Fol. 41v, Part III: In Praise of True and Sound Counsel, opens with a scene of the author and five debaters. The author is sitting in a high-backed chair reading from an open book on a lectern in front of him. Five kneeling men in long tunics are listening attentively, holding books in their hands. A dog's face was added on the left of the author's seat next to the kneeling man. This scene does not exactly follow the caption written above which mentions one interlocutor: "Image of the Interlocutor and the author speaking to each other" (צורת המקשה והמחבר, זה אל זה ידבר; Loewe 2004, II:331).
In the outer margin is the initial word “Said” (אמר) inscribed in quasi-Gothic letters by the scribe.
In the lower left margin a catchword is enclosed within a simple ink frame.
The scene of the author and five debaters similarly opens the four other parts of the book (see fols. 3v, 18v, 52, 68). For other iconographical comparisons see fig. 1-2:
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Fig. 1: Haggadah, Spain, 14th century, Sarajevo National Museum, fol. 25 (Gronemann 2006, II:fig. 167) |
Fig. 2: Siddur, Italy, c.1430, London, BL Add. 26968, fol. 118 (Gronemann 2006, II:fig. 168) |
For depictions of the same subject in the other 15th-century manuscripts of Meshal ha-Kadmoni see
Appendix 1: line 41. For the Rothschild Miscellany, see IJA 1982/1/126.