This woodcut is from the second half of the 15th c. The legend explains that a unicorn can only be attracted by the purity of a virgin, on which he will lay his head in her lap and fall asleep. As such, the unicorn came to symbolise the virgin’s chastity. As europe emerged from the Dark Ages, the unicorn was understood to be the monoceros, written about by Pliny and others. Since no other images were evident, many considered a single horned rhinoceros to be a unicorn.
