Where Evil Lurks and Tongues Wag

Some threads are a real pain to work with and this is one of them. It's a copper silk like thread by dmc and is very slick, tangles easily.

Okay this part of the sketchbook translation doesn't look like much YET, but the copper thingy embedded in the plant is meant to be a Pope's Pear. A rather nasty little devise also known as the pear of anguish, pear of confession or chokes pear. I see that on the wiki entry they are being politically correct and not using the historically known name, Popes Pear. The reason for the name is due to the papal bull by Innocent VIII Summis Desiderantes, Dec 5th, 1484

"We therefore, desiring, as is our duty, to remove all impediments by which in any way the said inquisitors are hindered in the exercise of their office"

"printed in full at the head of the Malleus maleficarum,
a treatise on witches and how to prepare them for torture

An earlier piece

"the gossip"

To cure tongues that talk too idle. The brank, sometimes called the gossips bridle, a sort of iron cage, often of great weight; when worn, covering the entire head;with a spiked or flat tongue of iron to be placed in the mouth over the tongue.


Torture Museum
History of Torture