Book of Hours, Walters W.90, f. 151r: man versus snail

Book of Hours, northeast France, early 14th century, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Ms. W.90, folio 151r. Look to the foot of the page, below the prayers: a man hoists a spear as if hunting wild boar, and his quarry is a snail, with a dog caught in between and a hare watching from the corner. Duels with snails are one of the margins' most baffling running jokes, and nobody has settled why. Lilian Randall's well-known survey read the snail as a symbol of the Lombards, vilified for usury and unknightly behavior; others see a garden pest, social climbers or a jab at the aristocracy.