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+--- Thread: f57v and the Catalan Atlas (/thread-2022.html)
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f57v and the Catalan Atlas - Koen G - 27-07-2017
In another thread, Searcher mentioned compass roses (or wind roses). When one looks for info on these, the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is unavoidable, since it contains the first compass rose on a map. I'll select some info from the wiki for those who are unfamiliar with the work:
Quote:The Catalan Atlas is the most important map of the medieval period in the Catalan language (drawn and written in 1375). It was produced by the Majorcan cartographic school and is attributed to Cresques Abraham (also known as "Abraham Cresques"), a Jewish book illuminator [...] The Catalan Atlas originally consisted of six vellum leaves folded down the middle, painted in various colors including gold and silver. The leaves are now cut in half. Each half-leaf is mounted on one side of five wooden panels. n overall size of 65 × 300 cm.
The first two leaves contain texts in Catalan covering cosmography, astronomy, and astrology. These texts are accompanied by illustrations. The texts and illustration emphasize the Earth's spherical shape and the state of the known world. They also provide information to sailors on tides and how to tell time at night.
[...]
Unlike many other nautical charts, the Catalan Atlas is read with the north at the bottom.
Now, you might notice I placed this thread in the Voynich forum instead of "Non-Voynich medievalia". That is because at just a glance I saw two indications which link this map to f57v.
The first one is that on this chart, several rulers are depicted, and ones who have a lot of gold are shown in a rather specific pose, holding up a gold nugget. I attach Mansa Musa, the 14th century king of Mali who, according to legend, brought along so much gold that he caused massive inflation where he went. The text on the Atlas reads:
Another such figure is queen Sebba. The legend reads: Arabia Sebba. Province that had queen Sebba; now it belongs to the Arabs Sarracens, and in it there very good aromas, as well as myrth and frankincense. Gold, silver and precious stones are plentiful, and there you can find a bird named Phoenix.
Now the second thing. In the other thread, I noted that the "North" on the compass rose is marked with an emblem for, according to the literature, the pole star. I have often said that at least in quire 13, this type of line denotes the northern polar region in the sky, so that's when my internal alarm went off.
But there's something else. On the first panel (cosmological) there is again a wind diagram, again topped with the curious pole star symbol. But here the symbol has been circled with a line, creating (or rather, bringing to the fore) a familiar shape, one very similar to the one in the centre of f57v. Just to show how similar they are, I have traced both (bottom).
I must say I haven't been following many discussions about this folio since it seems somewhat separate from the main sections. For all I know this is old news, though I haven't found anything in the forum search, apart from Diane mentioning the Atlas' relevance in more general terms.
I do think that it might hold more relevant information. For example, there is something to the way it draws cities (also found in some manuscripts). A city is basically a political symbol (flag, tower, dome...) placed inside cylindrical city walls.
Any thoughts?
RE: f57v and the Catalan Atlas - Koen G - 27-07-2017
Also, a similar pole-star symbol (with only 6 blobs??) is on the 9 rosettes foldout. Surrounded by other stars.
RE: f57v and the Catalan Atlas - Anton - 27-07-2017
This shape is not uncommon in European manuscripts, I've seen it before. If I'm not mistaken, it represents the Sun.
RE: f57v and the Catalan Atlas - Koen G - 27-07-2017
It's not common at all, and it represents the Pole Star. The Sun is not used as an emblem for North...
RE: f57v and the Catalan Atlas - Anton - 27-07-2017
I'm speaking about the shape from the VMS, not about the one from the atlas. I for sure saw it in some manuscripts (presumably at e-codices), and I even commented upon that 1.5 years ago in Diane's blog: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Unfortunately, I don't remember the exact MSs where I saw it, but the sun for sure is not invented from my head. I may have seen "sol" written nearby, but I don't remember exactly.
RE: f57v and the Catalan Atlas - Koen G - 27-07-2017
Those diagrams you link there remind me more of the elaborate blue star near the dead nymph in the other thread. Especially the second one.
RE: f57v and the Catalan Atlas - Anton - 28-07-2017
Yes, and this codex is not unique in representing them, here's another one for example: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
But those diagrams do not feature the "polar star" (or sun?) symbol, I saw it somewhere else...
(offtopic) BTW, the Cod. Sang. 827 (Lake Constance, early 15 c.) mentioned above is interesting in two other respects:
1) "detailed" T-O map (p. 270), it makes sense to try to match it against the VMS Rosettes
2) heavy abbreviation featuring many Voynichese-like shapes, such as k, s (both long and short), sh...
RE: f57v and the Catalan Atlas - MarcoP - 28-07-2017
Browsing through the Catalan Atlas, I haven't seen the second “star” posted by Koen, but I noticed another one in the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
The first example is labeled “Tramontana” and I can't think of anything else but Polaris the pole star [edited after Rene's comment]. In the second example, the “star” appears opposite to the Moon: in general this would suggest that the star is (here?) the Sun, but I really can't understand this diagram, so I don't know.
When comparing images, it's useful to consider context as well, however intriguing the single details might be. I think it's important that in the Catalan diagrams the “stars” appear on the margin of a circle, while the lobed “flowers” in the VMS are at the center of circles (the fact that the detail in the bottom-left Rosette is not “exactly” at the center is also interesting of course).
I attach a few examples of more or less similar lobed items at the center of circular diagrams:
Harley 3814a – a scheme of the geocentric model (the central “object” is the Earth)
St.John's College 37 – a diagram about the computation of time (I can't tell the details)
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. – a diagram about the computation of Easter's date
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. – a diagram of the year (the 12 “petals” are labeled with the months)
RE: f57v and the Catalan Atlas - ReneZ - 28-07-2017
One needs to be careful with Polaris. The name was only coined 200 years after the Catalan atlas was made.
In antiquity, this star wasn't the closest visible star to the pole, and if the makers of the atlas were using traditional sources, they might not have associated this star with the pole.
The illustration could therefore simply mean the (virtual) pole itself.
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Either way is possible.
RE: f57v and the Catalan Atlas - Koen G - 28-07-2017
Thanks, Marco! It is certainly valuable to extend the amount of examples in this thread. So it looks like the blob is usually Earth, at least in the clearest example (Harley). Would this be some wind-inspired representation as well? It seems like a common property is that there are four main points and four minor ones in between.
The asymmetry in the VM blob is indeed remarkable. I can't help but think that it is intentional to some extent, the one on the right really sticks out.
Maybe a better argument can be made based on the Rosettes lower left circle? This blob is literally in the middle of stars. If this represents the Earth, it would be somewhat anachronistic from a medieval (and earlier) point of view since they didn't imagine the Earth positioned in the middle of a field of stars. Rather the stars were on the outer sphere surrounding the Earth (like an onion). If we were to take the blob as a pole star, then it would make sense to have the other stars surround it.
Cresques' map features three pole stars, each on top (north) of a wind rose or diagram. There are plenty of references in the literature, but I haven't been able to find an explanation yet for why it takes this peculiar shape.
(By the way, wonderful that you found a decent sized image of the unretouched version).
The chart by Gabriel Vallseca (1447) also has the symbol for the north pole on top of the wind rose. Here it is a pattern of dots in the same shape, but with one in the middle as well.