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Mermaids in the Middle Ages

The Book of Treasures, by the Florentine writer Brunetto Lattini (ca. 1230-1294) was the first encyclopedia written in a modern European language. The following is Lattini’s entry about Mermaids:

 

According to the ancient authors, there were three mermaids. These mermaids were pictured with a body half maiden (from the waist up) and half fish, with wings and nails, and they were extraordinarily skilled to sing. One of them sang with her own voice, another one with a flute, and the third one did it with a lyre. With their song, they attracted the sailors that, fascinated, were led to shipwreck.

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However, the truth is that mermaids were meretrices that destructed the life those who passed by, and, as a result, these men felt forced to simulate their shipwreck. Old stories say that they had wings and nails because love flies and hurts; and that they lived in the waves, precisely because waves created Venus and lust was born out from humidity.

Nonetheless, in Arabia there are snakes with wings that are called mermaids. These snakes are faster than horses and, according to what is said of them, they also fly. In addition, their poison is as powerful that death suddenly follows even before feeling their bite.

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In this commentary to the facsimile edition of the Book of Treasures at National Library of Russia, Willene B. Clark discusses how animals are depicted in this book:

Animals are a substantial part of the late classical encyclopedic writing, and along with plants and minerals, an essential part of the great cosmos, the overarching concept of the encyclopedia. Animals played an even greater role in ancient and medieval hunting and pharmalogical treatises, as well as fable collections, and are featured in collections of animal lore such as the Early Christian Phisiologus. The Judeo-Christian Bible, like virtually all narratives of creation and early time, also gives a significant role to animals.

This ancient and Early Christian heritage is both the catalyst and source of lore for the animal chapters of Brunetto Latini’s Li Livres dou Tresor (Book of Treasures), which nevertheless is largely secular in content. The relatively large size of the animals section in the Book of Treasures undoubtedly reflects an increasing European interest in animals, both indigenous and exotic, that began in the 12 century and continued through the Middle Ages, producing growing numbers of royal and civic menageries, private ownership of exotic animals, and taste for animal subjects in art and literature. In the animal chapters in the Book of Treasures, the simplicity of form and content, and the accessibility of the vernacular text to a broad audience adhere closely to the encyclopedic tradition that sought to simplify the complex discourses of scholars for the general public, and in the Middle Ages for the clergy as well.

Thanks to M. Moleiro Editor for providing us with this image. You can learn more about the Book of Treasures from their website.

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