Frederick II's Australasian cockatoo

[Duncan Head]

From gibbons to exotic birds:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/26/images-of-cockatoo-on-13-century-vatican-manuscript-inspire-trade-route-rethink

The manuscript of Frederick II's De Arte Venandi cum Avibus, written 1241-1248, contains a clear drawing of an Australasian cockatoo presented to him by the Mamluk sultan of Egypt, suggesting that mediaeval SE Asian maritime trade routes extended at least to New Guinea and were connected with the Indian Ocean routes.

Any news story that can include the line "I'm looking for the wombat in the altarpiece" has to be worth reading.

[Erpingham]

Any news story that can include the line "I'm looking for the wombat in the altarpiece" has to be worth reading.

Beats "the elephant in the room" hands down.

[Duncan Head]

Beats "the elephant in the room" hands down.

Though of course Frederick II had one of those as well.

It looks as if the cockatoo has been noticed before, but identified as Indian:

According to Kantorowitcz, the emperor gave the sultan a polar bear in exchange for the elephant, and for a white cockatoo from India, a white peacock.

- from here, p.3, the footnote linking the identification to this De Arte Venandi MS.

[DougM]

It was probably quietly disposed of after ruining the Emperor's beauty sleep. Those things are so hideously noisy.

[Mick Hession]

It was probably quietly disposed of after ruining the Emperor's beauty sleep. Those things are so hideously noisy.

Or re-gifted to the Pope 

Cheers
Mick

[Erpingham]

For some reason this has reminded me of an old Monty Python sketch

Michaelangelo: Oh I know, you don't like the kangaroo.

Pope: What kangaroo?

Michaelangelo: I'll alter it, no sweat.

Pope: I never saw any kangaroo.

Michaelangelo: Well it's right near the back. But, I'll, I'll paint it out, no problem. I'll make him into a disciple.

[Prufrock]

Dunno. It could just be a precognitive image of Shane Warne, glaring...

[Duncan Head]

Pope: What kangaroo?

This kangaroo.

[Andreas Johansson]

I think the bird may be growing. I first read the subject line as saying "Austrian cockatoo", then "Austrasian cockatoo" before the mention of New Guinea clued me in that it's "Australasian cockatoo".

[evilgong]

White cockies' range extends into the Indonesian islands, no great mystery that one found its way on the India - mid-East -Arabia- Mediterranean trade escalator.

Wombats, on the other hand, are modest swimmers.

DB

[Patrick Waterson]

Frederick ('stupor mundi') II was an insatiable collector of the unusual, or at least what passed for unusual in mediaeval Europe.  Exotic menageries have been a prestige thing for rulers more or less since rulers were invented, but Frederick pursued his acquisitions with unusual diligence and expanded the frontiers of what was then considered variety.

[stevenneate]

These things infest my garden.  Fred was looking for something exotic. My people spoke to his people and before you know it "cockies" were decorating the margins of every European book worth reading.

[Nick Harbud]

These things infest my garden. 

Mine too.  People bring them in as pets and when it's time to leave, just set them free.  There are now sizeable feral populations of these and other red, green or multi-coloured cage birds in this corner of Arabia.

[Jim Webster]

These things infest my garden. 

Mine too.  People bring them in as pets and when it's time to leave, just set them free.  There are now sizeable feral populations of these and other red, green or multi-coloured cage birds in this corner of Arabia.

Apparently London has a fair range of parakeets 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_parakeets_in_Great_Britain

they do seem to be largely restricted to the South East

[Erpingham]

Apparently London has a fair range of parakeets 

I once went for a drink with my daughter to the London Apprentice, opposite Isleworth Ait.  I told her to watch out for parrots - she thought I was kidding