A Polymorphic Flying Fish. The Serra in the Greek and Latin Physiologus, Bestiaries and some Encyclopaedia (9th-15th c.). Text and Iconography

The present essay takes into account the iconography of the serra and the modifications affecting the text of the related chapter in various versions and families of each of the examined categories, but it focuses mainly on the relationship between text and manuscript illustration. In this respect we comment on more than 30 examples based on miniatures appearing in manuscripts of the ninth through the fifteenth centuries. Without any notable exceptions they all suggest a very random relationship. Moreover, the serra is depicted in an extraordinary varied manner: as a fish eventually winged, with or without paws, as a bird ending in a fish’s body, as a dragon or as a hybrid of interminable type, with the head of a lion, an ass, a dog, or with a saw edged bill. The causes of these peculiarities are questioned and some of them highlighted, allowing certain recurrences to be evidenciated and analyzed. We note towards the end of the thirteenth century the emergence of a completely new zoonym or descriptive zoonym, virgilia, in a vernacular bestiary and its translations. We conclude therefore from the foregoing investigation that to a polymorph flying fish with an unstable nature corresponds an equally unstable linguistic zoonym. - [Abstract]

Language: French

DOI: 10.4000/rursuspicae.2597