Archives of natural history 36 (1): 37–47. 2009 # The Society for the History of Natural History DOI: 10.3366/E0260954108000600 Pictorial evidence from medieval Italy of cheetahs and caracals, and their use in hunting MARCO MASSETI Dipartimento di Biologia Evoluzionistica “Leo Pardi” dell’Universita` di Firenze, Laboratori di Antropologia ed Etnologia, Via del Proconsolo, 12, 50122 Firenze, Italy (e-mail: marco.masseti@unifi.it). ABSTRACT: Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) and caracals (Caracal caracal) have been used for hunting in the Near and the Middle East since antiquity. In Iran and India the caracal was mainly trained for hunting birds, but in Europe this practice was rare, and is documented only in southern Italy and Sicily by iconographic evidence as far back as the eleventh and twelfth centuries. However, no bone remains of the species have been found so far by the archaeozoological exploration of Italian medieval sites, nor are there any known literary references for the use of caracals for hunting. KEY WORDS: Norman Sicily – Acinonyx jubatus – Caracal caracal. RIASSUNTO: L’uso venatorio di felidi come il ghepardo (Acinonyx jubatus) ed il caracal (Caracal caracal) e` diffuso nel Vicino e nel Medio Oriente da tempo immemorabile. In Iran e in India, i caracal venivano specialmente apprezzati per la caccia alle specie ornitiche. In Europa, pero`, questo uso del felide e` poco conosciuto ed e` essenzialmente documentabile nell’Italia meridionale ed in Sicilia, in base ad evidenze iconografiche che possono essere riferite a non prima dell’XI e XII secolo. Alla luce attuale delle conoscenze, comunque, non si dispone di alcun reperto osteologico della specie, che sia mai stato restituito dall’esplorazione dei siti archeologici medievali, ne´ tanto meno si conoscono documenti letterari che facciano riferimento alla presenza di caracal in Italia. PAROLE CHIAVE: Italia medievale – Sicilia normanna – ghepardo – felidi da caccia. CHEETAHS AS HUNTING PARTNERS The use of felids in hunting has been known in the Near East and the Middle East since antiquity (De Germiny 1934; Ordozgoiti 1961; Zeuner 1963; Clutton-Brock 1981; Lentiades 1981; Ortalli 1985; Divyabhanusinh 1999). The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) has been employed for hunting in India since time immemorial (Divyabhanusinh 1999). The medieval Mongol princes used this animal in large numbers. Marco Polo in Il Milione, possibly co-written with Rustichello da Pisa in the year 1298 (see Gil 1992; Brennecke 2004), related that Kublai Khan hunted with cheetahs in the thirteenth century. In medieval Europe this felid was widely used in hunting, and it was known in Italy as pardo da caccia; those in charge of its rearing and training were called parderi. Literary and artistic evidence confirms the use of cheetahs in hunting in continental Italy, Sicily and Malta, between the twelfth and the sixteenth centuries (De Germiny 1934; Messedaglia 1940; Perosino 1958; Mosco 1985; Ortalli 1985; Malacarne 1998; Erba 1999). Images of cheetahs by artists of probable Byzantine or Islamic origin survive in the mosaic decoration of the Sala di Re Ruggero in Palazzo dei Normanni, Palermo, dating to between 1160 and 1170 (Malignaggi 1991) (Figure 1). Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (1194–1250) must have learnt the art of hunting with this carnivore from the Sicilian Arabs. To acquire the cheetahs from North Africa, the emperor applied on more than one occasion to Paolino da Malta and to the Credenziere 38 HUNTING WITH CARACAL AND CHEETAH IN MEDIEVAL ITALY Figure 1. Cheetahs in the mosaic decoration of the Sala di Re Ruggero in the Norman Palace of Palermo. Figure 3. Detail of a fresco by Bernardino Poccetti in the Figure 2. Detail from “Procession of the Magi”, a first hall of Buontalenti’s Grotta Grande in Boboli gardens, fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli in Palazzo Medici dated between 1586 and 1587 (photograph by Lorenzo Riccardi, Florence, dated around 1459. Giotti, reproduced by permission). HUNTING WITH CARACAL AND CHEETAH IN MEDIEVAL ITALY 39 of Palermo and Sicily, as illustrated by a number of documents discovered by Bo¨ehmer (1881–1894). On 12 April 1273, Charles I of Anjou ordered his Camerario in Malta, Roberto Caforo, to capture eight cheetahs in the usual spots and to have them transported to him, accompanied by faithful and trusted experts in order to avoid accidents (Mifsud 1917). Nevertheless, it seems that the first Italian to genuinely appreciate this felid was Nicola d’Este who had the opportunity to admire its skill in hunting on Cyprus in the course of a journey to Jerusalem in 1314. From this time on there are records of cheetahs in the courts of northern Italy, such as those of the Sforza and Visconti in Milan, as well as the Este court in Ferrara (Perosino 1958; Erba 1999), and later also in central Italy, at the Medici court of Florence (Heikamp 1965; Masseti 1991). Cheetahs were brought to the hunting grounds hooded, seated on the backs of horses behind their keepers, and were allowed to jump off and pursue the game when the chances appeared good (Zeuner 1963). Felids on horseback are portrayed in the “Adoration of the Magi” by Gentile da Fabriano1, and in the frescoes of Benozzo Gozzoli “The Procession of the Magi” in Palazzo Medici Riccardi, also in Florence, dated to around 1459 (Santi 1983; Acidini Luchinat 1993) (Figure 2). Here, the young Lorenzo de’ Medici is portrayed riding his horse, with a tame cheetah seated behind him. It would appear that the Medici had learned of the cheetah’s use in hunting when the Patriarch of Constantinople and his court visited Florence on the occasion of the Council of 1439. In the Near East and India, the favourite prey for this type of hunting were usually medium-sized ungulates, such as gazelles (Gazella spp) and the Indian blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) (Clutton-Brock 1981; Divyabhanusinh 1999). In Italy roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) were hunted instead, as is clearly shown in the paintings of Gentile da Fabriano and Benozzo Gozzoli. On Cyprus, during the period of Lusignan rule (1192–1489), it was the custom to course mouflons (Ovis orientalis) (Lentiades 1981). Other artistic representations of cheetahs can be found in the production of various Italian Gothic and Renaissance artists, such as Giovannino de’Grassi ( fl. 1389–1398), Pisanello (c. 1395–c. 1455), Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430–1516) and others. We should also mention the beautiful representation of a cheetah in Titian’s painting “Bacchus and Ariadne”.2 In almost all these works the morphological rendering of the species is so accurate that the painters presumably knew their subject well, and may even have used live specimens as models. The presence in central Italy of living cheetahs is still attested up to the late sixteenth century, again in Florence, when between 1586 and 1587 Bernardino Poccetti portrayed a pair of them in the frescoes of the first hall of Buontalenti’s Grotta Grande in the Boboli gardens (Chiarini 1977; Masseti 1991) (Figure 3). The suggestion made by Altobelli et al. (1999) that these animals are leopards (Panthera pardus) cannot be interpreted other than as a lack of specific zoological knowledge. A WILDCAT WITH LONG, BLACK EARS Less well known than the cheetah in the hunting traditions of medieval Europe was another species of felid, the caracal or desert lynx (Caracal caracal). Nevertheless, it was apparently known in southern Italy earlier than the cheetah since it can be documented as far back as the eleventh century. Also called the African or Persian lynx, the caracal is a medium-sized felid3, found in most of Africa and the Indian subcontinent, as well as the whole Near East 40 HUNTING WITH CARACAL AND CHEETAH IN MEDIEVAL ITALY Figure 5. The use of the caracal in hunting is a practice of ancient tradition that originated in the desert of Mosul Figure 4. Caracal (photographed by Marco Masseti, (northern Mesopotamia), in Persia, and in the north-western in Haifa, Israel). provinces of India (from Harting 1883). including the Arabian peninsula and Persia (Haltenorth and Diller 1977; Harrison and Bates 1991; Nowell and Jackson 1996; Masseti 2000). Recent research carried out in southern Anatolia confirmed the occurrence of caracals also within the Turkish national park of Termessos, Antalya (Giannatos et al. 2006). It is characterized by a variable coat colour, which may be wine-red, grey or sand-coloured; melanistic (black) caracals also occur (Harrison and Bates 1991). Its ears are tall and pointed at the tip with a highly developed apical tuft (Figure 4). The use of caracals in hunting is also of very ancient tradition, having originated in the desert of Mosul (northern Mesopotamia), in Persia, and in the north-western provinces of India (El Mangali 1880; Harting 1883) (Figure 5). Caracals are surprisingly easy to tame, and their life expectancy in captivity is up to 18 years. They can jump and climb exceptionally well. According to Harting (1883), the caracal was trained in much the same way as the cheetah, although it was used for taking different quarry: “The Cheetah is slipped chiefly at Antelopes, the Caracal takes Hares, Bustards, Wild-fowl, Francolin, and Sandgrouse.” It takes its prey in rather a different manner from the cheetah, that is, not by coursing but by creeping stealthily towards it, and springing upon it from an extraordinary distance. The caracal is best known for its skill in hunting birds, and can snatch a bird in flight, sometimes several at a time. Nineteenth-century observers testified to the ability of this felid to catch birds on the wing, for it has been known to steal up to a covey of francolins, or desert partridges, and at the instant of their rising to spring into the air and knock down one with each forepaw (Harting 1883). It is said that the Persian and Indian noblemen would organize contests between their favourite caracals (Rodriguez De La Fuente 1970). The felids were put into arenas containing a flock of pigeons, and wagers were made as to how many the caracal would take down. Harting (1883) goes on to suggest that this could be the origin of the expression “to put a cat amongst the pigeons”. CARACALS AND CRANES IN ELEVENTH-CENTURY CAPUA, SOUTHERN ITALY In Europe, evidence for the use of caracals in hunting is very scanty. As far back as the eleventh century the presence of the animal is documented in southern Italy by a detail in the frescoes of the basilica of Sant’Angelo in Formis at Capua, Caserta (Figure 6). These paintings are dated between 1072 and perhaps 1087 (Ragghianti 1968; Paradiso 1998; Causa 1965) and are regarded as the most complete cycle of medieval painting to have survived HUNTING WITH CARACAL AND CHEETAH IN MEDIEVAL ITALY 41 (Ragghianti 1968). A caracal is represented in the scene “il sacrificio Noe`”, apparently having just captured two cranes (perhaps Grus grus). In this context, cranes as prey might reflect eastern hunting practices in which, as we have already seen, caracals were traditionally used for bird-hunting. Also in Europe, young cranes were considered a delicacy in medieval times (Albarella 1997), as illustrated in the famous novella in the Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375), “Chichibio and the crane” (or “The one-legged crane”). It seems, however, that the same could not be said of adult cranes (Albarella 1997) which were Figure 6. “Il sacrificio Noe`” (with detail); a wall-painting in the eleventh-century basilica of Sant’Angelo in Formis at Capua (Caserta), southern Italy (photograph by Domenico Caiazza, reproduced by permission). 42 HUNTING WITH CARACAL AND CHEETAH IN MEDIEVAL ITALY described by the seventeenth-century English writer Thomas Muffet (1655) as “tough, gross, sinewy and engendering a melancholic blood”. Although bones of wild birds are generally uncommon in medieval sites, they are more frequently found on sites of the nobility, such as castles, than in towns and villages. This suggests that, together with other birds of large size such as bustards, herons and swans, cranes were regarded as a luxury food, consumed by people of high rank (Bourne 1981; Hernandez Carrasquilla 1993; Albarella and Thomas 2002). In the European courts, documentary sources indicate that the animals most commonly used to hunt cranes were not caracals, but gyrfalcons (Falco rusticolus) (Woolgar 1999) and peregrines (F. peregrinus). Since these birds of prey were used exclusively by the highest aristocracy, some of the very large birds that they caught were sure to have found their way to the tables of people of similarly elevated rank (Albarella and Thomas 2002). In Italy, the cutmarks observed on several crane bones in the medieval site of the castle of Moncalieri (Turin, north-west Italy) (Pavia 2000) indicate that the fowl was considered a particular delicacy for the banquets of the nobles (Nada Patrone 1989). Apropos of this, Furnivall (1868) recounts how, in 1413, Wynkyn de Worde recommended treating the meat of crane with ginger, mustard, vinegar and salt. CARACALS IN TWELFTH-CENTURY PALERMO, SICILY According to Gunhouse (1991)4, the frescoes of Sant’Angelo in Formis are so similar in theme to the mosaics in the cathedral of Monreale, in the vicinity of Palermo, “that we must assume that they derive from a common ancestor”. This reference takes us even further south, to Sicily, to what was then still the verdant Conca d’Oro of Palermo. It is here that we find, in the setting of the island, the image of a caracal portrayed within a decidedly courtly ambience, datable about a century after the decoration of the basilica of Capua. In the second half of the twelfth century, a park for hunting and other courtly delights was created for the Norman king, William II, just behind the royal palace of Palermo. This hunting park was called a genoard, a name derived from the Arabic gennat al-ard, signifying earthly paradise. This was not a specific name, but was shared by all the Muslim gardens of delights, which were designed to resemble the paradise of the Koran. It consisted of a green area, enclosed and irrigated, considered practically a riya`d belonging to the royal palace (Zangheri 2006; Masseti 2006). An image of the appearance of the genoard has survived in a twelfth-century illumination illustrating “Palermo piange la morte di Guglielmo II di Sicilia” contained in “Liber ad honorem Augusti” by Pietro da Eboli5 (Rota 1909). This manuscript was written and illuminated in Palermo between 1195 and 1197 and thus is contemporary with the mosaics of Monreale (Cuomo 2001). In the illumination, the genoard is set within the context of the city, and is part of the city. Various exotic plants are illustrated, but the earthly paradise was also home to a special fauna that included birds and mammals, the presence of which within the park was determined not only by aesthetic considerations but also practical ones connected with hunting. Among the animals depicted in the illumination is a caracal (in the lower part of the miniature). It is represented in profile standing on its four paws and not in the act of springing, beneath a clump of trees on the branches of which are perched several birds including two falcons and a ring-necked parakeet (Psittacula krameri) (Figure 7). Despite this unequivocal iconographic evidence from “Liber ad honorem Augusti” and from the wall-paintings of Capua, as far as is presently known, no bone remains of caracal have been provided by any of the archaeozoological explorations of Sicily or southern HUNTING WITH CARACAL AND CHEETAH IN MEDIEVAL ITALY 43 Italy. Nor is there any reliable literary account of the occurrence of caracals in the Italian peninsula. In certain respects, the case of the caracal seems to be similar to that of the falcons. Sicilian archaeozoological data for the latter are scarce, not to say totally lacking (see Villari 1988; Di Martino 1997; Sara` 2005). For other sections of the north-western Mediterranean too, such as the Iberian peninsula, there are very few medieval bone finds of birds of prey (Hernandez 1993; Hernandez Carrasquilla 1994), considering what must have been the considerable diffusion of such birds in the milieux of the aristocratic courts, at least judging from the abundance of literary sources and related iconographic documents. This illustrates how it is not always possible to document the past presence of a certain animal species in a specific territory and/or a particular cultural context, solely on the basis of the data offered by archaeozoological research, especially when we are dealing with animals that were used by an elite, such as aristocratic falconers and hunters. In view of the presence in the illumination of the caracal and the other animals, within the enclosure of the genoard, this may have been a breeding area. Effectively, as we have already noted, the earthly paradise must have housed a special fauna, selected not only for aesthetic reasons but also for hunting purposes, among which falconry was foremost. The Normans of Sicily inherited this type of structure from previous cultures. In fact, their conquest of Sicily, after 1060, brought them into contact with the classical and Islamic traditions of keeping captive animals in parks (Rowley 1983): traditions that they were later to transmit to the rest of the western world. CONCLUDING REMARKS The caracal appears to have also been well known at the Medici court in sixteenth-century Florence, although there are no reliable accounts of its use in contemporary hunting activities. One of the finest images of the animal that has survived from the Renaissance period is in “Spalliera a grottesche con teste di profilo di lince e di caracal” painted by Alessandro Allori (1535–1607), now displayed in the Bargello National Museum in Florence, in which both lynx (Lynx lynx) and caracal are depicted shown wearing collars (Figure 8). In the same period, in Bologna, Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605) in his “Tavole di animali”6, preserved in Biblioteca Universitaria, Bologna, noted the term “Pardogatto florentinis”, possibly to indicate an alternative name, in the Florentine area, for the “Lynx Africano”, namely the caracal, which the same Renaissance scholar also called “Lupocerviero aljis n 1”. However, the image to which these notes refer unequivocally shows a lynx, perhaps the Eurasian lynx, not a caracal. The zoomorphic images evoked by the painter Pisanello on the recto of the medal of Leonello d’Este (1407–1450)7 and in the “Disegno con aquile, cani e linci”8, also appear to be the lynx. In Italy, and possibly also in the rest of Europe, the use of the caracal in hunting appears to have been forgotten during the sixteenth century, and is for example completely absent from the extensive series of plates depicting various aspects of the hunt in Europe by the Flemish artist Jan van der Straedt (Antonio Stradano) which were published in Antwerp in 1558, under the title Venationes ferarum, avium, piscium (see Baroni Vannucci 1997). Finally it is interesting to consider the Italian term pardogatto, as used by Aldrovandi, and its equivalent gattopardo, possibly better known in view of its association with the animal in the coat of arms of one of the oldest noble families of Sicily (see Tomasi di Lampedusa 1958). We have already seen how, according to Aldrovandi, this word evidently 44 HUNTING WITH CARACAL AND CHEETAH IN MEDIEVAL ITALY Figure 7. “Genoard” (earthly paradise), from the twelfth-century illumination illustrating “The city of Palermo in mourning for the death of William II”; from “Liber ad honorem Augusti” by Pietro da Eboli, 1195–1197.5 Figure 8. Detail of “Spalliera a grottesche con teste di profilo di lince e di caracal” by Alessandro Allori (1535–1607); Bargello National Museum, Florence. HUNTING WITH CARACAL AND CHEETAH IN MEDIEVAL ITALY 45 indicated a type of lynx, and possibly the caracal, but other authors prefer to identify it with the serval (Leptailurus serval). Of medieval origin, the Italian term gattopardo could be directly related to the French chat leopard used by Gaston Phoebus in the “Livre de chasse” written between the years 1387 and 1389 (De Urquijo et al. 1994), and to its English translation of leopard cat adopted by Edward, Duke of York, in the fifteenth-century book “The master of game” (Cummins 1988). Both these terms, the French and the English, were however ordinarily used to indicate the Eurasian lynx, and not the caracal. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the course of this project I have been fortunate to have the help of many friends and colleagues. I am particularly grateful to Domenico Caiazza (Soprintendenza Archeologica di Napoli e Caserta and Istituto Storico Archeologico Campano-Sannitico), Francesco G. Fedele (Chair of Anthropology, University of Naples), Giorgos Giannatos (Department of Zoology – Marine Biology, University of Athens) and Francesco Mossolin (Gruppo Lince Italia). Special thanks are due to Paolo de Benedetti (Facolta` Teologica dell’Italia Settentrionale, Milano, & Istituti di Scienze Religiose dell’Universita` di Urbino e Trento) and Renzo Gherardini (Florence) for their assistance with my attempts to understand the significance of the animals represented in “il sacrificio Noe`”, Sant’Angelo in Formis, Capua. NOTES 1 1423, Uffizi Gallery, Florence. 2 1523–1524, National Gallery, London. 3 Total body length 62–91 cm; tail 18–34 cm; weight 8–19 kg. 4 GUNHOUSE, G., 1991 “The fresco decoration of Sant’Angelo in Formis”. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. The Johns Hopkins University, Ann Arbor. 5 Stadtbibliothek, Berne; Codex 120. 6 Tome 1. Vol. V carta 24. 7 Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum, London: CM George III, Ferrara Medal 25. 8 Louvre, Paris; 2413. REFERENCES ACIDINI LUCHINAT, C. (editor), 1993 Benozzo Gozzoli. La Cappella dei Magi. Milan. ALBARELLA, U., 1997 Crane and vulture at an Italian Bronze Age site. 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