Notes on Gessner’s Giraffe. Bible, Sources and Iconography

Abstract : The chapter on giraffe given by Conrad Gessner in his Historia animalium is an important step in the long-term history of this animal, from antiquity to pre-modern times. The aim of this paper is not to give an in-depth review of Gessner’s chapter on the giraffe, but it will stress three topics: the specific problem of the presence of the giraffe in the Bible; some aspects of Gessner’s textual sources, with a special focus on medieval authors, and the illustrations of the giraffe in the printed editions of Gessner’s Historia animalium.