Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Vaticinia sive prophetiae et imagines summorum pontificum
Italy, ca. 1390
MS M.402 fol. 4r

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Boniface VIII, wearing triple-crowned papal tiara, stands holding rake or five-tined fork with right hand. Eagle (?) hangs by its beak from left wrist of Boniface. Bird, probably dove, perches on bottom of rake or fork, holding tail of scorpion in beak. The scorpion grasps neck of peacock above. Monk, tonsured, sits at right, raising right hand, holding three rods (?) with left hand.
Figures enclosed in medallion within square in the corners of which are dragon, basilisk, stork, and serpent with head of bull.