HEDGEHOG
Ericius · ericium · echinus
The hedgehogs are rolled up, with grapes fixed on their spines. The miniature is verified at the source and not reproduced here.
VIEW THE FOLIO · UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN ↗The hedgehog is one of the few animals whose best-known story is already in Isidore.
It cuts a grape from the vine, rolls onto its back over it, and carries it home to its young.
THE LAYERS · KEPT DISTINCT
ISIDOREETYMOLOGIAE XII.3.7
Etymologiae XII.3.7 says the animal takes its name from its spines, closes itself into a ball when threatened, armed on every side, and shows “a kind of prudence” with the grape.
MANUSCRIPT WITNESSABERDEEN MS 24 · f.24r
The Aberdeen Bestiary repeats the account and pictures it. Its text closely parallels Isidore. TEXT PARALLELS ISIDORE: we record that as an observation, not as a claim of direct copying.
HOW WE KNOW WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW
Isidore XII.3.7 checked in two editions.
Aberdeen f.24r heading and miniature checked on the institution’s own folio page.
The grape episode is in both, so this motif is not a later bestiary addition.
No rights-cleared image. View the folio at the University of Aberdeen.
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
- Whether the Aberdeen scribe copied Isidore directly or through an intermediary.
- A rights-cleared image.