PARD / LEOPARD
Pardus · leopardus
IMAGE SOURCE · WIKIMEDIA COMMONS · RIGHTS · COMMONS PUBLIC-DOMAIN FILE
COMMONS FILE PAGE ↗
THE MINIATURE IS THE LEOPARD · THE TEXT COVERS BOTH
Isidore keeps two spotted cats apart. The pard has its own entry. The leopard, in his account, is a cross between a lioness and a pard. The Aberdeen Bestiary covers both on one page and paints the leopard.
Headed “Tiger, continued. De pardo.”
It kills at a single bound.
THE LAYERS · KEPT DISTINCT
ISIDOREXII.2.10 PARDUS · XII.2.11 LEOPARDUS
Two entries, kept separate. XII.2.10 is the pardus, the pard. XII.2.11 is the leopardus, which Isidore says is born from the adultery of a lioness and a pard, making a third kind.
MANUSCRIPT WITNESSABERDEEN MS 24 · f.8v
The pard is mottled, extremely swift and thirsty for blood, and kills at a single bound. The leopard follows as the hybrid of a lioness and a pard. Here the text credits that “third species” to Pliny’s Natural History.
The University of Aberdeen identifies the miniature as the leopard, and the Commons file is titled the same way, so the caption says LEOPARD.
HOW WE KNOW WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW
Isidore XII.2.10 and XII.2.11 checked in two online editions.
Aberdeen f.8v checked on the university’s folio page, including the miniature identification and the Pliny citation.
Commons file AberdeenBestiaryFolio008vLeopardDetail.jpg, marked public domain.
The DE BESTIIS card used to pair “Leopard” with “Pardus”. It now reads Pard / Leopard · Pardus / Leopardus.
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 Pliny passage the Aberdeen text cites has not been checked.