Appendix 3 - Numbered Notes to the Illustrations

Summary

Part II

note I A horned forehead was supposed to be the sign of a cuckold (Spanish cuerno, and similarly in English).

Part III

note 2 See III n. 30. On the illustration, see Cecil Roth, ‘Mediaeval Illustrations of Mouse-Traps’, Bodleian Library Record, 5 (1956), 244–5I; repr. in id., Studies in Books and Booklore (Westmead, 1956), 103-10.

note 3 See critical note. ‘trembled violently’. Zamora's reading, ‘straightened’ (? by rigor mortis), lacks authority.

Part V

note 4 ‘brazen instrument’, is the regular medieval Hebrew term for ‘astrolabe’, in reference to which the quotation from Ezek. 9: 1, ‘offensive weapon’, is here pejoratively introduced. In the engraving in the Venice edition shown in the text at this point, the leading figure has a purse at his waist, presumably intended to represent the case of his astrolabe. The corresponding illumination in R shows two of the astrologers holding their astrolabes.