The gate of the year

Engraving by Giovanni Battista Fontana (1524 – 1587), from The Illustrated Bartsch.,Vol. 32, Warburg Institute, University of London.
The illustration describes an episode at the origins of Rome foundation, in which the two twin brothers, Romolus and Remus, to decide who of them should give his name to the new city and exercise the power, went on a hill for the observation of the auspices. Romulus chose the Palatinus and Remus the Aventinus, “for their augural quarters”, ad inaugurandum templa capiunt (Livy, History of Rome, I, 6): the templum was a sacred space traced with a stick on the ground, indicating the place from which the flight of birds was observed to interpret the future, on the base of the interpretation of certain signs (auspices or augurs), which were retained as sent by the gods. According to the narrative, Remus saw six vultures in flight, while Romulus saw twelve of them and for this reason he became the founder of the city. He took the role of the first augur (priest charged of drawing divinatory responses). In Rome, the Augurs constituted a priestly association to which the duty was demanded to interpret the signs sent by the divinities, and firstly by Jupiter. The divination occurred mainly through the observation of the birds (auspicia), which was regarded as the privileged medium by means of which the gods manifested their own will. According to Plutarch, the vultures were birds particularly adapted to oracular purposes, because it was difficult to see their young, and therefore it was supposed that they came from other worlds: “so rare and intermittent is their appearance, which soothsayers think should be true of what does not present itself naturally, nor spontaneously, but by a divine sending” (Plutarch, Romulus, IX, 7).
In the Middle Ages, the figure of the Fool, who had attributes and characteristics recalling the birds, was endowed with divinatory powers, so much so that often it is represented in conversation with the king, holding in his hand a crystal ball. Particular characteristic of this personage was his capacity to communicate with birds, which frequently, in the iconography, are shown flying around him as they were in conversation with him. The Fool apparently inherited the capacity to be inspired by the gods, which was typical of the augurs, and the birds seem to be regarded, still in Medieval times, as bringers of a divine message.

[Image: http://library.artstor.org/library/]




Animals

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Engraving by Giovanni Battista Fontana (1524 – 1587), from The Illustrated Bartsch.,Vol. 32, Warburg Institute, University of London. The illustration describes an episode at the origins of Rome foundation, in which the two twin brothers, Romolus and Remus, to decide who of them should give his name to the new city and exercise the power, went on a hill for the observation of the auspices. Romulus chose the Palatinus and Remus the Aventinus, “for their augural quarters”, ad inaugurandum templa capiunt (Livy, History of Rome, I, 6): the templum was a sacred space traced with a stick on the ground, indicating the place from which the flight of birds was observed to interpret the future, on the base of the interpretation of certain signs (auspices or augurs), which were retained as sent by the gods. According to the narrative, Remus saw six vultures in flight, while Romulus saw twelve of them and for this reason he became the founder of the city. He took the role of the first augur (priest charged of drawing divinatory responses). In Rome, the Augurs constituted a priestly association to which the duty was demanded to interpret the signs sent by the divinities, and firstly by Jupiter. The divination occurred mainly through the observation of the birds (auspicia), which was regarded as the privileged medium by means of which the gods manifested their own will. According to Plutarch, the vultures were birds particularly adapted to oracular purposes, because it was difficult to see their young, and therefore it was supposed that they came from other worlds: “so rare and intermittent is their appearance, which soothsayers think should be true of what does not present itself naturally, nor spontaneously, but by a divine sending” (Plutarch, Romulus, IX, 7). In the Middle Ages, the figure of the Fool, who had attributes and characteristics recalling the birds, was endowed with divinatory powers, so much so that often it is represented in conversation with the king, holding in his hand a crystal ball. Particular characteristic of this personage was his capacity to communicate with birds, which frequently, in the iconography, are shown flying around him as they were in conversation with him. The Fool apparently inherited the capacity to be inspired by the gods, which was typical of the augurs, and the birds seem to be regarded, still in Medieval times, as bringers of a divine message. [Image: http://library.artstor.org/library/]