Editing Merman (section)

== Renaissance period ==
=== Gesner's sea-satyr ===
[[File:Gesner-Hist-Anim-IIII-p1197-pan-marinus.png|thumb|Sea-Pan or sea-satyr]]
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 | image1            = Gesner-Hist-Anim-IIII-p0522-monstrum-marinum.png
 | alt1              = Sea-monster (''monstrum marinum''), from Gesner's (1558) ''Historiae animalium''
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 | alt2              = Triton, in Schott's ''Physica-Curiosa'' (1697 ed.)
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[[Konrad Gesner]] in his chapter on [[Triton (mythology)|Triton]] in ''[[Historia animalium (Gessner book)|Historia animalium]] IV'' (1558) gave the name of "sea-[[Pan (god)|Pan]]" or "sea-[[satyr]]" ({{langx|la|Pan- vel satyrus marinus}}) to an artist's image he obtained, which he said was that of an "ichthyocentaur" or "sea-devil".<ref name=gesner-sea-satyr>{{harvp|Gesner|1558|p=[https://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/id/PPN472755935?tify={%22pages%22:%5B1237%5D,%22view%22:%22info%22} 1197]}}; (1604 ed.) [https://books.google.com/books?id=AA0NvxYDpDQC&pg=PA1001 p. 1001].</ref>{{Efn|name=gesner-sea-satyr-tr|Translation of Gesner's Latin passage given in: {{cite web|url=https://benito-cereno.tumblr.com/post/44594372256/okay-since-a-few-people-asked-more-info-on-this/amp |title=Burgeoning Lads of Science |author=Benito Cereno }}<!--sans date-->}}<ref name=hendrikx/><ref name="wehner&zierau&arditti"/>

Gesner's sea-devil ({{langx|de|Meerteufel}}) has been described by a modern commentator as having "the lower body of a fish and the upper body of a man, the head an horns of a buck-goat or the devil, and the breasts of a woman",<ref name=suutala/> and lacks the horse-legs of a typical [[centaur]]. Gesner made reference to a passage where [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]] writes of satyrs that inhabit [[Taprobana]]'s seas,<ref name=gesner-sea-satyr/> counted among the fishes and [[Cetus (mythology)|cete]] ({{langx|grc|κήτη|kḗtē}}, "sea monsters").<ref>[[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]], {{URL|1=http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0545.tlg001.perseus-grc1:16.18|2=''De Natura Animalium''}} 16.18</ref><ref name=holder/>

This illustration was apparently ultimately based on a skeletal specimen and [[Mummy|mummies]].<ref name="wehner&zierau&arditti"/>{{Efn|Gesner's artist told him "he had received a drawing of a skeleton of such an animal in Antwerp. Also, another man brought back this monster dried from Norway to lower Germany, male and female".<ref name=gesner-sea-satyr/>{{Efn|name=gesner-sea-satyr-tr}}}} Gesner explained that such a creature was placed on exhibit in [[Rome]] on 3 November 1523.<ref name=holder/><ref name=gesner-sea-satyr/> Elsewhere in Gesner's book it is stated the "sea monster (''monstrum marinum'')" viewed on this same date was the size of a 5-year-old child.<ref>{{harvp|Gesner|1558|p=[https://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/id/PPN472755935?tify={%22pages%22:%5B562%5D,%22view%22:%22info%22} 522]}}; (1604 ed.) [https://books.google.com/books?id=AA0NvxYDpDQC&pg=PA441 p. 441].</ref>{{Efn|An illustration similar to Gesner's ''monstrum marinum'' was later printed by [[Kaspar Schott]] in ''Physica-Curiosa'' and labeled as "Triton".<ref name=BHL-constantino/> [[Llewellyn Jewitt]] has also reproduced an illustration quite similar to Schott's, claiming it came from [[Rondelet]].<ref name=jewitt/>}} It has been remarked in connection to this by one ichthyologist that mermen created by joining the monkey's upper body with a fish's lower extremity have been manufactured in [[China]] for centuries;<ref name=holder/> and such merchandise may have been imported into [[Europe]] by the likes of the [[Dutch East India Company]] by this time{{sfnp|Gudger|1934|p=512}} (cf. [[Mermaid#Bartholin's siren|Bartholin's siren]]). Mummies (Feejee mermaids) were certainly being manufactured in Japan in some quantity by the 19th century or even earlier{{sfnp|Viscardi|Hollinshead|MacFarlane|Moffat|2014|p=101}} (cf. [[#Hoaxes and sideshows|§Hoaxes and sideshows]]).

The "sea-satyr[e]" appears in [[Edmund Spenser]]'s poem ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'' (1590), and glossed by [[Francis J. Child]] as a type of "ichthyocentaur", on the authority of Gesner.<ref>{{citation|last=Spenser |others=[[Francis J. Child]] |title=Faerie Queene, 2.12.27 |work=British Poets 2|place=Boston |publisher=Little, Brown & Company |year=1866 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iPQTAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA134 |page=134}}</ref>