Img. ID: 224998
Fol. 16v: A fox is approaching a wolf’s lair in the form of a kennel with a gabled tiled roof. The wolf's head is peeping out from the entrance, while two witnessing animals are hiding behind the kennel.
The caption above reads: "Image of the wolf sitting as usual in his dwelling, while hiding two witnesses behind the fence" (צורת הזאב יושב בביתו כסדר, והטמין לו עדים מאחורי הגדר; Loewe 2004, I:139).
For depictions of the same subject in the other 15th-century earliest manuscripts of Meshal ha-Kadmoni see
Appendix 1: line 16.
A possible visual source of our scene could be based on the story of the wolf tempting the kid to come out from the den as told in Aesop's Fables, or in the Physiologus (Gronemann 2006, I:190-1910); figs. 1-5:
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Fig. 1: Miscellany, Regensburg, 1440-1460. Munich, BSB cgm.3974, fol. 128v. © Munich, BSB (Gronemann 2006, II:fig. 66)
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Fig. 2: Avianus, Aesop's Fables, North Germany, c.1300. Hamburg, SUB Cod. in scrinio 47. (Goldschmidt 1974:36) (Gronemann 2006, II:fig. 148) |
Fig. 3: Ulrich Boner, Der delstein. Bamberg, 1461. Wolfenbüttel, HAB 16.1 Eth 20, p. 39 (Gronemann 2006, II:fig. 149) |
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Fig. 4: Ulrich Boner, Der Edelstein Augsburg, 1449. Augsburg, Univ.Bibl. MS I.3.2.3, fol. 26. (Gronemann 2006, II:fig. 150) |
Fig. 5: Bestiary, England, early 13th century. Oxford, Bodl. Lib. Ashmole 1551, fol. 17. (Gronemann 2006, II:fig. 151) |
For the Rothschild Miscellany, see IJA 1982/1/104.