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11 COMPTES RENDUS 773

JURGEN WERINHARD EINHORN, Spirltalis unicornis. Das Einhorn ais Bedeulungslriiger (rt Literatur und Kunst des Mtllelalters. Wilhelm FlnkVerlag, Mtinchen, 1976, 527 p., 174 photographlc reproduetlons.

The Unicom, present, In the art of Cliina, India and Pcrsia, assnmed a dlffcrcnt aspect and slgniflcation, w hen It was taken up, flrst by the Hebrew and later by the early Christian. and medieral writings, Belonging to the family of “symbolic", “unnaturai" belngs, this figinent of the Imagination represented wlth cqual force ^eyeral confllctlng notions. It Is of course the “spiritalis unicornis" but also a beast witb “drcadful and learsome yolce” — the DealU — or the “powers of darkness", or haughtlness, or intemperance, etc.

Jurgen Wcrinhard Einhorn studics the prescnce of the unicorn In European art and literaturę, snpplylng rieh generał doemnentation, laying partlcular stress on the German lands and the Nethcrlands. Aithough his stndy covers the epoch up J.o the mld sixtcenth ceutnry therc are also refercnces to later ycars (ind even to our days. •

In addition to the rlclj. materiał it proyldes, this book deailng with the. ‘Unicom as a symbol" asscrts Itself by the adroit position of the author who Is ablc to draw an overall plcturc of distinct human actlyitles, detccthig the concealed relatlons of somc apparcntly contradictory manifestations. That Is why we are oddlng, somewhat hesitantingly, new Information, mentlonlng that it regards an area for wliich the author lilmself pointed out the pauclty of data and hoplng that this additional knowlcdge will also provide additlonal under-standing.

To the iufomiaiion supplied by J[. W. Einhorn about the Romanian inural paintings of Cozia anc( Succytya* we wonld like to add the Zodiac of Probota monastery (1536) paln-ted wlth rem ar kable skilł on the porch vault, Zodiac which lncludes, among other also a Unicom (R. Florescn, I. Mielca, Frobola, Bucharest, 1978). The very rich heraldlc materiał proyided by Einhorn^ book rcininds us of NIcolae Oiahus' coat of arms (Dan Cernovodeanu, ęiiinta ęi aria heraldicó In Bomajiia. — Iieraidlc science and art in Romania, Bucharest, 1977) and of the stone carving of a Unicom defeating a basllisk, a possible symbol of Neagoe Basarab's crusade plans (Pavcl Chihaia in Keagoe Basarab. 1512—1529, Bucharest 1972).

The Romanian vcrsion of Atexandria (AIexandcr the GreaPs Epic) contains morę references than those clted by J. E. Einhorn regarding the western yersions, about tho unicorn and Buccphaius. And, for that matter, Ducipai — this is the way Bucephaius was transeribed in the Romanian manuscripts — has becn introduced in the wedding speech es and wishes, that is In folk poetry whcrc it is elthcr a unicorn or the fabnious horse of the fairy taies, no raen-tion being any morę madę its strągę single horm

The white unicorn, which appears alone In the painting of somc country churches of Oltenia and Maramurcę Is supossed to delJyer from evii as the horse does. (Radu Cre-tenml, In “Synthesis", III, 1976; V. Brdtuicscu in “Bnietinul eomislel monumcntclor Istorlce”, 1941).

Florę di virtti, translafcd lnto Romanian, presents the unicorn as a symbol of lnt!em-perance, just like In the western worid. But the Romanian comitries get acąuainted wlth a Ffziolog yersion which (according to J. W. Einhorn) Is descended from the Greek yersions that did not contain the fragment about “splrltnalis unicornis". It appears thereforc that the western basie mcaning of this beast did not rcach onr area. (But at the present stage of rcscarch snrprises cannot be rulet out).

The Romanian Fiziolog manuscripts contain another unicorn narrative with which the author does not seem to bc acąuainted. We are reproducing it here: “The unicorn Is a huge beast liaying a big single horn in the center of Its forehead; It runs fast, it overtakes the doe and hits It with its horn. It carrles the doe on Its hom for 40 days until It rottens and faiis off. It kecps iicklngthe doe'sbiood and this is Its only food; and It prays three times a day tumed eastward .. (Margareta Moclomita, Traduceri rom&neęll din Fiziolog In “Cercet&ri iiterare", I, 1934 p. 83 ff.) We have not fonnd any piastic rcpresentatlon of tliis descrlp-tion so far. Another yersion slmiiar to the texts commented by J. W* Einhorn — except tlie chase cpisode — was pnbilshcd by C. N. Matecscu, “łon Creang&", 1916, p. 10—11.

Dlmitrle Cantcmir, the voivode who identifled hlmself In the Hieroglypliic Iltslory with the “incomparabie unicorn", was acąuainted wlth that singuiar type of iiinstratlons added to Aesop’s Fablcs (from processings of the Latin corpus worked out by Romnlus in the 4th ceutnry) which show, among other four-footed anlmais, also a unicorn, aithough the text does not mentlon It. It seems that Cantcmir had come also upon the Dialogus creałurarum of Magnus dc Magneriis and upon the Speculum sapienliae ascribed to Cyriiius, bishop of Bohemia (cf. “Revuc des Ćtudes Sud-Est Europćennes", 1980, No. 1).

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