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“By/On the Hand of an Ape”: Monkey-Men and Ape Falconers

By Leor Jacobi

English Version of the Hebrew Presentation given in the Art Department Colloquium at Bar-IlanUniversity, May 26, 2015

Click here to watch the presentation

In the course of examining falconry scenes in medieval Hebrew manuscripts, discussed in aprevious lecture, the subset of the monkey falconer was observed in the London miscellany,where an ape falconer rides a grotesque goat, and in the Cervera Bible, where an ape wears a

‘By/On the Hand of an Ape’: Monkey-Men and Ape Falconers

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falconer’s leather glove from which, presumably, the raptor was sent who is seen catching abird on the left.

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The monkey falconer was a popular motif in illuminated medieval manuscript marginalia andapes and birds share a ‘sympathetic’ connection, as stated by Horst Janson in hismonumental “Apes and Ape Lore” (which much of our talk today is based upon).

What is the ape falconer all about? The connection between the ape and birds is already foundin ancient Greek and Egyptian mythology. The Arabic collection “Bidpai” contains an accountof birds who gave good advice to a monkey who promptly killed them, didn’t follow the adviceand, you can imagine. In the 12th century, Hildegard of Bingen wrote that when an ape sees abird, he imitates it and tries to fly, and loses his nerve over his lack of success. According toJanson, the monkey was viewed as Lucifer, who fell because he tried to fly higher than hiscapabilities. It was known that monkeys often dwell in trees and this too was taken as a sign

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of their desire to fly like a bird. However the monkey symbolizes the physical side and isweighed down to earth as opposed to the spiritual bird in the heavens. The monkey in his ragetried to trap or kill the bird, almost invariably without success. But sometimes he catches him!

There are three types of birds commonly depicted with monkeys in Gothic Marginal Art:Pelicans, Owls, and Sparrows. In the 12th century, the Christian theologian Honorius of Autunwrote that these three are suggested in the Psalms 102:

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I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of the desert.I lie awake; I have become like a sparrow alone on a roof.

According to Honorius, the pelican, one of the birds prohibited in Leviticus, is inferior andrepresents the pagan idol worshippers. The owl is more eerie and represents the Jews andsinners who dwell in darkness and do not recognize the light of Christ. The kosher sparrowrepresents the Christians whose pure spirituality soars in divine contemplation.

The monkey resembles the pelican and wrestles together with him as a mischievous comrade.The owl, however, is the monkey’s best friend as they are both grotesque and try to catch thespiritually pure sparrows.

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In this vein we can understand why the typical monkey falconer in Christian Gothic Art sportsan owl. Monkey in place of man, owl in place of human, goat in place of horse. “The Dark Side”.

In Hebrew manuscript illustrations, we do not find examples of the monkey falconer with anowl, which makes sense if the association of the owl with the Jews was understood. It shouldbe noted, however, that many of the monkey falconers in Christian Art sport falcons, not owls.An owl may be found in Machzor Nuremberg directly opposite a monkey admiring hishandsome reflection in a mirror, but it’s not clear if it’s an owl or a falcon.

Before the revolutionary theory of evolution in the 19th century, the ape was not viewed as ananimal entirely distinct from man. He too belongs, in some way, to the sixth day of creation.However, this view is diametrically opposite to that of evolution. The monkey was viewed as afallen man, the Descent of Man.

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Also according to Islamic tradition, the monkey is viewed as a degenerate human. The Quranexplicitly states that Jews who sinned and transgressed the laws of the Sabbath were punishedand transformed into monkeys.

Now let’s examine roots of this conception of the monkey and his relation to man inillustrative Talmudic selections.

According to Tractate Sanhedrin of the Babylonian Talmud, there were three groups involved inbuilding the Biblical Tower of Babel. One of them was rebelling against God and they werepunished by being transformed into monkeys, spirits and demons. According to this legendthe connection between man and ape is unique, not shared by other animals. This conceptionis also expressed in Jewish Law. The Talmudic Sages decreed recitation of a special blessingupon seeing a human with a genetic deformity, a monkey, or other animal with particularlyhuman-like properties: “Blessed is the one who varies his creations.” The term for ‘creations’,‘briot’ is commonly used to refer to human populations, to which the monkey is hereconsidered an adjunct member.

These two sources from the Babylonian Talmud are difficult to date or place geographically,but an additional source clearly stems from an earlier Palestinian tradition. In TractateYadayim of the Mishna we find a tannaitic dispute as to whether one’s hands are consideredritually pure if a monkey poured the water on them. These laws reflect an ancient practice ofhaving one’s hands washed by another, especially by a waiter or butler at meals, rather thanthe common modern practice where each person washes their own hands. A remnant of theancient practice is found in the modern synagogue, where Levites wash the hands of Cohanimbefore their blessing. The Tannaim discussed such a monkey ‘Levi,’ if you will. This ancientdispute was never resolved, with Rambam and Ra’avad taking opposing sides in the 12thcentury and Maran R. Yosef Karo and the Rema, R. Moshe Isserlis following in their footsteps atthe beginning of the 16th century.

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Detail of a miniature of a woman inconversation with a monkey in the guise of acourtly nobleman; from the Maastricht Hours,Netherlands (Liège), 1st quarter of the 14thcentury, Stowe MS 17, f. 62r.

The grounds of the dispute, not explicitlystated, are traditionally explained asrevolving around the issue of ‘koachgavra’, a requirement that a human effectthe pouring of the water. According toRabbi Yosi, a monkey’s pouring isdisqualified as he is not human. However,a comparison of the Mishnah with a parallel Tosefta, which only discusses humans, showsthat the issue is the intentionality of the one pouring. The primacy of the Tosefta in relation ofthe Mishnah is discussed in depth by my teacher Shamma Friedman in his book “ToseftaAtiqkta”, and I would argue that this is also the case here. From the Toseftan ether of the manpouring without intentionality, the Mishnah generalizes, naturally transposing and adaptinghim into the monkey, who generally lacks intentionality for performing commandments. TheTanna Kamma, who upholds the purity of hands washed by a monkey, may also requirehuman ‘koach gavra’, but the monkey has enough of that.

In the Talmud and in later strands of rabbinic literature there are discussions of the suitabilityof the monkey to perform other tasks related to human commandments. In addition towashing of the hands, we find a monkey leaving eruv techumim outside of the city limits,enabling extension of the Sabbath travel limits, payment of usury via a monkey courier anddelivery of a divorce contract. Thus, I selected ‘al yedei kof’ as the Hebrew name of this talk,because of its double entendre. It can be understood as “by the hand of a monkey” as in theselegal cases; or as “on the hand of the monkey”, the raptor and the falconer’s glove.

We’ll conclude today’s presentation with another scene from theCervera Bible, one which has been the topic of scholarly discussionby Marc Epstein and others mentioned in my previous lecture.Recently, Veronica Vives completed a doctorate on the Masora of thismanuscript and in a separate article, ‘Los Animales comoDecoración,’ she discusses the transposition and adjustment ofseveral animal motifs from Christian Art to Jewish Art. In the imageof the pages spread before us three characters trying with all of theirmight and military technology to catch a measly raven, one of theleast valuable birds to hunt, because not only is it not kosher, but itdoesn’t taste so good (not speaking from experience).

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Janson points out (not in relation to the Cervera Bible) that an iconographically similarillustration in the Ebo Gospels was borrowed from prior scenes featuring apes trying to catchbirds, according to the motif we discussed earlier. In my opinion, the Cervera Bible,prominently featuring comic monkeys in several illustrations just a few pages previous to thisone, including the ape falconer, here portrays humans “monkeying around”. Just as humanactivities can be done “By the Hand of an Ape”, so too in Jewish Art here gentiles are portrayedengaging in “monkey business”.

Read more of Leor Jacobi’s research on his Academia.edu page 

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