REVERED AND REVILED
A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE DOMESTIC CAT
By
L.A. VOCELLE
www.thegreatcat.org
Great Cat Publications
Copyright © 2016 Laura Vocelle. All Rights Reserved.
ISBN-13: 978-0692759820
ISBN-10: 0692759824
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of very brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to all my cats, past and present, and especially to my little love Beseechy. They have given me the inspiration to write and complete this book in honor of the cat’s universal influence upon our history, art and literature.
CONTENTS
Dedication
List Of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One:
The Rise Of The Cat
Chapter Two:
The Cat As Goddess
Chapter Three:
The Cat In Early Aegean And Mediterranean Civilizations
Chapter Four:
The Dark Ages
Chapter Five:
The Middle Ages
Chapter Six:
The Early Modern Period
Chapter Seven:
The Enlightenment
Chapter Eight:
The Victorian Cat In The 19th Century
Chapter Nine:
The Cat In The 20th Century
Chapter Ten:
Epilogue The Cat Today
Timeline Of The Cat In History
List Of Theban Tombs With Cats
List Of Cat Cemeteries In Egypt
References
Index
Notes
About The Author
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Front Cover: John Reinhard Weguelin, The Obsequies of an Egyptian Cat (1886)
Back Cover: 16th Century, Engraving from Fox's Book of Martyrs, A cat found in Cheapside, London, suspended from a gallows, habited like a monk with shaven crown.
Figure 1.1. Miacid fossil
Figure 1.2. Proailurus
Figure 1.3. Felis Sylvestris Libyca, Edward Howe Forbush (1858-1929)
Figure 2.1. Sekhmet, Author’s Photograph
Figure 2.2. Statue of Bast, 400-250 BC, Permission of Walters Museum
Figure 2.3. Egyptian Sistrum with cat on top, Encyclopaedia Biblica, 1903
Figure 2.4. Isis holding a sistrum, Musei Capitolini, Italy
Figure 2.5. Temple of Isis at Philae
Figure 2.6. Cat under Isis’s Chair, Bembine Table of Isis, Reprint from Manly P. Hall's, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, 1928
Figure 2.7. Animal Necropolis at Saqqara, Photograph by Hajor, December 2002
Figure 2.8. Giovanni Belzoni, From Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries Within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia by Giovanni Battista Belzoni, London, 1820
Figure 2.9. Cat Mummy, Rosecrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose, California
Figure 2.10. Cat Mummy, 332 BC, Antiquité égyptienne, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Figure 2.11. The Metternich Stele, From The Gods of The Egyptians, E. A. Budge, 1904
Figure 2.12. Tomb of Nebamun, 18th Dynasty, 1350 BC, British Museum, Photograph by Marcus Cryon
Figure 2.13. Painted Ostracon of Cat and Mouse, Deir El Medina, 1150 BC, Brooklyn Museum
Figure 2.14. Drawing on limestone of a scene from a fable, 19th Dynasty, 1120 BC, Cairo Museum
Figure 2.15. Prince Thutmose’s Cat Ta Mit’s Sarcophagus, Photograph by Larazoni
Figure 2.16. Ra as a Cat Slaying Apophis, Author’s drawing
Figure 2.17. Cat in the Marshes, Howard Carter, 1891-1893 Detail from scene on tomb of Khnumhotep II, Beni Hasan, 1900 BC
Figure 2.18. Temple of Pakhet, Speos Artemidos,18th Dynasty, Photograph by Einsamer Schütze
Figure 2.19. Bubastis Today, Photograph by Einsamer Schütze
Figure 2.20. Gayer Anderson Cat, The British Museum, London, Author’s Photograph
Figure 3.1. Minoan Snake Goddess, Photograph by C. Messier
Figure 3.2. Hadrian and Isis Pharia Coin, AD 133-134, Isis Pharia standing right, holding sistrum and billowing sail; to right, Pharus of Alexandria.
Figure 3.4. The Fox and Cat, From Aesop’s Fables by Frances Barlow, 1687
Figure 3.5. The Cat and the Old Rat, Illustration by Milo Winter, 1919
Figure 3.6. Cat and Monkey, Illustration from Jan Griffier, 1680-1717
Figure 3.7. Libertas-Sine-Labore, From Harper's Monthly, 1869
Figure 3.8. Central emblem of a floor mosaic with a cat and two ducks, first quarter of the 1st century. National Archeological Museum, Naples, Photograph by Marie-Lan Ng
Figure 3.9. Birds Drinking from Bird Bath, National Archeological Museum, Naples, Photograph by Marie-Lan Ng
Figure 3.10. Felices Seniores, Notitia Dignitatum - Magister Peditum
Figure 3.11. Laetus' Daughter’s Grave, From Les Chats, Champfleury, 1869
Figure 4.1. St. Jerome in his Study, Antonello da Messina, National Gallery, London
Figure 4.2 Freyja, Cats and Angels, Nils Blommer, 1852, National Museum of Stockholm
Figure 4.3. Ypres Tower-Cloth Hall, Ypres, Belgium, Author’s Photograph
Figure 4.4. Lindisfarne Gospel, British Library, London
Figure 4.5. Lindesfarne Gospel, Detail of Cat, British Library, London
Figure 4.6. Cat Fighting a Mouse for a Wafer, Book of Kells, AD 800, Trinity College Library, Dublin
Figure 4.7. Pangur Ban, Reichenauer Schulheft, 1v, 2r., St. Paul’s Abbey, Lavanttal
Figure 4.8. Noah and the Flood, 16th Century, Mogul
Figure 4.9. Cat with a Fish, Calcutta, 19th Century, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Figure 4.10. Lady, Chou Wen-Chu, Five Dynasties, 10th Century, National Palace Museum, Taipei
Figure 4.11. Calico Cat Under Noble Peonies, 12th Century, Sung Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei
Figure 4.12. Hibiscus and Rocks, Detail, 12th Century, Sung Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei
Figure 4.13. Portrait of a Cat, Sung Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei
Figure 4.14. Monkey and Cat, I Yuan-chi, Sung Dynasty National Palace Museum, Taipei
Figure 4.15. Children Playing on a Winter Day, Su Hanchen, 1130-1160, National Palace Museum, Taipei
Figure 4.16. Cats Playing, Anonymous, Sung Dynasty, AD 960-1279, National Palace Museum, Taipei
Figure 4.17. Nekomata, Toriyama Sekien, 1712-88
Figure 4.18. Vampire Cat Attacking O-Toin, Prince of Hizen, Algernon Bertram Freeman, Mitford Tales of Old Japan, 1871
Figure 5.1. Cat Beak-head Ornament, Reading Abby, 1121
Figure 5.2. Waldensians as Witches in Le Championdes Dames Martin Le France, 1451
Figure 5.3. The Devil Appears to St. Dominico of Calerueja, Folio 313, Le Miroir Historical, 1400-1410, National Library of the Netherlands
Figure 5.4. A Plague Victim at Home, Ketham Woodcut from The Book of Venice, 1493-94
Figure 5.5. Detail of Swordsman with a Cat, Psalter of Louis Xl Hutin and his first wife Tournai, 1315, Archives de l'Eveche, no number, Folio 114
Figure 5.6. Cat and Mouse, Luttrell Psalter, 1330, British Library, London
Figure 5.7. Donkey and Cat, Queen Mary's Psalter, British Library, London
Figure 5.8. Bodley Bestia
Figure 5.9. Three Cats Gambol and Hunt, Aberdeen Bestiary, Folio 23v, Aberdeen University Library
Figure 5.10. A Cat Licks Itself, Hours of Charlotte of Savoy , Paris, 1420-1425, MSM.1004, Folio 172r, J.P. Morgan Library, New York
Figure 5.11. Cat Playing a Bagpipe, Book of Hours for use of Rome (Hours of the Virgin Office of the Dead) Paris, 1460, MSM. 0282, Folio 133v., J.P. Morgan Library, New York
Figure 5.12. Rat Riding a Cat, Before 1390, MS 0143, Folio 076v, Pontifical of Guillaume Durand, La bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris
Figure 5.13. Female Cat Carries One Kitten to Three Dead Ones, The Benefits of Animals, Persian 1297-1298, MSM 500, Folio 49v, J.P. Morgan Library, New York
Figure 5.14. Cat Castrates Priest, Reynard the Fox, Wilhelm Von Kaulbauch, 1846
Figure 5.15. Earliest image of Petrarch’s Cat Found in Giacomo Filippo Tomasini’s, Petrarcha Redivivus, Massimo Ciavolella and Roberto Fedi, eds., Padua, 1635
Figure 5.16. Lord Mayor of London, Dick Whittington, by R. Elstrack, 1618
Figure 5.17. The Spinner and the Visitor, Israhel van Meckenem, 1495/1503, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Figure 5.18. Cats and Bamboo, Shen Chen-Lin, Ching Dynasty 1644-1912, National Palace Museum, Taipei
Figure 5.19. Cat Organ, Gaspar Schott, Magia Naturalis, 1657
Figure 5.20. Cat o’Nine Tails, Woodcut, 1549, Cosmographic Universelle of Munster, Basle
Figure 5.21. Ein wahres Probiertes und Pracktisches geschriebenes Feuerbuch, Franz Helm, 1607, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
Figure 5.22. The Witches Sabbath, Studio of Hans Baldung Grien, 1515, Musée de l'Oeuvre Notre-Dame, Strasbourg
Figure 5.23. Hanging of the Chelmsford Witches, Woodcut, 1556, English Pamphlet, 1589
Figure 5.24. Wriothesley and Cat, Trixie, 1603, Broughton House, Northamptonshire
Figure 5.25. Agnes Bowker's Cat, 1569, British Library, London
Figure 5.26. Cat, Edward Topsell’s Four Footed Beasts, 1658, University of Houston Digital Library
Figure 5.29. Witches with a Cat, Jacob de Gheyn II, 1600’s, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
Figure 6.1. The Garden of Earthly Delights (Detail), Hieronymus Bosch, 1480, Museo del Prado, Madrid
Figure 6.2. The Temptation of St. Anthony (Detail), Hieronymus Bosch, 1480, Museo del Prado, Madrid
Figure 6.3. Adam and Eve, Albrecht Dürer, 1504, J.P. Morgan Library, New York
Figure 6.4. The Fall of Man, Hendrik Goltzius, 1616, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Figure 6.5. The Last Supper, Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1480, Fresco, Monastery San Marco, Florence
Figure 6.6. Study of the Madonna with Child and Cat, Leonardo da Vinci, 1478, The British Museum, London
Figure 6.7. Study Sheet with Cats, Leonardo da Vinci, 1513-1515, Royal Library, Windsor
Figure 6.8. Adoration of the Magi, Bernardino Butinone, 1485-1495, Bequest of Helen Babbott Sanders, Brooklyn Museum, New York
Figure 6.9. Music, Hans Baldung Grien, 1529, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
Figure 6.10. Annunciation, Jan de Beer, 1520, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Figure 6.11. Annunciation, Lorenzo Lotto, 1534, Museo Civico, Recanati, Italy
Figure 6.12. The Annunciation, Federico Barocci, 1585, The Art Institute of Chicago
Figure 6.13. Supper at Emmaus, Titian, 1530-1533, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Figure 6.14. Supper at Emmaus, Francesco Bassano, 1570, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
Figure 6.15. Portrait of a Young Woman Holding a Cat, Francesco Bacchiacca, 1525-1530, Private Collection
Figure 6.16. Woman with a Cat, Francesco Bacchiacca, 1540, Staatliche Museen Berlin
Figure 6.17. Portrait of Cleophea Holzhalb, Hans Asper, 1538, Kunsthaus, Zurich
Figure 6.18. Wedding at Cana, Paolo Veronese,1563, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Figure 6.18a. Wedding at Cana, Detail of Cat
Figure 6.19. The Madonna of the Cat, Federico Barocci, 1575, National Gallery, London
Figure 6.20. Two Children Teasing a Cat, Annibale Carracci, 1590, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Figure 6.21. A Boy and Girl with a Cat and Eel, Judith Leyster, 1635, National Gallery, London
Figure 6.22. Still Life with Dead Game, Fruits and Vegetables, Frans Snyders, 1614, Art Institute of Chicago
Figure 6.23. Naked Man Playing with a Cat in Bed, Giovanni Lanfranco, 1620, Commerce d’Art, London
Figure 6.24. The Katzen Familie, Jan Steen, 1650, Magyar Szepmuveszeti Muzeum, Budapest
Figure 6.25. The Dancing Lesson, Jan Steen, 1665-1668, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Figure 6.26. The Idle Servant, Nicolaes Maes, 1655, National Gallery, London
Figure 6.27. Woman Feeding her Cat, Gabriël Metsu,1662-1665, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Figure 6.28. Man with a Cat on Shoulders and a Mouse in Hand, Cornelius Danckerts, 1630-1640, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Figure 6.29. Two Children with a Cat, Cornelius Danckerts, after Frans Hals, 1630-1640, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Figure 6.30. Cat Stealing Fish, Giuseppe Recco, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Figure 6.31. Peasant Interior with an Old Flute Player, Louis Le Nain, 1642, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth
Figure 6.32. A Cat Hung up in Cheapside, Habited like a Priest, From Fox’s Book of Martyrs, 16th Century
Figure 6.34. Illustration of Charles Perrault’s Puss in Boots, Gustav Doré, 1867
Figure 6.35. Cardinal Richelieu with three kittens on his lap. Photograph by T.W Ingersoll, St. Paul, 1908, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Figure 7.1. Etching of Moncrif and a Cat from his book Les Chats, 1727
Figure 7.2. Dr. Johnson and his Cat Hodge, 19th century engraving
Figure 7.4. Mr. Horace Walpole’s Favorite Cat, 1796, Stephen Elmer, Private Collection
Figure 7.5. Death of Mlle Dupuy Bequeathing all to her Cats, From Moncrif’s Les Chats, 1727
Figure 7.6. Mme de Lesdigieres Cat, Paris, From Moncrif ‘s Les Chats, 1727
Figure 7.7. Cat, Oeuvres complètes de Buffon,1830
Figure 7.8. Katterfelto with Black Cat, from The Quacks of Old London by Charles John Samuel Thompson, Bretano, London, 1928
Figure 7.9. Sir Walter Scott at his Desk with Cat, Engraved portrait of Sir Walter Scott at his desk by R. C. Bell after J. Watson Gordon, [Portraits], Sir Walter Scott in His Study (Castle Street, Edinburgh) John Watson Gordon, 1871, University of Edinburgh
Figure 7.10. Fish Peddler in Kitchen, Willem Van Mieris, 1713, National Gallery, London
Figure 7.11. The Ray, Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, 1728, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Figure 7.12. Still Life with Cat and Fish, Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, 1728, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Figure 7.13. Partridge, Hare and Cat, Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, 1730, Adolph Menzel Museum, Berlin
Figure 7.14. Washerwoman, Jean-Siméon Chardin, 1735, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio
Figure 7.15. Ivan VI of Russia with a Cat, 1740-1741, Artist unknown, Private Collection
Figure 7.16. Louis Philippe Joseph, Duke of Montpensier, François Boucher, 1749, Private Collection
Figure 7.17. The Harlot’s Progress, William Hogarth, 1732, Private Collection
Figure 7.18. The First Stage of Cruelty, William Hogarth, 1751, Engraving, London Evening Post
Figure 7.19. The Graham Children, William Hogarth, 1742, National Gallery, London
Figure 7.20. Girl with a Kitten, Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, 1745, National Gallery, London
Figure 7.21. Young Girl with a Cat, Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, 1747, National Gallery, London
Figure 7.22. Girl with a Cat, Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
Figure 7.23. The Artist’s Daughters with a Cat, Thomas G
ainsborough, 1759-61, National Gallery, London
Figure 7.24. Katzen, Gottfried Mind, 1800
Figure 7.25. L’Élève intéressante, Jean Honoré Fragonard and Marguerite Gérard, Private Collection
Figure 7.26. Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga, Franciso Goya, 1787- 1788, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Figure 7.27. Children with Cat and Mouse, Suzuki Harunobu, Japanese Edo Period, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Figure 7.28. Indian Lady Chasing a Cat with a Stick, 18th Century, Artist Unknown
Figure 7.29. Myojakdo (Cats and Sparrows), Byeon Sang-byeok, Joseon Dynasty, National Museum of Korea, Seoul
Figure 8.1. Baby’s Own Soap Trade Card, Albert Toilet Soap Makers, Early 20th Century
Figure 8.2. Tintype portrait of 4 women with a cat, 1865, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.
Figure 8.3. First cat show at The Crystal Palace, 1871, London
Figure 8.4. Prize-winners, The Crystal Palace, 1871, London
Figure 8.5. Asnières cimetière chiens, Antique Postcard
Figure 8.6. Cats’ Meat Man, 1920, London
Figure 8.7. Dame Trot and her Comical Cat, 1880
Figure 8.8. Rosalie Goodman, Cat Hoarder, 1871
Figure 8.9. Three Girls, Cats, and a Trike, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.
Figure 8.10. Harry Pointer’s Pets, c 1880
Figure 8.11. A Young Girl with Cat, Berthe Morisot, 1886, Private Collection
Figure 8.12. Playing with Paints, Henriëtte Ronner- Knip, c. 1890, Private Collection
Figure 8.13. Two Cats, Théophile Alexandre Steinlen , La Bodinière, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Figure 8.14. Untitled, Called ‘Early Irish Indian Cat’, Louis Wain, c. 1924-1939
Figure 8.15. The Little Folks of Animal Land, 1915, Harry W. Frees
Figure 8.16. Mme George Charpentier and her Children, 1878, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Figure 8.17. Portrait of Pierre Loti, Henri Rousseau, 1891, Kunsthaus, Zurich
Figure 8.18. Olympia, Édouard Manet, 1863, Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Figure 8.19. Hand with a Bowl and a Cat, Vincent Van Gogh, 1885, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Figure 8.20. Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (Detail), Paul Gauguin, 1897-1898, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston