An Elderly Man with a Cane Approaches a Group

From the Getty Museum record

Book VI, On Man and Society, of a French copy of *On the Properties of Things* would once have opened with this image of a senior man approaching a group of three men, one of whom gestures towards him. The elderly figure has a markedly rounded back, which suggests that he has scoliosis or a kind of kyphosis, the medical term for a condition commonly known by the often pejoratively used term “hunchback.” The separation of a group of unafflicted younger men from an isolated older man with a spinal condition suggests the ways in which medieval people perceived physical impairment and age. The young men’s clothing and accoutrements identify them as part of different social groups, including a wealthier man in a chaperon and courtier with a dagger. The text, whose Latin version circulated widely in university settings as a kind of textbook, describes various social demographics and occupations, often connecting them to biblical narratives and Christian worldviews. The French translation of this work, which this cutting preserves on its obverse, was originally commissioned by King Charles V of France, indicating the court’s interest in codifying parts of society and its various royal subjects.