Issue 06: Of Paws & Purrs
These days, images of kittehs look like kittehs. In the medieval period, depictions of cats proved more...fanciful.
Welcome to this week’s edition of Musings, and especially to new subscribers! Thank you for your support!
When brainstorming the last issue of 2022, I was going to wax nostalgic, as many of us tend to do, about this year. Instead, I decided to keep it light. And what better way to do that than with images of kitties?!
See?
Is this perhaps an excuse to share some photos of my two cats Lily and Darth? Maybe. Is it also an excuse to share some medieval illustrations of cats? Also maybe.
If you’re still with me, sit back and enjoy some historic and modern kitties!
Ye Olde History
Cats in Medieval Manuscripts
In her blog Academic Cat Lady, blogger and academic Johanna Feenstra offers a fascinating history about cats in medieval bestiaries. The British Library describes a bestiary as a book about flora, fauna, and even rocks, combining physical characteristics and habits of animals and associated moral or spiritual connotations or attributions.1 It may come as no surprise that medieval depictions of cats often included rodents.
Medieval authors often contextualized cats in relation to their role as predator, especially in the domestic sphere.2 In fact, the British Library, in an incredibly helpful annotation of the medieval bestiary shown above, offers more information on how cats and mice might have received their respective names:
The bestiary’s portrayal of the cat testifies to the important textual contributions of the ‘Etymologies’ of Isidore of Seville (d. 636). According to Isidore, the cat is called ‘musio’ because it is the enemy of the mouse (called ‘mus’ in Latin) or catus, in reference either to its dexterity in catching prey (a derivation from the Latin word ‘captura’, meaning catching) or to the sharpness of its vision (a derivation from the Greek word ‘catus’, meaning sharp).3
Now, if I could just get my two cats to effectively hunt like that. Instead, Lily likes to play with her dinner.
And Darth? Well, Darth is more likely to fall asleep on the job.
Contrast this to the cat below, helpfully holding a spool of wool while a nun spins it into thread:
Well, at least they’re cute!
History of Lily and Darth
This article is a tad more personal than usual, but I wanted to share a little about the cats shown in this article.
Lily, my 13-year-old tortoiseshell, was the first cat I adopted after I graduated from college in 2012. She was a stray and suffered from a degloved tail (not quite sure what happened, but I suspect a slammed door had damaged it). Consequently, she needed some surgery to remove two broken or damaged bones, resulting in a docked tail. Lily has had a few other health concerns over the years, but these days, she’s affectionate, happy, and hates being away from my side for a few minutes.
Darth Dracarys is my 10-year-old grey tabby whom I adopted in July 2013 at about six months old. He’s more energetic than Lily and tends to get into much more trouble. He’s anxious at times, but I’ve learned how to decrease stressful situations with him as best I can. And yet, he’s the cutest little bugger ever.
The two of them get along very well, always have.
Medieval depictions of cats tend to be a bit more fanciful, but they also have their own charm.
For more depictions of medieval cats, check out the Medieval Bestiary website. This is an excellent resource for more information on cats in medieval literature as well as other animals, both real and imaginary.
Bookish
There’s not much on this front as of now, but I will be working on compiling a list of books I’m looking forward to reading in 2023!
Wishing you a very Happy New Year! I have some additional blog posts and newsletter ideas in the works, but if you have an idea of what you’d like to see, please feel free to comment! Thank you so much again for your support! :)
Cheers,
-Amy
“Introduction”, Medieval Bestiary, the British Library, https://www.bl.uk/turning-the-pages/?id=32841b35-03d4-40d5-a218-0e9effb1843a&type=book (accessed December 31, 2022).
“The cat, the mouse & the mole”, Medieval Bestiary, the British Library, https://www.bl.uk/turning-the-pages/?id=32841b35-03d4-40d5-a218-0e9effb1843a&type=book (accessed December 31, 2022).
Ibid.