Two Views on Punching in Late Medieval Italy
This image illustrates drunkenness (Lat. ebrietas) in a Tacuinum Sanitatis from Italy in the 1390s (Bibliotheque Nationale du France, Paris MS. Nouvelle acquisition latine 1673 folio 88v: for this and other images see their Mandragore website http://mandragore.bnf.fr/jsp/rechercheExperte.jsp). The Tacuinum is a Latin translation of an Arabic book on the medical implications of various foods, activities, winds, and kinds of clothing. The man without a dagger stands ready to punch. Is he grabbing his opponent at the neck, or trying to catch his opponent’s dagger hand? The artist does not make it clear.
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