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Winter is full of contradictions: the gray and cold weather is greeted in many parts of the world by colorful and joyous celebrations of carnival and Mardi Gras. And our general impulse to blow a raspberry into the face of winter depression gives way to the simplicity of Lent at the end of the month.
Although books are not exactly seasonal items, the Othmer Library contains many examples of fantastic books and fabulous illustrations of people, creatures, and objects that would not be out of place in a carnival of curiosities.
Colorful Carnival
Bright costumes, exotic riches, and culinary delights: Carnival is a period of jollity and frivolity preceding Ash Wednesday. Adapted to the Christian context by the Church fathers, it is an opportunity to dress up, indulge, and fool around before Lent – the 40-day-long season of fasting and prayer before Easter.
There are more places around the world that take their carnival seriously than you can shake a lollipop at, but among the most famous are the Mardi Gras in New Orleans, which imported the tradition from France around the year 1700; the carnival in Rio de Janeiro, which mixes French, Portuguese, and other influences; and the carnival in Cologne, which is very different – and very German. Yet the carnival of Venice is probably the most iconic, romantic, stylish, and sheerly wonderful festival of its kind.
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The magus, or,
Celestial
intelligencer
(1801)
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Creatures’ features
Fantastical creatures are naturals at carnival festivals, whether in the form of costumes or decorations or merely as the fleeting image of something you spot in the merry crowd after one too many drinks. In the Othmer Library many unusual beasts populate the rare books, and they form a marvelous conga line in our slide show.
Dragons
The dragon, an ancient yet timeless mythological creature, would probably never admit its real age if you asked it. Surrounded by an air of danger and mystical powers, the dragon lives in magical manuals like Francis Barrett’s The magus (1801) (where, probably to its embarrassment, it is straddled by a monkey wearing a crown); splendid alchemical compendia like The Hermetic Museum (1893); and in Topsell’s History of four-footed beasts and serpents (1658), a natural history book with many twists.
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The history of four-footed
beasts and serpents (1658) |
Hydras
The evil little sisters of dragons, Hydras are creatures from Greek mythology that would make many heads turn in a carnival parade: the story goes that this nine-headed monster grows two heads in the place of one if you try to cut it off. The Hydra featured in Topsell’s History of four-footed beasts looks more like many friendly puppies rolled into one reptile.
Unicorns
A unicorn uniform would be a perfect dress-up for a guy (with or without horn envy) with a chaste girlfriend at his side. In the Middle Ages the best way to catch a unicorn was thought to be this: sit a virgin under a tree and wait. The unicorn will be attracted by her purity (a trait girl and creature share) and rest his head in her lap; at that point the previously hidden hunters can stab the poor thing (the unicorn, that is).
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| Chimia (1668) |
National costumes and foreign lands
Apart from animal costumes, national costumes are a big favorite for German carnival enthusiasts in particular. They would certainly be thrilled to copy styles from our rare books on travels and scientific explorations, like Edward Brown’s A brief account of some travels in divers parts of Europe (1685). There, dashing Hungarian soldiers, pretty maidens, somber priests, and sturdy peasants cut a good figure, even if they are more than 300 years old now.
Around the same time, in the Renaissance, it was also common to depict foreign people, and especially Arabs, as black. The title page of Chimia, a compendium of works attributed to the supposedly Arabic alchemist Geber, shows him swathed in a white linen cloth in front of a palm tree and a lion – signifying that this was a book full of ancient and mysterious wisdom.
Cage aux folles
No costume party is complete without a fool – preferably the kind that intentionally dresses up in a cap with bells, a multicolored suit, and a happy face. Sebastian Brant’s Ship of Fools (Latin version, 1506) has many woodcuts showing fools, most of them created by grand master painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer. In this case they feature in a moralistic tale about all the man-created evils and follies in this world, including gossip, adultery, greed, and (indeed) fashion. The jury is still out on the fashion factor of the illustrations in this iconic book – but they certainly lighten up a cold February afternoon.
Bibliography and further reading
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