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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume II

Book Eleven — the things that were in the ark

EIGHTH DISPUTATION. On the carnivorous animals that entered the ark

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EIGHTH DISPUTATION. On the carnivorous animals that entered the ark.

OCTAVA DISPUTATIO. De animalibus carnivoris in arcam ingressis.

CARNIVORA hoc loco appello animalia quae post diluvium et deinceps, ad hodiernum usque diem, carnibus vesci solent. Nam ante diluvium esu et cibatu carnium animal nullum fuisse usum demonstratum a nobis est in priori Tomo Commentariorum nostrorum in Genesim, sub finem libri quarti, ultima disputatione. Horum autem…
Carnivores I here call the animals which, after the flood and thenceforward to the present day, are wont to feed on flesh. For that before the flood no animal made use of the eating and feeding on flesh has been demonstrated by us in the former volume of our Commentaries on Genesis, toward the end of the fourth book, in the last disputation. And of these…1
…Carnivororum animalium species, usu et aliorum relatu exploratas et cognitas, has percensere habeo. 1. LEO. 2. PARDUS. 3. DRACO. Mira narrantur de Draconibus: Atlantici montis dracones solo contactu interficere, capite et cauda gracillimos, alvi tanta vastitate vix ut reptioni sint habiles. Philostratus sane, perquam ingeniosus et disertus mendaciorum artifex, in tertio libro scribit ad Gangem innumeros esse dracones, quos oculorum gratia venentur Indi; eorum enim oculos lapillos esse ignei fulgoris pretiosos.
…the species of carnivorous animals, ascertained and known by use and by the report of others, I have to review as follows. 1. THE LION. 2. THE LEOPARD (pardus). 3. THE DRAGON. Wonderful things are told of Dragons: that the dragons of the Atlas mountain kill by mere contact, very slender in head and tail, but with a belly of such vastness that they are scarcely fit for crawling. Philostratus indeed — a most ingenious and eloquent craftsman of falsehoods — writes in his third book that near the Ganges there are innumerable dragons, which the Indians hunt for the sake of their eyes; for their eyes are precious little stones of fiery brilliance.2
Sed illud magis fabulosum, ab Africanis vulgatum: ex aquila concipere lupam, nec parere sed rumpi; edi autem draconem rostro et alis patri similem, pedibus et cauda matri, corio serpentis, maculis versicolore, oculorum genas attollere nunquam, in specubus habitare. Haec, fabulosis proxima, equidem prodere volui, non ut lectori prudenti credenda, sed ut curioso et quicquid mirabile dictu est noscendi avido non ignoranda. Etenim scitum est illud Aristotelis, Philosophum etiam fabularum esse amatorem, quod ex rebus mirandis constat fabula.
But this is more fabulous, spread abroad by the Africans: that the she-wolf conceives from an eagle, and does not give birth but is burst open; and that a dragon is brought forth, similar to its father in beak and wings, to its mother in feet and tail, with the hide of a serpent, party-colored with spots, never raising the lids of its eyes, dwelling in caves. These things, near to fables, I wished indeed to report — not as to be believed by the prudent reader, but as not to be unknown to the curious one, and to him who is eager to learn whatever is wonderful to tell. For that saying of Aristotle is well known, that the Philosopher is also a lover of fables, because a fable is composed of wonderful things.3
4. PANTHERA. Panthera et Tigris macularum varietate propemodum solae bestiarum spectantur: Pantheris enim in candido breves macularum oculi. Ferunt odore earum mire sollicitari quadrupedes, sed capitis torvitate terreri; quamobrem occultato eo, reliqua dulcedine imitatas ab ea corripi. Aiunt quidam in armo Pantheris similem Lunae esse maculam, crescentem in orbes et cavantem pari modo cornua. Pantheras autem perfricata carne aconito (venenum id est) Barbari venantur: occupat illico fauces earum angor. At fera contra haec excrementis hominum sibi medetur, et alias tam avida eorum ut, a pastoribus ex industria in aliquo vase suspensa altius quam ut queat saltu attingere, iaculando se appetendoque deficiat, et postremo expiret: alioqui vivacitatis adeo lentae ut, eiectis interraneis, diu pugnet.
4. THE PANTHER. The Panther and the Tiger are looked upon as almost the only beasts [distinguished] by the variety of their spots: for in Panthers there are short eye-like spots on a white ground. They say that quadrupeds are wondrously attracted by their odor, but terrified by the grimness of their head; wherefore, with that hidden, [the panther,] imitating the rest by its sweetness, seizes them. Some say that on the shoulder of Panthers there is a spot like the Moon, waxing into orbs and hollowing out its horns in like manner. The Barbarians hunt Panthers with flesh rubbed with aconite (that is, a poison): a choking immediately seizes their throats. But the beast cures itself against this with human excrement, and is otherwise so greedy of it that, when shepherds hang it up on purpose in some vessel higher than it can reach by leaping, by hurling and reaching after itself it grows faint, and at last expires: otherwise of so slow a tenacity of life that, with its entrails cast out, it fights on for a long time.4
5. TIGRIS. Hyrcania, ut silvis aspera, sic immanibus feris copiosa, tum tigribus. Animal est tam insignibus macularum notis, tum incredibili pernicitate, admodum memorabile. Fulvo nitet, nigrantibus segmentis interundato, varietate apprime decenti. Pedum tanta velocitate ut nihil tam longum sit quod non brevi penetret, nihil tam longe antecedat ut non illico assequatur. Sed maxime potentia eius probatur cum catulorum suorum insistit raptoribus. Succedant sibi equites licet, et astu quantolibet amoliri praedam velint, nisi in praesidio maria fuerint, frustra est omnis conatus. Nam ubi vacuum cubile reperit femina (maribus enim cura non est sobolis), fertur praeceps, odore vestigans. Raptor, appropinquante fremitu, abiicit unum de catulis, quem illa morsu tollens, pondere etiam ocior acta, remeat iterumque consequitur, ac subinde, donec, in navem regresso, irrita feritas saevit in litore. Illud obiter scire convenit, esse genus quoddam commune, carens tamen nomine, continens proxime…
5. THE TIGER. Hyrcania, as it is rough with forests, so is it abundant in monstrous wild beasts, and especially in tigers. It is an animal most memorable both for the notable marks of its spots and for its incredible swiftness. It shines tawny, with blackish bands waved between, a variety especially comely. Of such velocity of foot that nothing is so long that it does not traverse it in a short time, nothing so far ahead that it does not at once overtake it. But its power is especially proved when it presses upon the ravishers of its cubs. Though horsemen relieve one another, and by however much cunning they wish to carry off the prey, unless the seas be in their defense, every attempt is in vain. For when the female finds the lair empty (for the males have no care of the offspring), she is borne headlong, tracking by scent. The ravisher, as the roaring approaches, throws down one of the cubs, which she, taking up in her mouth, returns — driven swifter even by the weight — and again pursues, and so on, until, [the ravisher] having gone back into the ship, her baffled ferocity rages on the shore. It is fitting to know in passing that there is a certain common kind, lacking, however, a name, containing closely…5
…has species: Lupum, Canem, Vulpem, Tigrem, Hyaenam et Leaenam. Indicio est mutua horum inter se animalium commixtio, et hinc generatio prolis diversae tamen a parentibus speciei.
…these species: the Wolf, the Dog, the Fox, the Tiger, the Hyena, and the Lioness. The proof is the mutual mingling of these animals among themselves, and hence the generation of offspring of a species nevertheless different from the parents.6
6. LUPUS. 7. LUPUS canarius. 8. LUPUS cervarius, qui et THOS dicitur. Aethiopicis Lupis proprium est quod in saliendo ita nisus habent alitis ut non magis proficiant cursu quam meatu; homines tamen nunquam impetunt. Bruma comati sunt, aestate nudi; Thoas vocant. Videtur haec Solinus accepisse ex Aristotele, cuius haec sunt verba: Thoes etiam (quos Lupos cervarios diximus) hominem diligunt, et neque offendunt neque metuunt valde. Pugnant canibus et Leonibus: quo fit ne eodem in loco sint cervarii et Leones. Optimi cervarii qui minores sunt. Genera horum alii duo, alii tria statuunt; plura his esse non videntur. Sed ut piscium, avium, quadrupedumque genera aliqua, ita cervarii quoque pro tempore immutantur, et colorem diversum hieme aestateve trahunt; atque aestate nudi, hieme hirti redduntur.
6. THE WOLF. 7. THE DOG-WOLF (lupus canarius). 8. THE DEER-WOLF (lupus cervarius), which is also called THOS. It is peculiar to the Ethiopian Wolves that in leaping they have such effort of a winged thing that they advance no more by running than by gliding; yet they never attack men. In winter they are shaggy, in summer bare; they call them “Thoes.” Solinus seems to have taken this from Aristotle, whose words are these: “The Thoes also (which we have called deer-wolves) are fond of man, and neither offend nor greatly fear [him]. They fight with dogs and lions: whence it comes about that deer-wolves and lions are not in the same place. The best deer-wolves are those that are smaller. Of their kinds, some set two, others three; more than these there do not seem to be. But as some kinds of fishes, birds, and quadrupeds [change], so deer-wolves too are changed according to the season, and take a different color in winter or summer; and in summer they are made bare, in winter shaggy.”7
9. LYNX. Lynces in Luporum genere numerat Solinus, quarum urinas coire in duritiem pretiosi calculi — nec hoc ipsas latere, sed quasi hominis usui invidentes, egestum liquorem illico arenarum cumulis contegere, Theophrastus perhibet. Lapidi color succini, similisque vis attrahendi proxima, et ad sedandos renum dolores medendumque regio morbo. Lyncurion nomen est. Sed Scaliger negat Lyncurion aut esse succinum, aut ab urina Lyncum concrescere: namque in Germaniis et Scythiis atque Sarmatiis magnam eius animalis esse frequentiam, ibi tamen huiusmodi lapidem esse nullum. Idem Lyncem non videtur specie distinguere a lupo cervario: Lynx mas, inquit, est lupus cervarius, huic enim breves orbiculares distinctae maculae, illi productae et admodum continuae pleraeque. Appellantur lupi cervarii, cum lupina aut cervina forma nihil habeant: lupi quidem ab aviditate, vicina enim omnia populantur (quo fit ut in Scandania, ubi Lyncum frequentia, insignis aliarum ferarum sit raritas, ad victum eis maxima ex parte agrestium felium praeda est); Cervorum autem quia hostes sunt acerrimi, propterea cognominantur Cervarii.
9. THE LYNX. Solinus reckons Lynxes in the kind of Wolves, [and says] that their urine congeals into the hardness of a precious stone — and that this does not escape them, but, as if grudging it to the use of man, they immediately cover the discharged liquid with heaps of sand, Theophrastus reports. The stone has the color of amber, and a similar power of attracting close [to it], and is good for soothing the pains of the kidneys and for healing the royal disease (jaundice). Its name is “Lyncurion.” But Scaliger denies that Lyncurion is either amber or congeals from the urine of Lynxes: for in the Germanies and Scythias and Sarmatias there is a great frequency of that animal, yet there is no stone of this kind there. The same [Scaliger] does not seem to distinguish the Lynx in species from the deer-wolf: “The male Lynx,” he says, “is the deer-wolf, for this has short, round, distinct spots, that [the lynx] elongated and mostly quite continuous.” They are called deer-wolves, although they have nothing of the form of wolf or deer: “wolves” indeed from their greed, for they lay waste all things near them (whence it comes about that in Scandinavia, where there is a frequency of Lynxes, there is a notable rarity of other wild beasts, and their food is for the most part the prey of wild cats); but because they are most fierce enemies of deer, they are therefore surnamed “Cervarii” (deer-[wolves]).8
10. SPHINX. Inter Simias, inquit Solinus, habentur et Sphinges, villosae comis, geminis in pectore mammis, dociles ad feritatis oblivionem. Tradit Plinius Sphinges condere in thesauros maxillarum cibum, mox inde sensim ad mandendum manibus expromere; et quod formicis in annum solenne est, his esse in dies vel horas. Poëtae Sphingem monstrum esse finxerunt multiforme atque horrendum. Clearchus habuisse scribit caput et manus puellae, corpus canis, vocem hominis, caudam draconis, Leonis ungues, alas volucris. 11. HYAENA. Huic ferae lupi forma, sed moles corporis maior, pedesque longiores et humanis similes; crassae item surae atque humanis propiores. Non ferarum praeda, sed erutis alitur cadaveribus, in specubus stabulatur; quam venatores cantu atque tympanorum pulsatione delinitam, laqueis iniectis, feminas capiunt. Utrumque esse, sine mare et femina; alternis annis mares, alternis feminas esse et parere sine mare, nonnullis creditum, refert et refellit Aristoteles.
10. THE SPHINX. Among the Apes, says Solinus, are reckoned also the Sphinxes, shaggy with hair, with twin breasts on the chest, docile to the forgetting of their wildness. Pliny relates that Sphinxes store food in the storehouses of their jaws, and then by degrees bring it out with their hands to chew; and what is customary for ants over a year, is for these by days or hours. The poets fashioned the Sphinx to be a monster, multiform and horrendous. Clearchus writes that it had the head and hands of a girl, the body of a dog, the voice of a man, the tail of a dragon, the claws of a Lion, the wings of a bird. 11. THE HYENA. This beast has the form of a wolf, but a greater bulk of body, and longer feet, similar to human ones; its calves likewise thick and nearer to human ones. It feeds not on the prey of wild beasts, but on dug-up carcasses, and is housed in caves; and the hunters, having soothed it with singing and the beating of drums, capture the females with thrown snares. That it is both [sexes], without male and female; that in alternate years the males [become females], in alternate years the females; and that it conceives and bears without a male — believed by some — Aristotle reports and refutes.9
…Hoc tamen de Hyaena, serpentem utriusque sexus participe, tradit Aelianus. Collum et iuba continuitate spinae porrigitur, flectique nisi circumactu totius corporis nequit. Sermonem humanum inter pastorum stabula mire assimulat, nomenque alicuius addiscit, quem evocatum foras laceret. Vomitionem hominis mentitur, ad sollicitandos canes quos invadat. Ab hoc uno animali fertur sepulchra erui, inquisitione corporum. Huius oculis mille esse varietates colorumque mutationes; eius umbrae contactu canes obmutescere, et quasi magicis quibusdam artibus omne animal ter ab hoc lustratum in vestigio haerere; huius coitu Leaena Aethiopica parit Leocrocutam, de qua dicetur infra.
…Yet this Aelian relates of the Hyena, that it is partaker of both sexes. Its neck and mane are extended by the continuity of the spine, and it cannot bend except by the turning-about of its whole body. It wonderfully imitates human speech among the stalls of shepherds, and learns the name of someone, whom, having called him out, it may tear to pieces. It feigns the vomiting of a man, to lure the dogs which it may attack. By this one animal alone, it is said, sepulchres are dug up, in search of bodies. [They say] that in its eyes there are a thousand varieties and changes of colors; that at the touch of its shadow dogs grow dumb, and that, as by certain magic arts, every animal walked around three times by it sticks fast in its track; that by its coupling the Ethiopian Lioness bears the Leocrocuta, of which it will be spoken below.10
12. LYCAON. Aethiopia mittit Lycaonem, lupini generis, cervice iubatum, et tot modis varium ut nullum illi colorem dicant abesse. Poëtarum est figmentum Lycaonem fuisse regem Arcadiae, propter incredibilem eius impietatem et crudelitatem in lupum a Iove transformatum. 13. VULPIS. 14. MUSTELA. 15. FELIS. In Malabar provincia feles sunt agrestes, in arboribus agitantes. Saltu valent plurimum, sed est peculiaris eorum volatus; idque, quod magis mirum est, sine alis. Membrana ab anterioribus pedibus ad posteriores usque producta tenditur, quam dum quiescunt ad alvum contrahunt. Ubi volare instituunt, pedum crurumque agitatione protenta collectaque membrana, tum sustinentur, tum feruntur. Mirabilisque est eorum, tanquam per aërem currentium, species. An haec species Felium volantium a specie nostratium felium diversa sit necne, doctis viris existimandum et iudicandum relinquo.
12. THE LYCAON. Ethiopia sends forth the Lycaon, of the wolf kind, maned on the neck, and so various in many ways that they say no color is lacking to it. It is a fiction of the poets that Lycaon was a king of Arcadia, transformed into a wolf by Jove on account of his incredible impiety and cruelty. 13. THE FOX. 14. THE WEASEL. 15. THE CAT. In the province of Malabar there are wild cats, ranging in the trees. They are very strong in leaping, but there is a peculiar flight of theirs — and what is more wonderful, without wings. A membrane is stretched out from the front feet all the way to the hind ones, which, while they rest, they draw in toward the belly. When they set about to fly, the membrane being stretched out and gathered by the movement of feet and legs, they are both sustained and borne along. And wonderful is the appearance of them, as it were running through the air. Whether this species of flying Cats is different from the species of our [domestic] cats or not, I leave to learned men to estimate and judge.11
16. CANIS. Quamquam haec duo animalia, Felem dico et Canem, etiam sine carnibus vitam agunt, nec proprium in arca locum desideraverint, cum in habitatione hominum versari potuerint. 17. VITULUS marinus. 18. CROCODILUS. Sed haec duo in aquis vivere possunt. 19. LEOCROCUTA. Scribit autem Plinius Leocrocutam pernicissimam esse feram, asini feri magnitudine, cervicibus cervinis, collo, cauda, pectore Leonis, capite melium, bisulca ungula, ore ad aures usque rescisso, dentium locis osse perpetuo, humanasque voces mire imitantem, ex Hyaena et Leaena generatam. 20. EALE. Magnitudine equi fluviatilis, cauda Elephanti, colore nigra vel fulva, maxillas apri, maiora cubitalibus cornua habens mobilia, quae alterna sistat in pugna, variatque infesta aut obliqua, prout ratio monstravit.
16. THE DOG. Although these two animals — I mean the Cat and the Dog — pass their life even without flesh, and would not have required a proper place in the ark, since they could dwell in the habitation of men. 17. THE SEAL (sea-calf). 18. THE CROCODILE. But these two can live in the waters. 19. THE LEOCROCUTA. Pliny writes that the Leocrocuta is a most swift beast, of the size of a wild ass, with the neck of a deer; the neck, tail, and breast of a Lion; the head of a badger; a cloven hoof; the mouth slit open all the way to the ears; in place of teeth a continuous bone; wonderfully imitating human voices; generated from the Hyena and the Lioness. 20. THE EALE. Of the size of a river-horse (hippopotamus), with the tail of an Elephant, black or tawny in color, with the jaws of a boar, having movable horns larger than a cubit, which it sets up alternately in a fight, and varies them, threatening or oblique, as reason has shown it.12
21. Serpens BOA. Hi serpentes in tantam amplitudinem excrescunt ut, principatu Claudii, quemadmodum tradit Plinius, una earum occisa in Vaticano solidum in alvo habere infantem spectata sit. Aluntur primo bubuli lactis succo, unde nomen traxere. In Senegae regno angues nascuntur denum pedum longitudine, tanto hiatu ut capram integram deglutiant. In Calicut serpentes sunt capite et crassitudine suilla, quadrupedes, cauda longa, glabri, denum pedum longitudine, sine veneno, sed nihilominus tamen malefici, dentibus quippe conficiunt homines. MAN[TICORA?]…
21. THE BOA SERPENT. These serpents grow to such great size that, in the reign of Claudius, as Pliny relates, one of them, killed in the Vatican, was seen to have a whole infant in its belly. They are nourished at first by the juice of cow's milk (bubulum lac), whence they have drawn their name [Boa]. In the kingdom of Senegal serpents are born of ten feet in length, with so great a gape that they swallow a whole goat. In Calicut there are serpents with a head and thickness like a swine's, four-footed, with a long tail, smooth, ten feet in length, without venom, but nevertheless harmful, for they dispatch men with their teeth. MAN[TICORE?]…13
22 MANTICHORA, humanarum carnium avidissime appetens. Cuius super omnes animantes saevitiam atque truculentiam disertis verbis, auctore Ctesia, describit Aristoteles, et ex hoc mutuatus etiam Plinius. 23 TAURUS cornimobilis, venatu vivens. Huc fert Aethiopia atrocissimum, maioremque tauris agrestibus, velocitate ante omnes, colore fulvo, oculis caeruleis, pilo in contrarium verso, rictu ad aures dehiscente, iuxta cornua mobilia, tergori duritia silicis, omne respuens vulnus. Feras omnes venatur, ipse non aliter quam foveis captus, feritate semper interit.
22. THE MANTICHORA, most greedily desiring human flesh. Whose savagery and truculence above all living creatures Aristotle describes in clear words, on the authority of Ctesias; and Pliny too, borrowing from him. 23. THE BULL WITH MOVABLE HORNS (taurus cornimobilis), living by hunting. Ethiopia brings forth this most atrocious [beast], larger than wild bulls, swiftest of all, tawny in color, with blue eyes, hair turned backward, with a gape opening to the ears, with movable horns beside [its head], with a hide of the hardness of flint, repelling every wound. It hunts all wild beasts; itself, not otherwise than caught in pits, always perishes [only] through its ferocity.14
24 CHAUS. 25 CEPHUS. Pompeii Magni primum ludi, ait Plinius, ostenderunt Chaum, quem Galli Raphium vocabant, effigie lupi, Pardorum maculis. Iidem demonstrarunt ex Aethiopia quas vocant Cephos, quorum pedes posteriores pedibus humanis et cruribus, priores manibus, fuere similes. Hoc animal postea Roma non vidit. 26 CROCUTA, velut ex cane Lupoque concepta, omnia dentibus frangens, protinusque devorata conficiens ventre. 27 AXIS, fera hinnuli pelle, pluribus candidioribusque maculis, sacra libero patri, ut ait Plinius. 28 VIVERRA. Hoc est animal exiguum ex genere mustelarum, quo venatores utuntur ad cuniculos ex antris et specubus extrahendos: lege Plinium. 29 ICHNEUMON, huic bellum internecinum est cum aspidibus et Crocodilis: de his quoque Plinius.
24. THE CHAUS. 25. THE CEPHUS. The games of Pompey the Great first exhibited, says Pliny, the Chaus — which the Gauls called “Raphius” — of the appearance of a wolf, with the spots of Panthers. The same [games] displayed from Ethiopia those they call Cephi, whose hind feet were similar to human feet and legs, the fore [feet] to hands. This animal Rome did not see afterward. 26. THE CROCUTA, as if conceived from a dog and a wolf, breaking all things with its teeth, and forthwith digesting in its belly what it has devoured. 27. THE AXIS, a wild beast with the skin of a fawn, with many and whiter spots, sacred to father Liber [Bacchus], as Pliny says. 28. THE FERRET (viverra). This is a small animal of the weasel kind, which hunters use to draw rabbits out of their burrows and caves: read Pliny. 29. THE ICHNEUMON, which has a war of extermination with asps and Crocodiles: of these too, Pliny.15
30 EST animal Sclavonice dictum ROSSOMACA, ut refert Olaus Magnus, ab incredibili voracitate appellatum, quod Latine diceretur Helluo: cuius crassitudo ut magni canis, aures et facies velut Cati, pedes et ungula asperrima, corpus villosum et prolixorum pilorum colore subfusco, cauda ut vulpis (licet brevior, sed crinium densiorum), unde optima conficiuntur hyemalia capitis tegumenta. Hoc igitur animal voracissimum est. Reperto namque cadavere, tantum vorat ut, violento cibo, corpus instar tympani extendatur: inventaque angustia inter arbores, se stringit, ut violentius egerat; sicque extenuatum revertitur ad cadaver, et ad summum usque repletur; iterumque se stringit angustia priore, repetitque cadaver, donec, eo consumpto, aliud sollicita venatione inquirat. Eius caro omnino inutilis est ad humanam escam, pellis multum commoda atque pretiosa. Sic Olaus.
30. There is an animal called in the Slavonic tongue ROSSOMACA, as Olaus Magnus reports, named from its incredible voracity — which in Latin would be called “Helluo” (Glutton): whose thickness is like a great dog's, its ears and face like a Cat's, its feet and claws very rough, its body shaggy with long hairs of a darkish color, its tail like a fox's (though shorter, but of denser hairs), whence the best winter coverings for the head are made. This animal, then, is most voracious. For when it has found a carcass, it devours so much that, by the violent feeding, its body is stretched out like a drum; and, having found a narrow place between trees, it squeezes itself in order to void [its bowels] more violently; and so, thinned out, it returns to the carcass and is filled up again to the utmost; and again it squeezes itself in the former narrow place, and returns to the carcass, until, that being consumed, it seeks another by anxious hunting. Its flesh is altogether useless for human food, but its hide is very serviceable and precious. So Olaus.16
SUNT praeterea quatuor species parvorum animalium cibum ex aquis petentium, in terris tamen degentium: uti sunt 31 LATAX, 32 FIBRIS, 33 SATHERIUM, 34 SATYRIUM, 35 LUTRA. De quibus vide Aristotelem et Plinium. Sunt igitur praedictae species Carnivororum animalium triginta quinque. Sed propter aliquas fortasse quae nostram et aliorum scriptorum notitiam et diligentiam fugerunt, faciamus eas quadraginta. Huiusmodi vero animalium pauca sunt maiora lupis, nec multa illis paria, quamplurima vero minora: sed redigamus ea ad mensuram luporum, ut, quantum ad occupationem loci in Arca, instar fuerint quadraginta parium luporum.
There are, moreover, four [more] species of small animals that seek their food from the waters yet live on land: such as 31. THE LATAX, 32. THE BEAVER (fibris), 33. THE SATHERIUM, 34. THE SATYRIUM, 35. THE OTTER (lutra). Concerning which, see Aristotle and Pliny. There are, therefore, thirty-five aforesaid species of Carnivorous animals. But on account of some, perhaps, which have escaped the notice and diligence of us and of other writers, let us make them forty. Of animals of this kind, few are larger than wolves, and not many equal to them, but very many smaller: yet let us reduce them to the measure of wolves, so that, as regards the occupation of space in the Ark, they may be as forty pairs of wolves.17

Translator’s notes

  1. §46. Definition of ‘carnivore’ (none ate flesh before the flood). Continues on p. 261. ↩
  2. §46/47. The carnivore catalogue begins (lion, leopard, dragon). Margins: “Of carnivorous animals 35 species are reckoned”; Scaliger, Exercitationes 183; “Fables about Dragons.” ↩
  3. Margins: Philostratus; Aristotle, Metaphysics, bk. 1, ch. 2. ↩
  4. §47. The panther. Margins: Pliny, bk. 8, chs. 17 & 27; Panther. ↩
  5. §48. The tiger. Margins: Solinus, ch. 21; Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 18; Tiger. Continues on p. 262. ↩
  6. Completes §48 (the unnamed ‘common kind’). ↩
  7. §49. The wolf-kinds. Margins: Solinus, ch. 33; deer-wolf; Aristotle, Hist. anim. bk. 9, ch. 44. ↩
  8. §50. The lynx and the amber-stone ‘lyncurium.’ Margins: Solinus, ch. 8; Lynx; Theophrastus; Scaliger, Exercitationes 104 and 120. ↩
  9. §51–52. Sphinx and the beginning of the hyena. Margins: Solinus, ch. 30; Pliny, bk. 10, ch. 72; Clearchus; Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 34; Solinus, ch. 30; Aelian, bk. 7, ch. 18; Aristotle, Hist. anim. bk. 6, ch. 34 and On Generation. Continues on p. 263. ↩
  10. Conclusion of §52 (the hyena's marvels). Margins: Aristotle, Hist. anim. bk. 6, ch. 34, On Generation; Aelian, On Animals, bk. ..., ch. 26. ↩
  11. §53–54. Lycaon, fox, weasel, and the ‘flying cats’ of Malabar. Margins: Solinus, ch. 33; Lycaon; Scaliger, Exercitationes 217; “Flying cats.” ↩
  12. §54–56. Dog, seal, crocodile, leocrocuta, eale. Margins: Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 21; Leocrocuta; Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 4; Eale. ↩
  13. §56–57. The boa and regional serpents (Senegal, Calicut). Margins: Boa; Scaliger, Exercitationes 183; “Serpents of [various] regions”; Calicut. Continues on p. 264. ↩
  14. §57–58 (carnivore catalogue continued). Margins: Aristotle, Hist. anim. bk. 2; Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 21; “Bull with movable horns.” ↩
  15. §59. Margins: Chaus; Crocuta; Pliny, bk. 8, chs. 19, 21, 24, 25, 55. ↩
  16. §60. The ‘Rossomaca’ (wolverine). Margins: Olaus Magnus, History of the Northern [peoples], bk. 18, ch. 7; Rossomaca. ↩
  17. §61. End of the carnivore catalogue: 35 species, rounded to 40 ‘pairs of wolves.’ Margins: Aristotle, Hist. anim. bk. 8, ch. 25; Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 30. ↩