Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10135
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‘Figure du Poission nommé Vletif’
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 Vletif, a mythological sea-beast, in a seascape including boats and an island. The animal is shown being hunted from shore by three figures using a bow, a trident and a spear. The creature is perhaps based on the narwhal; however the ‘horn’ depicted resembles the rostrum of the sawfish or carpenter shark family.
In discussing the fish the author notes that he had seen a horn of this type: “Defunct Monsieur le Coq, auditeur en la Chambre des Comptes a Paris, me donna une corne du dit poisson, qu'il gardoit en son cabinet...” (...Monsieur le Coq, auditor in the Chamber of Accounts in Paris, gave me a horn of this fish from his cabinet..).
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.30.
Ambroise Paré (c.1510-1590) was a French barber surgeon and anatomist who served several Kings of France.
In discussing the fish the author notes that he had seen a horn of this type: “Defunct Monsieur le Coq, auditeur en la Chambre des Comptes a Paris, me donna une corne du dit poisson, qu'il gardoit en son cabinet...” (...Monsieur le Coq, auditor in the Chamber of Accounts in Paris, gave me a horn of this fish from his cabinet..).
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.30.
Ambroise Paré (c.1510-1590) was a French barber surgeon and anatomist who served several Kings of France.
Associated place