XVI/3 As Dante moves downwards through Hell earlier imagery gathers weight in retrospect and images tend more and more to quote each other, attempting to echo Dante's own continuum of transformational recapitulation. This particular illustration quotes backwards and forwards; to Canto 1/2 for the skin of the leopard, to Canto XVII/1 for the coiled patterns of Geryon and to Canto XXIII/3 for the monk's habit. The cord surrounding the picture is that which Dante says he hoped to use to ensnare the leopard. The coarsely woven hessian (taken in fact from an African sack) indicates Dante's almost certain attachment to the Franciscan order whose cord he discovers to be even more powerful than a mere device for combatting lust and luxury: it serves finally to lure Fraud out into the open. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.