- Commentary
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Commentary
Text
Salamanders are proof against fire, they can poison all apples in a tree, poison water in a well, killing anyone who drinks from it. They can survive in flames and put a fire out. The saura snake.
Illustration
The tree writhes with salamanders; a salamander poisons a well; salamanders leap from flames; a man lies poisoned at the foot of the tree.
Comment
The image of a man lying dead at the foot of a tree relates to the Tree of Jesse iconography. Above him a salamander plunges into a tub, an episode illustrated in Bern 318 f. 14v. The other salamanders are poisoning fruit in a tree and surviving in a fire. In certain conditions a bonfire can appear to be releasing live, red, wriggling snakes when the wood is damp and the flying sparks carry long red tails. The star and roof at the top have seeped through from the next page.
- Transcription and Translation
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Transcription
veneno, et eos qui edint occidit. Qui etiam vel si in puteum cadat\ vis veneni eius potantes interficit. Ista contra incendia repugnans\ ignes sola animalium extinguit. Vivit enim in mediis\ flammis sine dolore et consumptione, et non solum quia non uritur\ sed extinguit incendium. \ De saura serpenteTranslation
and kills those who eat them. In addition, if it falls into a well, the strength of its poison kills those who drink the water. It resists fire and alone among creatures can put fires out. For it can exist in the midst of flames without pain and without being consumed by them, not only because it does not burn but because it puts the fire out. Of the snake called the saura
