In the bottom margin on f. 27r, on the edge of a farm and in front of a house with a man watching them, are three boys playing a ball game similar to present-day golf. The boy on the left is about to strike the ball, the one in the middle is listening to comments by a middle class man and waiting for his turn from the boy on his knees about to knock the ball into a hole.
On the right side of the margin is a medallion, with a cartouche reading “scorpio”, that contains a scorpion seen from above, quite different from the fresh-water crab representing Cancer, particularly as regards its wide tail ending in a sting, similar to the one in the Très riches heures du duc de Berry (ff. 10v, 11v). In most of the cycles by Gerard Horenbout and Simon Bening, however, it is shown in profile. Mention must be made of a mistake made in all of them: the Scorpion sign of the zodiac is situated in September and Libra in October, thereby reversing the normal order.
Carlos Miranda García-Tejedor
Doctor in History
