Hedgehogs
Regarding the hedgehog, Pliny writes:
Hedgehogs
also make their provision before-hand of meat for winter, in this wise.
They wallow and roll themselves upon apples and such fruit lying under
foot, and so catch them up with their prickles, and one more besides
they take in their mouth, & so carrie them into hollow trees. By
stopping one or other of their holes, men know when the wind turneth,
and is changed from North to South. When they perceive one hunting of
them, they draw their mouths & feet close togither, with all their
belly part, where the skin hath a thin down: & no pricks at all to
do harme, and so roll themselves as round as a foot-ball, that neither
dog nor man can come by any thing but their sharpe-pointed prickles.
So
soon as they see themselves past all hope to escape, they let their
water go and pisse upon themselves. Now this urine of theirs hath a
poisonous qualitie to rot their skin and prickles, for which they know
well enough that they be chased and taken. And therefore it is a secret
and a special pollicie, not to hunt them before they have let their
urine go; and then their skin is verie good, for which chiefly they are
hunted: otherwise it is naught ever after and so rotten, that it will
not hang togither, but fall in peeces: all the pricks shed off, as being
putrified, yea although they should escape away from the dogs and live
still: and this is the cause that they never bepisse and drench
themselves with this pestilent excrement, but in extremitie and utter
despaire: for they cannot abide themselves their own urine, of so
venimous a qualitie it is, and so hurtfull to their owne bodie; and doe
what they can to spare themselves, attending the utmost time of
extremitie, insomuch as they are ready to be taken before they do it.
When
the Urchin is caught alive, the devise to make him open again in
length, is to besprinkle him with hot water; and then by hanging at one
of their hin-feet without meat they die with famine: otherwise it is not
possible to kil them and save their case or skin.
There be
writers who bash not to say, That this kind of beast (were not those
pricks) is good for nothing, and may well be missed of men: & that
the soft fleece of wooll that sheep bear, but for these pricks were
superfluous & to no purpose bestowed upon mankind: for with the
rough skin of these Urchins, are brushes and rubbers made to brush &
make clean our garments. And in very truth, many have gotten great
gaine and profit by this commoditie and merchandise, and namely, with
their craftie devise of monopolies, that all might passe through their
hands only: notwithstanding there hath not ben any one disorder more
repressed, and reformation sought by sundry edicts and acts of the
Senate in that behalfe: every prince hath been continually troubled
hereabout with grievous complaints out of all provinces.
While you'll see many hedgehogs gathering apples in the manner that Pliny describes – or, as is written in Femina (c. 1400), “Ne þe yrchon loued no þyng more þanne take apples þat leth lowe” – you'll also see some examples of hedgehogs gathering grapes in the same manner, as Isidore of Seville describes:
After it cuts a bunch of grapes off a vine it rolls over them so it can carry the grapes to its young on its quills.
This peculiar behavior is also observed in the Aberdeen Bestiary:
The hedgehog has a certain kind of foresight: as it tears off a grape, it rolls backwards on it and so delivers it to its young.
A hedgehog, De materia medica (PML M.652, fol. 204r), mid-10th century
Fols. 24r and 24v of the Aberdeen Bestiary, 12th century
Herinacius - Hedgehog; eating grapes, with grapes impaled on spines, bestiary (Laud Misc. 247, fol. 147v), 2nd quarter of the 12th C.
A hedgehog gathering grapes, the Worksop bestiary (PML M.81, fol. 10v), c. 1185
Hedgehogs by the corpse of a young man, bible (Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève 10, fol. 128), c. 1185-1195
A hedgehog, bible (BNF Latin 320, fol. 260v), 12th-13th centuries
A hedgehog, bestiary (BNF Latin 6838 B, fol. 18v), 13th century
A hedgehog, Reiner Musterbuch (ÖNB 507, fol. 9r), c. 1200-1220
Hedgehogs collect fruit on their quills, bestiary (BL Harley 4751, fol. 31v), 2nd quarter of the 13th C.
Hedgehogs stick fallen fruit to their quills and carry it back to their burrow, the Rochester Bestiary (Brit. Lib. Royal 12 F XIII, fol. 45r), c. 1230
Hedgehog in a theological miscellany (Harley 3244, fol. 49v), c. 1236-1275
Hedgehog, Codex Justiniani (British Library Harley 3753, fol. 29v), c. 1250
A hedgehog, bestiary (BNF Latin 11207, fol. 18), mid-13th century
Hedgehogs (Getty 100, fol. 10), c. 1250-1260
A hedgehog (Ludwig XV 3, fol. 79v), c. 1270
Fols. 21v and 38r, Bestiaire divin (BNF Fr. 14969), 3rd quarter of the 13th C.
A hedgehog, bestiary (BNF Latin 3630, fol. 85), 3rd quarter of the 13th century
Fols. 245v and 262v, Bestiaire divin (BNF Fr. 1444), 3rd-4th quarter of the 13th century
A hedgehog, bestiary (BNF Arsenal 3516, fol. 204r), 2nd half of the 13th century
The siege of Maupertuiz, Li Brance de Renart (BNF Fr. 1581, fol. 14r), 4th quarter of the 13th C.
Fols. 245v and 262v, Bestiaire divin (BNF Fr. 1444), 3rd-4th quarter of the 13th century
A hedgehog, bestiary (BNF Arsenal 3516, fol. 204r), 2nd half of the 13th century
The siege of Maupertuiz, Li Brance de Renart (BNF Fr. 1581, fol. 14r), 4th quarter of the 13th C.
Fols. 234r and 241v, Bestiaire d'amours, 1285
A hedgehog, Bestiaire divin (BNF Fr. 14970, fol. 10v), c. 1285
A hedgehog gathering grapes, Bestiaire d'amour (PML M.459, fol. 15v), c. 1290
The hedgehog, Bestiaire d'amours (BNF Fr. 1951, fol. 22v), 13th-14th century
Hedgehogs, bestiary (Douce 151, fol. 30r), c. 1300
Hedgehog, Bestiaire of Philippe de Thaon (Kongelige Bibliotek, GKS 3466 8°, fol. 45v), 1300
A hedgehog with apples on its spines, Bestiaire d'Amour (Douce 308, fol. 98v), 1st quarter of the 14th C.
Hedgehogs on fols. 97v and 98r of the Queen Mary Psalter (Brit. Lib. Royal 2 B VII), c. 1310-1320
A hedgehog, Fountains Abbey bestiary (PML M.890, fol. 8v), c. 1325-1350
A hedgehog, Bestiaire d'amours (BNF Fr. 15213, fol. 82v), 2nd quarter of the 14th C.
Hedgehogs on fols. 135v and 149r, Concordantiae caritatis (Lilienfeld 151), c. 1349-1351
Erinacius (a hedgehog), Der Naturen Bloeme (KB KA 16, fol. 57ra2), c. 1350
A hedgehog, Compendium Salernitanum (PML M.873, fol. 42r), c. 1350-1375
þo tok þai Kyng Edmunde, & bounde him vnto a tree, and made Archires to him shote with Arwes, til þat his body stickede alse ful of Arwes as an hirchone is ful of prickes; but for alle þe payne þat he hade, he wolde neuer God forsake.
The Brut
The cursid Danys of newe cruelte
This martyr took, most gracious and benigne,
Of hasty rancour bounde him to a tre,
As for ther marke to sheete at, and ther signe.
And in this wise, ageyn hym thei maligne,
Made him with arwis of ther malis most wikke
Rassemble an yrchoun fulfillid with spynys thikke
The Banner of Saint Edmund
A hedgehog gathering grapes in the Hours of Charlotte of Savoy (PML M.1004, fol. 82v), c. 1420-1425
Hedgehogs on fols. 36, 44v, and 74, Spiegel der Weisheit (British Library Egerton 1121), c. 1430
Ericius (a hedgehog), Anatomia corporis humani (RMMW 10 B 25, fol. 25r), c. 1450
St. Benedict (British Library Additional 39636, fol. 13), 3rd quarter of the 15th century
A hedgehog, Anciennes et nouvelles chroniques d'Angleterre (British Library Royal 15 E IV, fol. 180r), c. 1471-1483
Step end with a hedgehog catching a mouse, c. 1490-1501
John the Baptist, Gospel Lectionary (British Library 2 B XIII, fol. 27), c. 1508
Hedgehogs, Oppian's Cynegetica (BNF Grec 2736, fol. 32v), c. 1540-1550
Gluttony holds a flag with a hedgehog, (The Met 62.635.507a), 1552
A hedgehog by Hans Hoffmann (The Met 2005.347), before 1584
Adam and Eve in paradise by Hendrik Goltzius (British Museum F,1.149), 1585
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