Keywords: Hand Gesture, cynocephali, barking, John of Plano Carpini, Martin Waldseemüller The dog-headed cynocephali were frequently depicted with their hands raised or pointing. Hand gestures were recognised in ancient Greece and Rome as a part of universal human expression, used for persuasive and emotive discourse (Kendon, 2004, p. 17). As the Roman rhetorician, Marcus Fabius… Continue reading Cynocephali and Signs of ‘Barbarous’ Language
Witches in Sixteenth-Century Germany: The belief in witches, what they were accused of and why 'The witch trials demonstrated fear of the power of women’s sexuality. The female witch was understood to be a product of woman’s excessive carnal lust who were affiliated with fornication and orgies with the Devil. This made them more susceptible… Continue reading Halloween Compilation 2022
Keywords: New World, cynocephali, Native Americans, Cannibalism, Lorenz Fries With the discovery of the Americas, there was a natural decline in the interest in monstrous races, as that was superseded by the interest in real marvels of the New World. However, the legacy of the monstrous races persisted to the mid-sixteenth century. After the discovery… Continue reading Imagining the New World: Representations of Cannibalistic Cynocephali in Lorenz Fries’ Uslegung der Mercarthen oder Carta Marina
Keywords: Konrad von Megenberg (or Conrad von Megenberg) Monstrous races in art, Plinian races, India, Das Buch der Natur That all races, ethnicities, man and woman belong to the same species sounds like a truism. However, this idea of human universalism was a point of contention during the sixteenth century. The discussion surrounding non-European foreigners… Continue reading The Monstrous Races of Konrad von Megenberg’s Das Buch der Natur
Keywords: Monstrous Races, Monstrous Births, Margarita Philosophia, St. Augustine of Hippo, mark of Cain The etymology of the word ‘monster’ is derived from the Latin monere, meaning to warn and were regarded to presage intending calamity (Gilmore, 2003, p. 9). During the Renaissance, monstrous births were considered warnings against sin towards the collective, as well… Continue reading The Monstrous Races in Gregor Reisch’s Margarita Philosophia
Dana K Rehn 