Bestiary: Intemperance (unicorn) and Humility (lamb)
Two moralized animal emblems from the Notebook H bestiary
This page of the Notebook H bestiary pairs two moral emblems drawn from animal lore. In the first, the unicorn's intemperance proves its undoing: unable to master its desire for maidens, it lays its head asleep in a seated maiden's lap and is taken by hunters. In the second, the lamb exemplifies humility, submitting even to caged lions, which are often seen unwilling to kill it. The page carries only Leonardo's mirror-script prose, with no drawing.
On this page
Intemperance: the unicorn undone by its desire
The alicorn or unicorn, through its intemperance and inability to master itself, forgets its ferocity and wildness for the delight it takes in maidens. Setting aside all suspicion, it approaches the seated maiden, falls asleep in her lap, and is thus captured by the hunters.
Humility: the lamb submitting to lions
The highest example of humility is seen in the lamb, which submits to every animal. When lambs are given as food to caged lions, they submit to them as to their own mother, so that often the lions have been seen unwilling to kill them.