41 Strange

Snails were awful to gardens back then as now! Good work for a knight.

Unfortunately they appeared ill equipped for the job! But I think the message shines through quite clearly.

That it does. I imagine the monks did not care for their gardens being chewed on. Plus they were the ones that did the manuscripts! Maybe a joke

I remember in Kindergarten a snail was crawling across our picnic table. The other kids were oohing and aahing at it. I quickly smashed it with my fist. Learned that's the way to handle them from watching my father garden.

If you're into snails in early modern paintings, perhaps you'd like snails in medieval manuscripts! @Molly_Brook_

Liam!! I keep meaning to learn about these manuscripts. Is this a symbolic use of snails?

I don't think anyone really knows! Any suggestions for the snails of medieval manuscripts and marginalia? @BLMedieval @MedievalMss @discarding_imgs @MarginaliaMS @PiersatPenn @PeritiaEditors

Apologies for butting into the conversation, I came across this as I was searching Twitter. There is no consensus on the issue, but back in 2013 I presented one alternative interpretation of the imagery, presented in this & two other blogposts: https://my-albion.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-humility-of-snails-part-1-problem.html ….

Thanks for this, Steffen. I'll need a caffeinated beverage before getting into your writing but you've used such lovely images from @britishlibrary collections! @BLMedieval

Haha, I understand very well! And yes, one of the perks of writing on this particular subject is that there is such a trove of images with which to illustrate one's argument.

Thanks very much Steffen! I look forward to reading!

People were much smaller back then.