Prius invisa animalia

This article is based on a close reading of four fifteenth-century travel accounts, written by travellers who started their journey in the Burgundian Low Countries and visited the Holy Land. We analyse what the representations of animals in the travelogues of Guillebert de Lannoy, Bertrandon de la Broquière, Anselm Adornes, and Joos van Ghistele tell us about medieval travellers, their experiences, cultural backgrounds, curiosity, and self-images. First, we question the attitude of travellers towards animals they were familiar with, many of which they found useful for humans, while others were considered rather harmful. Secondly, we look at how earlier texts, stories, and learned knowledge shaped travellers’ attitudes towards both observed and unobserved animals. Finally, we study how the confrontation with strange animals compelled the authors of travel accounts to creatively describe the unfamiliar and the unknown.