Curiosa: Savonarola brings the lulz ... and a folk-motif

[nebroadwe]

Another great woodcut this morning, from an early Florentine printing of Savonarola's Compendio di Revelatione. (The printer clearly liked it, because it shows up in two different spots in the book.) The BMC entry remarks, blandly enough, that this illustration "represents the devil disputing with Savonarola and four female saints." What they don't mention is that the devil is habited as a Dominican (friars get a lot of bad press at this point in European history; they wander around too much) with horns protruding through his hood and ...

... waaaait for it ...

... chicken feet peeking out from under the hem of his tunic. ("I knew the cloven hooves would be a dead giveaway, Master Screwtape, but since we can't do human feet, I thought I'd have a go at confusing them! I mean, whoever heard of a devil with chicken legs, eh?" "Very ... inventive, Wormwood. Now come here -- and bring the honey-mustard sauce with you ...")

ETA: My boss reminds me that Savonarola was a Dominican (argh -- like he doesn't have "Ordinis Predicatorum" after his name on every single title page I've read in the past week [headdesk]) and suggests that perhaps the infernal being pictured is his own personal demon. :-)

ETA the Second: juxtaposie introduces me to the "devil in the dance-hall" tale. Brunvand and Hickman's Encyclopedia of Urban Legends calls it "an old and widely distributed supernatural legend with prototypes in European folklore. In the New World it is especially popular among French Canadians, French-speaking Louisianans, and particularly Mexican Americans" -- the latter seem to prefer chicken feet as the devil's distinguishing mark in their versions of the story.

Comments

[juxtaposie.livejournal.com]

Aren't the chicken feet unique to South American folklore? I seem to remember Amanda's grandma telling me to pay attention to a handsome man's feet when we were dancing, just in case he was the devil coming to take me away...

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

This has me intrigued, too. So far I've found a couple of sixteenth-century woodcuts with chicken-footed devils, but no indication of where they were printed. Following your clue, I also turned up the "devil in the dance-hall" folk-tale, which seems to have a strong Hispanic connection on this side of the Atlantic. I'm guessing that Spanish immigrants must have brought it with them from Europe way-back-when, but it would certainly be interesting to track it back to the Old Country.