Img. ID: 225006
Fol. 22v: The lovers' flight is depicted in an open landscape, where they walk behind two loaded donkeys, each with a stick in the right hand. The woman wears a long dress, and a yellow kerchief covers her long hair which hangs down her back. The young lover is dressed in a short slit tunic, carrying a water vessel in his left hand. The saddle bag of the farther donkey is inscribed by Scribe A in semi-cursive script: "If called an ass then it was an ass" (פן יקראיהו/ אתון לכן/ היה אתון).
The two donkeys loaded with the husband’s goods are mentioned in the story. The caption above reads: "Image of the adulteress going with her beloved, and the ‘fire’ of his love burns in her ‘bosom’" (Prov. 6:27; צורת המנאפת הולכת את חשוקה, ותחתה אש אהבתו בחיקה; Loewe 2004, I:187).
For depictions of the same subject in other 15th-century manuscripts of Meshal ha-Kadmoni, see Appendix 1: line 26. The visual source for the depiction in our manuscript is representations of peasants urging on their beast with a stick (figs. 1-2; Gronemann 2006, I:198-199; 230-231):
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Fig. 1: Ulrich Boner, Augsburg, 1447. Heidelberg, Univ.Bibl. cpg.314, fol. 45 (Gronemann 2006, II:fig. 169) |
Fig. 2: Ulrich Boner, Bamberg, 1461. Wolfenbüttel, HAB 16.1 Eth 20, p. 139 (Gronemann 2006, II:fig. 170) |
For the Rothschild Miscellany, see IJA 1982/1/111.