What do Pietro Lorenzetti’s fresco ‘The Last Supper’, ‘The Maastricht Book of Hours’, Gaston Fébus’s ‘The Hunting Book’ and ‘The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry’ have in common? Four works full of colorful miniatures made between the 14th and 15th centuries? It contains drawings of cats and dogs. And not just them. In medieval art it is not uncommon to find them next to their owners represented in an outdoor or domestic setting. These are so common that historians have even devoted special studies to them.

When you turn the pages of medieval codices and see these pets, it is impossible not to ask yourself this question… Did their owners name them like we do today? If so, what were dogs and cats called in the Middle Ages? Were there names as popular as Toby or Garfield would be now?

Better with a dog (or Michigan) next to you. We humans love the company of animals. Since always. Especially dogs and cats. Some researchers think we domesticated dogs 15,000 or even 30,000 years ago, and felines roamed the villages of northern China 5,400 years ago.

6,000 years ago Neolithic communities in the north of the Iberian Peninsula buried their dogs, which they fed a similar diet to their own, and we know that the Romans enjoyed their company. Without going further, among the ruins of the ill-fated Pompeii, the corpse of a dog on a leash was found, which can be seen today in the Naples Archaeological Museum.

Detail of the painting “The Marriage of Arnolfini”.

Domesticated, yes; But… Pets? The real question is… Were these animals pets? Can they be thought of as such in the sense we give to the word today? There are researchers who believe that this idea did not begin to be adopted much later, during the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

“Between the 14th and 16th centuries, the current concept of pets began to develop. By the 16th century, recorded connections between animal and owner became increasingly common, as well as breeding for human companionship,” says researcher Linsey Nicole Blair. From the University of Iowa: “Animals were allowed to be kept in the home strictly for pleasure and not for practical needs, establishing the first concept of the pet as we know it today.”

So what did they call them? Even though centuries have passed, we have clues about what they called their pets in the Middle Ages. We owe this to the writings of writers such as the poet Geoffrey Chaucer or to special treatises; among these the famous ‘Master of the Game’ by the Duke of York stands out, and also includes a list of good names in the author’s opinion. Options for hunting dogs. There are also animals that have entered the records of history because they belonged to great figures of the Middle Ages, such as Anne Boleyn or the philosopher Leon Battista Alberti.

“The Last Supper” by Pietro Lorenzetti.

Sturdy, White Foot or “Little Hammer”. Among other things, these references show us that creativity (and humor) was often used in the baptism of pets in the Middle Ages. We know that Sturdy, Whitefoot, Hardy, Jakke, Terri, Bo, Troy, Nosewise, Amiable, Nameles, Clenche, Bragge, Ringwood and Holffast are popular names for dogs, but we also know that they are popular names for dogs, as Mediavalist reports we know. They were baptized according to the work their owners did.

A blacksmith’s pet they called Little Hammer, or Hemmerli. They chose “Little Spoke” for a carter, referring to the spokes of the car (spoke). In Switzerland there are references to animals called Fortuna, Venus or Turgk. Among cats, Gilbert has triumphed with the word used to describe domestic kittens. In France they preferred Tibers or Tibert.

Not everyone stuck to the most popular names. Anne Boleyn named her dog Purkoy, an adaptation of the French word “pourquoi”, the knight Jehan de Seure preferred the more epic Parceval for his dog, and Battista Alberti showed his wisdom by naming his dog Megastomo (Big Mouth). Italian lady Isabella d’Este chose the elegant Aura and Mamia for her two pets.

Good (and helpful) friends. Although their companionship was more or less appreciated, the truth is that in the Middle Ages, domestic dogs and cats were often viewed with an extremely practical approach. They were beautiful, yes. And loving. But above all, they were useful. Therefore, there are writers who consider pets to be “rare” in the medieval world.

“Most of the dogs had a job,” summarizes Professor Emily Savage. Speech. Dogs guarded homes and helped with hunting and herding. Cats were effective allies in catching mice and vermin. But limiting their duties to protection or sleuthing is an understatement.

Are there dogs in the kitchen or are you moving goods? Years ago, a group of Spanish researchers analyzed animal remains discovered in medieval settlements in Barcelona. Their analysis helped them confirm the large variety of dogs that existed between the 9th and 15th centuries, and after noticing deformations in some vertebrae, they concluded that there were dogs used as “mules”: they were used to carry loads. narrow streets that horses cannot pass through.

It is said that in the Middle Ages, there were dogs running on a wheel that helped with work in kitchens and operated gears that set fire to meat. There was even a special type of this job; Turnspit is an English dog. An English dog whose references date back to the 16th century and were considered extinct in the 19th century.

“Earthly Vanity and the Three Parts of Eternal Salvation” by Hans Memling.

Prestige issue. Pets served the same and even more important purpose: to reaffirm their owners’ position. If you have a dog of a special breed and it is well taken care of, it is because you can afford it. “Pets became part of the personal identity of the aristocracy. Having an animal filled with attention, affection and food for no purpose other than companionship meant high status,” says Madeleine S. Killacky of Bangor University. There were even people who went to church with their dogs during the celebrations, which disturbed the religious authorities.

Pets even in portraits. The expert reminds that in the Middle Ages, it was relatively common for powerful and wealthy families to have portraits made featuring pets, especially pets and cats. It was a status symbol. Just like posing with jewelry or dresses. You don’t have to search to find examples. In Jan var Eyck’s painting ‘Arnolfini Marriage’, dated 1434, showing the merchant Giovanni Arnolfini, there is a third protagonist in addition to the couple: a dog, which, according to experts, also represents loyalty and love.

Sometimes the devotion to pets went even further. It is known that in the 14th century, Isabella of Bavaria, queen of France, spent a large amount of money on the decoration of her pets. He even ordered a pearl necklace and a necklace with a gold buckle for his squirrel in 1387, and years later he ordered a bright green cloth for his cat. In the 14th century, Count Foix III. Gaston wrote in the ‘Livre de Chasse’, a treatise devoted to hunting, that hounds must have lived at a certain distance from the ground with certain comforts, including kennels made of wood. and to ensure that animals can be cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

A show of vanity?. Perhaps because of this meaning, which is a symbol of wealth and power, it is possible to come across articles that touch on domestic animals in a critical manner in the Late Middle Ages. They find them meaningless. And food waste. Neither this nor the bad reputation of cats associated with paganism prevented the pets from reaching the homes of Catholic nuns. “Although the church disapproved of pets, the clergy themselves often kept dogs. Like the women, theirs were often lap dogs,” says Savage.

Dog footprints have been found on the tiles of the Pedralbes monastery, founded in the 14th century, and Killacky recalls numerous medieval manuscripts with illuminations showing nuns in monasteries with cats or kittens scrawled in the margins of books of hours. “They are a very common status symbol in medieval religious sites,” says the expert.

Beyond dogs and cats. Just like today, not all pets were dogs and cats. Dolores Carmen Morales, doctor of Ancient and Medieval History, recalls that poems, travel books, veterinary treatises, timetables, and tax-related documents allow us to know that many other domestic animals existed in the Middle Ages, such as birds, rabbits, and more exotic species. such as squirrels, badgers, civets, weasels, mongooses and even monkeys of Indian, North African and sub-Saharan origin. After the voyages of Christopher Columbus came species such as the macaw or the guinea pig.

It was not strange that different species existed within the same species. There were lap dogs, blanchetes, “running dogs”, greyhounds… In the 16th century, the doctor John Caius even made a classification of dogs in his treatise ‘Of Englishe Dogges’ and used his own specific criteria for this classification; from that of the breed: each dog’s “job”. There were those for hunting, those intended for ladies or “mugrels”, those unable to use “any property worthy of the truly perfect and peaceful species”.

Pictures | Wikipedia 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6

in Xataka | In the Middle Ages, it was common to sleep in wooden cabinets. The real question is why we stopped doing this.