Isidore of Seville reports, according to Pliny, the existence of the camelopardalis, described as a spotted animal, reminiscent of the leopard, the camel, the horse and the ox. The Ordinary Gloss will take up and comment on this description in a list of animals from Deuteronomy. The Middle Ages were unaware for a long time that this “camel-leopard” referred to the giraffe, very rarely seen in Europe in medieval times. This “philological” animal, with its disparate forms, has sometimes given rise to allegorical comments, from Raban Maur to the moralized encyclopedias of the 13th and 14th centuries, based in particular on Isidore and the Gloss. Each element of the description of this animal will serve as support for moral exegesis: cloven hooves, spots, neck, as well as rumination, noted by Barthélemy l’Anglais by analogy with the camel and the biblical laws on clean animals. Between description inherited from Antiquity and presence in the Bible, the camelopardalis, despite its status as a philological animal, disconnected from any zoological reality, will give rise to a wide variety of moral interpretations.

Language: French

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