The “Calcatrice” Dragon from an Italian Moralized Bestiary
The anonymous “Book about the Nature of Animals” (Libro della Natura degli Animali) is a late medieval Italian bestiary that survives in a number of manuscripts. On this web page, Davide Cecchi provides an extensive list of copies of this work as well a discussion of its sources.
Here I publish a translation of a passage that I transcribed from BNF It. 450 (XIV Century) also referencing the partially different Wellcome MS 132 (XV Century). A transcription of the BNF manuscript was published by Garver and McKenzie in 1912.
The “Calcatrice” dragon appears to be based on crocodile; the four syllables of the name could be related with the Latin “cocodrilus”. The Book about the Nature of Animals does not contain medical or magical information: all animals are interpreted as moral allegories. In this case, a hydra-like reptilian with many heads that kills the Calcatrice from the inside is interpreted as a symbol of the many virtues that promote the inner change of “the spiritual man”.
Transcription:
[BNF:16r] Della natura della Calchatrice
La Calchatrice si e uno serpente grandissimo e la sua factezza come di drago[?]. E aue cotale natura che sella troua alcuno homo si selo mangia. E possa ch’ella lae mangiato sillo piangie tutto lo tempo de la sua uita et e un altro serpente che aue multe teste quando neghe tagliata una si nelli nascie due troua questa calcatrice. pianghe lo homo che ae manducato si se giecta in terra per tradito [Wellcome: per morto] E la Calchatrice uiene e eli lo mangia sansano equando questo sie in corpo si li rompe le budella e sale fuore del corpo e fanne grande allegrezze e questa si buga di fare incontenente chelli uede la calcatrice che auea mangiato lo homo. E anco aue la calcatrice una altra natura. che quando ella magnia non mena si nolla masella di sopra. Questa Calchatrice in cio chella mangia homo e possa lo pianghe tutto lo tempo della sua uita si se poe similiare ad alquante spiritale persone di questo mondo che anno dentro daloro cuore in corporato lo uerace dio. e homo che fu crucifixo per recompare lumana generatione che quando lo spiritale homo si rimenbra che cosie alto signore uolse discendere in del corpo della nostra donna e uolse fare tutte le suggestione che homo dee fare a padre e a madre e uolse essere pouero e digiuno e eciandio uolse sufferire chelli fusseno
[BNF:16v left column] date le collate e le gottate e sputato in faccia e smentito e battuto alla columna e iudicato a morte. e posto in croce chiauato con acuti grossissimi. portando si li pessi de la carne innanci e de le uerbera. e postoli corona di spine fue guinchi in armi che li pertusono la testa fin al ossa e dateli beuere aceto e felle meschiato e ferito in del costato con una lancia si li uene a lospitale homo grande compassione e grande dolore dentro del suo cuore. Si como diuiene di messer sancto francisco Che si grande fue la sua conpassione chebbe delle dure cose chelli uenneno le simigliante chiauella in delle mane in delli piedi che che uenneno in similitudine che el nostro segnore ihu xpo equando in del cuore del homo uiene questa uerace compassione in mantenente e apparechiata una nobile uertute chessi chiama caritade si ae molte capite bone e in carita gia en pieno li comandamenti di dio cio e amar dio e lo proximo come se medesimo e chi ama lo proximo si ama dio chellimo non puo amare senca laltro. e chi ane uerace mente carita si si do dire chelli abbia in se tutte laltre uirtude dunque uene in lui bene quella uirtude che ane molte capita E si diuiene
[16v right column] di carita chomo del serpente che mette due capi quando homo ne li taglia uno Quando homo tollesse aquilli che a in se carita una gonnella si la radoppia apolo nostro segnore e criatore. che elli a apparecchiato perdono e umiltade e quando homo li tollesse la persona si la radoppia dio chellomo li tolle lo corpo uile e dio li intendera glorificato per la patientia chelli a in se cussi diuene di tutti laltre cose che homi li potesse in noiare. E si como la calcatrice che mena pur le maselle de sopra quando mangia lo simigliante adiuene delli boni homini chelli ragionano e pensano pur delle sourane cogitatione per le quale espectano la gloria del paradyso.
Translation:
[16r] About the nature of the Calcatrice
The Calcatrice is a very large snake and its appearance is like a dragon. It has such a nature that, whenever it finds a man, it eats him. After eating him, it cries for him for the whole time of its life. There is another snake, which has many heads and when one if its heads is cut, it grows two new heads. When this snake finds the calcatrice which is crying the man it ate, it falls to the ground pretending to be dead. The calcatrice comes and eats the entire snake; when the snake is inside the body of the calcatrice, it breaks its entrails and exits from its body with the greatest happiness. It does so as soon as it sees the calcatrice that ate a man. The calcatrice has another peculiarity: when eating, it only moves its upper jaw. Because the calcatrice cries the whole time of its life the man it ate, it can be compared with the spiritual men of this world. They incorporated within their heart the true god and man who was crucified to save humanity. The spiritual man remembers that such a high lord chose to descend into the body of our lady, to perform all the devotions that a man must show to his father and his mother, to be poor and hungry, to suffer to be
[16v left column] beaten on his neck and cheeks and spit upon his face, to be bound at a column and sentenced to death and crucified with large nails, offended in his flesh and with words, tortured with a crown of thorns that pierced his head to the bone; he drank vinegar mixed with bile and was wounded in his chest with a spear. Remembering all this, the pious man feels great compassion and pain in his heart. This happened to Saint Francis, whose compassion for these sufferings was so great that he had in his hands and feet the same wounds of the nails as our lord Jesus Christ. Whenever this sincere compassion appears in the heart of a man, immediately the noble virtue of charity is also produced; this brings many good “heads” and fulfils the commandments of God: love God and your neighbour like yourself. Whoever loves his neighbour loves God, because one cannot be loved without the other. And one can say that whoever has charity also has all other virtues: he has in himself a virtue that has many heads. Charity is like
[16v right column] the snake which grows two heads when one is cut. If somebody takes a cloth from a charitable man, it is doubled by our lord and creator, who has readied forgiveness and humbleness. If somebody takes the life of this man, God doubles it in such a way that the vile body is taken and God glorifies him for his patience. And the same happens for any trouble that a man can have. And like the calcatrice only moves its upper jaw when eating, similarly good men only think and care about upper meditations, by which they hope to obtain the glory of heaven.
