When S first encounters Sola, he also encounters The Archer’s Tales. Before we know the title of this important volume, S notices that the book is “as thick as Don Quixote.”
Below is the image from the title page for Don Quixote‘s first edition followed by the insert from S between pages 360-361.
Given the similarities, along with the insert being placed on the pages where the marginalia reveals the birthdate and birthplace of Signe Rabe, we perhaps should pay much more attention to Don Quixote.
The Latin in the image from the title page of Don Quixote, SPERO LYCEM POST TENEBRAS, tranlates to I hope for light after darkness.
Interestingly enough, too, there is a cork tree mentioned in Don Quixote. And on its branch is a hanging wineskin.
New Info (11/24/2022)
I didn’t realize it, but apparently Don Quixote has its own authorship controversy. Author Francis Carr suggests in Who Wrote Don Quixote that the title page shown above is evidence in itself. He suggests that the falconer, hidden from sight by the mist, is indicative that the true author is a mystery. In our version on Jean-Bernard Desjardins (funerary?) card, the falconer’s form is in full view with only his face hidden from view. And, instead of a lion in the background, we have five roses in the foreground. The falcon in Don Quixote’s version is facing away from the falconer. In S, the falcon is facing his handler and he is additionally enshrouded in light.
So the similarities here between the two title pages seem to be giving us more clues as to the authorship controversy and perhaps even its solution. The name Jean-Bernard Desjardins appears prominently below this image. Does this mean the pages he provided to Filomena in Brazil, that he probably got from Signe Rabe, are indeed the real ending? What else, if anything, is this title page saying?