Aeneas returns the body of his son Lausus to Mezentius, illuminated C from Book 11 (Aeneid, Bodleian, MS. Canon. Class. Lat. 52, f112v)

I propose to interpret this historiated letter differently from what is proposed in the Bodleian library catalog, for whom it would be the funeral of Pallas. It's true that Pallas' funeral is the central event of Book 11. But a number of details don't add up: above the dead warrior, Aeneas brandishes a bloody sword. He is in combat, not at the funeral. And behind Aeneas, on the right, stands a warrior in arms, impossible to identify in the account in Book 11. Acesetes, the squire watching over Pallas' body, is an old man, not the warrior in his prime depicted here.

In Book 10, by contrast, Aeneas kills in battle the young Lausus who had come between him and his father Mezence. Then, moved by pity, he returns Lausus' body to his adversary. However, in the previous miiature, Mézence was depicted identically, in green and with the same helmet.

This is not the first time that the historiated letter illustrates the previous book instead of the following one: see those for books 2, 3 and 5.