Frater Rutillus (attrib.), The Passion of St. Agatha
Weissenau, Germany, circa 1170-1200
Illustration from the Passionary of Weissenau (Codex Bodner 127, folio 39v)
Martin Bodner Foundation, Cologny, Switzerland
In the original of the Golden Legend the provost Quintianus orders St. Agatha suspended on a rack (in equuleum suspendi). That phrase is unchanged in the text that this miniature illustrates,1 yet the device pictured here is not a rack at all but a low gibbet formed from crudely trimmed tree trunks. The same mistake is seen in
a fresco in a German church. William Caxton also has trouble with the concept. His translation in the Agatha chapter makes the equuleus a "tree" (a beam or pole) and in other chapters it becomes a "place" or a generic "torment.".2
After Agatha was tortured on the rack the provost ordered her breasts to be cut off, which is what the little bearded man is doing with his green pincer.
Quintianus is pictured as a thoroughly medieval king with crown, scepter, and throne.
Read more about images of St. Agatha.
Source: this page in Wikimedia Commons.
