Unicorns. Those that exist and those that don't.
Vendémiaire| N° d'inventaire | 23526 |
| Format | 14 x 20 |
| Détails | 400 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2021 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782363583628 |
Video game character, pajama motif, Harry Potter creature, or beauty tutorial medium: the unicorn, a pop culture icon, is everywhere today. But while we readily associate it with the late Middle Ages, and in particular with the spectacular yet enigmatic The Lady and the Unicorn tapestry in the Cluny Museum, do we know that this mythical animal has its origins in Greek Antiquity and the Old Testament? That it oscillated between male and female genders in medieval literature, becoming by turns a ferocious beast capable of disemboweling an elephant and a symbol of virginal purity? And that as a canonical example of an object whose existence or not must be determined—or whether it is possible for it to exist and what that means—it has fascinated philosophers, from Duns Scotus to Bertrand Russell, including Kant and Leibniz?
Capturing this constantly reinvented figure in all its dimensions, a collective of philosophers and specialists in art history and literature lifts the veil on the mysteries of this totem animal that has become the incarnation of the nostalgia for innocence and the insatiable need for re-enchantment in our contemporary world.
Video game character, pajama motif, Harry Potter creature, or beauty tutorial medium: the unicorn, a pop culture icon, is everywhere today. But while we readily associate it with the late Middle Ages, and in particular with the spectacular yet enigmatic The Lady and the Unicorn tapestry in the Cluny Museum, do we know that this mythical animal has its origins in Greek Antiquity and the Old Testament? That it oscillated between male and female genders in medieval literature, becoming by turns a ferocious beast capable of disemboweling an elephant and a symbol of virginal purity? And that as a canonical example of an object whose existence or not must be determined—or whether it is possible for it to exist and what that means—it has fascinated philosophers, from Duns Scotus to Bertrand Russell, including Kant and Leibniz?
Capturing this constantly reinvented figure in all its dimensions, a collective of philosophers and specialists in art history and literature lifts the veil on the mysteries of this totem animal that has become the incarnation of the nostalgia for innocence and the insatiable need for re-enchantment in our contemporary world.