Squirrels were kept as pets in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, as Kathleen Walker-Meikle notes in Medieval Pets :
Even if it came from a species that had little intrinsic monetary value, an animal could be transformed into a pampered pet of exalted status by adorning it with elaborate accessories. Such is the case of the squirrel, a popular medieval pet, which is almost always described and depicted as being fitted with a collar and chain, usually finely crafted in silver … the practice of keeping pet squirrels on chains still prevailed in the sixteenth century, as observed in a dialogue in John Lyly's play Endymion:
Tophas: What is that the gentlewoman carrieth in a chain?
Epiton: Why, it is squirrel.
Tophas: A squirrel? O gods, what things are made for money!
(In fact, the keeping of pet squirrels continues into the 17th century -- see this detail from a still life by Abraham Mignon, c. 1670 -- and into the 18th century, as observed in portraits of Daniel Crommelin Verplanck, Rebecca Orne, a boy, two children, etc.)
The following links include pet squirrels and the material culture relating to pet squirrels (including collars, leashes, and hutches) as well as iconography of wild squirrels, especially in medieval manuscript marginalia. Note the different varieties of squirrels that appear, including the long-eared red squirrels.
- A grey squirrel in an initial letter L, psalter (Ashmole 1525, fol. 114v), c. 1210-1220
- A squirrel in the upper border, the Ashridge Petrus Comestor (British Library Royal 3 D VI, fol. 234), c. 1283-1300
- Floor tile with a lady holding a squirrel, c. 1290-1300
- A man holds a squirrel with a dog on a leash (fol. 29r) and other squirrels on fols. 60v, 82r, 119r, 141r, 147r, psalter (Douce 118), end of the 13th century
- Squirrels by Ge Shuying, 14th century
- A squirrel shoves a nut in its mouth, psalter and hours (British Library Yates Thompson 15, fol. 97), c. 1300
- A squirrel eats a nut, the Ormesby Psalter (Douce 366, fol. 71v), c. 1310
- A squirrel jousts against a monkey, Li Livres dou Tresor (British Library Yates Thompson 19, fol. 3), c. 1315-1325
- Upper right-hand border with a squirrel, Estoire del Saint Graal et al. (British Library Royal 14 E III, fol. 89r), c. 1315-1325
- Fols. 22r, 77r, 80r, and 88r of a psalter (Douce 5), c. 1320-1330
- A lady with a pet squirrel wearing a collar and a bell (fol. 33r) and a royal lady in a carriage with her pet squirrel (fol. 181v), the Luttrell Psalter (British Library Add. 42130), c. 1325-1340
- A youth aims his bow at a squirrel in a tree, the Taymouth Hours (British Library Yates Thompson 13, fol. 187v), 2nd quarter of the 14th century
- Squirrels on fols. 129r and 149r of the Romance of Alexander (Bodley 264), c. 1338-1344
- Squirrels, Der Naturen Bloeme (KB KA 16, fol. 68vb1), c. 1350
- A squirrel chained to a hutch, book of hours (Lat. liturg. f. 3, fol. 74r), c. 1382-1394
- A squirrel, siddur (British Library Oriental 2736, fol. 479v), c. 1390
- A squirrel with long, pointy ears, book of hours (Douce 62, fol. 31v), c. 1400
- A gold ring (British Museum AF.1077) with a woman and a leashed squirrel inscribed on the interior, 15th century
- A red squirrel, book of hours (PML M.919, fol. 65r), c. 1418
- St. Baltildis with a pet squirrel by its hutch, the Sherborne Missal (British Library Add. 74236, p. 412), early 15th century
- Squirrels on fols. 18v, 35v, and 49r, the Hours of Charlotte of Savoy (PML M.1004), c. 1420-1425
- Squirrel wearing collar with lead attached to ring on block on which the squirrel is seated, book of hours (PML M.1031, fol. 52v), c. 1445-1460
- A squirrel chained to a hutch, the Cauchon Hours, mid-15th century
- Squirrels on fols. 50r and 149v, book of hours (PML M.80), c. 1450-1475
- Squirrels, Der Naturen Bloeme (KB 76 E 4, fol. 31va2), c. 1450-1500
- A wild man spears a squirrel, book of hours (MMW 10 F 50, fol. 93r), c. 1460
- Trapping squirrels, Livres du roy Modus et de la royne Racio (PML M.820, fol. 52v), c. 1465
- Detail from the Monforte Altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes, c. 1470
- A squirrel next to a kneeling lady, a book of hours (PML M.131, fol. 45r), c. 1480
- Two squirrels by Albrecht Dürer, 1492
- Roundel with a squirrel eating a nut, 16th century
- A squirrel eating a nut by a thistle flower, Grandes Heures of Anne de Bretagne (BNF Latin 9474, fol. 110v), c. 1503-1508
- A red squirrel, book of hours (PML M.250, fol. 4r), c. 1510
- Seven Albani Portraits by Giovanni Cariani, 1519
- Portrait of a married couple by Lorenzo Lotto, c. 1523-1524
- Detail from a portrait of a lady with a squirrel and a starling by Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1526-1528
- Portrait of a lady with a pet squirrel attributed to Francesco Montemezzano, c. 1565-1575 (note chain and bells)
- Squirrel by Hans Hoffmann, 1578
- Portrait of a lady with a pet squirrel, possibly Maddalena Salvetti by Bartolommeo Traballesi
- Carnelian pendant in the form of a squirrel from the Cheapside Hoard, late 16th century-early 17th century
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