by neznakomka

Created on: December 30, 2008

European fascination with parrots dates back from ancient times. Brought from India by Alexander the Great and his followers, the exotic bird with strong peak who could imitate the human speech was admired, observed and studied, but also served as a dish in Ancient Rome.

Not later, though. If there was a happy time to be a parrot in Europe, it must have been the Middle Ages.

In his book "Parrot Culture: Our 2500-year-long fascination with the world's most talkative bird", the author Bruce Thomas Boehrer, a Professor of English and a parrot fancier, states that the history of the parrots during the European Middle Ages is more a cultural than a natural one, and parrots became "a prominent feature of medieval European cultural life".

Living parrots seldom appear in the historical records of Medieval Europe, and their availability must have diminished. But during that time the parrot acquired the image of a sacred bird, able to talk and communicate meaningfully without been trained to do so, possessing prophetic abilities and being miraculous. Parrots were beloved pets by the royalties and the Vatican, and appeared on medieval pictures next to God and Jesus Christ. They were also associated with the Virgin Mary to the point of a merger between the Virgin and the bird. In her book "The Mythical Zoo", Boria Sax mentions that according to the medieval legend, a parrot had announced the coming of Virgin Mary, and artists often painted exotic birds next to her and the infant Jesus.

Parrots were generously granted supernatural qualities, and there were literary speculations that parrots might have once been human beings, like Psittacus in Boccaccio's "Genealogia Deorum".

Besides literature and painting, textile and costume design also didn't remain untouched by the perception of the parrot as a sacred creature and an attribute of luxury such textiles were worn by affluent people only. Preserved is a fragment from Italy, where woven with gold and olive-green, two parrots calmly and majestically look at each other.

The geographical discoveries of the late 15th century brought the encounter with the abundance of parrots in America, so the bird wasn't perceived as sacred and a rare treasure any more, although it was still fashionable to bring parrots as presents to kings and queens who paid for the expeditions in exchange. But with its wittiness, the Renaissance also created the image of the parrot as a speaker who repeats without much thinking. The parrot era of the sacredness was gone. It was the time of knowledge.

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