Editing Unicorn (section)

=== Middle Ages and Renaissance ===
[[File:Wildweibchen mit Einhorn.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Wild man|Wild woman]] with unicorn,'' tapestry, {{Circa|1500–1510}} ([[Basel Historical Museum]])]]
[[File:Unicorn annunciation.jpg|thumb|''Hunt of the Unicorn [[Annunciation]]'' (ca. 1500) from a Netherlandish [[Book of hours|Book of Hours]]]]
[[File:Annunciation with the Unicorn and Adoration of the Magi.jpg|thumb|''Annunciation with the Unicorn'' and ''[[Adoration of the Magi]]'' from the [[Buhl Altarpiece]], ca. 1495]]

[[Middle Ages|Medieval]] knowledge of unicorns stemmed from [[Re'em|biblical]] and ancient sources, and unicorns were variously represented as a kind of [[Onager|wild ass]], [[goat]], or [[horse]].

Several European medieval travelers claimed to have seen unicorns in their travels outside of Europe. For example [[Felix Fabri]] claimed to have seen a unicorn in [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=נאור |first=עמית |date=2019-12-10 |title=Unicorns in the Holy Land? |url=https://blog.nli.org.il/en/hoi_unicorns/ |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=The Librarians |language=en-US}}</ref>

The predecessor of the medieval [[bestiary]], compiled in [[Late Antiquity]] and known as {{transliteration|grc|[[Physiologus]]}} ({{lang|grc|Φυσιολόγος}}), popularized an elaborate [[allegory]] in which a unicorn, trapped by a maiden (representing the [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Virgin Mary]]), stood for the [[Incarnation]]. As soon as the unicorn sees her, it lays its head on her lap and falls asleep.{{r|Hall1983|p=160}} This became a basic emblematic tag that underlies medieval notions of the unicorn, justifying its appearance in both secular and [[Sacred art|religious art]]. The unicorn is often shown hunted, raising parallels both with vulnerable virgins and sometimes the [[Passion (Christianity)|Passion of Christ]]. The myths refer to a beast with one horn that can only be tamed by a [[Virginity|virgin]]; subsequently, some writers translated this into an allegory for Christ's relationship with the Virgin Mary.

The unicorn also figured in [[courtly love|courtly terms]]: for some 13th-century [[France|French]] authors such as [[Theobald I of Navarre|Thibaut of Champagne]] and [[Richard de Fournival]], the lover is attracted to his lady as the unicorn is to the virgin. With the rise of [[Renaissance humanism|humanism]], the unicorn also acquired more orthodox secular meanings, emblematic of chaste love and faithful marriage. It plays this role in [[Petrarch]]'s ''Triumph of Chastity'', and on the reverse of [[Piero della Francesca]]'s portrait of Battista Strozzi, paired with that of her husband [[Federico da Montefeltro]] (painted {{circa}} 1472–74), Bianca's [[triumphal car]] is drawn by a pair of unicorns.<ref>Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, 2002. ''Piero della Francesca'', pp. 260–265.</ref>

However, when the unicorn appears in the medieval legend of ''[[Barlaam and Josaphat]]'', ultimately derived from the life of the [[Buddha]], it represents death, as the ''[[Golden Legend]]'' explains.{{r|Hall1983|p=184}} Unicorns in religious art largely disappeared after they were condemned by [[Molanus]] after the [[Council of Trent]].{{r|Hall1983|p=305}}

The unicorn, tamable only by a virgin woman, was well established in medieval lore by the time [[Marco Polo]] described them as "scarcely smaller than elephants. They have the hair of a buffalo and feet like an elephant's. They have a single large black horn in the middle of the forehead... They have a head like a wild boar's... They spend their time by preference wallowing in [[mud]] and slime. They are very ugly brutes to look at. They are not at all such as we describe them when we relate that they let themselves be captured by virgins, but clean contrary to our notions." It is clear that Marco Polo was describing a rhinoceros.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brooks |first1=Noah |title=The Story of Marco Polo |url=https://archive.org/details/storyofmarcopolo00broouoft |date=1898 |publisher=Palala Press (originally The Century Co.) |isbn=978-1341338465 |page=[https://archive.org/details/storyofmarcopolo00broouoft/page/221 221] |edition=2015 reprint}}</ref>

==== Alicorn ====
{{Main article|Unicorn horn}}
The horn itself and the substance it was made of was called '''alicorn''', and it was believed that the horn holds magical and medicinal properties. The [[Danish people|Danish]] physician [[Ole Worm]] determined in 1638 that the alleged alicorns were the tusks of narwhals.<ref>{{cite book|title=Mythical creatures|author=Linda S Godfrey|publisher=Chelsea House Publishers|year=2009|page=28|isbn=978-0-7910-9394-8}}</ref> Such beliefs were examined wittily and at length in 1646 by Sir [[Thomas Browne]] in his ''[[Pseudodoxia Epidemica]]''.<ref>{{cite book
|last =Browne
|first =Thomas
|author-link = Thomas Browne
|title = Pseudodoxia Epidemica
|year =1646
|chapter = Book 3. Chapter 23.
|url = http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudodoxia/pseudo323.html}}</ref>

False alicorn powder, made from the tusks of [[narwhal]]s or horns of various animals, was sold in Europe for medicinal purposes as late as 1741.<ref>{{cite book|title=Exotic Zoology|url=https://archive.org/details/exoticzoologyill0000leyw|url-access=registration|author=Willy Ley|year=1962|publisher=Viking Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/exoticzoologyill0000leyw/page/20 20–22]|oclc=4049353}}</ref> The alicorn was thought to cure many diseases and have the ability to detect poisons, and many physicians would make "cures" and sell them. Cups were made from alicorn for kings and given as a gift; these were usually made of [[ivory]] or [[walrus]] ivory. Entire horns were very precious in the Middle Ages and were often really the tusks of narwhals.<ref>{{cite book|author=Shepard, Odell|title=The Lore of the Unicorn|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/lou/index.htm|publisher=London, Unwin and Allen|year=1930|isbn=978-1-4375-0853-6}}</ref>