DOG
Canis
IMAGE SOURCE · WIKIMEDIA COMMONS · RIGHTS · COMMONS PUBLIC-DOMAIN FILE
COMMONS FILE PAGE ↗
LATER LAYER · THE DOG AND ITS REFLECTION · NOT IN ISIDORE
Isidore’s dog entry is a list of loyalties. The picture here tells a different, later story.
No creature is more intelligent than the dog.
This miniature shows a dog crossing a bridge with meat, seeing its reflection and dropping what it carries. That story is not in Isidore. The picture belongs to the later stories in the Aberdeen dog section, whose sources we have not traced.
THE LAYERS · KEPT DISTINCT
ISIDOREETYMOLOGIAE XII.2.25–26
Dogs alone recognise their own names. They love their masters, guard the house, will die for those they serve, and do not leave a master’s body even after death. They have either strength or speed, and cannot live apart from people. (2.27, puppies, and 2.28, dog–wolf crosses, are outside this record.)
MANUSCRIPT WITNESSABERDEEN MS 24 · f.18r–20v
The Aberdeen Bestiary opens its long dog section with nearly the same words as Isidore. A miniature of three leashed, collared dogs stands at the head of the section on f.18r. The section goes on to tell further stories, such as a murder at Antioch exposed by the victim’s dog (f.19r). Those come from other authors, and this record does not treat them as Isidore’s.
The f.19r miniature has three panels: the bridge and reflection above, and two dogs licking their wounds below.
HOW WE KNOW WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW
Isidore XII.2.25–26 checked in two editions.
Aberdeen f.18r and f.19r checked on the folio pages. f.18r opens in close parallel with Isidore.
Commons file Dog_and_reflection_aberdeen.jpg, marked public domain. Labelled as a later layer.
Record levels, status labels, the streams diagram and the interface framing are authored by Make It Believable. They are not historical testimony.
WHAT WE DO NOT KNOW YET
- The sources of the f.18v–20v anecdotes (Pliny, Solinus, Ambrose or others). SOURCE REQUIRED.