Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10132
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‘Figure du Pirassoipi, espece de Licorne d’Italie’
Date
1582
Object type
Library reference
Tracts/X306/2
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 162mm
width (print): 230mm
width (print): 230mm
Subject
Description
Figure of a Pirassoipi, the twin-horned unicorn, shown within a landscape in which the mythological beast is being hunted and skinned.
In discussing the animal the author notes that: “En l'Arabie pres la mer Rouge il se trouve une beste, que les Sauvages appelant Pirassoipi, grande comme un Mulet, & sa tete quasi semblable, tout son corps velu en forme d'un Ours...C’est animal a deux cornes a la tete fort longues...” (In Arabia near the Red Sea is a beast that the Indians calling Pirassoipi: as large as a mule, and his head, like his whole body hairy like a bear...the animal has two very long horns at the head...).
Illustration from Discours d'Ambroise Pare ... a scavoir, de la mumie, de la licorne, des venins, et de la peste, avec une table des plus notables matieres contenues esdit discours (chez Gabriel Buon, Paris, 1582), f.27.
Ambroise Paré (c.1510-1590) was a French barber surgeon and anatomist who served several Kings of France.
In discussing the animal the author notes that: “En l'Arabie pres la mer Rouge il se trouve une beste, que les Sauvages appelant Pirassoipi, grande comme un Mulet, & sa tete quasi semblable, tout son corps velu en forme d'un Ours...C’est animal a deux cornes a la tete fort longues...” (In Arabia near the Red Sea is a beast that the Indians calling Pirassoipi: as large as a mule, and his head, like his whole body hairy like a bear...the animal has two very long horns at the head...).
Illustration from Discours d'Ambroise Pare ... a scavoir, de la mumie, de la licorne, des venins, et de la peste, avec une table des plus notables matieres contenues esdit discours (chez Gabriel Buon, Paris, 1582), f.27.
Ambroise Paré (c.1510-1590) was a French barber surgeon and anatomist who served several Kings of France.
Associated place