The Animal Aranata in Early Descriptions of the Americas, Later Translations and Interpretations

This article examines the history of the name “aranata” and the verbal descriptions of the hypothetical creature it denotes. Its earliest recorded mention appears in Pietro Martire d’Anghiera’s Decades of the New World (1530), referring to events of 1523–26. The article traces subsequent appearances of the aranata in early texts — most notably its expanded description included in Francisco López de Gómara’s General History of the Indies (1552), which inspired later translations and adaptations by authors such as Girolamo Cardano and Giovanni Botero. The linguistic tradition surrounding the aranata extends across Latin, Spanish, and Italian. According to these early accounts, the aranata is about the size of a greyhound, dignified in bearing, and bearded. Its hands, feet, and mouth resemble those of a human; it feeds on fruit, lives in trees, moves in groups, and utters a terrifying cry. It is also said to catch and return to the hunter the arrow shot at it. In all known sources, the aranata is consistently preceded by mention of another enigmatic creature — “cappa” (in d’Anghiera) or “capa” (in later texts). In a 1600 reissue of Botero’s work (1592), the name appears as “capra”, which the authors of the Kraków translation (1609) rendered as Polish “koza” (“goat”), a reading reinforced by the nearby reference to the aranata’s goat-like beard. Apparently for this reason, in Karion Istomin’s Primer (1691–94) the two creatures merge into one: “the aranata- goat.” The international history of the aranata later extends into texts written in French, German, English, Church Slavonic, and Russian. Alexander von Humboldt identified the aranata with a species of spider monkey, which he called “Simia ursina” — long regarded as a variety of the red howler monkey (“Alouatta seniculus”) and now known as “Alouatta arctoidea.” Alongside the capa and the aranata appear other hyperbolized or phantom animals of early American lore: the moss, the giant condor of immense strength, and the axolotl, said to possess a womb and menstrual purifications.