From Mus alpinus to alpine marmot, a tentative history. Ot Mus alpinus k al’piïskomou sourkou, eksperimental’naïa istoriïa. [De Mus alpinus à la marmotte alpine, histoire provisoire].

Résumé

Bestiaries, treatises of zoology, old dictionaries or encyclopaedias named and described animaIs which hold the attention of people at their time. The oldest bestiaries, written in Greek, did not have information about animals of the western countries. The first known quotation of a mountain rat was made by Pliny the elder in his Natural Histories (1rst century). But the description is short and vague. After re-reading of the early treatises of zoology and dictionaries, Estienne (1539), Gesner (1551), Munster (1575), Holland (1601), Nicot (1606), Cotgrave and Florio (1611), Ray (1693), the Académie française's Dictionary (1694), Buffon (1765), Brehm (1891) and Bonnier (1922), we will discuss of the evolution of the vernacular names of this animal and of its range during historic time as well as of the description of making hay-litter.