Editing Manticore (section)

== Medieval sources ==

=== Bestiaries ===
<!--[[File:Manticore - British Library Royal 12 F xiii f24v (detail).jpg|thumb|right|Manticore from the [[Rochester Bestiary]] (c. 1230–1240)]]
[[File:Manticore royal MS12.jpg|thumb|right|Manticore in [[British Library]] [[Royal manuscripts, British Library|Royal]] MS 12.C.xix (1200–1210)]]-->
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 | image1 = Bodleian Library-MS Bodl 764-fol 025r-manticore.jpg
 | alt1 = Manticore in Bodleian Library MS 764
 | caption1 = Manticore from [[Bodleian Library|Bodl.]] MS. 764, fol. 25r (c. 1225–1250){{right|{{small|―© Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford}}}}

 | image2 = Manticore - British Library Royal 12 F xiii f24v (detail).jpg
 | alt2 = Manticore from Rochester Bestiary
 | caption2 = Manticore from the [[Rochester Bestiary]] (c. 1230–1240)

 | image3 = Manticore 3244.jpg
 | alt3 = Manticore in British Library, Harley MS 3244
 | caption3 = Manticore in the bestiary bound in a theological miscellany, [[British Library]] [[Harleian Library|Harley]] MS 3244, ff 36r–71v (early 13th century)

 | image4 = BnF Latin 6838 B, fo.010r-manticora.jpg
 | alt4 = Manticore in Bibliothèque nationale fond Latin 6838 B
 | caption4 = Manticore in [[Bibliothèque nationale de France|BnF]] Latin 6838 B, fo.010r
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}}

The manticore has been included in some medieval [[bestiaries]], with accompanying illustrations, though not all.

The thick-maned (and long-bearded) manticore wearing a [[Phrygian cap]] is a commonplace design (fig., top left).{{Refn|{{harvp|McCulloch|1962|p=142}}: "more usual is its depiction as a heavily maned beast having a man's face topped by a Phrygian cap ..";  {{harvp|Wiedl|2010}}: "mid thirteenth-century Salisbury bestiary with its pointed Phrygian hat, long beard and grotesque profile", citing Higgs Strikland, Debra (2003) ''Saracens, Demons, & Jews'', 136, figure 60 and pl.3; Pamela Gravestock, "Did Imaginary Animals Exist?," ''The Mark of the Beast'', p. 121<!--119/140-->.<ref name="wiedl"/> Both name Bodl. 764 as example.<ref name="Bodl764"/>}}

In most instances, the manticora is "coloured red or brown and has clawed feet".{{sfnp|George|Yapp|1991|p=53}} Artists took the liberty of coloring the manticore blue at times.<ref name="rowland"/> One example is depicted "as a long-haired blond"  (fig., top right).{{Refn|Roy.12 F xiii{{sfnp|George|Yapp|1991|p=51}}}} Another has the face of a woman and the body of a blue manticore (fig., bottom right) .{{Refn|BnF Latin 6838 B<ref name="dines"/>}}

Most manuscripts do not bother detailing the scorpion tail{{sfnp|McCulloch|1962|p=142}} and simply draw a long cat's tail,{{sfnp|George|Yapp|1991|p=53}}
but in Harley MS 3244 the manticore has an "oddly pointed tail"{{sfnp|McCulloch|1962|p=142}} or an "extraordinary spike on the end" of it,{{sfnp|George|Yapp|1991|p=53}} and a tail covered in spikes from end to end is shown on the manticore in several other [[List of medieval bestiaries#Second_family|second family manuscripts]].{{Refn|University College Library (Oxford), MS. 120,<ref name="univcollege-oxford"/> Ashmole 1511, fol. 22v.,<ref name="Ashmole1511"/> Douce 151, ol. 18v.<ref name="Douce151"/>}}{{sfnp|George|Yapp|1991|p=53}}

The three-rows of teeth are not faithfully represented except in some third family examples.{{sfnp|George|Yapp|1991|p=53}}

==== Manuscripts and text ====

;Second Family
The manticore ({{langx|la|manticora}}) occurs in about half of the Second Family Latin bestiaries.{{sfnp|George|Yapp|1991|p=51}} The specific source used in this case was probably Solinus (2nd century),<ref>{{harvp|Clark|2006|p=26}}. Due to the "three Solinus hybrids" being clustered into successive chapters. More on their interrelationships below.</ref>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|In the base MS. Add. 11283, the manticore (fol. 8r) and the other hybrids around it has scholia marked  "Solinus Cap. 65, p. 244".<ref name="BL-Add11283"/> But these are presumbly later scribal additions, not disclosure of source by the original creators.}}

The text here describing the beast{{Refn|name="BL-Add11283-tr-Clark"}}<ref name="manticore-tr-mccullough"/> differs little from Pliny's Latin version in language,<ref>By comparison of Latin texts</ref> or the Greek version in content (paraphrased above).<ref>By comparison of English translations</ref> This is naturally the case, since much of Solinus was recopied out of Pliny.{{sfnp|Clark|2006|p=26}}{{sfnp|McCulloch|1962|p=28}} The manticora is here described as "bloody-colored"{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|name="pliny-sanguineo"|Pliny has "eyes light-blue, blood-colored body like a lion {{lang|la|{{linktext|oculis |glaucis}}, {{linktext|colore |sanguineo}}, {{linktext|corpore |leonis}}}}"<ref name="pliny8.75"/>.}} rather than "red like cinnabar".{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|name="ctesias-kinnabari"|Greek, "red like cinnabar {{lang|grc|{{linktext|ἐρυθρός |ὡς |κιννάβαρι}}}}"; "light-blue eyes {{lang|grc|{{linktext|ὀφθαλμοὺς |γλαυκοὺς}}}}"<ref name="photius"/>.}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|While McCulloch translates literally as "bluish eyes, a lion's body the color of blood", Clark gives the freer translation "green eyes, a russet color lion".}}

The text concludes by stating that the manticore "seeks human flesh, is active, and leaps so that neither large spaces nor broad obstacles can delay it<ref name="manticore-tr-mccullough">{{harvp|McCulloch|1962}} "Manticore", pp. 142–143</ref> (<!--manticor.. leaps so powerful that -->neither the broadest space nor the widest barrier can hinder it)".{{Refn|name="BL-Add11283-tr-Clark"|{{harvp|Clark|2006}}. "XXIII De manticora/Chapter 23 Manticor", p. 139 (Latin text and English tr.). The base text is British Library [[Additional manuscripts|MS Add.]] 11283, dated to 1180s by Clark.}}

;H text
Actually there are two candidate sources given for the passage, "Solinus 52.37" and "H iii.8";{{sfnp|McCulloch|1962|pp=142–143}} this "H" being the pseudo-[[Hugh of Saint Victor]] ''De bestiis et aliis rebus'', edited by Migne,{{sfnp|McCulloch|1962|p=31}}<ref name="hugo-ed-migne"/> but this source has been regarded circumspectly as the "problematic ''De bestiis et aliis rebus''" by Clark.{{sfnp|Clark|2006|p=13}}

;Transitional
The manticore also occurs in the earliest "Transitional" First Family bestiary (c. 1185),{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Morgan Library, MS M.81 (The Worksop Bestiary)] (c. 1185).<ref name="Morgan-M.81"/> Recognized in Badke's mss. containing the manticore.<ref name="badke-mss-manticore"/> Note it is not older than the early Second Family Additional MS 11283.}}{{sfnp|George|Yapp|1991|p=51}}<ref name="badke-mss-manticore"/> and some Third Family codices as well, whose illustrations attempted to reproduce some of the finer details given in its text.{{sfnp|George|Yapp|1991|p=53}}

==== Confounding with other hybrid beasts ====
As aforementioned, the manticore is one of three hybrids from Aithiopia described together by Solinus,<ref>{{harvp|Clark|2006|p=26}}: "three Solinus hybrids"</ref> appearing in (nearly) successive chapters of the bestiary.{{Refn|{{harvp|Clark|2006}}, "XXI De leucrotar/Chapter 23 Manticor", p. 139; "XII De crocodrillo/Chapter 22 Crocodile", p. 140;  "XXIII De manticora/Chapter 23 Manticor", p. 141;  "XXIV De parandro/Chapter 24 Parandrus", p. 141.}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|XXII. De Cocodrillo (crocodile) intervenes (but this is probably not a hybrid).}} This created the groundwork for the beasts in adjacent chapters being confounded or amalgamated through scribal errors, as described below in the cases of bestiaries produced in France.

==== French mistransmission ====
The manticore is basically absent from the French bestiary of Pierre de Beauvais,{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|For Pierre de Beauvais's bestiary (in French), the probable direct source was [[Honorius Augustodunensis]] which derived from Pliny and Solinus.{{sfnp|McCulloch|1962|p=191, n205}}}} which exist in the short versions of 38 or 39 chapters, and the long version of 71 chapters. Instead, there is a Chapter 44 on the "centicore" (or santicora, var. ceucrocata{{sfnp|McCulloch|1962|p=191, n205}}), which suggests manticore in name, but which is nothing like the standard manticore.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Standard manticore, i.e., such as described in the [[Hugo de Folieto|pseudo Hugo de St. Victor]]<!--''Hist. Litt.'' '''34''':388, note (1): "{{lang|fr|..mais le description de la manticore, dans le faux Hugues de Saint-Victor, est très differénte de celle du Bestiaire de Pierre}}".-->, McCulloch's so-called "H" text, cf. explanatory note, ''supra''.}}<ref name="hist_litt_tome34"/>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|At least in the Pierre mss. known in France. But the manticore is included in the Vatican codex of Pierre de Beauvais (longer version) according to Badke.<ref name="badke-mss-manticore"/>}} The name is thought to have arisen from misspellings of leucrocotta, compounded by the suffix replaced by -cora by scribal error.{{Refn|The "leucrocota" is given written "ceucocroca" by [[Honorius Augustodunensis|Honorius]], aforementioned as Pierre de Beauvais's source. The ceu- being misread as "cen- in a manuscript" is "not improbable". "And doubtless the ending -ticora was the result of a scribe's attention dropping down a few lines in his source to the word manticora".{{sfnp|McCulloch|1962|p=191, n205}}}} Due to further mistransmission, "centicore" became the French misnomer for the [[Yale (mythical creature)|yale]] (''eale''), a mythic antelope which should be a separate entry in the bestiaries.{{Refn|As according to [[George Claridge Druce|George C. Druce]] (1911) McCulloch explains that [[Gautier de Metz|Gauthier]] (Gossouin de Metz), in his ''Image du Monde'' gave the name "centicore", "leucrota", followed by a chapter on the yale but leaving out a name. This later caused a merge of "centicore" with description of the yale.{{sfnp|McCulloch|1962|p=191}}}}

Neither manticore nor leucrotta ({{langx|fr|lucrote}}) appears in [[Philippe de Thaun]]'s bestiary in [[Anglo-Norman literature|Anglo-Norman verse]].<ref name="uhl"/><ref name="philip-de-thaun"/>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Even though Badke lists Philippe de Thaun ([[List of manuscripts in the Cotton library#Nero|MS Cotton Nero A V]]) as well as a manuscript of ''Image du Monde'' (the aforementioned testament to "centicore") as including manticore.<ref name="badke-mss-manticore"/>}}