The cheetah, used as a hunting aid in the Iranian-Persian and Arab worlds for millennia, and as such well known and identified in these cultural areas, has long remained a more uncertain animal in the West, still remaining today difficult to locate in medieval sources. Its name “cheetah” appearing in French only in the 17th century, it does not previously seem to have had a name of its own and bears the same zoonym as the panther: that of “leopard”. Likewise, in images, it is sometimes difficult to differentiate the two animals. This contribution therefore attempts to take stock of these confusions by providing some elements helping to identify this unnamed animal in texts and images. The article provides information relating to the literary or documentary context, mainly at the end of the Middle Ages, where the cheetah was part of princely hunting crews, particularly in Italy, as noble as the falcon, but sought after as a luxury and of exotic prestige. - [Abstract]

Language: French

DOI: 10.1075/rein.23.02buq