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Medieval Animal Data-Network

Multidisciplinary research on medieval animals

Tagged: apes

Mother Ape with Young Pursued by Hunters. Bestiary. Salisbury (?) (England). Second half of the 13th century. London, The British Library, Ms. Harley 4751, fol. 11r.

Apes & monkeys / Iconography

Apes in Medieval Art

Apes are the closest relatives of humans in the animal world. They look like us, yet they are completely different. The ambiguity between the form and behavior of apes over humans was the main reason why they were used as a mirror of positive and/or negative behavior in both literary and artistic representations...

Detail of the Tapestry of the Lady and the unicorn, Musée de Cluny, Paris

Apes & monkeys / Captivity / Pets

Preventing “Monkey Business”. Fettered Apes in the Middle Ages

The practice of keeping monkeys and apes in captivity during the Middle Ages, mainly as pets, is well known. Janson, in his classical study, Apes and Ape lore in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Janson 1952), dedicates a chapter to this topic (“The Fettered Ape”, chap. V, p. 145-162). He has a symbolic approach...