Iobus Ludolfus = Hiob Ludolf = Leutholf, 1624-1704
1681 Historia Aethiopica sive brevis & succincta descriptio Regni Habessinorum, quod vulgo malè Presbyteri Iohannis vocatur. In qua libris qvatvor agitur I. De natura & indole regionis & incolarum. II. De regimine politico, regum successione &c. III. De statu ecclesiastico, initio & progressu religionis christianæ &c. IV. De rebus privatis, literaturâ, oeconomiâ, &c. Cum tabulâ capitum, & indicibus necessariis. Francofurti ad Moenum: Prostat apud Joh. David Zunner, typis Balthasaris Christophori Wustii, [336 pp.]; folio - [4596] - gezien
Translations
1682 A new history of Ethiopia. Being a full and accurate description of the kingdom of Abessinia, vulgarly, though erroneously called the empire of Prester John. In four books. Made English, by J.P. Gent. London: Samuel Smith, pp. i-iv, 1-398; folio.
1684 A new History of Ethiopia. Being a full and accurate description of the Kingdom of Abessinia, vulgarly, though erroneously, called the Empire of Prester John. Made English by J.P. Gent [=John Phillip]. Second edition. London, Samuel Smith, pp. [i-viii], 1-398; folio. - [4596- gezien, Johannesburg Public Library
1684 Nouvelle histoire d'Abissine, ou d'Ethiopie, tiree de l'histoire lalinte de m. Lvdolf. Paris, La veuve A. Cellier , pp. i-xi, 1-275, i-xxvii.- gezien, zie FC, kan neushoorn niet vinden
Latin text from edition of Frankfurt, 1681
(1681) Liber I, caput 10
Praeterea animal mihi nominavit Gregorius, quod validum & saevum esse dicebat. Arweharis, Amhar. ... quod Unicorne est, capri specie, & pernicitate pedum valens. Num forte sit antiquorum Monoceros qui, teste P. Hieronymo Lupo, in Habessiniam reperitur, aliorum indagationi relinquimus. Pro fabuloso habitum fuit istud quadrupes à peritioribus plerisque. Nimirum ineptae descriptiones, quasi vivum capi non posset: ambigua & ex plane disparibus animalibus conficta forma: tanquam de quodam errore naturae auctores fabularentur, omnem fidem demserant; famam tamen non prorsus vanam fuisse Lusitani tradiderem. Visum enim fuit à Joanne Gabriele, quem supra nominavimus, apud Agawos in Regno Damato ‘animal pulchro in fronte cornu, quinque palmos longo, & albicante praeditum: mediocris equi magnitudine, & formam: coloris spadicei: jubis atque cauda nigris, sed brevibus & tenuibus’ (alibi tamen visum crassioribus & longioribus) ‘In dentissimis sylvis solitarium vivere & raro in campos progredi', incolae discerunt.
Quo minus autem de veritate rei dubitaretur, pullus allatus fuit Patri cuidam Societatis, qui illum oculis suis vidit. Porro Lusitani, in rupem quandam excelsam regionis Naninae, quae Gojamae pars est, ab Adamas - Saghedo imperatore relegati, testati sunt: 'Se plurimos tales monocerotes in subjacentibus sylvis pascentes vidisse'; ex quorum relatione profectus sunt, quae Johannes Bermudes & Ludovicus Marmolinus de hoc animali memoriae prodidere.
Descriptio Lusitanorum veritati magis congruere videtur, quae enim vetres recentesque auctores de unicornibus scripserunt, tam confusa reperias, ut quaedam de Rhinocerote, quaedam de Origine, quaedam de Asinis Indicis, quaedam etiam de cete groenlandico Narwhal accipienda sint.
Kaart voorin, dated 1683
midden onderaan neushoorn, kijkt naar rechts, met olifant
1 hoorn, niet naar Durer, lange staart
see Wilma George, 1969, Animals and maps, p. 160, fig. 7.10
1681
English text from edition of London, 1684
[1684: 58]
Besides these, Gregory nam’d to me another sort of Beast, both strong and fierce,
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call’d Arweharis, from the Arabic, Harish, or Harshaw, which signifies with one Horn. This beast resembles a goat, but very swift of foot, whether it be the Monoceros of the Ancients, which Jeronimus Lupus reports, is found in Habessinia, I leave to the Scrutinie of others. Many skilful Authors look’d upon this Four-footed Beast as a kind of Chimera, considering the idle relations as if it could not be taken alive; that it was a Beast compos’d of two creatures of different forms; as if writers were framing Fables concerning some Errour of Nature. However the Portugals tell us, that the Report was not altogether vain. For one of them was seen by John Gabriel, whom we have already nam’d, in the Province of Agawi, in the Kingdom of Danota; it was a beast with a fair horn in the fore-head, five palmes long, and of a whitish colour, about the bigness and shape of a middle siz’d horn, of a bay-colour, with a black main and tayl, but short and thin (though some have been seen with longer and thicker) a lively creature, haunting the thickest woods, and seldom appearing in the Fields. Ans lest there should be any doubt of the Truth of the thing, there was a young Colt brought to me of the Fathers of the Society, who was an eye-witness of the reality of the thing. Moreover several Portugueses, who were banish’d by the Emperour Adamas Saghed, into a certain high Rock in the province of Nanina, which is a part of Gojam, have attested, that they saw several such Unicorns feeding in the woods that lay under the said Mountain. From whose Relations John Bermudes, and Lodewick Marmolius made their reports concerning (i) this Beast. The description of the Portugueses seems most agreeable to Truth: for what the ancients and modern writers have written concerning (l) unicorns are so confus’d, that some things have reference to the Monoceros; other things to the (m) wild stag, or wild goat; some things to ther wild Indian ass, and other things in reference to the Groinland whale, or Narwhale;
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so many beasts were required to form this Chimaera: however, there is no question to be made, but that there are many Unicorns up and down the world.
(i) In his Relations, Translated into English, Tit: A short relation of the River Nile.
(l) At large by Bochart, in Hierozoico, L.3 c.26
(m) In the Relation of Paulus Venetus concerning the Unicorn in Java the less. L.3 c.15.
