Whoever does research on courts encounters, if only peripherally, animals : from horses to hounds, falcons to fleas. Animals at court included animals for food production and consumption ; for transport ; for the hunt ; for equestrian sports ; for defence ; for companionship ; or simply for exhibition as exotica. Animals had symbolic functions too, as indicators of power and rank for princes and courtiers (in crests and coats of arms, for example the double-headed eagle of Austria), and as representations of life at court (as in La Fontaine’s phrase Peuple cameleon, people singe du maitre). A growing curiosity about the history of animals invites further study and an interdisciplinary approach to animals at court.

Lieu : Kaulbachstraße 15, Historisches Kolleg, Munich