Gobelin tapestries with illustrations of Petrarch's Triumphs
cover whole walls in museums in Vienna, London, and Madrid. [111. 99]
One German Protestant engraver of the Baroque period, Lukas Kilian,
derisively applied this symbolism to the Pope, caricaturing him as drawn by
a team of unicorns even as he believed the pontiff's possession of chastity
doubtful indeed. Ironically such indirect or backhanded use of the unicorn
demonstrates as dramatically as anything else the power of this image in its

noblest role. [111. 97]

141
119- Albrecht Dürers
Abduction on a unicorn
11. Wild Men and Women's
Wiles

Hanging in a basket between heaven and earth is the Roman poet Vergil.
He had an assignation with young woman, possibly even an emperor's
a

daughter according to some versions, who hauled him part way up a wall
towards the window of her room. There he stays suspended in mid-air, a

laughing-stock for the world and when eventually the osiers give
at large,

way, down he will fall through the bottom of the basket, only to realize
then that the girl has literally dropped him. In a story of Indian origin,
Aristotle apparently became so enamored of a woman of doubtful reputation
that he willingly allowed her to ride him piggyback. Samson, the mighty
slaughterer of Philistines, lay on Delilah's bosom and lost his strength when
she cut his hair.
Such anecdotes of feminine cunning were readily told and illustrated
during the Middle Ages and well into the Renaissance. The unicorn, too, was
occasionally portrayed as a victim to feminine arts of enticement, thoroughly
in harmony with the original gist of the story of Hindu
its capture in the
version. This occurred quite early, not on the foregoing
as a travesty
growth of the legend but concurrently with its development, and prior to
its completion in the "Mystic Hunt." The unicorn in the maiden's lap and

examples of other victims of women's wiles appear in a capital of a pillar in

the church of St. Peter in Caen (Normandy) dating from the twelfth or
thirteenth century. Another illustration is at Freiburg, the superbly dyed
fourteenth-century "Malterer Tapestry" (named after the family who
ordered this fine work of art). [Ills. 27,77]
The by the maiden is hinted at in the
ulterior erotic motif of the capture
earliest Physiologie version. With
renewed circulation of this Hellenist
the
book during the Middle Ages, that facet became clearer and clearer. This
occurred almost simultaneously in the Near East and Europe, since Physiologus
its oriental homeland, now under the stamp
also experienced a renaissance in
of Islam. As we saw, reciprocal influences between East and West certainly
cannot be disregarded.
This variation on the enticement of the unicorn was a favorite with
Arabian storytellers from the tenth century onward. The wild animal
originally described as small as a kid or a lamb but untameable, leaps into
the arms of the maiden as soon as he sees her "as though he were desirous of

143
sucking her milk, this being his own
sign of affection. " Although he gets no
milk, the act of suckling bemuses him as though with wines, so that the
hunter can tether him. "Allah knows it best," is the phrase with which one
Arabian author concludes the story - clearly not an expression of blind
credulity.
No oriental assistance was needed for introducing erotic interpretation of
the tale to the Occident. In the oldest twelfth-century German edition of
Physiologus, the unicorn dallies with the maid. The motif received preferential
treatment and extension in France, where there was a particularly flourishing
publication of bestiaries (treatises on the animal kingdom, modeled on
Physiologus but constantly varying from it and supplementing it to a wider
degree). Later, the tale penetrated into the minstrel lays of France and
Germany. We have already hinted at the occasional recommendations that
the maiden displayed as a decoy should be naked, and as the beast comes
somewhat importunately to lick her breasts, she in turn "nuzzles it as she
would a suitor surrendering himself to her"; we can have a certain modicum
1 20. Youthful savage, fifteenth century
of understanding for the fact that, in one of the French versions, a lady - to
her knight's dismay - shows not the slightest inclination to play the decoy
for the beast. The enormity of that risk can be gathered from various
descriptions in the French Roman a" Alexandre (Epic of Alexander) and
Rudolf von Ems's Weltchronik (Chronicle of the Universe). According to
these two works, the unicorn recognizes when the lady proffered to him is
truly a virgin, and when she is not, he gores her. All this is occasionally
accompanied by illustrations in which the religious significance of the
unicorn legend also comes fully into its own.
A particularly striking example of the coexistence of sacred with profane
ideas in the same period and in the same symbolic figure is the Bestiaire
a" Amour (Bestiary of Love) compiled in the thirteenth century by Richard
of Fournival (a village in Picardy). Although he was chancellor of the church
in Amiens, he forbore from writing a devotional "divine" bestiary. His
imaginary spokesman refers to the qualities of various animals in order to
prove to his lady that she must listen to him with favor. In this, as the
nineteenth-century French publisher of this work remarked, Richard
exhibited a wide knowledge not only of the scientific literature of his day
but also of the Codex of Courtship which had been modernized by romances
of chivalry. Like the unicorn, the suitor is allured and stupefied by the
maiden's fragrance. "Thus has Cupid taken revenge on me. In my arrogance
I thought no woman however beautiful could ever inspire me with such

violent love that I would crave to possess her. Cupid, that skillful hunter
placed a crafty maiden in my path, and her sweetness dulled my senses. And
now I am dying with love, a hopeless love with no prospect of favor." But
144
 the lady feels straightway warned by mention of the unicorn. Just as no
armor can withstand its horn, so too, nothing in existence can more easily
and more dangerously penetrate the hardest heart than gentle words. She
must arm herself against them and he must strengthen other arguments with
other animals. It is not surprising with such dialog that the publisher should
feel reminded of eighteenth-century sweet talk.

A set of fourteenth-century articles of virtue belongs in this context.

These include ivory caskets, jewel cases, and similar items manufac-
tured on almost mass production lines in Paris. On the end of shorter panels
of such caskets there is often a double decorated panel bearing, for example,
a scene from Tristram and heult; the loving couple is sitting by the brook,
while in the branches above them is the face of the jealous King Mark,
reflected visibly also into the water so that Iseult, made aware of their peril,

befools the king with innocent chatter. On the same casket-end, clearly

conceived as an integral part of it, we see the familiar scene of the hunter
slaying the unicorn in the maiden's lap. As on the silver miniature described

earlier, the lady holds a garland or some similar object in her hand. The
meaning of the juxtaposition of these two scenes is a matter of debate.
Possibly it implies the antithesis of mundane and celestial love, of the secular
and the clerical. Or, again, the virtuous maiden is possibly exhibited as a
Or it may even be a vulgar variant of
contrast to the iniquitous Iseult. the
Leonardo da Vinci, sketch of a lady "women's wiles" and who then could we say is the victim? [111. 44]
with a unicorn
While the unicorn again in the sense of the Hindu legend of the hermit
Unicorn is trapped not by celestial but by absolutely sensuous love, the
animal which has stood for chastity becomes simultaneously a symbol of
concupiscence and, indeed, of lack of restraint. This is especially the inter-
pretation of the Italian versions of Phjsiologus; the most prominent of their
authors was Leonardo da Vinci. For him the unicorn represents intemperan^a
("incontinence"), although he did not portray it thus in his art. Nevertheless
the unicorn as a symbol of chastity in Italy immediately assumed just the

opposite connotation. On a fresco which just misses being a sugary travesty

in the Farnese Palace in Rome, Domenichino painted the great white beast
as a horse with the addition of a goatee, resting in the lap of the gentle damsel
and wholly as "he who surrenders to her" like a pining lover. Some por-
Sam' Angelo, on which the ladies taking part are shown
trayals in the Castel
nude and self-sacrihcing, leave no doubt whatever that Zeus, Father of the
Gods, after taking the form of bull and swan has here chosen a new form for
approaching mortal woman - and that he had no reason to complain of any
unwillingness in their surrender. The motto Cedo alia puresga, "1 yield to
purity," on a relief in the Castel Sant' Angelo library, also with lady and
unicorn now in plain classical line, would not however be appropriate to

145
those paintings. (Ills. 98, 103)
The game of the satyrs followed in Germany. The conflict between
Chastity and Immodesty in that country is illustrated on tapestries and wood
cuts for the delectation of a wider audience. These two antagonists ride
against each other, Modesty on a handsome well-accoutered unicorn as
though about to demonstrate the finest points of haute ecole horsemanship,
while her unchaste adversary is mounted on a clumsy bear; their homeric
dispute before the battle can be read on legends similar to our present-day
comic strip baloons. [111. 104]
In southern Germany, the unicorn stepped into the indigenous myths. It
became companion or antagonist to the savages. We encounter the savage or
Israhel van Meckenem, fifteenth-
"wild man of the woods" (probably just a man of giant stature) occasionally
century joust between Man and
as namesake for a hostelry or inn and in some southern German localities,
Woman
those wild companions, clad in animal pelts for winter would
come out of the forest to scare the ordinary people. Terror such as that
aroused bv Pan in ancient Hellas may have been the origin of those dwellers
in the nordic forests. They probably represent the uncanniness and mystery
which makes us whistle in the nocturnal wood. Richard Bernheimer, who has
devoted a monograph to them, digs psychologically deeper:

This strange relative of Homo sapiens, a lively and sometimes pungent

commentary on the bestial side of his nature, plays an outstandingly
persistent, although on the whole subordinate, part in the art and literature

of the Middle Ages . . . His presence is like the running commentary

ii'/ th which a man's half-conscious imagery accompanies his conscious ideals

and aspirations: a reminder that there are basic and primitive impulses
clamoring for satisfaction.

The Wild Men dwelled in the forest, sometimes companionably, sometimes

menacingly or inclined to pranks and monkey tricks (Rübezahl, the Silesian
"Turnip Tail" demon, is assuredly related to them). They hunted all species
of animals, cheerfully taking their loot back to a Wild Woman with child
- an unabashed sideswipe at the homage of the Three Wise Men. Wild Man
and Wild Woman blasphemously rode their mythical mounts - she on the
unicorn, in a corral clearly reminiscent of the Hortus conclusus. The wild folk
obviously fought the wild beasts and feared not even the unicorn. They
were the only people able to break ride it. In that same period
it in and even
when was developing, these ruffians with
the mystery of the religious hunt
bow and arrow would mockingly force the unicorn toward one of the
wenches of the woods. The forest queen would ride the unicorn bareback
(both she and it) through the woods in the company of her riotous retinue "3 AJbrecht Dürer, marginal sketch for
carrying their plunder home on the tips of their spears. That scene is repro- Emperor Maximilian's prayer book

146
 duced on a Mhmekastcben, one of thosewooden and leather caskets first so
named in the age of Romanticism but obviously popular as keepsakes during
the Gothic period. These boxes are frequently decorated with the unicorn
portrayed in unmistakable scenes of lovemaking: the Wild Folk are to be
seen riding on unicorns and other legendary beasts against the citadel of
love, a combat said to have been retained as a popular sport in Swiss cities

as late as the nineteenth century. [Ills. 7, 8, 52, 79, 120, 122]

Switzerland and the Upper Rhine between the Black Forest and the Vosges
mountains were specially favored areas for those combined diversions and
battles between Wild Folk and unicorns. Colorful tapestries depict them
individually and collectively in the mysteriously intricate enchanted forest.
Here again is the woman clasping the unicorn's weapon and thereby trapping

it. And alone in the forest, by the stream, between birds and blossoms a pretty
wench is sitting; as the legend on the picture tells us, she has dissipated her
Naked woman and middle-class
woman with unicorns. Late fifteenth time in the world and must now live in wretchedness, but in compensation
century pen-and-ink sketch we see a darling dun-colored unicorn lying consolingly at her feet. The Virgin

r '
Mary become a penitent Magdalen though not forsaken by all the world.
has
This lovely work of art, a product of Strassburg, is in the possession of Basel
Museum of History, which administers a collection of late Gothic figured
tapestries, especially some with representations of the unicorn (where

devotees can find several further unicorn portrayals). A parallel to the

repentant forest wench is to be seen in the Minster at Constance. On one
sidepiece of the pew is a nude Wild Woman with the unicorn, and on the
other side she is shown alone entangled in the forest undergrowth. Even in
that satirical portrayal the spiritual meaning is plain;on one carving, the
human soul is in the thicket of sin, on the other, the redeemed soul is with
its Savior. [Ills. 69, 70, 76, 78, 80]
A later neighbor of the Wild Folk is the muscular horseman abducting a

shrieking maiden in one of Dürer's engravings; he may

be Pluto carrying off
Proserpina, or some other demoniac figure. The monstrous unicorn serving 125. The unicorn -precious as the

as his mount is also demoniac. In a period when it usually appears as a gentle treasureshown
domesticated creature on the gorgeous Gobelin tapestries, it is shown in this
example with an originality and erotic force scarcely to be found anywhere
The classical god, the savage pagan hunter, and the Wild Man of the
else.

German forest are coalesced into a single person for whom the mighty beast
is appropriate, the result of which is altogether a thrilling image of the
unicorn's elemental strength. [111. 119]
A smaller specimen yet by no means less powerful is one of the unicorns
sketched by Dürer in the margin of a prayer book for Emperor Maximilian.
This one also has a forward-curving horn. It stands erect almost on tiptoe,
quiveringly tense with brute force, just on the point of retaliating against the
attack of the angry crane. Some people have thought these beasts may be
purely decorative and unrelated to the text. Erwin Panofsky, a scholar from
Princeton University, past-master of iconology, observes on the contrary that
they symbolize the words of Psalm 129 (130)16, 7, ". . .more than they that
watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the Lord." The crane here is the
symbol of watchfulness. The unicorn represents the infernal region, darkness
and night. [111. 123]

126. St. Justine by Moretto; she is

receiving the unicorn for her virtuous

defense of virginity

148
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 12. 'My Sole Desire'

We may imagine that one of the works impelling Don Quixote on to his

adventures was the ballad de la dame a la lycorne et du biau chevalier au lyon, "of
theLadv with the Unicorn and the handsome Knight of the Lion," a favorite
romance of chivalry which came into existence around the end of the thir-
teenth or beginning of the fourteenth century. The daughter of the king of
Friesland was so beauteous and charming, so superlatively good, pure, and
chaste, that the god of Love (whether Christ, who is mentioned a few lines

before this passage, or the pagan Cupid we cannot decide) bestowed on her
a unicorn, so that she might bear in perpetuity the appellation of "The White
Lady, Ward of the Unicorn." The lady was married to a daring knight of high
lineage, but that did not prevent her from bestowing her favors on the "biau
chevalier." Among her many suitors,he possesses neither wealth nor
outstanding education, but in honor of his lady, he sallies forth into the
world bent on adventure and gains the title of Knight of the Lion (and with
it also a lion in the flesh). When a lying informant brings the lady news of
her knight's alleged death, she collapses and is abducted by some wicked
man. Conversely somebody informs the Knight of the Lion that his lady is

dead, whereupon he too first goes to pieces and then goes mad. Restored to
sanity, he returns in order to ride (with the consent of his lady's husband)
against the kidnapper's castle. He liberates his ladylove: on their beasts, the
unicorn and the lion, they cross the moat surrounding the castle. The evil
knight dies of rage, the handsome knight of the lion, preserving his platonic
love (as is the style in bardic ballads), rides forth to fresh adventures. The
unicorn is put to work only this once.

Occasionally people have believed this ballad was the pattern for the set
of tapestries that, under the designation of "The Lady of the Unicorn," is
the pride of the Cluny Museum in Paris. But that opinion does not stand up
Beyond the consonance of the
to examination of the tapestries and the ballad.
names and the presence of the two heraldic beasts on the tapestries, the two
works of art are linked only by the allegoric atmosphere of an aristocratic
and knightly court (with an interval of almost two centuries between their
respective geneses). [Ills. 91-96]
1264. Animals on guard over corpse of Whoever sets foot in the huge circular hall which the Cluny Museum
Stephen the Martyr
has built for its most famous treasure will find it difficult to escape the spell

151
of what is deemed the finest set of medieval tapestries. The architect who
designed the hall now housing them may not have modeled it on a chapel

but rather on a tent such as those favored by the Burgundian lords for their
feasts, jousts, and campaigns. But the romance of the name "Lady with the
Unicorn" and the breath of poesy spun around the series by writers of note
create an atmosphere of a reverence which rather than being intrinsic to the
original production of the Gobelins is something added with the passing of
time. Even one armed with skepticism and cold reason may succumb in the
long run to the lyric charm which emanates not from the exhibition and
history of these works of art but from their very essence.
5
These six tapestries vary in length from 9'6" to 3 " and in height from
1 '

io'o" to i2'6". In each of them the eye is immediately struck by the soft red
background, flower-studded in the floriate style popular in French and
Flemish fabrics at the beginning of the Renaissance, and the mass of blossoms
is with a multitude of small animals, hares, sheep, dogs, and apes; nor
alive
are foxes and other predators lacking, and both peaceful and menacing
species of birds are included as well. Each design comprises a deeply dyed
insular oval also strewn with flowers and populated with animal figures.
Trees and shrubs abound here, ilex, oak, orange, and pine. In the middle of
the island on each hanging stands a lady in court dress, always sumptuous
and different accompanied by a smaller maid or female
in each picture,
friend (except intwo of the six pictures) also in eyeworthy gorgeous attire. ,

On all six pieces we see the two ancient mythical and heraldic rivals
and companions, the lion and the unicorn, to the right and left of the human
figures on the island. They carry standards always bearing the same arms,
namely three white half-moons on a blue riband across a rose-colored field.
In one case the lady herself is carrying the banner. Of the two large animals,
the unicorn is the one which twice opens direct relation with the lady. On
one of the designs, where the "servant-girl" is missing, it rests with its
forefeet in the lap of the seated lady, looking into a mirror she is holding in
front of its face. The scene is reminiscent, although in secular courtly
context, of that capture of the unicorn by the virgin described in Vhysiologus
and so often represented in artwork, while the mirror too is a Marian symbol.
On the second tapestry lacking the smaller female figure, the lady is standing
banner in hand and gripping the horn with that possessive or loving contact
which tames the beast. On yet another the lady is seen playing a melodeon
(her female companion is working the bellows) yet again adorned with
statuettes of lion and unicorn; the companion also offers her mistress a
bunch of flowers, or on another of the tapestries, some fruit.
The scene changes on the last of these hangings. A stately gold and
azure tent is set up on the island and in front of it the lady is selecting

152
jewelry and ornaments from a casket handed to her by the other woman. On
the frieze of the tent like a dedicatory motto are the words A MON SEUL
DESIR V (the final letter, which is a source of puzzlement, is also read
as a J). Also on the tapestry where the lady is taking fruit from a dish, a

graceful animal on the red background close to her head - definitely

is sitting

a unicorn colt. Its horn has not yet sprouted (and most probably these

animals cannot be born complete with horn). Hanging in the hall near these
tapestries is a "genuine" unicorn shaft impressive with its length of eight
feet or more. This may be the one that was once part of the royal treasure
at St. Denis.
rapidly becomes evident that these designs are not illustrations to
It

some romance but are allegorical in character. What they are supposed to
mean has, however, caused much cogitation by scientific authorities. The
increasingly prevalent theory is chat these may be representation of the five
senses (the mirror for sight; the melodeon for hearing; the flowers for
smell; the fruits for taste, and the contact with the horn for touch). This
was advanced bv a British art historian in 1921 and has meantime been
accepted also by the curators of the Cluny Museum. The sixth hanging with
tent and motto might then be so to speak a dedicatory supplement, even
though the inscription contains something still to be deciphered.
To get at some interpretation, it was and is highly desirable to establish
something cogent regarding who commissioned work and what was the
the
object of the set. On the first point at least progress was made quite early
since the bearings with the three crescent moons were identifiable. They
have no connection with the orient as suggested by the romantic legend
purporting that the customer was a certain Turkish Prince Zizim (who is

historically known to have been a fugitive in France toward the end of the
fifteenth century). The arms are now attributed to the Le Viste family
of craftsmen who
acquired wealth, influence, and (not without opposition)
noble rank in Lyons. Around the turn of the century, the head of the family
was living in Paris, occupied with financial affairs, but possessed some
property in Burgundy. If the unicorn and lion pair could have been chosen
in consideration of his established heraldic preference, the unicorn might be
additionally explained by a play upon words; according to this version it

was intended to stand for vitesse (speed), certainly as a play on the name
Le Viste. Records have established that the family had other unicorn
tapestries in its possession but these have not survived.
The hangings in the Cluny collection might for instance have been
manufactured for a wedding in that house. No later than 1513a certain Claudi
a Le Viste contracted a second marriage with one Jean de Chabannes. His
first name might explain the last letter on the inscription, if we are to read

153
 —

it The bridegroom, though short of stature, was courageous and bore

as a J.

the nickname "Lion Cub," thus adding extra meaning to the lion on the
tapestries. The unicorn is then thought to stand for the Le Viste family, not
precisely for the lady, who as a widow was no longer entitled to the symbol
of virginity. (Were people, however, really so fastidious and unready to take
the unicorn also more commonly as a symbol for virtue ?) This explanation
of the origin of the tapestries has not been confirmed, and that final single

lettercould in any case also be some arbitrary mark for the production of
typographic symmetry, so that the inscription could signify the dedication
A mon seid desir, "To my sole desire."
Equally obscure is the question of exactly where those magnificent
hangings were produced. On that point, suggestions have covered all
the famous localities of the French and Low Countries' carpet industry:
Aubusson, Tournai, Bruges, and recently Brussels in particular, to say
nothing of itinerant warp setters from the Loire. Nobody knows, but it
is unanimously agreed that the designer certainly was an unknown master

craftsman of the French art. Indeed, what was produced in this case

goes beyond a magnificent piece of handicraft (so far as such differ-

far

entiation is permissible for that period in general). The composition

the lady always at the center, the distribution of the decorative elements,
the noble flow of the lines —demonstrates its quality quite apart from
the wealth of invention (which certainly to some extent touches on
tradition and routine) and from the treatment of dyes and materials.
Only the unicorn on the piece now designated as "Sense of Hearing"
looks remarkably clumsy and badly drawn, as though here some other
hand had interfered.
Now let us take a short glance sideways at an item which is close to our
subject in more sense than one. Also hanging there in the Cluny Museum
is a sequence of tapestries practically 148 feet long overall, portraying the
life, death, and miracle of St. Stephen. One of these hangings shows the
martyr lying dead in the forest. assassins who have
The stoned him to death
are making their escape (Saulus, who was minding the raiment, belongs in
their company). Near the lonely corpse, various animals are keeping watch:
the stag, lion, porcupine, and ape, and with them the unicorn with the
tip of his weapon pointing upward where the angels are in the act of carrying
Stephen's soul up to heaven. Although in this case the flower-studded
background has not been used, having been replaced by a completely
executed horticultural landscape, the design prevents several similarities
with the Lady and Unicorn tapestries. The unicorn itself in its unsullied
grace reminds us of the dedicatory tapestry A mon seul desir.

These tapestries of St. Stephen were ordered by the bishop of Auxerre

154
 :

tor his church around the year 1 500. That bishop, Jean Baillet by name, was
a brother-in-law of Aubert Le Viste, the head of the Le Viste family and
counselor and comptroller to Charles the Bold. It is easy to imagine that
these relatives had done business with the same tapestry manufacturers and
to appreciate the remarkable destiny which has brought both those works of
art together on adjacent walls after the passing of centuries.

Something further has to be said about the Le Viste tapestries. Some

years ago a fresh light was stimulatingly shed on everything concerned with
their origin, meaning, and purpose. Maria Lanckoronska expounded and
exhaustively substantiated her thesis that the "Lady with the Unicorn" can
be identified with none other than Margaret of York, third spouse of Charles
the Bold of Burgundy. Aubert Le Viste as his banker and confidant would
have ordered this magnificent gift to be made for the new consort (thus
allowing us credibly to interpret the initials on either side of the motto
A mon seul desir as A and V for Aubert Le Viste.) Clearly, since such a
commission would have taken many years to complete, the tapestries may
not have been finished early enough for the ceremony and meantime with
the death of the duke the politically favorable situation changed so that the
tapestries would therefore have remained in the possession of the Le Viste
family.
A spirited unicorn did make wedding in July 1468 of
its entrance at the

Charles and Margaret in Bruges. A

was spread in a great hall
lavish feast
hurriedly erected on the tennis court and as interludes between the courses
many splendid displays were presented, tableaux vivants and scenes in effigy
as well as massive parades and processions. Olivier de la Marche, captain of

the ducal guard, has described this festivity in his memoirs of the court of
Burgundy
First there entered the hall a unicorn large as a horse and fully caparisoned
in a silken cloth bearing the arms of England painted thereon. Seated on
the beast was a very fine painted leopard almost true to life; in one

forepaw it carried a huge banner of England and in the other a beautifully

fabricated marguerite. Now the unicorn having made its way around the

tables to the sound of clarions , was led in front of my master the Duke,
and one of the ducal stewards thereupon plucked the blossom from the

leopard's claw and kneeling addressed the Duke, "Most mighty, noble and
conquering Prince, my honored and worshipful Lord and Sovereign/ The
proud and fear-inspiring leopard of England visiting this honorable
assemblage presents for the delight of Your noble self, Your allies,
realms and subjects, to You in person a Marguerite {Margeret) of noble
birth." Thus did my master receive the noble Margaret, and the unicorn
returned thither whence he had come.
IJ5
The flower is symbol of the new duchess and the leopard is her
clearly the
heraldic beast. The unicorn, however, does not represent England (into
whose coat of arms it had not at that time yet been incorporated) but stands
for the bride's virtues. It was, anyway, greatly favored at the Burgundian
court, although its symbolic meaning exerted no lasting effect. Two of the
bishops there present were illegitimate sons of deceased dukes.
Maria Lanckoronska has substantially more than the above narrative to
offer in support of her theory. One of the animals seated right by the lady's
feet is a genette ("civet cat") among the plantae ("shrubs"), forming thus a
rebus on Plantagenet, the house from which Margaret was descended, and,
just like the marguerites themselves, symbolic in this case of her name.
The garland which the lady is plaiting consists of white and red roses, tokens
York and Lancaster (with which the latter Charles was
of the rival houses of
related) now united by this marriage. The leopard with its collar of
marguerites is the bride's heraldic beast and also came to the ceremony.
And besides many other details, the "Lady with the Unicorn" has not only
the same tall, slender figure as Margaret but also resembles her in face and 127. Linsey-woolsey hanging with story
features. of Pyramus and Thisbe

But now we onlookers are brought to a sudden halt. The ladies on the
individual tapestries bear no resemblance to one another, so how should
they be presumed to resemble still a seventh? The radiant young beauty on
the hanging we label "Taste" is so little like the mournful-looking exemplar
of "Sight" that the different coiffure and even a suspicion of distortion on the
part of designers or weavers scarcely admit any idea of there ever having
been any likeness among the various figures. Was it technically possible at
that time to produce true-to-life portraits in tapestry and was it even con-
templated in this case? Some of the evidential detail is also questionable.
The lady is not, in fact, making a garland of roses (that is to say the emblems
of the houses of York and Lancaster) but of pinks or carnations. And many
tapestries of the period have marguerites, as well as other flowers, in their
decoration. A more argument seems of greater importance
intrinsic basis of
than stylistic details. Can it be seriously imagined that a man, however
newly rich he may be, who wanted to flatter his liege lord the powerful Duke
of Burgundy, would have had the impudence to have his own armorial
bearings and them alone portrayed on the intended gift sequence and even
make the princess herself the bearer of those tokens in her own hand?
However carefully Maria Lanckoronska has constructed the scientific

foundation of her interesting hypothesis, and however attractive it might

be to imagine the "Lady with the Unicorn" as the spouse of one of the most
brilliant men of his time (and she herself also a woman of consequence), we
cannot legitimately ratify the idea. Though her image does not get far on a

156
 historical basis, it certainly docs not lose anything in lyrical charm, even
though we grant that it really is not a matter of "The Lady with the Unicorn"
but of "Ladies with Lions and Unicorns."
So bold and carefully concocted a thesis as Maria Lanckorohska's
contains its attraction for the spectator and its due of stimulus for science,
even though one skeptically opposes its outcome in the final analysis. Even
the curator of the Cluny Museum, Francis Salet, has expressly acknowledged
the scientific thoroughness of the idea. But he quite decidedly rejects any
identity between the Unicorn Lady and Margaret of York. With unemotional
scholarliness he declines all romanticism regarding the "Lady with the

Unicorn." For him, the whole sequence of tapestries is of a purely heraldic

nature, intended to introduce extravagantly the coat of arms of a parvenu
family, with a motto A. mon seul desir, the meaning of which still requires
elucidation. "And everything else is fantasy." And he is quite right, although

1*8. The expulsion of the serpents that "everything else" is in part great literature and can still tempt poetic
natures looking for secrets behind a work of art. Since its rediscovery, this
tapestry has been enveloped in an aura of romance. Through marriage in
mid-seventeenth century, it passed to the castle of Boussac in central France
(in the Department of Creuse) and was sold with the whole of the
later

contents of the castle to the up in a corner of the city hall,

city. It lay rolled

gnawed by rats and mildewed by damp, offering an example of the neglect

to which items of intangible value can be subject. Discovered by a writer
(Prosper Merimee, Inspector of Fine Arts), enthusiastically brought
before the public by an authoress (George Sand in her novel Jeanne and in
an essay for L 'Illustration,
1847), these hangings frequently appealed to the
creative spiritand not only to scientific judgment. Outstanding among
champions of their beauty were Marcel Proust and Rainer Maria Rilke, who
was deeply impressed by the tapestries during his sojourn in Paris as secretary
to Rodin. In Rilke's novel Malte Laurids Brigge (titled in English as Journal

of My Other Self), Malte pictures himself conducting his beloved Abelone

along the row of tapestries. And he too sees (and so we must concede that
much also to Maria Lanckorohska) "always one figure, one woman in

different garb yet ever her unchanging self." The last one he looks at is the

hanging now labeled "Sight" on which the lady holds a mirror up to the
unicorn's face. The image reappears in the fourth poem of Part Two of
the Sonnets to Orpheus. This is the profoundest poetic homage to the
unicorn, which is seen here as a pure production of the human soul, freed
from all the dross of a curious and frequently chaotic history. The intention
is, wrote on June 1, 1923, to Countess Sizzo, "all love to the
as Rilke
unauthenticated and intangible, all credence in the value and authenticity of
what our mind has through the ages created from itself and placed on a

157
pedestal." If expressly in this place "no parallel with Christ is implied," 29. Miscellaneous types of unicorn,
including a two-horned mutant, from
Rilke has included the Christian relevance of the unicorn elsewhere in his
Pomet's Pharmaceutics, seventeenth
writings. In his Life of the Virgin Mary, in the Annunciation poem, he says of
century
the Virgin, a doe had "so merged into her purity that the unicorn engendered
in her absolutely without copulation the beast of light alone, the perfect
creature." "Like a steeple on the moon," the horn stands erect as the animal
visits the praying hermit. Once more the myth has come into its own.
13. Captured Yet Free

New York, modern as it is, possesses a Romanesque cloister. It stands on

Manhattan in the seclusion of a woodland park overlooking the Hudson.
How, we ask, can a cloister so ancient be in such a setting? Of course it has
been synthetically reconstructed. Reading how oil-king Rockefeller bought
up the European abbeys and priories, numbering the stones serially
ruins of
for rebuilding in the New World, the European out of intellectual snobbery
will smile haughtily at such parvenu outvying of his culture. But his
superiority may subside if he actually visits the spot. "The Cloisters" are
intended for the exhibition in a tasteful setting of the medieval European
art treasures which Rockefeller had already presented to the Metropolitan
Museum. Here too some prejudice may resist an artificial revival of the past.
And yet whoever sees the range of ethnic groups represented in the crowds
wending their way through the and gardens to see master-
halls, passages,
pieces from Italy, France, Spain, and Germany, immersing themselves in
the atmosphere there, receives a strong impression of the American will not
only to take over its inheritance materially but to absorb it internally, with
utmost sincerity, as well.
The masterpiece in this edifice is a set of hangings which makes the
Metropolitan rival to the Cluny Museum of Paris in possession of the
loveliest medieval hangings and, in particular, the most beautiful unicorn
Hardly can they be said to be less representative; they are incom-
tapestries.
more dramatic. They relate a story, the hunting of the unicorn, but
parably
mundane and ecclesiastical motifs from the symbolic history of the unicorn
merge, once more, in these works. [Ills. 130-135.]
On the first of seven tapestries a company of richly clad young people is

setting out for the chase accompanied by hounds and huntsmen. A scout
sent out ahead has obviously already spotted the quarry and is beckoning
from the forest. The next hanging shows the beast. Animals are assembled
around an artistically sculptured Renaissance well, wild animals as well as
tame, lion and deer, wolf and hare, and a goldfinch and a pheasant are
roosting on the wellhead. Amidst them all we see the white unicorn. He is

kneeling on his forelegs, doing what Pbysiologus reports him to have done
in the oasis,what John of Hesse saw by the river Mara, namely dipping his
horn into the water and purging it of poison. Round about in the copse, the
J 59
now very augmented hunting party is watching the unusual scene, pointing
at the white beast, and discussing the matter in groups. But amazement
quells the hunting fever only for a short while. Two hangings follow,
showing the encircled unicorn in the struggle. Attacked from all sides with
spears, pursued by hounds, it seeks salvation by leaping across the brook,
kicking out backward, and spearing a mongrel dog in front of him.

On the fifth tapestry, of which we have unfortunately only two fragments

(logical arrangement in the sequence of action may therefore be a little

uncertain), the animal under pursuit is in a fenced-in garden. This is that

Hortus conclusus in which we found the Virgin Mary and her child. Like the
archangel Gabriel, a huntsman blows his horn. The mystic unicorn hunt, a
favorite tale in Germany at that time, here becomes a section of a temporal
royal hunt. Does the success of the hunt have to be preceded here also by the
taming by a woman ? A lady is there, but not the lady. She must be a maid-

servant, who with raised hand and a suspicious look, appears to be repelling
the hunters. Like the hunters, the lady who supposedly should tame the
unicorn is not to be seen on the fragment. \\"e can see only a sleeve and the
fingers of a slender hand, gently approaching the unicorn's mane. But in this

case, the maiden's hand brings no rescue. The hunt progresses unrelentingly.
So much has to be told that two scenes are shown together on the
sixth tapestry. Again surrounded, harried by a pack of hounds, hit by two
spears in neck and chest, the noble beast collapses. With the oaken shaft in its
mortal wound, the animal is slung over a horse's shoulder and conveyed to a
princely pair who proceed with a curious crowd through the gate of a

much-turreted city. The drama is ended. Yet not so! The unicorn is again
visible on a seventh hanging, bleeding from his wounds but alive, in a
timbered corral tethered to a tree by a golden chain, alone on a flower-

studded carpet. Unmistakably, the christological meaning of the unicorn is

taken up here with a new twist. The Lord is risen, but there is no joy of
Easter. A deep melancholy pervades the image of the beautiful animal, so
much more tender than on the other hangings and so absolutely alone, a
symbol of wounded and shackled nobility in an unappreciative world.
Life and death adjoin each other in the sign of the unicorn, which
since antiquity is the promise of health but also the end of life. The Cleveland
Museum of Art possesses a set of Gobelins, formerly in the French chateau
de Chaumont (Loire-et-Cher). It is described as Allegorie de V ephemere (Allegory
of the Ephemeris), and one of the four tapestries has the theme "Youth and
Age." These two stages of life are separated by a stockade. On the left
Youth is leading its happy, carefree life; on the right an old man is being
brutally cudgeled by a younger one. Near this cruel scene, a white unicorn
crouches as though quite uninterested —
one must indeed take it as a symbol
1 60
 —
of Death just as in those representations of the man in the well.

\s with those found in the Cluny, the place of origin of this great

series of unicorn tapestries in the Cloisters cannot be determined. The reason

for their manufacture is, however, known with fair certainty. They
or more accurately, the second to sixth tapestries were a gift for —
the wedding of Anne of Brittanv to Louis XII of France on January 8, 1499.
This Anne is a remarkable example of how in her day princesses were treated
as spineless sacrifices of princely power politics. She was twelve years old
when in 1488 her father's death made her heiress to the duchy of Brittany
and therefore a very desirable match. Ought the duchy be merged into the
growing centralized government of France or should it seek association with
some other power ? The young princess' advisers decided to betroth her with
Maximilian of Austria, already widowed after his marriage to Mary of
Burgundy, and arranged the marriage by proxy. Thus the future German
emperor hoped to gain a new foothold in the West, behind the back of
France, instead of the shaky state of affairs in the Low Countries. His own
daughter Margaret was betrothed to the young king Charles VIII of France
and was already staying at his court in training for her future duties. But
abruptlv this so carefully prepared scheme was upset. Margaret was sent
packing back home and Anne compelled by force of arms to wed the French
king instead of Maximilian. Her new husband was in such a poor state of
health that the marriage contract provided that in the event of his death, the
voung wife must straightaway wed his successor to the throne of France.
Eight years after the marriage, that event occurred in 1498. The house of
Valois became extinct with the death of Charles VIII, and his successor from
the house of Orleans took the title of Louis XII. To bind Brittanv to the
State, he had to get a divorce in order to marry the young widow Anne in

accordance with the contract. Apparently he was not at all loth to comply
with that condition. Thus Anne became Queen of France for the second time,
and for this second marriage the unicorn hunt tapestries were made to
celebrate a widow's wedding.
The letters which appear in various places on the tapestries, an A and
specular E, are read as the initial and final of the name Anne. They are
joined by a knotted cord. Anne was by tradition a devotee of St. Francis, and
the Franciscans girded their robe with such a cord. Anne founded an order of
nobility for ladies to which she gave the title Dames de la Cordeliere ("Ladies of
the Knotted Cord"). The lone unicorn on the final hanging is indicative of
Anne's second marriage. The multifaceted use of the unicorn as a symbol is

not excessive if one assumes that it does not solely apply to the Resurrected;
indeed, mundane and religious meanings co-exist. Fenced in and tethered, it

indicates the accomplished bond of matrimony, the pomegranate tree under

161
which it

fertility
reclines, or

symbol.
more precisely the fruit ofthat tree, is in itself an ancient '3°-
W
The unicorn
in
in captivity, ca. 1500.
Ncw York
This seventh tapestry stands apart in style from the series as a whole;
that applies in some measure also to the first of these hangings. It is therefore
assumed that only the five in the middle, which portray the actual hunting of
the unicorn, were manufactured to begin with, the first and the last being
later additions. This may have been the case soon or somewhat later, for
instance, when Anne's daughter by this second marriage wedded King
Francis I. However, the monogram FR (could that be Franciscus Rex?),
which might indicate this interpretation, appears on a portion of the original
set, while Anne's initials are, on the other hand, embodied in the first and

last tapestries. The difference in style does not necessarily indicate any time
interval: the work might have been commissioned from another factory, or
perhaps the design arranged for the set was felt to be too harsh and the
manifold symbolism of the living, resuscitated unicorn was gladly accepted
as an excellent option. This unicorn portrayal with its flower-carpeted
background differs in design and emotional content from all the other
components of the set, even from the first one, which is comparatively
conventional and inflexible in its effect.
The whole of this Cloisters series underwent a fate similar to that of the
Clunv collection. It came apparently early into the possession of the family
of La Rochefoucauld and was included in the inventory for the year 1728
of their castle of Verteuil in the southwest of Fiance. During the French
Revolution, the tapestries were confiscated and indeed mutilated wherever
thev contained any tokens of royalty. Occasionally, it is said, they were used
for carrying potatoes and concealing them during shortages. Later still, the
tapestries came once more into the hands ot the La Rochetoucaulds and
returned to Verteuil, their quality apparently not being rully discerned and
even disregarded in the older unicorn literature. Then |. D. Rocketeller
purchased them in the 1920s and donated them to the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in 1937. And since then America has made the unicorn its own not
only in a superficial sense.

The lone unicorn in the Cloisters is a solitary pinnacle or Art. It is now

being gradually rediscovered even in Europe. Poets will seize upon it as they
did the Parisian "Lady with the Unicorn." Anne Morrow Lindbergh
dedicated a song of praise to the noble unicorn that has travelled, in many
ways, so far from eastern origins. For her, it is "in captivity, yet free."

162
o:

<*R^
Five Gobelins from the "Unicorn Hunt
Series, circa 1500
Figure 130 shows the last of the series; the
one existing in fragmentary form is not
reproduced here
1 34. The battling unicorn

135- The unicorn smitten in the neck and

brought dead into the castle

165
 136. Sixteenth-century symbolism of
alchemy; the stag as Soul, the
unicorn as Spirit, the countryside as
Substance of Mankind

137- Adam in the Garden of Eden,

Marble intarsia, sixteenth century,

Sienna

138. Sketch (tapestry cartoon?) for Charles

> de Bourbon, Cardinal Archbishop
of Lyons, ca. 1500

166
i68
139. Wellhead from Ncuburg on the
Danube, ca. 1530

140. Unicorn flagon of narwhal's tusk,

seventeenth century

169
141- Detail of celestial sphere of
^ eighteenth century

142. Elieser Susmann's ceiling of Horb

V synagogue (Detail)

^AT4>-jl'ä(
171
 143- Burgundian ornate flagon, fifteenth
<] century

144. Unicorn shaft used as apothecary's

t> sign in Rottenbuch, ca. 1750

145. Mortar with apothecary's crest,

^ Frankfurt

172
Twentieth-Century Illustrations

14- . Ernst Fuchs, Tbe Begttting of ibt

< L 'rntearn and Tbe Umtorris Triumph

148. The artist and tbe unicorn by Ernst

Fuchs

149- Rosita Salem's "magic realism"

> treatment of the unicorn shows the

horn as a primitive force
i
76
 5

Moreau, l^.üfs and Lnicoms,

nineteenth centurv

Ijl. Triumph of Innocence. Stained glass

window from Rouen, 1 5 1

177
 15 2- Jean Duvet, King pursued by
unicorn sixteenth-century
:

copperplate engraving

178
14. The Living Unicorn

It could have happened this way: thousands of years ago some Persian
hunter saw an ibex in profile against the open sky in the mountain uplands
and told everyone he had seen a unicorn. Or the same could have happened
with an Arab or some other native of Africa at the sight of a gazelle. And
thus we can have a perfectly "natural" explanation of how the unicorn myth
began. For centuries people sought the original of the animal and not simply
what looked like a unicorn when seen in profile. Travelers other than
adventurers reported from Asia and Africa the existence of unicorns, though
more frequently from hearsay than personal observation. Well into the
nineteenth century explorers and hunters lay in ambush for the legendary
beast; no less eagerly did their twentieth century successors await the yeti,
the abominable snowman in the Himalayas. Acknowledged scholars such as
Edward Riippell, to whom the Senckenberg Institute in Frankfurt owes a
considerable portion of its African collections, have declared it probable,
possible, and conceivable that the unicorn existed. It has been sought in
the gorges of the Ethiopian mountains where Cosmas the "Indian sailor"
had said it lived, and in the rock caverns of South Africa where paintings
presumably of unicorns seen by earlier cavemen had been found. Ernst
Fuhrmann, another twentieth-century archaeologist as learned as he was
imaginative, stated he was convinced there have been unicorns in Europe
and Asia, although unfortunately he had not produced any evidence to
support his conviction. Perhaps he was thinking of the elasmotherium, that
Siberian beast we have encountered through "eyewitnesses."
But what, we may ask, has all that to do with the "honest-to-goodness"
unicorn ? Even if early naturalistic experiences led to a chain of associations
which kept the animal alive, the unicorn has strayed far from its origins. Not
only has its form and figure altered in many ways, not only has it served as a
symbol for manifold and contradictory concepts; it also gained existence
from and unto itself, from a new source after the naturalistic beginning. The
unicorn is a creation of the human mind and it is as real as any such creations
are. The unicorn is as unreal or as real as a poem or a dream. Thus it has
existed in various periods, various conceptions, and various degrees of
intensity. Notably enough, in this sense, it exists today in the age of a new
enlightenment.

179
 For the special case of the unicorn myth we might well repeat what the
Romantic scholar and poet Schlegal exclaimed in a Discourse on Mythology:
"If only the treasures of the Orient were as accessible to us as those of
antiquity!" What is known of the unicorn from Asia is so fragmentary that
no precise idea of its earliest mythological significance is possible. Certainly
the animal, previously credited in China with annunciatory functions (what
a prototheme for the "mystic hunt" in the German Middle Ages!) is

different from the astragali or anklebones

supplier of antidote and
which the Greeks regarded so prosaically. India was the original home of
the ideas from which the unicorn eventually came into existence, but
whether ancient India knew anything of a unicorn in our occidental sense
beside the rhinoceros with meaning of mildness and good temper
its figurative
is most doubtful. In the Near East, disregarding premature and undocu-
mented findings, the essential unicorn evolved only contemporaneously
with the Middle Ages in Europe (and the influence of early Christian
conceptions such as Physiologus is plain). Even though oriental imagination

pursued its own creative course, the traditions of several cultures underwent
a remarkable fusion: the unicorn victoriously chases the elephant as in the
tales of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, it fights knights and heroes, and
it is decoyed by the maiden as in the Christian Physiologus.
Through Christianity the unicorn infiltrates the region of myth. No
longer is it important whether one believes in the physical existence of the
unicorn, although that had long been the case. The important thing is what
inner power it has. It becomes and remains a symbol, even though a homelier
naivete may occasionally have blurred the boundary between "that
connotes . .
." and "that is . .
." Even where this is not so, the symbol
acquires reality as an utterance from the human soul, as a fulfillment of
some spiritual need, and as a filling of space which ought not to be left

empty. "Symbolism is the commonest way for creativity to achieve reality"

in the words of Dagobert Frey. A symbol has a character which is super-

personal, binding, and for its own part informative. It is an object of tacit
understanding; anyone seeing the image knows what its meaning is. It
expresses something real yet precedent to commonplace reality, something
from the prehistoric past, a fragment of essential divinity. Inaudibly it says
to us something which becomes reality; it is communication antecedent to
intellect and logic, it seizes on the peculiar and extraordinary. Where that

occurs, the phenomenon has become myth. It has gained independent

existence and in this sense it is irrelevant whether or not its representation
is "art." The unicorn as an ideograph for Christ, and through Him as a

symbol of the utmost purity which may at any time be attainable to man,
has this power to survive all the vicissitudes of ebbing and flowing intensity.

1 80
Even today we feel the twentieth century is quite truly a century of the
unicorn.
lust .is was the case with the genesis of the Pieta, the written word precedes
the sculptured or painted image (and of course the spoken word was
precursor to the written one). First comes the word, and then the imagery
follows in its train. Before the unicorn appeared in stone or other carvings
it had been embodied in manuscripts. In the psalter it stands silently

conspicuous in front of the psalmist; accompanied by the lion it menaces

the crucified. This is something straight out of the Septuagint. Beside this

is the eilect of the original Physiologus which appeared chiefly in the eastern
realm. In the psalter used in Hagia Sophia (the Christian Church of the
Divine Wisdom, originally the Great Mosque, and now a museum) in
Bvzantium, the beast is seen confidently approaching the seated woman and
placing its massive foot in her lap. In Pbjsiologus the capture is in the first
place pacific. Only later on does it develop, first in miniatures and then on
capitals and choirstall carvings, into the cruel slaughter of the deluded beast.
In the plastic arts, the unicorn is at first the savage, alien, remote beast; but
almost simultaneously the spiritual symbol made its appearance. However,
in individual portrayal it is not always possible to make a proper differentia-
tion. If the unicorn on the Souvigny pillar is to some extent unequivocally
the monster from the Beyond, if the share of pagan and Christian strains in

the Freudenstadt baptismal font is disputable (although some ritualistic

background is discernible), yet in the Holzkirchen relief, the Christian

tendency is indeed evident through the connection with the image of the
Lord. The compelling impression left is that it had in every case a significant

intensity for the spectators and might well have exerted a naturalistic or
spiritual reality according to the individual case. [Ills. 14, 16, 23, 24, 53-55]

The harsh representation of the killing in the virgin's lap probably

emanated from France, progressed into Italy and - more forcibly - into
Germany. Apart from the bestiaries pure and simple, it was to be understood
in the religious sense and its brutality was intentional; it was a depictment
of the deicide. The unicorn gained itsmost powerful symbolic hold on
humanity in German mysticism, in the virgin-and-unicorn imagery, and in
the sacred hunt. Here in religious mystique, where otherwise a drift into

perversion has not always been avoided, the unicorn maintained its spiritual
character. This is so strong that it survived secularization and rationalization.
[Ills. 45,47, 72, 73]
The thrust toward demything in the ages of Reformation, Renaissance,
and Enlightenment might quite possibly have destroyed the unicorn myth.
But it survived and not only in medical usage. The unicorn remained quite
a long time also in the Church — in ancient images, despite the decrees of

181
the Council of Trent, in songs and ballads, and occasionally even in
Protestant hymnbooks. Even late in the eighteenth century, Pacher, Abbot
Benedict III ofEttal, had his heraldic device placed in the church: in front of
the shrine of the Madonna and Child a unicorn makes obeisance. Evidently
the abbot in contrition recognized himself as a rampageous unicorn like old
Ratgar of Fulda, so dubbed centuries before by his friars.

Uneasy, often, was the user of unicorn references. When in Shakespeare's

Tempest the passengers of the vessel stranded by Ariel stagger through the
marvels and terrors of Prospero's island, one of them finally exclaims, "Now
I will believe that there are unicorns." This does not sound exactly as though
that enlightened author did believe in them. As we mentioned previosuly,
Shakespeare most likely saw a representation of the unicorn in his local
church in Stratford-on-Avon where later he was himself laid to rest, and

he made poetic use of it on various occasions. In Julius Caesar, for example,

Decius Brutus says (Act II, Sc. i, 204) that "unicorns may be betray'd with
trees," just as we have seen the lion and the brave little tailor do.
While the intellectual struggles were proceeding regarding the existence
of the unicorn and its pharmaceutical value, the unicorn was transplanted
to the southerly heaven. First is the appearance of the constellation in
1624 in the writings of Kepler's son-in-law Jacob Bartsch. Since he remarks,
referring incidentally to various mentions of the unicorn in the Bible, that
the constellation may have been so named "more recently" {a recentioribus),
it seems that he himself did not propose that appellation. Ever since,
however, we find the unicorn on the celestial globe.
Likewise in the seventeenth century the unicorn myth experienced a novel
literarydevelopment. In the period from 1609 to 1627 Honore d'Urfe's
five-volume novel UAstree (Astraea), prototype of a long series of pastoral
d
romances was published The Fontaine enchantee de la verite 'amour (Fountain
.

Spring of True Love), guarded by lions and unicorns, plays a part in the
tales. As the two couples, the chief characters in the story, despair of each
other, the partners visit the magic spring separately for the purpose of
casting themselves to the lions. Once there, however, they simultaneously
recognize their true love and They are attacked by the beasts - but
fidelity.

the unicorns come The turmoil is hidden by a cloud and

to their assistance.
when this lifts again, the four lovers lie lifeless, yet unwounded, the animals
are petrified statues around the spring, and Cupid appears over the scene
announcing his orders to the spectators who have gathered round. The
unicorn it seems has preserved itself as symbol for both love and death at
the same time. But after Cupid's instructions are followed, those who had
only swooned recover consciousness and the complications proceed until
all finally ends happily. In the eighteenth century this dramatic scene of
182
 :

battle between and unicorns served N. C. Cochin for a decorative

lions
sketch, as indeed the widely distributed and long reverberative novel had
provided work for illustrators, not least with unicorns. [111. 16 1]
Romanticism rescued not only images which had been thrown out of the
churches but gave new life to the unicorn myth. It cannot be sheer chance
that one of the loveliest unicorn poems in the German language comes to
us from one of the publishers of des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Magic Horn).
This jewel of a poem lies unacknowledged in Achim von Arnim's novel Die
Kronenwächter (The Guardians of the Crown), in which a young farmer thus
sublimates his nocturnal adventure with a dairymaid

With sunbeams shining my pursuers, Eyes to the night

Like unicorn free do I bound, She opes anew.

'Til even, away from my tortures, O lustrous sight

To virgin's lap escape I've found, Down falls the dew.

To catch me with gossamer she knew, Shorter the days,

But with the dawn she set me free, Longer the night,

On her lashes gained I true, Abates the woe

But those sweet eyes she shut on me. That wakes me quite.

Here again we have the familiar elements the hunting of the unicorn, its
:

flight to the damsel's lap, and from that Christian vestige, reversion to the
spell of love, to which the Hindu ascetic had succumbed in his time, and

by which the bards, troubadours, and minnesingers themselves felt

Sea unicorn and narwhal from

Pomet's text on pharmacy

i8j
 UNICORNS HORN
Now brought in life for the Cure of Difeafes by an Experi
enced DOCTOR, the AUTHOR of this Antidote.

AMoft Excellent Dtink made with a true Vnitomt Horn , which dot!
Effectually Cure
thefe Difeafes :
' Scurvy , Old1)ktrs %
Further , tf any pleafc to be Drofßey
fat isfied, they may come to the Running Gouty
Doftor and view the Hern, ConfumptionsyDifiiUationsyCought
,*< Palpitation of the Heart-,
Fainting Fits, Convnlßonty
Kingt EvilyRickfts m
Children,
McUncholIy or Sadneßy
ihe Gretn Sitkneßy übftrnäionr,
And all Diftempers proceeding from a Cold Caufe.
The Ufe of it is fo profitable , that it prevents Difeafes and Infection
by fortifying the Noble Parts, and powerfully expels wrut is an Enemy tc
Nature, prelerving the Vigour, Youth, and a good Complexion to Olc
Age.- The Virtue is ot futh force, as to refill an Injury from an unfbund
Bedfellow > None can excel this, for it is joyncd with the Virtue of a true
Vnieorns Horny through which the Dtink pallet h, and being impregnated
therewith, it doth wonderfully Corroborate and Core, drinking it warm
at any time of the Day, about a quarter of a Pint at a time, the oftner the
better, the Price is a s. the Quart.
a. Alfo as a preparative for this excellent Drink, and good againfr th«
Difeafes above mentioned, and all Crudities in the Body, is ready prepa-
red twelve Pils in a Eox to be taken at three Dof es, according to Dixe&i-
ons therewith given, the Price is i s. the Box.
3. Likewife he hath Admirable Medicines for the Cure of the P X O
or Running of the Reins, with all Simptoros and Accidents thereto belong«
ing, whether Newly taken or of long Continuance , and (by Cod's Blef
fine) fedurcs the Patient from the danger of the Difeafe prefenrly , and
perfects the Cure with the greateit Speed and Secrefie imaginable , not
hindering Occafions , or going abroad : Whofoevcr makes Ufe ot thefe
Admirable Medicines, may have further Advice from the Doftor without
Charge.

The Detior Liveth in Hounfditch, next Door to Gun- Yard, have-

in% a Back Door intotheTard^ where any Patient »tavrom» *»»•;

184
 :

identified with the unicorn. The connection is so unmistakable that an old

typographical error cannot change it. From the first edition of the Guardians
of the Cronn to its latest reprint, the second line of the poem in German
contained the word Eichhorn ("squirrel"), instead of Einhorn ("unicorn"),
indubitably the correct term. As the manuscript has disappeared, it cannot
be established where the error arose, since Bettina published the second part
of the novel from her husband's estate in 1854. But now the authentic
version has been restored.
This poem remained long unique. In E. T. A. Hoffman's Princess Brambilla,
a Roman capriccio based on sketches by the famous etcher Jacques Callot, a
carnival procession is described moving through the Porta del Popolo to

the Piazza Navona. Musicians with silver pipes, cymbals, and drums ride
twelve small snow-white unicorns with golden hoofs drawing the lady's
coach. It does not sound quite so playful when the duke of Coburg writes to
the poet Jean Paul, "Tell yourself that I in the guise of a damsel can disarm
the unicorn and that with a kiss." The unicorn
away occasionally into fades
a decorative figure of symbolic poesy and painting (as on a picture by the
French painter Moreau). The Swiss Böcklin once more gives it a touch of
vigor and mystery (his "Forest Silence" filled contemporaries at the end of
the nineteenth century with enthusiasm). It satisfied part of the need of the
Art Nouveau for ornamentation (imitating the Baroque, it guards the entrance
to the Mirabell Park in Salzburg). The line leads on into the present time
(the monster stands inoffensively as a plaything in front of boys' schools).
A picture painted by theAmerican Arthur B. Davies in 1906 and now in
the Metropolitan Museum, New York, shows a conceptualization related
to the European symbolism. Unicorns is regarded as this painter's most
famous picture and manifestly enjoys great popularity in the United States.
Its sublime seascape and mountain scenery, girls and unicorns, all boldly

lined and tranquil, create as a whole a mood of exaltation and repose.

The unicorn has again been given full power by Rainer Maria Rilke in
that poem from his Sonnets to Orpheus that arose from the impression
made on him by the Parisian tapestries of the "Lady with the Unicorn."
Here "the beast that no existence hath," is acknowledged in its meaning
and value, a creation of mankind, of the human soul, necessary for filling
a particular void, indiscernible, all the more nonexistent for the secular, and

becoming visible only in the silver speculum of the maidenly soul

O here's the beast that no existence hath.

54- Unnamed London doctor's poster By sight they knew it not yet held it dear -
from the seventeenth century
Its roaming, bearing and its bray not wrath,
 Even indeed the light of its soft leer.

Truly it never was. Yet through their love became

A taintless beast. For it, space ever freed.

And in that space, unhampered without claim,

Its head it nimbly raised with scarce a need
To be. They nourished it but not with corn,
But ever with the prospect, it might be,

And that gave so much vigor to the beast,

That from its brow there sprouted out a horn.
One unique horn. To virgin blamelessly 155. Sea unicorn, sixteenth century
It came - In silvern mirror and in her to feast.

The German philosopher Otto Friedrich Bollnow correlated the "beast

that no existence hath" to Rilke's "Angel nonexistent" (in an outline for
the Duino Elegies). According to this, "not only in the negative sense does
that association imply something regarding the nonexistence of the angel,
but also ideal presentment of the unicorn it facilitates
from the diaphanous,
understanding of the nature of the angel." This angel of Rilke's (not a
Christian angel) "is a creature such as to assure recognition of a higher
degree of reality in the invisible world," it is "that creation wherein the
metamorphosis we are producing of the visible into the invisible seems to
be already accomplished." Thus Bollnow interprets Rilke's phrase "Let the
world be glorified for the angel!" as the demand "Glorify the world in
comsummate spiritualization!" That is at the same time the finest possible
thing to be said about the unicorn as a spiritual reality, which with repeated
significance illuminates the history of the creature. That is how we may
understand it and in this way it holds its ground in this strange, appalling
era in which we are living, grappling so passionately for spiritualization of
matter. This is a new Age of Reason and Intellect - but not that alone. It

is appropriate that the unicorn is now as alive, as a spiritual symbol and

poetic reality, as almost never before.

The unicorn makes mockery of time. The German poet Wilhelm Lehmann,
who encountered Leda's swan and Europa's bull in the lakes and leas of
Holstein, has also seen the lady on the unicorn. She descends from the
Gobelin tapestry in the museum, is transformed into the woman driving
her automobile over the asphalt of the avenue, and yet is still the same person
who rides the legendary beast through the forest - a symbol of the interlacing
of periods and realities which is often distinctive of Lehmann's poetic works.
Oscar Loerke, who ranks so close to him, sketches the achromatic picture
of the "Silver Forest" in which "no unicorn sets further foot," not even

186
one unicorn! It is the kingdom of Death. The amateur of contemporary
lyrics will have several further encounters with the animal, in various

shapes and meanings, through works ot such poets as lüde Domin, Gertrud 1

Kolmar, Celan, Garcia Lorca, Kiessmann, and others too numerous to list.
One or other old symbolic interpretations may also thus come to mind
when, for example, Wolfdietrich Schnurre inquires: "Canst thou, O Death,
not come as unicorn ?" Why not pause to savor something of the poetic
variety for ourselves?

'The Un/corn'
Lo! in the mute, mid wilderness,
What wondrous Creature? - of no kind! -
His burning lair doth largely press -
Gaze hxt - and feeding on the wind ?

His fell is of the desert dye,

And tissue adust, dun-yellow and dry,
Compact of living sands; his eye
Black luminary, soft and mild,
With its dark lustre cools the wild;
From his stately forehead springs
Piercing to heaven, a radiant horn, -

Lo! the compeer of lion-kings!

The steed self-armed, the Unicorn!
Ever heard of, never seen,
With amain of sands between
Him and approach; his lonely pride
To course his arid arena wide,
Free as the hurricane, or lie here
Lord of his couch as his career !
-
Wherefore should this foot profane
His sanctuary, still domain?
Let me turn, ere eye so bland
Perchance be fire-shot, like heaven's brand,
To whither my boldness! Northward now,
Behind the white star on his brow
Glittering straight against the sun,
Far athwart his lair I run.
by George Darley

187
 The Unicorn

The peacock's spread,

Blue, green and gold, flaunted in the twilight
Of tropic clamor in the treetops, and gray apes
Snapped their teeth and wrangled, swung and scuffled and
wrestled in the foliage.
The mighty tiger lurking low with claws atwitch stared hard and
tense,
As though his Indian forests streaked that silent unfamiliar game,
Westward to the sea.

The Unicorn

His hooves dashed on the rising tide,

Lightly with greatest ease. The waves pranced

Arrogantly,
And the pursuant, whinnying, silver-maned throng scoured
onward and on and on.
Up above them.
A flight of black storks painted hasty signs of puzzlement on the
Arabian heavens,
Which with the setting sun resembled a fruit-laden bowl:
Ripened pear and luscious rosy apple,
Peaches, oranges and magnificent grapes,
With wedges of ripe melon,
156. Fourteenth-century watermark
Black rocks lay a-glimmering in the gloaming,
Castles amethystine,
And enchanted palaces of carnelian and topaz glowed white,
Roseate mists hung late over the dovegrayed dark'ning waters of
the bay.

Sand swirled in eddies from his hooves,

A silent dust cloud. He saw

Lonely cities faintly etched with domes and minarets, and the
obelisks in the graveyards
Ranged mute beneath the repercussive moon.
Based on the poem Das Einhorn He saw
by Gertrud Kolmar Ruins, abandoned abodes, housing naught but phantoms in
glist'ning obscurity
Beneath cold constellations.
188
 ( hi/corn

Such pleasure's
In this most discreet of beasts.
This unicorn mild

Treads so soft
One hears it not
Coming in, nor going;
Tame pet
of joy

When it's thirsty

It licks the teardrops

Out of fancies.
Based on the poem Einhorn
by Hilda Domin

IJ7- Publisher's house seal by Melchior

Lechter

Once the desert screech owl lured him on,

And far away jackals howled complainingly;
While hyenas laughed.
And at the entrance to the tent beneath the date palm
Dreamily the white Syrian dromedary raised his scrubby head, and
so did ring his bell.
Past and done with is the unicorn.
For from distance far, from Ophir land of golden treasure, came its

nimble, fleeting feet.

And from its eyes there glittered glances as of those serpents

commanded by the magician's flute to undulate and dance
and juggle,
Yet from the center of his brow that spiked horn lucent poured a
gentler shining light,
Onto the bare hands and delicately shrouded breasts of the lady
Resting there
Between the manna shrubs.
Modest
Their hail
158. Melchior Lechter's title page for
And the quiet luster of deep expectant eyes Herrschaft und Dienst (Authority and
And a sigh, a gentle swelling murmur from the muzzle, Service) by Friedrich Wolters

Nighttime purling.
189
 l :

The Car ine Thistle Coppice Unicorn Hunt

Within the grove of thistle On Merlin's mossgrown country lanes,
My home lies deeply hid. Through copse and rose-decked trellises,
Pan stalked right by a-bristle. Quietly trots a horde of spears,
Unto the end to wrestle Argent pennants, golden standards,
In night-dark form he did. Saddlecloths of brazen color,
Flakes of plumes the branches powder.
Pale thist'es stand there rigid A whippet pack scents out the trail,

In mourning, wild array. A teasing tongue licks at the hooves

A creak from roots there buried; Of gentle palfreys delicate.
When we Pan's sleep have harried. Tinkling laughter stirs ev'ry leaf
In his defense none play. After the echo of men's strides.
The harnesses jingle gently.
A blossom may have fallen there And bannermen and armigers,
For deeper communion Pages, falconers and bowmen
With him, to wither bare; Scout around to find their quarry
O father, thou'rt now my care, Deeper still the standards flicker
I'm guarding thee, my son. A-sparkle in the coppices,
But silence darkens 'twixt the boles.
In woodland deep its hiding, Fanned by the blowing of the horns
By softest light befired. Every rose doth look on fire,
My heart - naught came a-riding, And crimson patches fool the pack.
No unicorn came striding - Quietly has the game escaped
My heart just beat inspired. And its slender horn blows worldly
Based on the poem Der Silberdistelwald Thro' the verses which were woven:
by Oscar Loerke Meshed network of the magic sports,
Wherein the hunters were involved,
Before they strayed in the forest.
Based on the poem Unicorn Hunt
by Eckart Kiessmann

1 59- Sketch by Jean Cocteau

for "Lady with the
Unicorn" ballet
190
i6o. Upper Austrian tarot card, nineteent
I
[
9
century
 1. \ lOMMNK
IAI.1A KNCHANTKK
A >
i. .> i i« i I. r. DK
nr. LA VKK1
l. .\
^ ivir. 1
i r.
I D'AMOIR
a.m wi iv
it

^ nhcc a ^/ Co/maw {\ i midi '(

• 'A a i/i/i ,( 7m\ w//< rdr.-l 6)/ y)/ < •
r A o i/a lr

A*

161. Augustin de Saint-Aubin (after

Nicolas Cochin). Scene from Honore
d'Urfe's pastoral romance UAstret
(Astaea)
T
92
 Numerous American, English, French, and German novels use the unicorn
in title or text - sometimes, of course, rather as a garnish or superficial
token of something extraordinary, and occasionally from some real know-
ledge of its true significance. In Thomas Mann's novel Der Erwählte (The
Elected Man), which describes a consanguineous love on medieval lines
betwixt tragedy and satire, one of the courtiers bluntly insinuates, "Duke
\\ iligis may assuredly acquiresome fame catching the unicorn when it
dozes off in his innocent bosom." Oscar Matzerath, the leading
sister's

character in Gunter Grass' Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum), discovers

in a Danzig church a gayly colored figured tapestry suitable for a mural
decoration. "The copy on rather antique pattern depicted a primly behaving
lady with a fabulous animal, called a unicorn, subservient to her." It may
be assumed that Matzerath's creator has seen the "rather antique pattern"
in the Cluny Museum in Paris. (Matzerath draws comparisons between the
submissiveness of the unicorn to the woman woven in the tapestry, and that
of his gangster underlings to Lucie the gang queen - but reserves to himself
alone the right to be "the solitary creature with the excessively spiroid
horn.") While here it is only a side issue, the erotic element of the unicorn
story steps commandingly and meaningfully to the fore in Martin Walser's
novel titled with the name of the legendary creature, yet on a background
of accurate knowledge of the other unicorn connotations. Walser has
mentioned that he first came across the unicorn in the works of Suso.
"Whoever has caught the savage unicorn if not thyself" is the way that
medieval mystic addresses the Virgin Mary.
Ernst Fuchs, painter and illustrator of the Viennese school of "imaginative
realism," repeatedly grapples with the configuration and meaning of the
unicorn. When he says, "its horn is purest light, as though of cut glass,"
he absolutely does not have to be aware that Rudolf von Ems said of this
horn that it is "just like a glass." But he obviously knows the numerous
links to the fabulous creature and formulates a modern version when he
says, "The horn between its eyes is also its all-penetrating spirit." The
twentieth century has accepted the unicorn tradition and added thereto the
conversion into pure spirit.

It is in this double sense of tradition and a new understanding that

America has taken over the unicorn, one of the most amazing events in the
migratory story of this versatile creature. Highly characteristic in this context
is the application of the unicorn in Tennessee Williams' play The Glass
Menagerie. The play's heroine Laura, physically disabled by the vestiges of
polio and psychially impaired to the verge of pathological breakdown by
her unrequited, unperceived love for Jim, unable to cope with reality, has
bestowed her whole affection on an object congenial to her vulnerable
»93
sensitivity: a collection of small glass animals. Among these is a unicorn,
her favorite — she identifies with the animal, as aloof and peculiar as she
appears in her own During one of his visits to her, Jim clumsily lets
eyes.
the unicorn fall on the and it loses its horn as a result. It is now as
floor,
impaired as Laura, who herself is torn out of her dream world by this new
encounter with her secret beloved and has lost her imagined uniqueness.
She gives the unicorn, now just an ordinary animal like any other, to Jim as

a final parting gift "for remembrance."

Whether Laura is herself liberated from her trauma by this act of surroga-
tion is left for our further reflection. Yet we cannot help but recollect that
the unicorn as a figure for Christ also comes remarkably close to the ancient
Jewish scapegoat which was driven forth laden with the sins of mankind.
Certainly here the ancient myth has gained another facet, just by being
refracted through the intellect and passing through the detective process of
modern psychological research. This takes place in a poetic manner apparently
not grasped by or at least not utilized by the Viennese school of psychology.
C. G. Jung in his Psychology and Alchemy textbook devoted a special chapter
to the unicorn, but it handled the subject historically without adding
anything really new.
That the transposition into creative allegory should have happened just in

America is a matter worthy of reflection. This is but one example - an

important one, but not the only significant one - of the fact that the unicorn
in its agelong peregrination followed universal stress and strain from the
orient through to Europe and now even to the New World. It seems
appropriate that the unicorn's loveliest portrayal, that last tapestry of the
set in The Cloisters, should have come to America. Poetic reality of the
unicorn in America embraces the whole of its past. In his New Year Letter,
W. H. Auden addresses the Lord in various forms, including that of a
unicorn:

O unicorn among the cedars

To whom no magic charm can lead us,
White childhood moving like a sigh
Through the green woods unharmed in thy
Sophisticated innocence
To call thy true love to the dance . . .

[94
Wh.it abundance of reference in a few lines. The unicorn is hidden among
cedars in an oriental forest. Magic does not lead to it, only belief and medi-
tation, for it is a pure spirit hovering lightly as breath. It is a child, the child,

in whom the antitheses of Thought and Belief converge. It possesses childlike

innocence, but a sophisticated innocence, pensive and intellectual. This
unicorn representing piety has passed through rationalism, like the devout
writer himself who united the contrasts in his own person and represented
a bridge between the old world and the new as understood spatially and
temporally.
The unicorn lends itself even to pressing sociopolitical questions
in the United States. A black writer, Dudley Randall, in discussion with a
white critic who advises him not to write on controversial issues, on liberty
and homicide, but on timeless questions and symbols such as the white
unicorn, retorts with the query, "A white unicorn"-' Does it believe in
integration? And why not a black unicorn?'" There's nothing apolitical,
nothing timeless, unless it's dead. But the unicorn is alive.

Twice the unicorn provided material for a ballet. Jean Cocteau, who has
sketched it many a time in fanciful form, even as a cuckolded human, took
as his theme the Paris tapestries, with musical score by Jacques Chailley.

"The theme," he himself wrote, "is virginal purity. According to the legend,
the unicorn takes food only from the hand of a virgin. The mirror in which
the damsel shows him his face, also shows the reflection of another visage,
that of the knight who brings her human love. The unicorn sees it and dies."
The Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti lyricizes the unicorn.
With two other legendary Gothic monsters, gorgon and manticore, it
embodies the fanciful ideas with which the writer lives misunderstood in
the workaday world, which he apparently betrays and which yet are the only
ones to attend his deathbed. They all live endangered in this world. The
writer must warn his unicorn against the virgin, who feigns to be sleeping
beneath the tree butis the decoy with which the hunter intends to catch the

unicorn. Thus here again the circle of references comes to a close, with
ancient myth and modern intellectualism merging together.
The ancient monster which passed through so many forms is about
to experience a new renaissance. It seems immortal because it is versatile.
Something which Schiller did not directly coin on his crest may nevertheless
validly apply to it:

II "ha/ in past days nowhere came to pass

That alone doth never age.

*95
 original, a superb introduction with critical commentaries and
Unicom Bibliography literary references can similarly delight the scientific researcher

the amateur concerned with studying the history of civilization.

and

Both will enjoy the especially handsome facsimile edition of

Physiologus Bernensis, Basel, 1964, a manuscript from the era of the
Carolingian Renaissance, with accompanying translation of the
text into German and scientific commentary thereon. Francisco
The best starting point for a methodical pursuit of the unicorn is Sbordonc's Physiologus, Milan, 1956, "attains with regard to the
the definitive contribution on the legendary animal by Liselotte Greek text the highest peak of what is possible and of what can be
Wehrhahn-Stauch in the Reallexikon ^ur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte reasonably expected" (Seel); but Sbordonc's work was published
(Encyclopedia of the History of German Art), 4, Stuttgart, 1958. without any table of contents and the index is incomplete. The

Despite its scope it needed some concentration to do full justice to importance of Sbordone's work appears in a different language
the abundance of literary and econographic material (and anyone after the lapse of a few decades, when that deficiency was remedied
who thinks he has discovered something new will do well to in Henkel and Schoene, Emblemata, Stuttgart, 1967, which contains
recheck whether such discovery is not already included in this an improved index to Sbordone's edition of Physiologus.
superlative essay). Of almost equal excellence is H. Brandenburg's Among monographic treatises on our subject, one of the older
article "Einhorn" ("Unicorn") in the Real lexikon fur Antike und texts is quite valuable, namely Carl Cohn's Zur literarischen
Christentum (Encyclopedia of Antiquity and Christianity), 4, Geschichte des Einhorns (On a Literary History of the Unicorn)
Stuttgart, 1959, the importance of which rests especially in its which appeared in two parts as supplements to the Annual
thorough exploration of the patristic fathers, though placing this Transactions of the Berlin City Realschule, 11 (Easter 1896 and 1897).
aspect in a general context. Regarding antiquity, all questions on Among more up-to-date treatises, a special place must be accorded
subject and personal keywords (unicorn, Physiologus, Ctesias, to Odell Shepard's The Tore of the Unicorn, London, 1950, reprinted
Megasthenes, Aelian, Pliny, etc.) should be referred to Pauly- 1967 without amendment. The subject is elaborated with typical
Wissowa's Real-Encyclopadie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft English combination of scholarship, fluency, and sense of the
(Practical Encyclopedia of Classical Archaeology), Stuttgart, picturesque. A particular feature of the volume is the detailed
1894-1903. And for supplementing these sources one may well discussion of the scientific controversy which raged at the beginning
turn to the manuals on German superstition, German legends, and of the modern age regarding the unicorn and its medical virtues.
particularly the guidebooks to ecclesiastical iconography. But the book is not just valuable for that alone, even though it
All these sources give a wealth of literary reference which allows does not go beyond the state of affairs in 1930 and is somewhat
us to condense considerably the bibliographic details now follow- deficient in iconography. One special area, though always with a
ing and to limit ourselves to especially significant publications and glance at the unicorn probjem as a whole covered by Richard
is

a few individual supplements. Some inspiration may be gained Ettinghausen's "The Unicorn," Studies inMuslim Iconography, 1,
from consultation of general reference works such as the compre- Washington, 1950, which is unique in depiction of the unicorn and
hensive eighteenth-century universal encyclopedia Grosses Univers- significance in the Arabian Middle Ages.
its

allexikon published by J. H. Zedier, Halle and Leipzig, or by As to the ecclesiastical appropriation of the unicorn, special
pursuing from edition to edition the unicorn articles varying in attention should be paid to the illustration of a particularly
succeeding issues of famous encyclopedias. venerable ritual usage (on a ninth-century fan) in Lorenz E. A.
The fundamental texts of classical Greek and Latin antiquity Eitner's"The Flabellum of Tournus," The Art Bulletin Supplement,
are available in the Oxford series Scriptorum classicorum hihliothecae New York, 1944. A text which will be certainly for a long time to
oxoniensis, Oxford, 1900 etc. Those of the Church Fathers and other come definitive is the voluminous dissertation of the Franciscan
Christian writers from the earliest days of Christianity down to the Father, Dr. Jürgen W. Einhorn, titled Spiritalis unicornis - The
late Middle Ages are in the multivolume collections Patrilogiae Unicorn as a Transmitter of Meaning in Medieval Literature and Art,
cursus completus, Patrologia graeca (approximately 160 volumes, 1886 Munich: Fink, 1976. Apart from linguistic difficulty, its bulk
etc.) and Patrologia latina (approximately 200 volumes, 1844 etc.) (almost 600 pages) makes it difficult for the interested layman, yet
published by Jacques Paul Migne and his successors, in Paris. it is indispensable for its solid scholarship. Numerous individual
Physiologus is available in an attractive and inexpensive German investigations and essays (as well as references to many pictorial
translation excellently written by Otto Seel for the Lebendige illustrations of the unicorn) are obtainable from the foregoing
Antike (Living Antiquity) series. A broad selection
on the basis of literature; some are mentioned selectively in relation to the
various ancient texts, a style which comprises the charm of the individual items. For the general correlation of animal illustration

196
in the middle ages and in the first centuries of' the modern era, with bestiaries are Guillaume le Cferc's Le Batiaire, ed. Rcinsch, Leipzig,
numerous special nfer.-nces also to the unicorn, Studium generale introduction covering a critique of
1892, with comprehensive
in its twentieth volume, Berlin, iq6-, published two informative sources; Richard de Fournival's Le Bestiaire d 'amour, ed. Hippeau,
.rncly in no. 4, "Animal Portrayal in the Middle Ages," Paris i860. See also the Hamburg Museum
for Art and Industry
hv Paul Girkon, and in no. s, "Animal Illustration in the Fifteenth Exhibition Catalog Bestiarium and similar publications of
162,
( ith Centuries" by Herbert Schade. British and American museums of history and the arts.
On the story of the hermit Unicorn and the aftermath of the
A Fascinating Figment legend according to the latest researches and current collation
Hocke. Gustav Rene. "Die Welt als Labyrinth." Manierismus with more ancient sources, see Dieter Schlingloff's article "Die
Einhornlegende" (The Unicorn Legend), Christiana Albertina (Kiel
University Journal), November 1971.
Reports from the East On the fable of the man in the well, see Ernst Kuhn's article

dem EJnborn (My Hunt for the Unicorn). "Barlaam und Joasaph," in Transactions of the Royal Bavarian
leimt Jagdnacb

Frankfurt am Main. 1931. See also Sutta Xipata, O.U.P., 1889, Academy of Science Faculty of Philological Philosophy (in German), vol.
20 (1897); Ewald Vetter's article "Media Vita," in Collected Essays
Keller, Otto. Die antike Tierwelt (The Ancient Animal Kingdom), on the History of Spanish Civilisation (in German), Münster, i960;

vol. 1. Leipzig, 1909. 415 et seq.; Gryphius, Andreas. Gedictbe the "Legenda Aurea" (Golden Legend) by Giacopo di Voraginc

( Poetry \ vol. 5. Darmstadt: 1 961. <;:. isavailable in various editions, of which the version by Richard

Vfilhelm, Richard. "The Unicorn in China." Der Ostasiatische Benz, Jena, 1925, was used for this book. The Bundahish, ed.
Uoyd,\o\. 25. Shanghai, 1911. 539 et seq. Ferdinand Justi, Leipzig, 1868.

The Biblical Beast Monstrous Symbols

On Abbot Ratgar, see Simson, Bernhard, Jahrbücher des Fra'nksichen Bernheimer, Richard. Romanische Tierplastik. Munich, 1931. von
a unter Ludwig dem Frommen (Annals of the Frankish Empire Blankenburg, Vera. Heilige und dämonische Tiere. Leipzig, 1943,
Under Louis the Pious). Leipzig, 1874. 371 et seq.; Brouwerus, 146 et seq. on the Freudenstadt font.
Christopherus. Fuldensium Antiquitatum, vol. 3. Antwerp, 1612. 88 Male, Emile. IS Art religieux au XII e siede en France. 5 th ed.

et seq. Paris, 1947, 323 et seq. on the Souvigny pillar; other volumes of
Dihnhardt, Oskar, ed., Xatursagen, vol. 1. Leipzig, 1907. 287. MJe's great iconographic work on twelfth-century French
-e, 1. P., ed. Patrologia latina: Honorius of Aachen. Paris, ca. religious art are important sources on unicorn questions.

1844. 122. Schade, Herbert, Dämonen und Monstren. Regensburg, 1962, 69

On the consequences of the Byzantine unicorn legend in medieval et seq. regarding Freudenstadt.
Russian cloisters, see Rybakov, B. A. Die angewandte Kunst der "Legendary Animals" are comprehensively covered by Salome
Kteuer Rsts im 9- bis 11 Jh. und der südrussischen Fürstentümer im
.
Zajadacz-Hastenrath in the German art history encyclopedia
12. 13. Jk. 'Applied Art of the Kiev Ros in the ninth to eleventh Reallexikon %ur deutschen Kunstgeschichte vol. 6.

centuries and of the Ukrainian Principalities in the twelfth to

thirteenth centuries). Dresden, 1957.
The Road to Mysticism (and) The Celestial Hunt
Francis of Retz. Defensorium inviolatus virginitatis Mariae. Ca. 1400.
Tales from Physiologus Facsimile reproduction, Weimar, 1910.
The oldest German version of Physiologus appears in Denkmäler Alain of Lille (Alanus ab insulis). Patrologia latina (PL 210). Migne,
deutscher Poesie und Prosa aus dem VIH-XIl /^.(Landmarks in German In addition to Wehrhahn-Stauch's article in the Reallexikon ^ur
Prose and Poetry from the Eighth to the Twelfth Centuries), ed. deutschen Kunstgeschichte, previously mentioned, the extensive
by Müllenhoff and Scherer, 3rd ed. by Steinmeyer, vol. 1, Berlin, literature under this heading includes Brigitte Klesse's "Das
1892, 263. Further German sources of particular importance are: Niederzühdurfer Antependium mit der allegorischen Ein-
Albertus Magnus, De am'maJibus libri XXVI, in accordance with hornjagd," which takes this noteworthy individual work as its

the original Cologne text, Münster: Hermann Stadler, vol. 1 starting point in Unser Porz, no. 6, 1964.
C1916;, vol. 2 '1921). Conrad von Megenberg's Das Buch der Xatur, Unicorn poems: Unland, Ludwig, ed. Alte hoch- und niederdeutsche
ed. Hugo 1897, 133, and Rudolf van Ems'
Schulz, Greifwald, Volkslieder (Old High and Low German Folksongs), vol. 2, nos.
::bromk, ed. Gustav Ehrismann, Berlin, 191 5. Outstanding 320, 338, and 339; Böhme, Franz M. Altdeutsches Liederbuch (Old

*97
German Songbook). 3rd ed. Leipzig, 1925. Nos. 598, 603; Erk, sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain scaled." Even the
Ludwig. Deutscher Liederbor/ (A Garden of German Song). plants in that garden represent individual qualities of the Virgin, as
Leipzig, 1925. Vol. 3, no. 2145. again in the work of Alain de Lille "the myrtle of moderation, the
On the Marian symbols, see especially Salzer, Anselm, Die role of patience, the lily of chastity, the violet of eternal intro-
Sinnbilder and Beiworte Mariens in der deutschen Literatur und spection" (Mignc, PL 210). In addition to the rose and the lily, the
Hymnenpoesie des Mittelalters (Symbols and Epithets of the Virgin olive branch also appears as a token of virginity, and again we may
Mary in Medieval German Literature and Hymn Lyrics). Reprint refer to the Song 0} Solomon 2:2, "As the lily among thorns, so is my
Darmstadt, 1967. On the unicorn, pages 44 et seq. but also to be love among the daughters." In Luther's version the lily (not too
consulted on the symbolic language in the illustrations of the unnaturally) becomes a rose.
Mystic Unicorn Hunt. Other portions of the Old Testament which have been inter-
Hellmuth Graff's theses on ole German art illustration of the preted as predictions relating to the Virgin Mary and which appeal
sacred unicorn hunt, Die Darstellungen der sakralen Einbornjagd in der in the illustrations of the "mystic unicurn hunt" are:
altdeutschen Kunst, delivered in Münster in 1923 and though not Closed gate: E^ekJel 44 1 ". This gate shall be shut, it shall not
: , . .

then printed, were a basic and still are a quite important source, be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the
which is now available through film reproduction, at Münster God of Israel hath entered in by it."
University. Burning Bush: Exodus 3. From the burning bush unconsumed by
The peculiar Swiss tapestry with Adam as slayer of the unicorn the flame, God gave Moses the task of leading his people out of
has been sketched and described by Robert L. W'yss in the Swiss Egypt.
journal for archaeology and art history, Schweizerische Archäologie Gideon's Fleece: Judges 6:36 et seq. Gideon, ordered by God to

und Kunstgeschichte, vol. 20, pts. 2/3, i960, in his article "Vier from the oppression of the Midianitcs
deliver the people of Israel
Hortus-Conclusus-Darstellungen im Schweizerischen Landes- asked for a sign to confirm his mission - a sheep-skin which he
museum" (Four illustrations of the Hortus conclusus in the Swiss spread on the floor of his barn to be moistened by the dew over-
National Museum). night whilst all the ground around remained dry (and when that
Karl von Spiess's Marksteine der Volkskunst (Milestones of Popular did happen, he took the precaution of asking for and receiving the
Art), pt. 2, Berling, 1942, contains a compendious chapter reverse phenomenon - for the fleece to remain dry while the
of helpful material including illustrations on the subject of the surrounding ground was bedewed).
unicorn hunt. In his interpretation the author endeavors to Aaron's Rod: Numbers 17. Of twelve rods each from one of the
establish linkages with old German traditions. He traces the twelve tribes, Aaron's alone blossomed thus indicating that he
evolution of the unicorn hunt - cognate to deer hunting - from the was the elected high priest.
nordic cycle of myths and legends. Just as the pursued doe in the The Golden Pot: Exodus 16. The pot in which the manna was
popular ballad turns into a maiden, so too, says Spiess, the gathered. (According to Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews 9:4, this was a
representations of the unicorn hunt are really metamorphoses in "golden pot.")
pictures inwhich the Virgin Mary makes a two-fold appearance as The Ark of the Covenant: Exodus 31 :j. It carried salvation within
animal and as a damsel. The whole story then might well have been it.

given a new Christian interpretation by the Church. The hortus The Ivory Tower (or Tower of David): Song 0/ Solomon 4:4, "Thy
garden is to Spiess a "place sacred to old nordic
conclusus or fenced neck is tower of David builded for an armorv."
like the
tradition." This might however seem to be an extremely biased The Well of Living Waters: Song of Solomon 4:15.
exaggeration of the mythological details present in the "Wild The Sun and Moon: Song of Solomon "Who she that looketh
6:9, is
Chase." forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun ." . .

Jacob's Star: Numbers 24: 17, "... there shall come a Star out of
Marian symbols in the Hortus conclusus
Jacob, and a Sceptor shall rise out of Israel."
In the "mystic hunt," the unicorn becomes one more of the Compare also in this context the twelfth-century hymn to the
numerous symbols for the Virgin and her virtues, the majority of Virgin Mary, Marienlied, from Melk Abbey (Austria) in Deutsche
which symbols are derived not from the New but from the Old Lyrik des Mittelalters, no. 1 (Medieval German Lyrics and Ballads),
Testament. The following notes should be welcome to anybody selectedand modernized by Max Wehrli. Zurich, 1955. 8 et seq.
desirous of understanding such metaphoric language. This hymn enumerates various Marian symbols but does not
The hortus conclusus (fenced garden), like the "fountain sealed" mention the unicorn.
in the Song of Solomon 4:12, is itself a symbol for Mary's maiden-
hood; the verse in question reads thus: "A garden inclosed is my
198
 1 istle .111 altar in Stams cloister, a very faded mural in
near Matrei,

additions to the details in the text to explain the expansion

i
the transeptofBrixen Minster, wooden figures (Virgin and unicorn
of the "mystic hunt" motif may be of specific interest to traveling only, probably the remains of an altar showing the hunting scene)

art lovers, although these notes lay no claim to exhaustive in Karncid fortress near Bolzano.
Bctk». In particular, we cannot give an accurate accounting As stated in our earlier chapters, such abundance is mainly in
äs -. ssesofsuch art treasures during the war. Germany; in contrast there are only a few examples in foreign
In Thüringen, the region of origin, Erfurt has five pictures, countries. The mystic hunt is shown in the setting of the Burning

\\ ;;mar three, and Tonndorf near Weimar a further one. Then Bush by Nicolas Froment made for the Magdalene Church a
there are others in Allendorf, Gosskochberg, and Kaulsburg. In Aix-en-Provence, 1475. Also in France, there is a stained glass

what was once the kingdom and later the province of Saxony, representation of this subject at Bourgcs. The most striking
Aschcrslebcn has some fretwork screens and an altar (which was foreign example in this connection is the mural in St. Peter the

for some time and several woven tapestries which

in Berlin 1

,
Martyr's in Verona, Italy, a worthy supplement to the German
appear to have been a favorite motif for needlework in the erst- canon. The painted ceiling at Hattula in Finland has already been
while Dambcck convent, just as in the southern Saxon nunneries mentioned in the text of this chapter.
where the mystic hunt was a popular subject. Several such pieces
were produced, tor example, in Isenhagen. Examples of southern Eye Witnesses
n textiles of this kind are now in the Brunswick and Hanover Itinerarius Jobannis de Hese presbiterii . . . first published in Cologne,
museums. The vane of an altar from Oldendorf in Hesse and now- 1490. Our description of the unicorn story is somewhat more
housed in the Marburg University Museum is held to be of south detailed, probably because it is based on a later printing, according
n origin. Some items found in Silesia may be assumed to to Raumcr's Historical Notebook, series 4, vol. 8 (1867), 225.
derive from central German models: carved altars in Bralin and Arturo Graf {Mi it 'Myths', vul. 1, 1893, reprinted Bologne 1965)
Other items of similar inspiration
Breslau, a painting in Görlitz. is of the opinion that John of Hesse never left Utrecht.

are to be found in the Brandenburg Marches (at Wilsickow), in Von Breydenbach, Bernard. Reise ins Heilige Land (Journey to the
Mecklenburg .at Lubbcrsdorf and Parchim), and in Lübeck Holy Land). Mainz, i486. Ernst Otto, Count of Solms-Laubach,
cathedral currently in St. Anne's Museum). On Grimmenthal, devoted an article in the Stä'del Annual for 1935-1966 (Frankfurt)
to Evans. E. P. Animal Symbolism in Ecclesiastic Architecture. to the evidence that Rcuwich the woodcarver and the "master

London Also (with reference to Father Dr. Jürgen

1896. 105 et seq. recorder" of the art history are one and the same person. The
\\ ^rinhard Einhorn): von Hintzenstern, Herbert. Der Kreu^altar in same journey described by Faber, Felix. Evagatorium in Terrae
Grafentomut (Altar of the Crucifixion in Grafcntonna). East Berlin, Sacrae, Arabiae et Egypt! Perigrationum. Stuttgart: Hassler, 1843

195-. 88 et seq. 1849. vol. 2, 441.

The second spacious area of expansion is formed by the Upper Ingo Saymisch of Quedlinburg was kind enough to give me the
Rhineland plains and the Alps. From the items in Mülhausen and particularsregarding the "unicorn skeleton" reconstructed by
Golmar. the altar from the Schongauer school now in the Unter- Otto von Guericke. Professor Karl Rode of Aachen gave me the
linden Museum in Colmar attracts particular attention; it was reference to the elasmotherium. See: Neumayr, M. Erdgeschichte
painted for the Dominican cloister, now also including a museum. (Geology), vol. 2. Leipzig and Vienna, 1855. 448 et seq.

Brigitte Klesse speculates that the Schongauer picture may have

served as the model for three antependia which may have issued at The Costly Horn
long intervals —-between the end of the fifteenth to the beginning of Miller, Genevieve. "The Unicorn in Medical History." In
the sixteenth century—apparently from one and the same central Transactions and Studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, vol.
Rhineland atelier; this is a question of applique embroideries (now 28 (i960), 80-93; contains bibliographic references, particularly
in the Art and Crafts Museum in Cologne, and also in the Diocesan but not exclusively, to the medical significance of the unicorn.
museums in Cologne and Limburg). The antependium in the Boullet, Jean. "La merveilleuse histoire de la Licorne" (The
Church of St. Mary's at Gelnhausen is most likely also of Rhenish Remarkable History of the Unicorn). In Aesculape. vol. 42
origin — a restored mural is in the parish church of St. George's in (December 1959); contains numerous illustrations and not always
Traunstein. quite accurate quotations.
A set of south German designs is now in the Bavarian National Marini, Andreas. Discorso contra la falsa Opinione dell' Alicorno
Museum, Munich. In Carinthia, there is a carved wooden altar in (Address on the False Assessment of the Unicorn). Venice, 1566.
Klagenfurt Provincial Museum, an altar painting in Friesach in the Bacci, Andrea. Discorso dell' Alicorno (Discourse on the Unicorn).
Tyrol, an oil painting in the Wilten Abbey, murals in Auffenstein Florence, 1566. The copv used for the present work was a 1582

199
 :

impression, also printed in Florence. Karlsruhe Baden.

Parz, Affibroise. Textes Choisis. ed. Luis Delaruelle and Marcel
Sendrail. Paris, 1953. This collection of selected writings by Parz On Helm and Scutcheon
(15 17-1590) contains a number of his writings on the unicorn. The story of Sir Lelaing is related in the Livre des fait s de messirt
Bartholin, Thomas. De unicornu observations novae (New Notes on Jacques de Lelaing, by some author whose identity is not definitely
the Unicorn). Padua, 1645. known, Georges Chastellain's
in Oeuvres, vol. 8. Brussels: Kervyn
Pomet, Pierre. Histoire generale des drogues (General History of de Lettenhove, 1868.
Drugs). Paris, 1694. For this book we referred to the German Von Eschenbach, Wolfram. Paryval, verses 613, 622. On Schiller's
Aufrichtiger Materialist und Spezereihändler (Honest Druggists crest, see: Kühn, Adelbert. Schiller, vol. 1.Weimar, 1859, 120 et
and Grocers), Leipzig, 171 7. seq. On the British coat of arms, see: London, H. Standford.
Compare statements by Liselotte Wehrhahn-Stauch in the RDK Royal Beasts. East Knoyle, Wiltshire, 1952.
and Shepard's The Lore of the Unicorn for reconstruction of the Mulder, T. R. "Hoorns Hoorn en de Enhorn" (Hoorn's Horn
unicorn controversy, pp 155 et seq. and also its preceding chapter and the Unicorn). In West Frieslands Oud en Nieuw (the Dutch
(occasionally inexact as to details). Historical Society's publication, "Old West Friesland"), pt. 24,
On the merit of the horn and the conflict as to itscoming from the place and year of publication not given, 34-35. Contains various
narwhal, see also Guido Schönberger in the Stadel Annual illustrations and references, principally but not exclusively to
(Frankfurt) for 1935-1956 (Course of prices, p. 214). Dutch bibliography of the subject. The quotation from Charles V
On the narwhal's tusk see Bernhard Peyer's Die Zahne (Teeth), is mentioned in Guido Schönberger's abundantly documented
Berlin, 1963, 76. article on his more selected subject Narwhal-Unicorn, Studies on a
Hovorka, O. and Kronfeld, A. Vergleichende Volksmedizin rare material In the Stadel Annual for 193 5/1936, 167-247.
.

(comparative Folk Remedies), vol. 1. Stuttgart, 1908. 114 et seq.,

323 et seq. Wild Men and Women's Wiles
Hildegard of Bingen, after Migne's Patrologia latina, vol. 197. Quotation from the Arabic writer al-Tawhidi (who died some
Gesner, Conrad. Historia Animalium (vol. 4, Frankfurt (in German) time later than A.D. 1010) in Ettinghausen, op. cit., 60. On the
Tierbuch (Bestiary)), Zurich, 1563, 35 et seq. erotic elements of the unicorn fable in French bestiaries, see
Grosses Universallexikon, vol. 8. Halle and Leipzig: Johann Heinrich Reinsch, Guillaume and Hippeau, Richard de Fournival.
le Clerc,
Zedier, 1714; see under "Einhorn" (Unicorn) and also vol. 7, Leonardo da Vinci: Diaries and Sketches. Leipzig, 1952. 837 et seq.
"Dens elephantis petrefactus" (Petrified elephant's tusk). "Zoology" including a unicorn as symbol of intemperance.
C. G. Jung in his Psychology and Alchemy, 2nd ed., Zurich, 1952, On the Wild Men, see especially Richard Bernheimer's Wild Men
devoted an entire chapter to the unicorn with numerous quotes in the Middle Ages. Cambridge, Massachusetts Harvard University :

and illustrations. On page 591 of the German edition he interprets Press, 1952. Wild Men in the Middle Ages, exhibition catalog
the unicorn, as well as the lion, as "the savage, unrestrained of the Museum for Art and Industry, Hamburg, 1963. On the
masculine, penetrating power of the Spiritus mercurialis ," con- Upper Rhineland wild men tapestries, see Hans Lanz's Gotische
firming thus also in his view the erotic side of the unicorn myth. Bildteppiche (Gothic Figured Tapestries), Bern, 1955. On Diirer's
The "Chymical Wedding" of Christian Rosencreutz, Strassburg, Abduction on the Unicorn, see Bernheimer, 134 et seq.; Panofsky,
1616, the unicorn symbol wherein is Jung's starting point (cf. also Erwin, Studies in lconology. New York, 1967, 85. Also Panofsky's
Adolf Ammerschlager, "The Unicorn" in Goetheanum, vol. 7(1928), Albrecht Durer, vol. 1. London, 1948, 196, and in the same volume
253 et seq.; it is not used as a source for our text, since the impor- lit) et seq. on Emperor Maximilian's Prayer Book.
tance of same is, to say the least, apparently controversial.
On the pharmaceutical use of the unicorn in modern times: My Sole Desire
Wagner, M. I. "Phallus, Horn and Fish." In Romanica Helvetica, The famous Parisian tapestries were discussed by the custodians
vol. 4 (Jubilee edition for Karl Jaberg), 1937. of Cluny Museum, Pierre Verlet and Francis Salet, in the handsome
I must express my thanks also to Elisabeth Korn, authoress of a illustrated volume The Lady with the Unicorn, Paris, i960. Maria
historical presentation of the Duisburg Unicorn Pharmacy Lanckorovska upholds her thesis that Margaret of York was "the
(Annals of the Lower Rhineland Historical Society, nos. 151/152) Lady with the Unicorn" in Wandteppiche for eine Forstin (Mural
(1952) for valuable references regarding other relevant items in Tapestries for a Princess), Frankfurt, 1965. Sharply at variance in
S. Gutmann has written a
addition to the apothecary dispensaries. every respect with the authoress' learned disquisition, Francis
helpful compendium of the more than 100 unicorn pharmacies in Salet in Bulletin Monumental, vol. 122, 418 et seq., cf. also vol. 123,
the two German States, published by Spitzner, Ettlingen near 160 et seq. Considering the subject from the angle of the history of

200
 : :

.tics. Barbara Purrucker also rejects the Lanckorovska theory unicorn is again .1 matter of credence." A skeptical view is found
in a lecture "On the Dating of the "Lady with the Unicorn' in: Rüppell, Eduard. Reisen in Nubien, Kordofen und dem petraischen
Gobelins" to uw Berlin Heraldry Society "Herold" on November Arabien (Travels in Nubia, Kordofan and Arabia Petra). Frankfurt
J, !0~o unpublished 11
. Numerous bibliographic references in am Main, 1829. 161 et seq.
Land - 5 .'.so Sophie Schneefaalg-Perelmann "La Dame Quests for unicorn sketches by bushmen in South African
a h Lioocne > - - -- Bruxelles" (The Lady with the L'nicorn mountains, see Barrow, John. An Account of Travels into the Interior
was wo\ en at Brussels'* in Gazette des Beaux .Arts. November 1967, of Southern Africa in the years 1797 and 1798, vol. I, London, 1801.
311 et seq. Also detailed discussion in the Monthly Review, vol. 35
Also relevant to this section is Le romans de la Dame a la Uycorne (August 1901). 337 et seq.
du btmu Chevalier au Lyon (The Tale of the Unicorn Lady and the
it Rüssel, John. Tour in Germany, 3rd ed. vol. 1. Edinburgh, 1825.
N bfc Lion Knight\ published by Gennrich, Dresden, 1909. The 354 et seq.; describes a curious encounter with a Göttingen scholar
marriage of Charles the Bold with Margaret of York is described who showed him a human skull with a single horn. It's difficult to
in Olivier de La Marche's Memoires, vol. 2. Paris, 1885-1888. determine which of them really came out best.
101-201. Cf. also Otto Cartellieri. At the Court of the Duke of Fuhrmann, Ernst. Das Tier in der Religion (Animals in Religion).
Bwgmnj (in German). Basel, 1926. 167 et seq. Munich, 1912. 27; takes it "for granted" that an animal did live in
prehistoric Europe and Asia to which the descriptions in the legends
Captured Yet Free apply, "that therefore the unicorn existed," without, unfortunately,
The magnificent collection of tapestries The Hunting of the Unicorn, furnishing any proof for that conviction. He does not state any
an outstanding feature of The Cloisters, New York, has been still sources at all by name, not even the "Chinese reports from most
further enhanced by the explanations and interpretations published ancient times" from which it may definitely follow "that in some
by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, especially in the rare instances living specimens of such a unicorn had been found."
following texts On the realistic nature of the works of art, see
Rorimer, James J. The L'nicorn Tapestries at the Cloisters. 1962. The Frey, Dagobert. Kunstwissenschaftliche Grundfragen (Fundamental
Picture Book, of the Unicorn Tapestries. 1944/5. On the Flowers of the Questions in Aesthetics). Vienna, 1946. I owe this important

Unicorn Tapestry, published by the Bronx Botanical Gardens. source as well as numerous other valuable suggestions to Professor
Brandford and Weigert. The French Tapestries. England, 1962. Wolfgang Krönig of Cologne.
Worthv also of attention are the commentaires in the now out-of- On the concept of the myth, the Karl Kerenyi Collection:
print Catalog of the Tapestry Exhibition, Masterpieces of the Art of Die Eröffnung des Zugangs zum Mythos (Opening Access to Myth).
Tapestry from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century, New York, and Darmstadt, 1967. Besides the editor's own contribution, there are
the Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And further: also extracts from the writings of Bachofen, Creuzer, Herder, and
Holz, Edith. Die Einhornjagd auf den Teppichen der Anne de Bretagne Otto, and in addition, Schlegel's discourse.
icorn Hunt in the Anne of Brittany Tapestries). Hamburg, On the unicorn myth alongside general or other literature, see:
196-T. The title poem of Anne Morrow Lindbergh's The Unicorn Brown, Robert. The Unicorn, Mythological Investigation. London, A
and other Poems relates to the final tapestry in the Cloisters collection.
The Cleveland series of tapestries Allegorie de P ephemere (Allegory
of the Ephemeris) is described in the just mentioned catalog of the The unicorn in Shakespeare's works:
magnificent exhibition Chefs-d'oeuvre de la tapisserie (Tapestry The Rape ofUucrece: "Time's glory is ... To tame the unicorn and
Masterpieces;, held during the winter season 1973/1974 in the lion wild ..."
Grand and subsequently in the Metropolitan Museum
Palais, Paris The Tempest, III, 3, 22: "Now I will believe that there are
of Art, New
York. That exhibition offered the unique opportunity unicorns . .
."

for comparative viewing in two adjacent rooms of the two famous Timon of Athens, IV, 3, 339: "wert thou the unicorn pride and
sets Ua dame a la licorne (The Lady on the L'nicorn) from the Cluny wrath would confound thee ." . .

Museum and the Unicorn Tapestries from the Cloisters. The catalog Julius Caesar, II, 1, 204: "for he loves to hear that unicorns may be
in question contains illustrations and descriptive particulars of all betray'd with trees . .
."

the works of art, as well as notes on the Cleveland tapestries. The hitherto misunderstood poem by Achim von Arnim was
recognized by Friedrich Hoffman of Remagen. The latest edition
The Living Unicorn of Arnim's novel Die Kronenwächter (The Regents), Munich:
The 1830 Brockhaus (a noted German encyclopedia still in full Hanser, 1974, has adopted the suggested amendment of the poem:
swing; establishes that "contrary to Buffon, the existence of the Einhorn "Unicorn" instead of Eichhorn "Squirrel."

201
 .

The unicorn myth was used somewhat coarsely in a novel: in Middle High German einburnc (ace Grimm's famous Dictionary
Buchanan, Thomas G. The Unicorn. New York: W. Sloane Asso- of the German Language), Grammatically it was more correct and

ciates, i960. It serves as a symbolic trimming for many modern more pleasant to say der Einhorn, plural die Einhornc, as in the
novels. Various authors are clearly well acquainted with the popular ballads. But the usage das Einhorn, plural die Einhörner
background. Martin Walser in the Suhrkamp publishing house is now so deeply rooted that its extinction seems practically
organ Dichten und Trachten (Inspiration and Aspiration), no. 28 impossible. Grimm tells us also that in Anglo-Saxon the name
(1967), has written on the significance of the unicorn for his novel of the bea^t was ahyrne deor. Louis Rzau leonographie de V Art
:

bearing its name as title. Without claiming to give a complete list, Chretien, Vol. 1, Paris 1955, pp. 89 et sec/, collates the following
we may mention also Christian Giudicelli's Le jeune homme a la denotations in various languages: Greek monokeros, Latin unicornis,
licorne (The Youth and the Unicorn), Paris, 1964; Iris Murdoch's Old French lincorne, Italian unicomo or liocorno, Spanish unicornio,

The Unicorn. New York: Viking Press, 1963; Lotte Schalles's Das English (of course) unicorn from the Latin, Russian yedinorog. IL
Einhorn und die Löwen (Unicorn and Lions), Cologne and Berlin, explains the modern French licorne as a sound-shift whereby
1957; Martina Das Einhorn (The Unicorn), Vienna, 1948;
VC'ied, was shortened to nicorne, the n dissimilating to / similarly
unicorne
Bertrand d'Astorg, Le Mythe de la Dame a la Licorne (The Lady and to the way the word for orphan from the Latin orphanus first
Unicorn Legend), Paris, 1963. In Peter S. Beagle's romance in became orphenin and then transmuted to the current French
verse The Last Unicorn, the holder of the title, whose downfall the orphelin.
reader attends, is a filly temporarily metamorphosed by magic into Designating the animal's weapon as "the unicorn's horn" or even
a woman. In Les Dames a la Licorne, Rene Barjavel and Olenka de "unicorn horn" presents some difficulty since neither of these
Veer make a "real" unicorn the ancestress of a family of Irish sound pleasing to the ear; the first appears to be the more usual.
temperament living at the present time. It is quite understandable There is, however, a homonymous usage of "unicorn" also for the
that this prodigious animal should form a favorite subject for weapon as well as for the animal itself: Gryphius drinks "from
nursery tales. gold and unicorn." Shepard gets round the problem quite
See also: neatly by calling the animal "unicorn" and its horn "alicorn"
Chancellor, R. D. The Lady and the Unicorn (Translation of a book by making use of an older Italian form alicorna (Portuguese alicornio).

Verlet and Salet). London Thames and Hudson, 1 96

: 1 The piece in the Vienna Treasury (actually a narwhal's tusk) is

Dinshaw, Vicalji. The Unicorn. CAMA Oriental Institute, Bombay formally called ainkhom. This would be the not satisfactory form
(Journal no. 28 (1932), 97-100) Eingehorn inHigh German, about as euphonious as "unikhorn"
Edey, Marion. The unicorn and other poems. Brookville, Long would be English. Yet there must be some way round the
in
Island; Brookville Press, ca. 1941. problem. The huntsman calls the stag's branching horns its
Forbes, Rosita(Torr). A unicorn in the Bahamas . New York: Dutton, "antlers" and speaks of the number of "points." In German the
1940. term Stangen or points, gives the pleasant-sounding Einhornstange,
Jones, Thomas Samuel. The Unicorn and Other Sonnets. Portland, in the singular and similarly in English we could surely adopt the
Maine: Mosher Press, 193 1. equivalent "pike" which is "a weapon, a spike, and a sharp point"
Moure, Virginia. The Unicorn: W. B. Yeats' Search for Reality. New quite neatly for even if misheard the term "unicorn's pike" can
York: Macmillian, 1954. sound only like "unicorn spike" which is to all intents and

Yeats, William Butler. The Unicorn from the Stars. In Collected purposes the same thing and would cause no confusion.
Works. London, 1908.
Jorge Luis Borges and Margarita Guerrero have included our
beast in their manual of whimsical zoology Einhorn, Sphinx und
Salamander (Unicorn, Sphinx and Salamander), Munich, 1964.
Giancarlo Menotti's ballet "The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the
Manticorc" has been musically reproduced by Angel Records
on disc No. 35437. A merry arabesque, Sei Silverstein's Song
"The Unicorn," deals with the animal's destruction in the Flood.
(Recited, for example, by "The Irish Rovers," Decca Album DL
495 1 )-

The Name Unicorn in Various Languages

In Old High German the animal was masculine einhurno, and also
 .

Commentary on the 1.Unicorn (Ibex) from North Persia, dating from middle of second
century b.c. Three inches tall. Dr. B. SprengePs collection,

Hannover. Catalog Seven Hundred Years of Art in Iran, Essen, 1962.

Illustrations (No. 65 in catalog).
Photo by Hans Wagner, Hannover.

2. Virgin and unicorn from llortus sanitatis, Mainz, 149 1

3. Start of chapter from Walther RyrT's German edition of Albertus

Magnus's bestiary, Frankfurt, 1545. Albert lived from approxi-
mately 1193 until 1280; the date of his original manuscript is

controversial.
The volume are arranged chiefly in groups
illustrations in this
ding to their chronology and or common subjects. Technical
I 4. By J. Collaert (1 545-1622?) after J. van der Straet or Stradanus
conditions, however, compelled departure from such order in (1 523-1605). Unicorn Hunt in India. The City of Antwerp Gallery
some places. Our comparatively rich selection does not allow an of Copperplate Engravings which possesses a complete set, has
exhaustive discussion of the whole multitude of unicorn por- been kind enough to advise us that this is one of a series of 104
trayals. We can, nevertheless, give some pointers as to the places engravings of hunting scenes and animal fights issued by Jan Galle
and motifs _ - hich the animal may be looked tor and found, (undated).Van der Straet worked a long time in Italy and drafted
discoveries still remain to be made by enthusiastic searchers. many cartoons for the Gobelin tapestries. The caption indicates
The titles cited in the section "Unicorn Bibliography", especially that the Indian unicorn hunt proceeded with the king's permission
those mentioned in the first part, generally contain some helpful and mentions also the medical use of the horn.
further references to pictorial items. A large number of illustra- Holstein, F. W., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, vol. 4 on Collaert;
tions, especially from manuscripts, is carried in Father Jürgen \\ . von Wurzbach, A., Niederl, Künstlerlexikon (Netherlands Art
Einhorn's book. The pictorial portion of Father Einhorn's book Lexicon), vol. 2 on Stradanus (van der Straet).
overlaps in onlv a few cases with the illustrations of the present
volume which he expressly mentions as an iconographic reinforce- 5. Dispute between the quadrupeds and the birds. Woodcut by

ment. W« may also mention Guy de Tervarcnt's Attributs et Johann Zainer, from Aesop's Fables printed in Ulm, ca. 1476.
symbol/; dans Part profane 1450-1600 (Features and Symbols in
Secular Art from Mid-Fifteenth Century Until the Beginning of the 6. The Unicorn in from Johann Joachim Bechcr's
Paradise,
Seventeenth Century), vol. 2, Geneva, 1959. Fertile, encyclopedic Parnassus Illustratus Medicinalis,Ulm, 1663- The text enumerates
sources on tapestries are Heinrich Göbel's Wandteppiche (Mural the parts (and secretions) of the human body which are medically
Hang - p.ree parts, Leipzig, 1923-34, and Betty Kurth's Die serviceable. The work also contains an equivalent section on the

deutseben Bi/dteppicbe des Mirrelalters (Medieval German Figured unicorn, the picture of which is less informative iconographically.
Tapestries), Vienna, 1926, and on the graphic arts, Albert Compare illustration 57.
Schramm's Der Bilderdruck der Frühdrucke (illuminations in Incu-
nabula), and W.L. Schreibers Handbuch der Holz- und Metalschnitte 7/8. Wild Men on unicorn hunt. Franconian woven tapestry
des 15 Jb. (Manual of Fifteenth Century Woodcuts and Metal ca. 1450. "The wild man with the lover's knot round his head slays
Engravings), Berlin, 1891. From the numerous examples of the unicorn in the damsel's lap. The unicorn is current as a
unicorn symbols in iconography of the sixteenth and seventeenth religious allegory. In this particular secular version, the hunter
centuries, Arthur Henkel and Albrccht Schocne have compiled a embodies lust, and concupiscence; the mythical beast represents
sumptuous volume Emblemata, Stuttgart, 1967, containing a pure love or virtue." From the catalog Medieval Wild Men,
selection which we have with due thanks used as one of our Hamburg, 1963, 42. Regarding religious variants, see illustration
sources. The bibliographic references which we give for individual 47, for example.
illustrations in the following list are intended to guide the reader Photo courtesy of Bavarian National Museum, Munich
in his own further researches and not to be exhaustive.
9. Miniature from a manuscript in the possession of the British
Frontispiece: Schiller's coat of arms, from the Schiller National Museum (Harley 475 1). The Latin text depends on the description
Museum, Marbach. in Mcgasthenes and/or Aelian. Photo Courtesy of British Museum, London

203
io. Tapestry of the Creation, centerpiece ca. eleventh or twelfth 16. Pillar (fragment) with mythical beasts, from the former
century from Gerona Cathedral, Spain. The sector to the right Cluniac Monastery of Souvigny (Allier Department, France),
beneath the center shows Adam naming the animals, at which time twelfth century. The other faces of the pillar show people from
there was as yet no mate forhim among the creatures present (cf. foreign nations, the zodiac and the monthly tasks. The unicorn
Genesis 2: 19, 20). This scene was frequently depicted in early between the griffin and the elephant, with its muzzle ready open

Christian miniatures right down through to Baroque tapestries. and its curly tail, seems to follow the lines described by
for roaring
See Pedro del Palol and Max Hirmer's Spanien, Kunst des frühen Megasthencs and Aelian; its horn is broken off halfway.
Mittelalters (Spain - Early Medieval Art), 1965, 126 et seq. Male. L'art religieux de XII C siecle en France (Twelfth century French
Photo by MAS, Barcelone ^Spain" 1
Religious Art) (fifth ed. 1947), 323 et seq.

Photo by Giraudon, Paris

11. Virgin and unicorn in miniature from Byzantine Khludov
Psalter of ninth-century production and used in the Hagia Sophia. 17. Miniature to Psalm 22 (21) in the Stuttgart psalter, France, early
Now in the Historical Museum, Moscow. ninth century. Württemberg State Library, Stuttgart. The
Ebersolt, Jan. La /Miniature by^antine, Paris, 1926; Crucifixion (in which Christ is words of that
uttering the first

Dufrenne, S. "Psautiers byzantins." In L'Oeil no. 167 (November psalm, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"); the

1968). lion and unicorn w-hich are mentioned in the psalm as dangerous
animals, and below them the division of Christ's raiment. Facsimile

12. The Virgin Mary suckles her child, Christ the Unicorn. edition with extra volume of scientific researches (Stuttgart, 1968)

Miniature from the Pantocrator psalter, ninth century, Byzantine Photo from Foto Marburg
Pantocrator Cloister on Mount Athos.
Dufrenne, S. (see under 11); Miss Dufrenne was kind enough to 18. Baptismal font in Freudenstadt Town Church, brought there

obtain the photo for us. from some other Black Forest church. Ca. eleventh century, new
Huber, Paul, Athos - Leben, Glaube, Kunst (Mount Athos: Its Life red sandstone.
Belief, and Art), 1969. von Blankenburg, Vera, Heilige und dämonische Tiere (Sacred and
Demoniac Animals), Leipzig, 1943.
13. Opening miniature to St. Matthew's Gospel in the Averbode Keppler, Eugen, "Das Bildwerk des Taufsteins in Freudenstadt"
Book of the Four Gospels, mid-twelfth century. University Library, (The Imagery on the Freudenstadt Font). In Archiv für christliche
Liege. Next to the Evangelist are the Virgin Mary with the Kunst, vol. 7(1889).

unicorn, and Job to whom the voice of the Lord is saying "Will Schade, Herbert, Dämonen und Monstren (Demons and Monsters).
the unicorn be willing to serve thee or abide by thy crib? Canst Regensburg, 1962.
thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow ? or will he Photo from Württemberg Provincial Sculptuary Center, Landcs-
harrow the valleys after thee ?" (Job 39:- 9, 10), while Mary holds bildstelle Württemberg, Stuttgart.
the subdued unicorn in her lap. Rosalie B. Green in De Artibus
XL (Jubilee volume for Panokfsky),
opuscula 1 5 7 et seq. 19. Daniel's vision (Daniel 8). The goat with one notable horn
Photo from Foto Marburg (Alexander) overthrows the arrogant two-horned ram (the kings of
Media and Persia), and from his head four new horns came up (the
14. Sixth or seventh century unicorn relief from choirstall in San realms of the Diadochi). Friar Obeco's miniature completed 9^0
Saba, Aventine Hill, Rome. Wehrhahn-Stauch in RDK suggests in the Valcavado Abbey eastward of Leon. In the Library of Holy
that in this case the unicorn 'has a rather secular meaning, since it Cross College, Valladolid. The Daniel commentary was frequently
accompanies reliefs of a stag and of a horseman with falcon.' written, also with miniatures, as an appendix to a text by St. Beams
Nevertheless this seems to be the oldest representation of a of Liebana in the tenth century in Spain, since apocalyptic visions
unicorn within the precincts of a Christian church. in the age of the conflict with the Moors and in the light of the

Photo by Dr. Edelgard Meyer-Landrut, Meerbusch imminent approach of the year 1000 clearly correspond to a then-
current frame of mind. One of these manuscripts is in facsimile

15. The so-called pastoral staff of St. Boniface, from about the first print with explanatory comments which also appear to enter into

half of the thirteenth century. Probably of Sicilian origin. Obeco's transcript:

von Falke, Otto, "Ein Bischofstab islamischer Arbeit und seine Sancti Beati a Liebana in Apocalypsium Codex Gerundiensis (Of the
Verwandten" (A Pastoral Staff of Moslem Workmanship and its Blessed Saint of Liebana in the Gerona Codex Apocalypse), (Olten
Analogs), In Pantheon vol. 7(1935). Photo by Retzlaff and Lausanne, 1961) Photo by MAS, Barcelona

204
 sat« ito Cathedral, completed by Friar animal iconography, an early twentieth-century copy, is a wall

j. lUustratiun it shows detail of medallion hanging in Chillon castle on Lake Geneva). In addition to the
rep-, est unicorn with monk (Pantalconc ?). The coy priest unicorn, the medallions depict the four symbols of the gospels, as
. \rcnt the stance normally taken by the well as .1 cock, a panther, an ostrich, a rani, a phoenix, a pelican,
- ^.titling the unicorn. The gigantic mosaic, of which and a stag. No satisfactory explanation appears to have been
found
our illustration shows only the minor portion .it the intersection yet for ihc emanation from the unicorn's muzzle which sweeps like
u.iins altogether a whole mythological bestiary in a flame upward over the animal.
rigun-s of diverse origin. Gressky, Wolfgang, "Das Einhorn vom Medaillonteppich im
Thuner Schlossmuscum und andere Schweizer Einhorn-
5, "Pantaleone's Mosaic in Otranto". lii Du Atlantis Darstellungen" (The unicorn from the medaillion tapestry in Thun
\ en us excellent illustrations. castle museum, and other unicorn iconography). In 1968 Annual
(»tale tlella basilica cattedrale di Report of the 1 'bun I listorical .\ \useuin.

Otranto (The Mosaic Flooring in the Cathedral Basilica of Otranto). Photo by Meier Photos, Thun
ey Printing House, Frosinone 1965. Also profusely
illustrated. 26. Chest front, Westphalia, ca. 1300. Berlin Public Museum
Photo from Zurich School of Applied Arts (Köpenick Castle Museum of Applied Arts).
Schade, Günther, Deutsche Möbel aus sieben Jahrhunderten (Seven
:. tv casket. Detail with two winged unicorns from Centuries of German Furnishings), Leipzig, n.d.
r^lona Cuhedral, Spain, 1005. See Richard Lttinghauscn, "The Photo Courtesy of German National Museums, Berlin.
Unicorn". In Studies in Moslem Iconography (Washington, 1950).
He says these are the earliest representations of the unicorn
27. Virgin and unicorn. Detail from the so-called Malterer (the
iconography in Muslim art so far traced.
name of the donors) tapestry in the Augustine Museum, 1310-29.
Photo by MAS, Barcelona
At Freiburg (Brcisgau). This is a long fabric to be spread on a wall
behind a bench, and comprises several examples of the favorite
i he so-called Holzkirchen Horseman. Dedicatory stone from
subject of 'feminine wiles'. Whether the capture of the unicorn by
the former monastery church at Holzkirchen in the Spessart region,
the damsel should be counted among these womanly wiles, or
- red sandstone. On demolition of the romancsque
whether the intention is to show the counterpart of heavenly love
astcry in 1-29, itwas transferred to an outside wall of the small
is somewhat controversial. Evidence for the second interpreta-
modern residence (by Balthasar Neumann), and taken inside in
tion is that the piece comes from the Adelshausen cloister estate.
1951. There is a hole in the center, which may in its time have
Photo from Karl Alber Publications, Freiburg in Breisgau
served as channel for a fountain outlet pipe. The inscription reads
ALQUESTF.R ALDIBUS IN-(OST)-RIS SIT T TUA DEX-
TLRA XRL As thou ridest O Christ, let thy right hand rest on 28. Young unicorn. India ink sketch to Psalm 28 (29) in the
Utrecht psalter, early ninth century. According to the text of the
our dwelling). The Holzkirchen Benedictine monastery was
founded in —'5 by Count Troandus of the Vi aldsass province and psalm, this is a young, gambolling unicorn, which here, skipping

ceded to Charlemagne with surrounding real estate. The emperor

headlong as the wind, has run its horn fast into a tree trunk. The
in his turn presented the property to Fulda monastery, the founda-
Utrecht psalter, currently in Utrecht University Library, is con-
sidered the most important and earliest product of the Reims
tion of St. Boniface, Die Künstdenkmaler des Königreiches Bayern
school of painting. It contains still a few further unicorn pictures
•A the Kingdom of Bavaria), vol. 3, no. 7.

Markthcidenfeld Local Government, 1912.

Baum, Julius, Die Malerei und Plastik, des Mittelalters (Medieval

Photo by Gundermann, Vi urzburg Painting and sculpture), vol. 2 Germany, France and Britain (1933)
de \Xald, E. T. The Illustrations of the Utrecht Psalter. Princeton,
New Jersey, 1933.
fth century unicorn relief from Notre Dame de la Regie
abbey, in the Adrien Dubouchc Museum, Limoges (Upper
Yicnnc). 29. Unicorn caught headlong in a tree. Chairhead in refectory of
Photo Courtesy of Archives Photographiqucs, Paris Praglia Abbey near Padua, Italy, motto reading
1726, with
Praepropermu poenitet (Rash haste brings speedy woe). The illus-
-• Antependium (altar frontal) with sacred beasts, from a Swiss trated guide to the abbey contains photos of thirty-six similar chair
Maurist church, ca. 1500. In Thun castle museum. (Part of the decorations, many with animal likenesses.

205
30. Tobias Stimmer. The unicorn couple refuses to enter Noah's Barcelona. Illustration from the journal Humboldt. 1970, no. 41.
ark. Woodcut in Neue künstliche Figuren Biblischer Historien (Mod- Photo from MAS, Barcelona
ern art figures from Biblical history), Basel, 1576.
Photo Courtesy of Bavarian State Library, Munich 38. Tibetan unicorn, seventeenth century, sixteen inches long. In
the Heydt Collection, Rietberg Museum, Zurich. The unicorn (the
31. Abbot Ratgar of Fulda as a rampageous unicorn. Copper gazelle of the Buddha legend) kneels on its forelegs, to listen
engraving in Christopher Brouwcr's Fuldensiwn antiquitatum libri 111 devoutly to the Master's words in his first sermon. Here, the horn
(Antiquities of Fulda, Book Three), Antwerp, 1612, after a lost between the ears stands as a symbol of Nirvana.
ninth-century miniature. The unicorn also appears in other Photo by Hans Finsler courtesy of Rietberg Museum, Zurich.
connotations as a symbol for Fulda Monastery. Compare Illustra-
tion 23. Gerstenberg, Kurt, Die deutschen Baumeisterbilder des 39. Unicorn and elephant. Top portion of thirteenth to fourteenth
Mittelalters (German Medieval Master Builders' Portraits), Berlin, century scriptural tile from Iran. In the Islamic Muscun

1966. Simson, Bernhard, Jahrbücher des Fränkischen Reiches unter Berlin. As the elephant is provided with a decorative saddle, it is

Ludnig dem Frommen (Annals of the Franconian Kingdom under reasonable to assume that the unicorn is not driving him forward
Louis the Pious), 1874. as a prize of battle, but that the elephant is luring the unicorn into
captivity, as they do also with wild elephants. The tile is in two
32. Seizure of the unicorn, from the Bern Pbysiologus. ninth century. colors (blue and brown).
Sec Ettinghausen, "The Unicorn." Studies in Muslim Iconography.

33. The water-detoxifying unicorn as symbol for the dictum Washington, 1950, plate 16.
Victrix casta fides ("Pure faith overcomes"). In Nicolas Reusner's Photo courtesy of Berlin State Museum
Emblemata. 1584, vol. 2, no. 4 (Henkel and Schoenc), col. 421.
40. Shadhahvar: miniature from a late fourteenth centurv Iraki
34. The unicorn subdued, symbol for the saying Hoc rirtutis
as manuscript in private ownership. This type of unicorn has forty-
amor ("This is the love of virtue"). In Joachim Camerarius' two holes in its horn, through which the wind produces an
Symbolorum et emblematum centuria altera (Signs and Symbols of Past enchanting melody. This first appears in literature in 900 s..c Cf.

Ages), 1595, no. 12 (Henkel and Schoene), col. 422. Ettinghausen, op. cit.. plate 42.

35. A page from the Defensorium inviolatae virginitatus Mariae 41. Iskandar (Alexander the Great) righting the carcadann, the
(Compurgation of the Unsullied Virginity of Mary); woodcut classic form of Moslem unicorn (cf. Megasthenes' cartazoon).
probably from late fifteenth century. In other editions Francis of Manuscript from the Persian SbakJiSamab (Catalog of Kino
Resza (from Retz on the Enns), professor in Vienna, is named as 1320. In Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Cf. Ettinghausen, op. cit.

the author. This particular edition was printed in Saragossa though Photo courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
not with woodcuts necessarily of Spanish origin. The pictures on
the page reproduced here show Xerxes whose wine turns to blood 42. Horseman fighting unicorn. Cap of a twelfth century Iraki
in the goblet, the bird Bonafa who copulated by kissing, the trans- storage pitcher. In the Islamic Art Museum of the Prussian
formation of river water into blood at Toulouse, and the taming Cultural Heritage Foundation, \\ est Berlin. Ettinghausen, op. cit.

of the unicorn by the virgin - all miracles intended to prove the Photo by Waltet Steinkopf, from Prussian Cultural Heritage,
feasibility of supernatural events. ("If the unicorn bows before the Foundation, Berlin.
virgin, why then should not a Virgin bring the Word of God into
the world.") Facsimile edition with commentary by W. L. 43. The slaying of the unicorn. Miniature from a medieval manu-
Schreiber, 1910. script in the British Museum .

Photo courtesy of British Museum, London

36. Virgin with unicorn, fifteenth-century cushion cover from
Cologne. In the Schnütgen Museum, Cologne. Included in the 44. French ivory casket from first half of the fourteenth century,
catalog Herbst des Mittelalters (Harvest of the Middle Ages), showing unicorn hunt on right and a scene from Tristan and Isolde
Cologne, 1970, no. 453. on left. Caskets of this kind, in which the erotic nature of the
Photo from Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne equivocal story of the unicorn hunt prevails were manufactured on
the large scale in France. A similar item is in the strong room of
37. Painted Romance beam, fourteenth to fifteenth century from W'awel Castle, Cracow. See Johann von Antoniewicz's lkono-

206
;
-
Iconography on Chretien of JJ. Unicorn on wall bracket in St. Vitus' Cathedral, Prague.
Troves, twelfth century poor of the Grail legend), Romanische Fourteenth century.
cc Researches), vol. j, Photo from Foto Marburg.
:'
British Museum. London

54. Unicorn in floor mosaic from church of St. John the Evangelist,
the unicorn. Miniature from an Italian bestiary
Ravenna, thirteenth century.
- -.th to fourteenth century.
Photo by Giraudon, Paris.
:~
British Museum, London

neled silver tray showing death of unicorn. Rhenish 55. Unicorn on north portal of the spine of St. Philip and Jacob,
workmanship, The scene is generally given a secular
ca. t;;o. Alto'tting (Bavaria). Early sixteenth century. (Surrounding this

interpretation by connoisseurs. The black-and-white enlargement portion are other symbolic animal figures relating to the virginity
shows the unusual graphic quality of the heavily colored work of of Mary).
artwhich is only about three inches in diameter. Photo from Altötting District Photo Center (Seitz).
Photo courtesy of Bavarian National Museum, Munich
56. Annunciation. Detail from the Göss antependium, embroidered
47 The martyrdom of the unicorn. Quatrefoil in choirstall in
altar frontal ca. 1240. Austrian Museum of Applied Art, Vienna.
Col _ iral. Early fourteenth century. This antependium component of an extensive set of commu-
is a
Photo from Rheinische Bildarchiv, Cologne nion vestments, on the other portions of which the unicorn also
appears many times. The antependium bears the inscription
nartyrdom of the unicorn. Misericord in choirstall of (CHUNEG(UNDIS) ABBA(TISSA) ME FEC (IT) ("Abbess
Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon. Gunigund made me"). The encircling inscription is Gabriel's
"AVE MARIA GRACIA PLENA DOMINUS TECU(M)
greeting
49. Pisancllo (Antonio Pisano, ca. 1595 to 145 1/55 ?). Bronze medal BENEDICTA TU" ("Hail Mary with thee is the full grace of God,
to Cecilia Gonzaga. Reverse (The obverse shows Cecilia's portrait). Blessed art thou"). Dreger, Moritz. "Das Gosser Ornat" article on
..- Pisanello is deemed the creator of medal engraving. theGöss vestments in Kunst und Kunsthandwerk, vol. II 1908).
The one we illustrate is regarded as one of his finest productions. Photo from Austrian Aluseum for Applied Art, Vienna.
The design combines various symbols of chastity in honor of a
member of th. _ family of Mantua. Sec Franco Panvini
Rosati's German language catalog of Italian Medals and Plaquettes, 57- Early sixteenth-century Swiss Garden-of-Eden rug. Prussian
1966. Cultural Heritage Foundation, Applied Art Museum, Berlin. The
Photo from Berlin State Museum unicorn after the Fall of Man as sign of future redemption. The Lord
calls from the heights of heaven. "Adam, where art thou?"
Photo from National Museum of Prussian Cultural Heritage, Ap-
50. Pisancllo ''see no. 49 above). Innocence protects the unicorn
plied Art Museum, Berlin.
from the huntsmen. Lrfizi Palace Gallery, Florence.
Photo by Anderson, Rome.
58. Cardunn. Drawing after a thirteenth century Iraki manuscript
51. Fight with the unicorn. Detail from a frieze in Strassburg in the British Museum. Ettinghausen, op. tit. plate 7.
Minster. The middle portion of the lance, with which the man is

attacking the rearing unicorn, has broken off.

59. Boetius A. Bolswerth (1580-1653). The Man in the Well, copper
Photo courtesy of Oeuvre de Notre Dame, Strassburg.
engraving. With regard to the legend on which this allegory rests,

see Vetter, Ewald M. Media vita in Gesammelte Aufsätze zur

• - Wild man righting unicorn. Detail from a wall hanging, Kulturgeschichte Spaniens (Collected Essays on the Cultural History
Strassburg ca. 1400. In Boston Fine Arts Museum, Charles Potter of Spain), Münster, i960.
Kling Fund. Major, Emil. Strassburger Bilderteppiche aus gotischer Photo from Prentenkabinet R. U., Leyden.
Z; : G thic Period Pictorial Tapestries from Strassburg). Basel,
no date.
Photo courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 60. Winged unicorn from a gilt-enameled Syrian glass receptacle

207
ca. 1350-1340. Detail drawing. Freer Gallery of Art. Washington. section from the opposite side of the pew, showing the wild
Ettinghausen, op. cit. plates 1 and 2. woman caught and menaced by canine demons. The
in a thicket
sequence must therefore be looked at in reverse: Entanglement in
61 f
62. Three different types of unicorn, from Jonston sin and subsequent redemption.
Johannes. Theatrum universale omnium animalium (Panorama of All
Photo by Alfons Rettich, Konstanz.
Animals), Heilbronn, 1755.

71. Miniature. Christmas scene with Marian symbols from the

63. Water unicorn from the painted ceiling of the Church of St.
Stammheim missal of presbyter 1 lenricus of Neidel, mid-twelfth
Martin at Zillis in the Grisons, ca. first half of the twelfth century.
century, in the possession of Baron Fürstenberg. Indications to
The water unicorn here shown is part of a frieze of demonic sea
the virginity of Mary are to be found inter alia in the lower portion
creatures in the ocean surrounding the solid earth. Murbach, Ernst
of the icon, namely Gideon and his fleece, the shut gate (mentioned
and Hansen, Peter. Zillis: Die romanische Bilderdecke der Kirche St.
Martin (The Painted Ceiling of St. Martin's Church, Zillis),
by the prophet Ezekiel: Porta hec clausa erit — Ezekiel 44:2 "This
gate shall be shut . . ."), and the unicorn.
Zürich, 1967.
Beissel, Stephan. "Ein Missalc aus Hildesheim und die Anfänge
Photo by Boissonas, Geneva.
der Armenbibel" (A Missal from Hildesheim and the Beginnings
of the Charity Bible). In Zettschrift für christliche Kunst, vol. 15,
64- Detail from a shrine altar to the Virgin Mary, ca. first third of
(1902); Weltkunst aus Privatbesitz (International Art in Private
the fifteenth century. In Bonn Provincial Museum (formerly in the
Ownership) Catalog, Cologne, 1968.
no longer existent Cologne church of St Mary on the stairway to the
.

Photo from Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne.

cathedral). The inscription around the picture of the Virgin and
unicorn gives the iconographic elucidation of the scene: Unicorn
72. Mystic unicorn hunt in the Hortus conclusus. Lower Rhineland
sum signiftcoque deum, virgineis digitis tangendofit hecfera mitis ("I am
woven tapestry circa 1500. The conversation between Gabriel and
the unicorn and a sign for God. The wild beast is tamed by the
Mary is repeated on the lettered strips.
touch of a virgin's fingers").
Photo courtesy of Bavarian National Museum, Munich.
Photo from "Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne.

73. Unicorn hunt. Center panel of an altar in St. Mary's Cathedral,

65. Virgin and unicorn. Side of pew in choirstall of Maulbronn
Erfurt, ca. 1420. One of the earliest presentations of the subject.
monastery church, latter half of fifteenth century.
In addition to the chief characters, the Hortus conclusus contains a
Photo from Württemberg Provincial Photographic Center,
number of female saints and the Blessed Maurice. Vetter,
Stuttgart.
Ewald M. Maria im Rosenhag (Mary in the Rose Enclosure).
66. Virginand unicorn. Medallion on the high altar of the former Düsseldorf, 1956.

monastery church of Cismar, early fourteenth century. Photo from Deutsche Fotothek (German Photo Library), Dresden
Photo by W. Castelli, Lübeck. (Möbius).

and unicorn on Marian pectoral painted on portion of

67. Virgin 74. Giovanni Maria Falconetto, ca. 1458 to ca. 1540. Unicorn

cathedraldome by Stephan Lochner (died 145 1). A similar hunt. Fresco in church of St. Peter the Martyr, Verona. Left of

adornment is worn by the Virgin in the picture Maria in der the section shown here is the scene of Gabriel with the hounds.

Kosenlaube (Mary in the Rose Arbor), Wallraf-Richartz Museum, On the right, outside of the hortus conclusus, is Gideon. An ostrich
Cologne. leaving its eggs to hatch in the sun comes into this picture as a
Photo from Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne. customary symbol of salvation.
Photo by Alinari, Florence.
68. Virgin and unicorn on keystone from St. Stephan's church,
Vienna, before 1340. During battle actions of World War Two, 75. Unicorn hunt. Fresco in the city Church of Our Lady at

this stone was badly damaged and has been replaced by a copy in Memmingen, (Bavaria) circa 1460-1470.
the structure. Photo by Lala Aufsberg, Sonthofen.
Photo from Austrian Office of Federal Monuments, Vienna.
76. Basel tapestry with symbolic animals, ca. 1480. On the motto
69. 70. Wild woman and unicorn (cf. illustration 80) on side of pew strip for the unicorn: Got muos al geshaffen hahn ("God certainly
in Our Lady's Minster choirstall, Konstanz. Illustration 70 is a created all things"). The other animals are the boar for ferocity.

208
the '.

igth.and the sue for yearning toward God. Lanz,

- 84. Erhard Reuwich, woodcut of Animals in the Holy Land for
Hins. Getischt Bildttppicb* (Gothic Figured Tapestries). Bern, 1955. Bernhard von Breydenbach's Reise ins Heilige Land (Journey to the
Photo from Historical Museum, Basel. Holy Land), Mainz, i486.

— . Feminine cunning on capital of a column from the Church of 85. Antependium with unicorn hunt (detail). Late fifteenth century.
St. Peter in Caen, France. Virgil in the basket, and a unicorn hunt, In St. Mary's church, Gelnhausen.
by Giraudon, Paris. Photo from German Art publishing house Deutscher Kunstverlag,
Munich. Copyright by Gelnhausen Protestant Congregation.
-S. Damsel with unicorn. Detail from a Basel tapestry with
us, fifteenth century. The Basel Historical Museum 86. Pope and unicorn, miniature from« the so-called papal
contains a collection of seventeen superb gothic figured tapestries, prophecies in a fifteenth- to sixteenth-century Latin manuscript.
including a dozen of Basel workmanship, on which the unicorn These widely distributed and long respected "prophecies" are not
appears several times. This one dating from the time of the Council prophecies and have no connection whatever with the Sicilian
of Basel I4;i-I44S "from its sumptuousness gives the impression pope di Fiore to whom they have been ascribed. They relate
that the patron who commissioned it must have been a person of partly to events preceding their appearances somewhere about the
great consequence." (Lanz op. cit.) late fourteenth century, partly to the equally apocryphal Byzantine
Photo from Historical Museum, Basel. predictions which were ascribed to the (ninth century) emperor
Leo the Wise. From these Leonine predictions the unicorn also

-9. Rhenish trinket box from latter half of the fifteenth century. passed over into the "papal prophecies" and was next connected
VC'ild hunters in the forest, one of whom is leading the unicorn with Pope Honorius IV and later with Gregory XII. The texts
carrying the queen of the savages. The other sides of the box are largely "meaningless gibberish" (Grundmann). Grundmann,
(which "belongs among the most exquisite late Gothic trinket Herbert. "Die Pabstprophetien des Mittelalters" (The Medieval
caskets known to us,") are further scenes from the life of the wild Papal Prophecies), Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, vol. 19, Pt. 1. On
people. The unicorn appears frequently as an erotic allegory on the Byzantine predictions, see Bousset, Wilhelm. "Beiträge zur

such caskets. "Die wilden Leute im Mittelalter" (Wild Folk in the Geschichte der Eschatologie" (Contributions to the History of
Middle Ages) catalog, Hamburg 1963. Kohlhaussen, Heinrich. Eschatology), Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, vol. 20, 1900.
SUrou kästeben im Mittelalter (Trinket boxes in the Middle Ages). Photo from Bavarian National Library, Munich.
Berlin, 1928.
87. Detail from pictorial sheet of The Quadrupeds, eighteenth
Photo courtesy of History of Art Museum, Vienna.
century Spanish woodcut. Agustin Durän y Sanpere, op. cit.

80. Female savage with unicorn. Late fifteenth century Strassburg

88.Unicorn skeleton reconstructed by Otto von Guericke from
tapestry (chairback cover). Cf. illustration 69. Emil Major, op. cit.
found in the Sewecke Mountains limestone quarries near
fossils
Photo courtesy of Historical Museum, Basel.
Quedlinburg (1663) and reproduced in Leibnitz' posthumous work
on the origin of the earth Protogaea.
81. Wild man and wild woman in the hortus conclusus, Gobelin
tapestry from south Holland ca. 1500 to 15 10, from a series of
89. Officialform of British coat of arms as used by Her Majesty's
Wild Man or Indian scenes (kindly communication from Louise E.
Stationery Office.At the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, the
Erkelens, Sectional Superintendent, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).
crown of England passed to the House of Stuart, who brought the
Photo from Netherlands National Museum, Amsterdam.
Scottish unicorn over to accompany the English lion as supporter
for the crest. The crest of Scotland still retains two unicorns as
82. Virgin and unicorn from an edition of the Defensorium how
supporters, but the unicorn came to enter the Scottish device
rirginitatis (cf. illustration 35) ascribed to Francis of Retz, at is obscure.
Ysenhut, Basel, ca. 1490.
London, H. Stanford. Royal Beasts, 1956.

83. Virgin and unicorn. Seventeenth-century Spanish woodcut. 90. Hans Baldung, called Grien. Crest of the Baldung family
Agustin Durän y Sanpere's volume on Spain (in German) in (see also jacket of this book). The crest dates probably from the
Populäre Druckgraphik Europas (Graphical Printings of the Nations 1520s. This family crest appears also on the tombstone of Hans
of Europe). Munich, 1971. Baldung's daughter-in-law by the portal of Lichtenthal Mon-

209
astery. Church near Baden-Baden. Hans Baidung Grien cata- 104. Immodesty versus virginal Modesty and Chastity. Broadsheet
log. from last quarter of the fifteenth century, Albertina, Vienna. Virtue
Karlsruhe, 1959. rides a unicorn and her shield bears an angel; Vice rides a bear and
Photo by Foto Marburg. her scutcheon is a hog. Haberditzl, Franz Martin. Die Einblattdrucke
des XV. Jahrhunderts in der Kupferstichsammlung der Hofbibliothek x u
91-96. The Lady with the Unicorn, collection of Gobelin tapestries Wien (Fifteenth century printed broadsheets in the Vienna Court
ca. 1500, now in Cluny Museum, Paris. Library copperplate engravings collection, 1920.
Photo courtesy of Cluny Museum, Paris. Photo by Albertina, Vienna.

97. Lukas Kilian (1 579-1637). Satirical allegory on the papacy,

aquarelle. A warrior carrying the torch of truth, and a lion as
105 1522-1572), Diane de Poitiers, Na-
Francois Clouet (ca.

symbol of strength bar the way to the Pope, who is travelling

Samuel H. Kress Collection, Washington.
tional Gallery of Art,
Diane was the mistress of the immature king
arrogantly in the unicorn chariot after the style of the Trionfi of
Henry II of France, and she exerted strong influence in the
noble ladies of the Renaissance.
"Augsburger Barock" catalog, Augsburg, 1968.
political sense. In the portrait which shows her and her children
with their wetnurse, the court painter has introduced the unicorn
Photo from Germanic National Museum, Nürnberg.
discreetly on the chairback in the background as a symbol of virtue.
Photo from National Gallery of Art, Washington.
98. Lady and unicorn. Relief in Castel Sant' Angelo, Rome.
Library Hall decoration from the time of Pope Paul III (1654-1 549).
Motto Cedo alia pure-^a ("I yield to purity"). 106. Hans Valkenäuer, Crest of the Marx von Nussdorf family,
Photo by Anderson, Rome. ca. 1478. Detailfrom tombstone in the collegiate church at Laufen
on the Salzach. The stone is of red marble.
99. Piero della Francesca (died 1492). Triumph of Battista Sforza, Photo by Lala Aufs berg, Sonthofen.
Duchess of Urbino. In the Uffizi Palace, Florence.
Photo by Alinari, Florence.
107. Arms of the Knesebeck family, on bronze font in Ratzeburg

100. Giorgione (ca. 1478-15 10). Lady with unicorn as an allegory cathedral, 1440.

of chastity, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Photo by W. Castelli, Lübeck.

Photo from Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
108. Unicorn tympanum, Montferrand Wards, Clermont-Ferrand.
1 Lady with unicorn. Fresco in Castel Sant' Angelo, Rome,
01. Photo: Archives Photographiques, Paris. (A copy is in the
ascribed to Perino del Vaga (1501 to 1547), who during his final Cloisters, New York.)
years was admittedly working in the castle with twenty-eight (!)
assistants.
Photo by Alinari, Florence. 109. Seal of the city of Gmünd in Swabia, 13 19.
Photo by Foto Schweizer, Schwäbisch-Gmünd.

102. Bernardino Luini (ca. 1480-15 32), Procris and the unicorn.
Fresco in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H
10. Bracteate (coin with device stamped through silver foil on one
Kress Collection. The unicorn is not spoken of in the ancient 1

mythology and literature (Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book VIII). side), Bludenz, ca. 1260. Diameter J inch. The city of Bludenz in
Relating to Procris: Here we are probably dealing with some the lower Arlberg range (Vorarlberg/Austria) bears a unicorn in
the coat of arms.
Renaissance extension.
Photo from National Gallery of Art, Washington.

in. Hans Holbein the Younger (ca. 1498-1543). Casement sketch

103. Female rider on unicorn (Debauchery ?). Spandrelfiller in the (heraldic design) with unicorns, colorwashed Indian ink drawing.

church of Our Lady at Hal (Belgium), ca. 1400. Photo from Copper Engravings Collection of the Public Art
Photo by Foto Marburg. Collections, Basel.

210
I 12. Garden of Eiden. Detail from private altar of Duke Albert V in. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Lady with unicorn, pen-and-
Court Workshops of Munich. 1 *>~.i — 1574. ink sketch. Oxford (England). In Leonardo's own handling of
Lieb. Norbert. MmacttB-Dm Geschichte seiner Kunst (Munich —the P/ysiologus (contained in "Notebooks and
the collection of the
Histor\ of its Art X Munich. io~i. Drawings," Leipzig, 1952) the unicorn is a symbol for licentious-
ness {jntemperair^d). But is the lady's attitude in the drawing really
reproachful in character?
in. Side of pew from Salzburg Cathedral. (Every alternate pew
Photo from Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
has the unicorn decoration" 1
.

Pho: desbildstclle (Provincial Pictorial Center), Salzburg.

122. Israhel van Meckenem (ca. 1450-1503). Joust between man
and woman. Copy after the Old Masters "ES" (Master "ES" lived
114. Lucas Cranach the Elder (14-2-1553). Group of animals. in Konstanz, namely in a region where the wild folk played their
Detail from Garden of Eden scene. National Art Collections, pranks). Israhel van Meckenem, Goldsmith and Copperplate Engraver,
Dresden. published by the city of Bocholt, 1953.
Photo bv Deutsche Fotothek, Dresden. Photo by Albertina, Vienna.

IM no. Sacraments of Confirmation and Ordination. Detail from 123. Albrecht Dürer (1471—1528). Unicorn (symbol of darkness)
baptismal font dated 1499 in Municipal Church (formerly St. and crane (as symbol of the dawn), after psalm 129 (130). Marginal
Mary's) in Reutlingen. The unicorn otherwise and elsewhere sketch for Emperor Maximilian's prayer book. Panofsky, Erwin.
frequently coordinated with the patroness saint of the churcr Albrecht Dürer, Princeton, 1948, vol. I, p. 189, erroneously quotes
appears here as evidence for masculine "purity." Psalm 80.
Photo from Landesbildstelle, Württemberg, Stuttgart.

124. Upper Rhineland master, end fifteenth century. Two women

11-. Altar to the Virgin Mary, with mystic unicorn hunt, 1506,
with unicorns, pen-and-ink drawing.
from Lübeck cathedral (formerly dedicated to the Virgin Mary). Photo from Copperplate Engravings Collection of the Public Art
Photo by W. Costelli, Lübeck. Collection, Basel.
Copyrights: Lübeck Cathedral Congregation, Endowment of the
Cathedral Congregation in the St. Anne's Museum.
125. Unicorn beside a treasure chest, symbolizing the motto
Pretiosum quod utile (Valuable because of its usefulness). Sambucus,
118. Aquamanile (Hand basin, probably for warming of water at Joannes. Emblemata, second edition, 1566, no. 144 - Henkel and
the fireside). Low German manufacture. Cluny Museum, Paris. Schoene, col. 420.
Photo courtesy of Cluny Museum, Paris.

126. Moretto (1498-15 5 5). St. Justine with unicorn and donor.
Durer (14-1-1 528) Abduction on a Lnicorn (also called
119. Albrecht St. (ca. A.D. 300) was given the unicorn because she had
Justine
"The Abduction of Proserpine"), steel engraving. In the first defended her virginity at the price of martyrdom.
drafts, the seducer's mount is a horse. "By transforming the horse Vienna Museum of the History of Art.
into a fabulous unicorn, evocative of the ideas of night, death and
destruction, Durer invested a violent but perfectly natural scene 126a. St. Stephen's corpse guarded by animals, the eighth of
with an infernal character unparalleled in representations of the twenty-three Gobelins on Stephen, donated ca. 1 500 to Auxerre
subject except for Rembrandt's early picture in Berlin." (Panofsky Cathedral by Bishop Jean Baillet, and now in the Cluny Museum,
Erwin, Aufrecht Durer, Princeton, 1948, vol. I, p. 196). Paris.
Photo from Cluny Museum, Paris.

I2C. Comptroller of the Household section of the Netherlands 127. Linsey-woolsey hanging showing the story of Pyramus and
Print Collections, Wild youth (or hojdenr) as unicorn jockey, last Thisbe. An ancient Near Eastern legend relates that the two lovers
quarter of fifteenth century. Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam. came to an understanding through a hole in a wall, trysted
on a
"Die wilden Leute des Mittelalters," (Medieval Wild Folk) catalog, tomb, were menaced by a lion, and each believing mistakenly that
Hamburg, 1963. the other had fallen victim to the beast, committed suicide. The
Photo by Foto Marburg.
story surfaces again in Ovid's Metamorphoses and impinges farcically

2IT
 .

in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. Its further develop- 158. Lady with unicorn as an amulet for Cardinal Archbishop
ment may be due to d'Urfe's novel Astraea (cf. illustration 15 7). Charles of Lyons, ca. 1 500. Tapestry cartoon. See Gazette des Beaux
Canvasses relating to the story are reminiscent of Renaissance Arts, November 1967, p. 174.
motifs, which lead one strongly to recollect the well in illustration Photo from French National Library, Paris.
132. The tree of life is older - if that is referred to here. Thus there
is a confluence in late rustic art of various cultural epochs.
139. Detail of wellhead from Ncuburg on the Danube. Limestone,
Photo from Schleswig-Holstein Provincial Museum, Schleswig.
ca. 15 30.

Photo courtesy of Bavarian National Museum, Munich.

128. The unicorn expels the venomous snakes from a spring,
symbolizing the saying NU ("Leave no stone un-
inexploratus
turned"). Reusencr, Nicolas. Emblemata, 1 581, vol. 2, no. 4, Henkel 140. Nikolaus Birkenholtz, "Unicorn" flagon of narwhal's tusk,
and Schoene col. 411. ca. 1600. Grand-ducal Private Collections, Darmstadt.

129.Varous types of unicorn from Pierre Pomet's pharmaceutical

text. To do this author justice, we must admit that he was extremely 141. Unicorn as constellation on celestial sphere, by Yincenzo
skeptical as to the existence of the unicorn and the healing power Coronelli, circa 1700. Cologne City Museum.
of its horn. The two-horned pirassoipi which he illustrates and Photo from Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne.
describes in company with the unicorn is said to live in Arabia,
where its horn also is used for curative purposes. Pomet, Peter.
Honest Grocer and Dry Goods Dealer (German version of original 142. Elieser Susmann, detail of lion and unicorn in wood ceiling
French Histoire des Drogues, Paris, 1694). of Horb synagogue, 1735. Endowment by Bamber City Art
Collection on permanent exhibition in Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
130-135. Unicorn hunt, French and Flemish Gobelins ca. 1500, Strauss, Heinrich. "Die Horb-Synagoge im Israel-Museum" (Horb
New York. The seventh tapestry of which only a fragment was Synagogue Museum), article in Ariel (Jerusalem),
in the Israel
available has not been illustrated here. Compare the detailed no. 9 (Winter 1969). "Monumenta Judaica" catalog, Cologne 1964,
description in the body of the text and p. 201. See also Holm, No. E 260, cf. E 281 and E 324.
Edith, Die Einhornjagd auf den Teppichen der Anne de Bretagne (The Photo from Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne.
Unicorn Hunt on the Anne of Brittany Tapestries), 1967; Rorimer,
James J. The Unicorn Tapestries at the Cloisters; fourth edition, 1962;
143. Burgundian (?) ornate flagon ca. 1440-1450.
Saizle, Karl. und Mensch-Gottheit und Dämon (Beast and
Tier
Man —Divinity and Demon), 1965. Rorimer's book contains color
Photo courtesy of History of Art Museum, Vienna.

prints of all seven tapestries.

Photos courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 144. "Unicorn pole" (Narwhal tusk) as sign of the monastery
apothecary's store at Rottenbuch, ca. 1750.
1 Unicorn and stag in landscape as alchemical symbols for
36. Stafski, Hainz. Aus alten Apotheken (Gleanings from ancient
man's spirit, soul and substance respectively, from the so-called drugstores), Third ed, Munich, 1961.
"Lambsprinck" figures. Watercolor painting ca. 1 577-1 583 in a Photo from Germanic National Museum, Nürnberg.
manuscript by Janus Lacinius.
Hartlaub, G. F. Der Stein der Weisen (The Philosophers' Stone),
145- Mortar from Frankfurt apothecary shop with the otherwise
Munich, 1959.
similarly relevant apothecary crest. Historical Museum, Frankfurt
Photo from Germanic National Museum, Nürnberg.
am Main, seventeenth century.

137. Adam in Paradise, Siena, marble intarsia in floor of the St.

Catherine's chapel in the Black Friars Church. Mistakenly ascribed 146. Unicorn amulet, segment of narwhal tusk in gold mounting
to Domenico Baccafumi, probably by Giovanni Battista Sozzini. from the estate of the Campion of Danny family, ca. 1600. The
Also erroneously interpreted as Orpheus or Aesculapius. amulet shows traces of scraping evidently for medical use. In
Cust, Robert H. Hobart. The Pavement Masters of Siena, 1901. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Hartlaub, G. F. Zauber des Spiegels (Magic of the Mirror), 91 5 1 Hansmann and Kriss-Rettenbeck. Amulett und Talisman (Amulet
Photo by Alinari, Florence. and Talisman), Munich, 1966.

212
 U~ Ernsi Fuchs, The Begetting of tbf Unicorn, copper etching, 1956. (The authentic 1559 map of OlauG Magnus, after the copy in

The sheet is part of set titled '"The Passion of the L'nicorn,"

.1 Munich State Library), Christiania (Oslo), 1886.
expressly allusive to Christ and therefore assimilating the early
Christian interpretation of the unicorn. Watermark from an Innsbruck chancery deed dated 1366
156.
The Unicorn's Triumph is from the same series.
Briquet, C. M. Les Filigranes (Watermarks), vol. no. 9948,
5,

Leipzig, 1923). Briquet's massive manual on watermarks illustrates

148. Ernst Fuchs, Tbf Artist and the Unicorn, copper etching.
more than 500 unicorn watermarks; in France alone, this
"\\ (tile working on the plate for the scene "In Hades," I clearly
indefatigable collector verified 11 33 of these marks.
_--.ned the vision of the young unicorn before its horn broke

through the forehead. The next plate to that "The Artist and the Melchior Lcchtcr (1865-1937), Publisher's house seal, 1908.
157.
Unicorn" shows the animal pushing his horn against the artist's
temple, whi'e the artist holding a stylus in his hand works on the
plate. The unicorn is my animal: 1 was the unicorn within me. The 158. Melchior Lechter, Title page for book, 1909. Melchior Lcchtei
unic - . was driving mc on. I painted it in
the spirit that catalog, Münster, 1965.
the grearest variety of phases of its metamorphosis and continued
is MSS m, which I was indeed experiencing in my own
159. La Dame a la Licorne (Lady with Unicorn), sketch by Jean
life, on the subsequent copper plates." Commentary by Ernst Fuchs
Cocteau, from the estate of Heinz Rosen who as choreographer
in Weis, Helmut and Fuchs, Ernst. Das graphische Werk (Graphic
directed the original presentation of the Lady with the Unicorn ballet
Composition), Vienna, 196-.
in Munich in 1953. Jean Cocteau granted him all the rights to that
ballet and the drawings pertaining thereto.
149. Rosita Salem, Unicorn. This example of "magic realism"
shows the legendary animal's horn as a primitive force emerging
160. Upper Austrian tarot card from deck by Josef Dimler, 1836.
from the Soil, literally chthonic (from the earth) and also in the erotic
In Upper Austrian National Museum, Linz.
sense corresponding to the unicorn tradition. I owe the reference
"Das Bauernjahr 1969" (Farmer's Annual Calendar for 1969), Linz
to this contemporary work of art, as well as a great deal of further
on the Danube.
assistance to Dr. Alfred Mikesch of Vienna.

161. Augustin de Saint-Aubin (1736-1807), engraving after a

150.Gustave Moreau(i 826-1 896), Ladies and Unicorns.
drawing by Charles Nicolas Cochin the Younger (171 5-1790).
Photo from Gustave Moreau Museum, Paris.
The subject of the drawing is an attack on lovers' lane by lions
and the defense of the couples by unicorns. It is one of the
151. Triumph of Innocence. Stained
_ glasswindow from St.
illustrations to Honore d'Urfe (1 568-1625) pastoral romance
Vincent's Church, Rouen, 1515. Now in Soho Museum, London.
Astraea. My thanks are due to M. Georges Mongredion of Paris for
these particulars.
152. Jean Duvet Hunting monarch attacked by
(1485-ca. 1556).
unicorn. Copperplate engraving from a set of five unciorn scenes,
said to allude to the love of Henry II and Diane de Poitiers (cf.
illustration 105).
Photo by Albertina, Vienna.

153. Sea Unicorn and Narwhal from Pomec's pharmaceutical text

(cf. illustration 129).

154. Advertisement poster of an anonymous London physician in

the seventeenth century.

Photo from Bodleian Library, Oxford.

155. Sea unicorn, after the Carta .V [ar/w (Maritime Chart) of Bishop
Olaus Magnus, the Swedish geographer, Venice, 1539.
Brenner, Oscar. Die achte Karte des Olaus Magnus vom Jahre 1539

213
 1 1 1

Bernard of Breydenbach, 106, 109 Council of Trent, 103, 181-182

Index Bernard of Clairvaux, 101 Cranach, Lucas (the Elder), 133
Bernard, Saint, 71, 72, 77, 78 CtesiasofCnidas, 11-12, 13-14, 16,
Bernheimer, Richard, 146 70, 113
Bestiary of Love, 144 Cunigund (abbess), 98-99
Bible. See entries under names of books of the Cushion cover, 53
Bible Cyrus (k. of Persia), 12
Bludenz bracteate, 131
Abbess Cunigund, 98-99
Böcklin, 185 Daniel (prophet), 21
Abbot's crosier (St. Boniface, Fulda,
Bollnow, Otto Friedrich, 186 Daniel's vision (Spanish miniature), 33
Germany), 30
Bolsworth, B. A., 69, 75 Darley, George, 187
Adam and Eve, 42. See also Garden of
Boniface, Saint, 41, 76 Davies, Arthur B., 185
Eden
Brahmans, 14 Da Vinci, Leonardo, 145
Aelian, 17-18, 22, 27
British coat of arms, 113, 138-139 Death of the unicorn, 60-61
Aesculapius, 1
Buddha, 48 Defensorium inviolatus virginitatis Mariae,
Aesop's Fables, 7 7
Bundahish myth of creation, 69 51, 95, 101
Alanus ab Insulis, 101
Alexander the Great, 12, 13—14, 18, de la Marche, Olivier, 155
21, 57, 69, 70 Caesar, 17, 49 Deuteronomy, 33:17, 20
Allegory of Chastity, 126 Callot, Jacques, 185
Dietmar of Aist, 138
Allotting Collegiate Church, 66 Carcadann, 57, 70 Domin, Hilde, 187, 189
Dreves, G. M., 104
Ambrose, Saint, 24 Cardunn, 73
Cartazoon, 14 Dürer, Albrecht, 142, 146, 148
Amulets, 773
d'Urfe, Honore, 182
Anne of Brittany (q. of France), 16 Castel Sant' Angelo, 124, 127, 145
Annunciation (Goss), 67 Catherine, Saint, 110
Duvet, Jean, 178

Antipope of Avignon, 96 Celan, 187

Aphrodisia, 16 Cellini, Benevenuto, 117 Elephant luring unicorn (Persia), 56
Apollonius of Tyana, 18 Charlemagne, 41, 76 Elizabeth I (q. of England), 117
Apothecary marks, 173 Charles the Bold of Burgundy, 11, 117, Epic of Alexander, 144
Aquaemanicle, 136 155 Erfurt cathedral, 87
Arabia, 17 Charles V (Holy Roman Emperor), 139 Ethiopia, 22
Arabian ivory casket, 36 Charles VIII (k. of France), 16 Exodus 15:23-25, 109
Aristotle, 12, 17, 45, 47, 49 China, 16, 70 Expulsion of the serpents, The, 157
Artaxerxes II (Mnemon, k. of Persia), Christmas icon, 85
11-12 Church of Our Lady (Memmingen), 89 Faber, Friar Felix, 109-111
Assyrian friezes, 12 Church of Our Lady (Reutlingen), 134 Falconetto, 88
Auden, W. H., 194 Cismar priory church, 82, 96 Fiore, Joachim, 108
Averbode Book of the Four Gospels, 30 Cloisters (New York City), 159-162 Flagons, 769. 772
Clouet, Francois, 129, 140 Flight of the Unicorns, The (Shephard), 17
Babenberg, 98 Cochin, N. C, 183 Flood, The, 42
Babylon, 12 Cocteau, Jean, 190, 195 Floor mosaic (S. Giovanni Evangelista,
Baillet, Jean, 155 Collaert, J., 15 Ravenna), 66
Bartholin, Thomas, 42, 118-119 Cologne Cathedral, 95 Fossils, 772
Bartsch, Jacob, 182 Compurgation of the Unsullied Francis I (k. of France), 117
Basil, Saint, 45, 50 Virginity of Mary, 51, 95, 101 Frauenlob, 104
Battista Sforza's Triumph, 125 Confucius, 16 Frederick II, 98
Becher, Johann Joachim, 23, 120 Conrad of Megenberg, 95—96 Frederick III (k. of Denmark), 120
Begetting of the Unicorn, The (Fuchs), 174 Conrad of Würzburg 104 , Freudenstadt Church (Bavaria), 33, 74,
Berg, Bengt, 14-16, 17 Cosmas, 22-23 181

214
 Isaiah 2:23, 80 Luini, Bernardo, 127
Frey. Dagobert. 180
Isaiah 34:6-7, 20 Luther, Martin, 20-21, 103
Friedrich II (.Hohensrauren emperor). 4 1

Fuchs. Ernst. P74 i7J 193 Ishtar Gate, 12

Isidore, Saint, 72, 101 Magic Horn, The, 183
Fulda monastery. 41
Iskandar, 69 Magic Spring of True Love, 182
Gabriel (archangel). 86. 99, 100 Magnus, Albertus, 10, 17, 72, 79, 101
Gallic War. "Malterer" Tapestry, 39, 143
17 James of Viraggio (Giacopo da
Garcia Lorca. F.. 1S~ Voragine), 52
Mammes, Saint, 97
Garden of Eden. -42. 132, 166
Maned unicorn, 76
James I (k. of England), 117, 139
Garden-ot-Eden rug (Swiss), 68 Man in the Well, The, (Bolsworth), 75
James III (k. of England), 139
Gelnhausen (Hesse). Mann, Thomas, 193
Japanese mythology, 47
Gesner. Conrad. 115-116, 117 Matthew 3:17, 80
Jerome, Saint, 21, 22
Giacopo da Voragine (James of Maulbronn Abbey, 96
Job, 23
V iraggio). Maulbronn choirstall, 82
52. 69, 99 Job 19, HI
Giorgione. 226 Meckenem, Israhel van, 1 46
Job 39:9-12, 20
Glass Menagerie. Tbe (Williams), 193 Megasthenes, 13-14, 16, 27, 46, 70,
Job 39:9-24, 80
Gnosticism. 48 73, 101
John the Baptist, 97
Golden Legend. The, 52 Menotti, Gian Carlo, 195
John III, 118
Gonzaga, Cecilia, 63. 140 Merchants Guild of Copenhagen, 1 19
Jonston, John, 76
Grass. Günter. 193 Merimee, Prosper, 157
Jung, C. G., 194
Gregory I (Pope, Gregory the Great), Miniatures, 69
Justine, Saint, 97, 149
72 Mirror of the Church, 73, 79

Grimmenthal, 103 Moreau, Gustave, 176, 185

Kelts, 13
Gryphius, Andreas. 18 Moretto, 149
Kepler, 182
Guericke. Otto von, 112 Morgenstern, Christian, 7
Khludov psalter, 29
Mountain songs, 105
Kilian, Lucas, 124, 141
Hagia Sophia, 181 Mystic unicorn hunt, 86—89
Kiessmann, Eckart, 187, 190
Heinrich of Laufenburg, 104-105
Knesebeck arms, 130
Heinrich of Meissen, 104 Narwhal, 118-119, 169, 173
Kolmar, Gertrud, 187, 188-189
Henry II (k. of France), 140 Neuburg on the Danube, 168—169
Konstanz Minster choirstall, 84
Hesse, Johannes van (of Utrecht), 109 Neumann, Balthazar, 74
Hildegard, Saint, 70, 78-79, 114, 116 New Notes on the Unicorn, 118
Hippocratic pathology, 78 Ladies and Unicorns (Moreau), 176 Nineveh, 12
Hocke, Gustav Rene, 10 Lady with Unicorn, 121, 122-123, Nirvana, 16
Hoffman. E. T. A., 185 151-153 Noah (biblical), 42, 42
Holbein, Hans (the Younger), 132 Lalaing, Jacques de, 137 Numbers 23:22, 20, 80, 111
Holzkirchen Church, 37, 41, 74 Lanckoronska, Maria, 155, 156, 157

Honorius of Aurun (France), 73, 78, 79 Lautensack, Paul, 103

Oryx, 17
Horb synagogue, 76, 111 Lechter, Melchior, 189
Otranto Cathedral (Italy), 34-35
Horseman fighting the unicorn (Mosul), Lehman, Wilhelm, 186
58 Leibnitz, 112
Leo VI, 52 Panofsky, Erwin, 148
Hortusamclusus. 94, 100, 102-103, 160
Hort us samt at is. 9 Le Viste, Aubert, 155 Pantaleone, 72

Hunt, The, 86-89, 107, 164-165 Lindbergh, Anne Morrow, 162 Pantocrator psalter, 29, 46, 69
Lochner, Stefan, 82, 96 Pare, Ambroise, 1 18
"
lb«. Loerke, Oscar, 190 Parsees, 69
India, 8, 13, 14, 18, 49, 73, 79 Louis I (the Pious), 41 Paul of Tarsus, 24
Indian wild ass, 11 Louis XII (k. of France), 161 Pericles, 19
Iraq, 69 Lübeck Cathedral, 135 Persepolis, 12

215
Persica, 12 Richard of Fournival, 144 Stuttgart psalter, 32
Petrarch, 141 Rilke, Rainer Maria, 7, 157, 185-186 Susmann, Elieser, 76, 111
Physica, 78 Rockefeller, J. D., 162 Sylvan ass, 76
Physiologus, 8, 27, 44-52, 59, 69, 71, Romanesque beam (Barcelona), 54
73, 74, 79, 80, 96, 99, 101, 113, Romanticism, 147, 183 Tapestry of the Creation, 28, 42

143, 144, 145, 152, 159, 180, 181 Rosicrucians, 9 Thun Castle (Switzerland), 38
Pisanello, 63,140 Rückert, Friedrich, 50 Tibet, 17

Pisano, Antonio, 140 Rüppell, Edward, 179 Tibetan unicorn, 55

Pliny, 17, 22, 74 Trinity Church (Stratford-on-Avon), 95

Plutarch, 19 Sacrifice of the unicorn, 62 Tristram and Iseult, 95, 145

Pneumatists, 78 Sacrificial cauldron, 13 Triumph of Innocence (stained glass),

Poem to the Trinity, 99 St. Michael's Abbey (Hildesheim), 99 777

Poitiers,Diane de, 129, 140 St. Michael's Church (Turin), 97 Troandus, 76
Pomet, Pierre, 120, 158 St. Peter's Church (Caen), 91
Uhland, Ludwig, 104
Popes, 108 St. Peter the Martyr (Venice), 102
Unesco Courier, 113
Praglia abbey, 40 St. Peter the Martyr (Verona), 88
Unicorn Hunt series, 86-89, 107,
Protogaea, 112 St. Stephen's Church (Vienna), 83, 96
163-165
Proust, Marcel, 157 Saints. See entries under names of saints
Unicorn's Triumph, The (Fuchs), 114
Psalm 21, 7, 23 Salem, Rosita, 115
Unicorn subdued, 49
Psalm 22(21), 74, 76 Salet, Francis, 157
Unicorn tympanum, 131
Psalm 22:21, 8 Salzburg cathedral, 133
Unicorn with Procris, 727
Psalm 22(21):22, 20 Sanctuary altar (Cologne), 68
Utrecht psalter, 40
Psalm 29(28), 24 Sand, George, 157
Psalm 29(28): 5-6, 20 Saul of Tarsus, 24 Vallem furoris, 103
Psalm 37, 24 Savages in the inclosed garden, 94 van der Straet, J., 15
Psalm 85, 101 Savage woman (Strassburg tapestry), 93 Virgin Mary with the Unicorn, 87,
Psalm 92(91): 11, 20 Savage woman and unicorn, 84 82-83, 85
Psalm 129(130), 148 Sbordone, Francesco, 45, 46, 49 von Ems, Rudolf, 144
Ptolemy II, 21 Schlegel, 180
von Eschenbach, Wolfram, 137
Pyramus and Thisbe, 156 Schnurre, Wolfdietrich, 187
von Guericke, Otto, 112
Schönburger, Guido, 120 Vulgate, 20, 21
Queen of Sheba, 97 Schongauer, 102
Queen of the Savages, 92 Scivias, 78 Waldenses, 52
Quixote, Don, 138 Shadhahvar, 56 Wall bracket (St. Vitus Cathedral,
Shakespeare, William, 95, 182 Prague), 66
Rampageous Unicorn (Antwerp), 40, 43 Shephard, Anthony, 17 Water prodigy, 41
Randall, Dudley, 195 Sibyl of the Rhine. See Hildegard, Saint Wild Man fighting unicorn, 65
Ratgar of Fulda, 41, 43, 182 Sigismund (k. of Poland), 118 Wild Man killing unicorn on Damsel's
Reformation, 103 Solms (Count), 109 lap (tapestry), 25, 26
Reni (Count), 1 10 Solomon, 45 Wild Men, 143-148
Resza, Francis de, 101 Souvigny Abbey (France), 31, 73 William of Cluny, 71
Reuwich, Erhard, 106, 109, 111 Stephen, Saint, 97, 150, 154 Wolters, Friedrich, 189
Rhinoceros, 14, 17, 21 Stimmer, Tobias, 41, 42 Wurm, Ole, 1 19
 .

Courtesy of F. W. Holubovsky

The
author, born in 1903, was reared
in the Rhine River region and is now
living in Cologne, West Germany. Al-
though retired, he leads an active life
and continues to write and travel. While
on a trip to New York City, the German
Consul General suggested he visit The
Cloisters where he saw the world famous
"Hunt of the Unicorn" tapestries. These
tapestries so impressed him that on the
plane back to Cologne, he decided to
learn more about the Unicorn. This
decision led him on a search, lasting ten
years, that took him to museums,
librariesand churches in London, Paris,
Vienna, Amsterdam and other cities
across Europe. His search for the
Unicorn continues, as friends and ad-
mirers from all over the world send him
clues that help provide a fuller under-
standing of the myth of the Unicorn.

Cif :\?*/4&\JL VAN XOSTRAND REINHOLD COMPANY

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