Who holds pears like that?!

[MarcoP]

The first image is obviously an allegory upon fertility and reproduction; pears being symbolic of the female form and reproduction, we see women collecting pears as they should children. The full pear tree shows bountiful life. The monkey is probably there as a warning against animal behaviour. Without recourse to the text, I'm guessing this is an imagery warning that sex is for reproduction not recreation, or otherwise showing that the pleasures of life should be picked delicately rather than wantonly consumed. The allegory involves common motifs.

Hi David,
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. linked by Koen above provides an excellent analysis of the early illustrated Tacuinum Sanitatis manuscripts.

...the most powerful impetus behind the painted scenes seems to have been the desire to flatter and please the Visconti. In assembling the prototypes for the Tacuinum illuminations, Giovannino dei Grassi strove to capture a world of fertile fields, orchards, and gardens on a perfectly run feudal estate intended to echo the Visconti's own. ... the Tacuinum illustrations portrayed the peaceful, orderly, bountiful world such a ruler would enjoy.
...
At a time when so many were starving, the wealthy and powerful class gained the popular title "il poplo grasso," the fat people. Knowing this context, it is hard to take the utopian landscapes of the Tacuinum paintings at face value. Ultimately, the celebration of an abundance of food in the Tacuinum Sanitatis manuscripts must be interpreted as an assertion of power and class by the Visconti rulers.

The fact that these manuscripts were made as gifts for powerful allies also supports their interpretation as political messages in the first place. Personally, I see the monkey here as another expensive item to show off, together with the rich clothes, abundance of food and amazing artistic quality of the manuscripts. 

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. you can find a transcription and translation of the page. With reference to the text, the monkey could also possibly stand as a symbol of a "temperament of a hot blood".