Dear Stewart, Thanks for your enlightning answer. I could indeed have formulated the question in a more serious way. For us (the rest of the world) it is hard to be funny (deliberately) in English. I am willing to learn more about those fishy mammals. (I am doing research for an article in 'Lute & Whale')
1) are there more pictures around with people playing lute or vihuela (or guitar), seated on the back of a delfin? 2) I think I see similarities in the posture and anatomy of both players, e.g. right arm and leg. 3) the head and tail of the delfins are similar. (The tail could easily belong to the monster of Loch Ness) any comments? Best wishes, Lex Stewart McCoy wrote: >Dear Lex, > >Sorry to give you such a flippant reply to what was a serious >question. Let's start again. > >For those unfamiliar with the tale of Arion and the Dolphin, the >following site gives an easy-to-read account: > >http://www.thanasis.com/arion.htm > >Arion is a well-known figure from classical mythology, so it is not >surprising that he should be found decorating the title pages of >several books. I did a Google search for > >Arion + Dolphin + book + "title page" > >and found no end of books, where Arion can be found, e.g. > >http://www.bloomsbury-book-auct.com/html/505/ > >You could argue that, with so many books referring to Arion, it is >not surprising that Narvaez's and Mouton's title pages should do >likewise. After all, Arion was a musician, and a player of a >stringed instrument to boot. > >Having looked closely at Narvaez and Mouton's title pages, I have to >confess that there are some similarities: > >1) both Arions have capes; >2) there are sailing ships in the sea behind Arion; >3) there are mountains on the horizon, in particular one mountain to >the right of each picture; > >I notice that the engraver has signed his name to the bottom left of >the Mouton picture, although it is too faint for me to read. Do we >know anything about him? Did he use a similar picture for other >unrelated books? > >It is certainly an interesting thought that Mouton's title page may >have been influenced by Narvaez's, but with Arion and Orpheus being >such important mythological characters, frequently referred to in >musical contexts in the 16th and 17th centuries, I think one would >need a little bit more evidence to make a positive link between the >two title pages. > >Stemmatically speaking, if there is a connection, there could be a >direct link (Mouton had a copy of Narvaez's book), or both title >pages were copied independently from a common source (Narvaez and >Mouton each owned a copy of the same book published before 1538). > >Those are my initial thoughts, but I would be very interested to >hear what others may have to say on your intriguing observation. > >Best wishes, > >Stewart. > > > > > > -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
