Circular Text Observations

[Mark Knowles]

Taking this idea further , could we possibly use it to tell which way up we are supposed to 'read' the Rosettes pages individual circles?  In  other words, could we use this knowledge (that the scribe always put the circular text break between 9 and 12), to tell us which way up each of the 9 circles is intended to be viewed?  (If indeed they are not all designed to be viewed straight from the manuscript)

Support against this argument:  Top left circle.  The break in the text appears at around 10 o'clock with no rotation.  That would suggest the image should be viewed as shown.  However, the one word we do get in the circle needs to be rotated anticlockwise by 90 degrees to be read, which would then put our circular text break at 7 o'clock.  Hmm...  Also, top right circle: the main castle makes you want to turn the page clockwise by 90 degrees.  This again would make our line break occur at 3 o'clock.  However, there are other structures within this circle which are not on the same horizon as the main castle, so perhaps we shouldn't look too closely at this particular building, just because it seems to be the most dominant structure?

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This discusses the changing orientation of the text on the Rosettes folio.