A Rose or Wheel Window

[Mark Knowles]

If you glance through these, Mark, you'll see some with the narrow pillars with the knob near the top, and quite a number have fountains in the center.

These aren't the best examples, it's a general search and I can't go through my files right now (I have a deadline in a couple of hours), but it's enough to give the idea of the ones that are fountain gardens surrounded by archways:

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Obviously the chief problem that I see with these is that in the drawing they curve inwards towards a point, quite unlike what we see with columns/pillars. Similarly medieval courtyards are normally square in shape not circular. So there is no point in space for which a medieval courtyard could resemble the drawing. Nevertheless I think it is perfectly possible for the author to have chosen to represent things in a deliberately distorted way, so as to conform to the design layout of the page.

It is funny that I do indeed observe a medieval cloister/courtyard represented on the page, just elsewhere. However I find that drawing in the bottom right rosette, drawn from above. This is what some have claimed is a drawing of the garden of eden with the 4 rivers, but I interpret as 4 cloister paths leading to a central fountain. X shaped cloister paths are much less common that + shaped cloister paths, which from my perspective is advantageous in identification. Obviously I have a candidate for the cloister garden in question and I think there is an uncanny resemblance. It is worth noting that I believe the garden of eden was an inspiration for the paradise garden and probably also indirectly an influence on the design of medieval cloisters/courtyards with their central gardens.

Another salient point I think is that both you and I make architectural associations with the centre left rosette rather than purely cosmological associations. Given the presence of drawings of buildings and walls on the page this fits more closely with that perspective than the cosmological interpretation of the page.

In that vein I think it also worth observing that at the lower end of the bottom centre rosette we have what looks very much like flamboyant tracery going along side vertical pillars again consistent with an architectural interpretation. As I have stated elsewhere I associate the bottom centre rosette with an illustration of a ceiling from below.

To reiterate, from my point of view, illustrations of buildings and architectural features amongst other things on the page seem far more consistent with it being a map than a representation of the planets.