![]() Placing them in marginalia serves as some xenophobic fun, and would account for why they are frequently shown fighting chivalrous knights – a sort of ‘good ideals vs bad ideals’. 13 th century), the Lombards were an unpopular group in Europe, with the view that they monopolised jobs, lent money at unreasonable rates, and were overall a treasonous, sinning, un-chivalrous bunch. By the time that the snail marginalia start to become frequent (c. Historian Lilian Randall has suggested that the snails represent the Lombards, a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774 AD. This leads to the suggestion that the valorous knights are fighting the “wicked” who will eventually meet their just punishment. This is discussing the punishment of the wicked, saying “let them be like a snail which melts away as it goes, Like a stillborn child of a woman, that they may not see the sun”. ![]() This led Comte to theorise that the snails must represent the Resurrection – the two images must be linked.Īnother suggestion tied to death comes from medievalist Lisa Spangenberg, who highlights another Biblical connection – Psalm 58. He noticed that in two manuscripts there were marginal snails very close to miniatures of the Raising of Lazarus (for those not aware, this is a Biblical story where Jesus brings Lazarus of Bethany back to life four days after his burial). One of the first people to pick up on the strange addition of snails to manuscripts was Comte de Bastard in 1850. 1) The snails represent death/the Resurrection Knight with a club fighting against a huge snail (Smithfield Decretals, southern France, c.
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