Rosettes foldout: cardinal directions?

[Koen G]

I personally wouldn't say it is a compass. A quick glance at the wiki teaches that these remained rare for a long time, even though they were apparently known to some medieval Europeans before the VM was made:

Jacques de Vitry's mention of the compass being used at sea in 1218, which indicates a broader knowledge of the compass and its uses in Medieval Northern Europe:

An iron needle, after having been in contact with the loadstone, turns itself always toward the northern star, which, like the axis of the firmament, remains immovable, while the others follow their course so that it is very necessary to those who navigate the sea.

But also:

However, critics like Kreutz have suggested that it was later in 1410 that anyone really started steering by compass.

Notice how the first quote, though apparently witnessing a magnetic compass, still thinks of the immovable northern star as where the compass points to.
Everything considered, I think it is more likely that the "north" emblem contains a generic "constellation sign" within a circle that marks eight directions. A constellation in the concept of cardinal directions will always mean "find north".

For the curling sky, unfortunately the best I know is from the Apocalypse, as I mentioned in the other thread. The heavens rolled up like a scroll, so the presence of text in a spiral is even more appropriate. I say 'unfortunately' because I don't know what to do with this information, but purely visually it is the best explanation for this spiral I've seen so far.