Here we present the first of two translations of natural history texts
provided by Natalie Lawrence (the second is here). They both concern that strange and
marvellous beast, the pangolin. The first is by Carolus Clusius.
Natalie writes: This is one of the very first descriptions of a pangolin (an mammal essentially like a scaly Old World anteater) in Europe. The animal was described and classified as a lizard, despite its similarity to the anteater and armadillo of South America, primarily because of its striking scaly appearance.
In this volume, Clusius includes the animal amongst other reptiles such as the iguana. Specimens do not seem to have been difficult to access, due to Dutch East India Company activities in the Far East, where several species of pangolin are still found, though little information about the living animal seems to have been brought back to Europe with the skins. Despite this fact, the animal remained without a strong identity in natural history well into the eighteenth century.
As always, we present the original Latin, followed by our translation. Any comments or suggestions welcome!
Carolus Clusius, Exoticorum Libri Decem (1605), p.374
cap. XXI. lib.V: LACERTUS PEREGRINUS SQUAMOSUS
Admirabile erat peregrini Lacerti exuvium, quod anno Christi millesimo sexcentesimo quarto apud honestissimum virum Christianum Porretum pharmacopoeum Leydensem diligentissimum conspiciebam cuiquùm similem ab aliquo descriptum non arbitrer, non inutilem operam me navaturum confidebam, si illius qualemcumque historiolam cum icone ad exuvii formam expresà hic subiicerem.
Breve autem fuisse ejus lacerti corpus videbatur: nam à collo sive illius parte cui anteriora crura jungebantur, usque ad caudae initium, undecim uncias dumtaxat erat longum: corporis autem ambitus circiter novem unciarum aut dodrantis fuerat, quantum conjecturâ assequi licebat: collum ab anterioribus cruribus cum capitis quae restabat parte (illud enim integrum non erat, nec qualis fuerit ejus forma pronunciare queo) tres uncias erat longum, valde tamen exiguum fuisse videbatur: caudam verò à posterioribus pedibus ad extimum ejus mucronem usque longissimam habebat, ut quae duorum pedum cum semisse mensuram expleret. Totum corpus, excepto gutture, et ventris infimâ parte, atque anterioribus etiam cruribus, squamis latis, magnis, rigidis, striatis et mucronatis munitum erat: illae verò quae collum et capitis supremam partem tegebant, semiunciam non erant longae: at quae mediam corporis partem inter crura comprehensam muniebant, binas uncias longae et sescunciam latae: quae deinde per caudae longitudinem spargebantur, adeò amplae non erant, sed sensim versus ejus extremum procedendo minuebantur, ut extremam caudam occupantes, iis quae collum regebant vix ampliores essent: earum autem quae caudae latera utrimque claudebant forma, prorsus reliquis dissimilis, nam planae non erant aliarum instar, sed cavae et veluti geminatae, quia pronam et supinam laterum partem tegebant: praeter illas, totius caudae prona tamen minoribus nec adeò amplis, quibus deinde conjunctae laterales illae geminatae: anteriora crura paullo breviora erant posterioribus, eaque supremâ dumtaxat parte quibusdam squamis tecta, horum deinde reliqua pars cum pedibus, nigris villis obsita; pedes autem quatuor unguibus praediti, quorum secundus aliis multo major, unciam videlicet longus, crassus, uncus, et niger, alii verò candicabant: at posteriora crura pedum tenus squamis erant obsita, et supinam dumtaxat illorum partem pili vestiebant, horum similiter pedes quatuor unguibus praediti, sed minoribus quàm anteriores, parvum insuper calcar interiore parte adjunctum habebant: animalis guttur, et ventris ima pars, nigris villis obsita.
Unde porrò allatum esset illud Lacerti exuvium, ignorabat qui id redemerat, et porpter raritatem inter alia exotica retinebat.
Similem etiam habuisse Jacobum Plateau, conjecturam faciebam ex una aut altera squama quam ad me mittebat: cujus verò magnitudinis fuerit, mihi ignotum. Alium praeterae illi non dissimilem, sed longè minorem, antea videbam Amstelredami apud quendam, qui rerum peregrinarum mercimonia exercebat.
Now here's our translation:
The foreign lizard hide which I saw in the year of Christ 1604, at the shop of the very honourable Christian Porrett, the very hardworking apothecary of Leiden, was amazing; I don’t think a similar one has been described by anyone, [so] I was confident that I was not performing a useless task by adding here some little description of the hide with a picture made in its likeness.
Caption: Lacertus Peregrinus Squamosus [scaly foreign lizard]
It seemed that the body of this lizard had been short: it was no more than eleven inches from the neck, or that part where the forelegs were attached, to the start of the tail; the body, moreover, in circumference was around nine inches or ¾ of a foot, inasmuch as it was possible to conjecture; the neck indeed seemed to have been meagre, being three inches long from the front legs to what remained of the head (for this was incomplete, nor can I tell you what its shape might have been). It had a tail that was very long, measuring two and a half feet from the back legs to its furthest tip.
The whole body, except the throat, the under-belly, and also the front legs, was armed with large, broad, rigid, furrowed and pointy scales. Those scales which protecting the neck and the upper part of the head were less than half an inch long, but those which covered the middle of the body, between the [two sets of] legs, were two inches long and an inch and a half wide. Those which then spread along the length of the tail were less broad, but got gradually smaller as one moved towards the tip, so that the ones that covered the tip were hardly bigger than those which protected the neck. However, the form of those that covered the sides of the tail on both sides were altogether unlike the other scales, for they were not flat like the others shown in the image, but doubled over, concave and hollow, one side covering the prone, the other the supine parts. Apart from these scales at the sides, the prone part of the tail [is covered with] smaller and narrower scales, with which the folded side ones were then paired.
The forelegs were a little shorter than the rear legs, and their upper parts at least were covered with scales, while the remaining part [of the forelegs], with the feet, was covered with black hairs. The feet were provided with four claws, of which the second was much bigger than the others: that is to say, an inch long, hooked and black, while the others were whitish. The hind legs were covered with scales down to the feet, while hairs clothed their upper parts; their feet [were] similarly endowed with four claws, but smaller than the ones [on the fore-legs]. In addition, they had a small spur joined to the inner part [of the limb]. The animal's throat and the innermost part of its belly were covered with black hairs.
From whence the skin of the lizard was originally brought was not known to he who purchased it, but because of its rarity he kept it among his miscellaneous exotica.
Jacob Plateau also had [a skin] like this, or so I suspected from a couple of scales which he sent to me. Of what size it may have been, however, I did not know. In addition, before this, I saw another [skin] not dissimilar but far smaller, in Amsterdam, at the premises of a man who traded in foreign goods.
Natalie writes: This is one of the very first descriptions of a pangolin (an mammal essentially like a scaly Old World anteater) in Europe. The animal was described and classified as a lizard, despite its similarity to the anteater and armadillo of South America, primarily because of its striking scaly appearance.
In this volume, Clusius includes the animal amongst other reptiles such as the iguana. Specimens do not seem to have been difficult to access, due to Dutch East India Company activities in the Far East, where several species of pangolin are still found, though little information about the living animal seems to have been brought back to Europe with the skins. Despite this fact, the animal remained without a strong identity in natural history well into the eighteenth century.
As always, we present the original Latin, followed by our translation. Any comments or suggestions welcome!
______________________________________________
Carolus Clusius, Exoticorum Libri Decem (1605), p.374
cap. XXI. lib.V: LACERTUS PEREGRINUS SQUAMOSUS
Admirabile erat peregrini Lacerti exuvium, quod anno Christi millesimo sexcentesimo quarto apud honestissimum virum Christianum Porretum pharmacopoeum Leydensem diligentissimum conspiciebam cuiquùm similem ab aliquo descriptum non arbitrer, non inutilem operam me navaturum confidebam, si illius qualemcumque historiolam cum icone ad exuvii formam expresà hic subiicerem.
Unde porrò allatum esset illud Lacerti exuvium, ignorabat qui id redemerat, et porpter raritatem inter alia exotica retinebat.
Similem etiam habuisse Jacobum Plateau, conjecturam faciebam ex una aut altera squama quam ad me mittebat: cujus verò magnitudinis fuerit, mihi ignotum. Alium praeterae illi non dissimilem, sed longè minorem, antea videbam Amstelredami apud quendam, qui rerum peregrinarum mercimonia exercebat.
______________________________________________
Now here's our translation:
The foreign lizard hide which I saw in the year of Christ 1604, at the shop of the very honourable Christian Porrett, the very hardworking apothecary of Leiden, was amazing; I don’t think a similar one has been described by anyone, [so] I was confident that I was not performing a useless task by adding here some little description of the hide with a picture made in its likeness.
Caption: Lacertus Peregrinus Squamosus [scaly foreign lizard]
It seemed that the body of this lizard had been short: it was no more than eleven inches from the neck, or that part where the forelegs were attached, to the start of the tail; the body, moreover, in circumference was around nine inches or ¾ of a foot, inasmuch as it was possible to conjecture; the neck indeed seemed to have been meagre, being three inches long from the front legs to what remained of the head (for this was incomplete, nor can I tell you what its shape might have been). It had a tail that was very long, measuring two and a half feet from the back legs to its furthest tip.
The whole body, except the throat, the under-belly, and also the front legs, was armed with large, broad, rigid, furrowed and pointy scales. Those scales which protecting the neck and the upper part of the head were less than half an inch long, but those which covered the middle of the body, between the [two sets of] legs, were two inches long and an inch and a half wide. Those which then spread along the length of the tail were less broad, but got gradually smaller as one moved towards the tip, so that the ones that covered the tip were hardly bigger than those which protected the neck. However, the form of those that covered the sides of the tail on both sides were altogether unlike the other scales, for they were not flat like the others shown in the image, but doubled over, concave and hollow, one side covering the prone, the other the supine parts. Apart from these scales at the sides, the prone part of the tail [is covered with] smaller and narrower scales, with which the folded side ones were then paired.
The forelegs were a little shorter than the rear legs, and their upper parts at least were covered with scales, while the remaining part [of the forelegs], with the feet, was covered with black hairs. The feet were provided with four claws, of which the second was much bigger than the others: that is to say, an inch long, hooked and black, while the others were whitish. The hind legs were covered with scales down to the feet, while hairs clothed their upper parts; their feet [were] similarly endowed with four claws, but smaller than the ones [on the fore-legs]. In addition, they had a small spur joined to the inner part [of the limb]. The animal's throat and the innermost part of its belly were covered with black hairs.
From whence the skin of the lizard was originally brought was not known to he who purchased it, but because of its rarity he kept it among his miscellaneous exotica.
Jacob Plateau also had [a skin] like this, or so I suspected from a couple of scales which he sent to me. Of what size it may have been, however, I did not know. In addition, before this, I saw another [skin] not dissimilar but far smaller, in Amsterdam, at the premises of a man who traded in foreign goods.
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