Pilgrim sign cat with mouse, 15th century, silvered bronze

Product description

This bear sign shows a cat with a mouse in its claws, with the Latin text 'Visis Mus' ('have you seen the mouse') underneath. It is modeled on a 15th-century original which is in the British Museum.

The cat certainly did not have a good name in the Middle Ages: the Franciscan monk Berthold von Regensburg already warned in his sermons in the 13th century about the bad influence of cats, and in the late Middle Ages they were sometimes even persecuted in the context of witch persecution - the low point being the papal bull 'Summis desiderantes affectibus' from 1484.

A curious and striking piece of medieval imagery; Equipped with a needle at the back to attach to clothing.