Aquatic animals in the Catalan Bestiari - Institut Interuniversitari de ...

surprising that the worship of this monstrous, aggresive man-eating animal is linked to
the possible origins of the Physiologus in the city of Alexandria.
La calchatrice si è uno serpente grandissimo e grossisimo e la sua facteçça è como diragio; e ave
cotale natura qche s’ella trova alcuno homo, sì se lo mangia e possa ch’ella l’ae amngiato sì llo piange
tutto lo tempo de la sua vita. Et è un altro serpente che ave molte teste; e quando ne gli è tagliata una, sì
ne lli nascie due, e trova questa calcatrice che piange lo homo che ae manducato, si se giecta in terra per
tradito, e la calchatrice viene e si lo mangia, sano e salvo, e quando questo si è in corpo si li rompe le
budilla e esceli fuore del corpo e fanne grande allegreççe, e questo si briga di fare incontinente ch’elli
vede la calcatrice che avea mangia lo homo. 49
The Latin versions of the Physiologus state that both the crocodile and another
beast called a hydra live in the Nile. When the crocodile eats a man, the hydra enters its
stomach and rips it, thus allowing the devoured creature to appear and to come back to
life. The calcatrix is therefore considered to be a symbol of resurrection, where the
crocodile represents hell and the hydra is Jesus Christ reborn to save the lost souls.
In his Etimologiae, Saint Isidore includes this animal as a fish. He offers a short
morphological description but gives no credit to the hydra legend. In other encyclopedic
texts and in Latin bestiaries, we rediscover two species of crocodiles. The first type
lives in the water and is thus a fish, but no extra features are described. On the other
hand, the land crocodile symbolises the lustful. Finally, the legend of the hydra and the
crocodile reappears in the Oxford and Cambridge bestiaries. Here, the hydra is
considered to be a many-headed creature and if one head is cut off two will grow back
in its place, perhaps as noted in the transcribed Catalan bestiary text.
In general, French bestiaries reproduce the legend of the crocodile and the hydra,
with the added feature that the crocodile cries when it eats a man, a detail which seems
to date back to a 5 th century sermon. 50 This feature reappears in the Bestiaire d’amour
by Richard de Fournival and is applied to a lady who behaves like the monster: she
devours her lover and then cries. Meanwhile, the hydra represents men who have many
lovers, as according to some traditions–such as the Oxford Latin Bestiary–, the monster
is said to have several heads.
C’est un serpens (hidra) ki a pluseurs testes, et si est de telle nature ke ki li trence une de ses
testes, se lui en revienent deus. Cil serpent si heit de naturel haïne le cocodrille, et quant il voit
ke li cocodrille a un homme mangié, et qu’il s’en repent tant k’il n’a mais talent d’autre homme
mangier, se se pense en son corage c’or est il legiers a decevoir, por che k’il ne li caut mais k’il
mangüe. Si tuaille soi misme en la boe ausi com s’il fust mors, et quant li cocodrilles le troeve, si
49 McKenzie & Garve, 1912, p. 48. The moralizing lesson is teh same than in catlana version. The text of
inedit manuscript N uses also the name “chalchatrice” (fol 42r-44r).
50 Migne, PG, XL, col. 388.
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