Rosettes foldout: cardinal directions?

[Linda]

I think the TO map is inverted in the rosettes because it is pointing out the location of the rosette it leads to. I think it is a standard Europe Africa Asia setup. When the page is placed on the diagonal with the TO on top, top is not north, but northwest, as shown by the TO map acting as the reference.

The volcano stands for the Italian peninsula and sticks straight down in this orientation, when in reality it points southeast.the seven seas being on the outside, rather than the inside as they were in the TO map that Koen posted, creates a world similar to Cosmas, with a mountain (spiral) in the middle surrounded by water. 



In this representation the Italian peninsula is pointing to the front left corner of the tabernacle, (where it says Sinus), the Gurjurat area of India would be the furthest extent at the front right, partially hidden by the side wall. The far left corner of the box would be Spain with the Atlantic behind it, and behind the mountain at the middel to far right would be the North, Baltic, and Arctic seas. Place the box with the far right corner as top, and you get a similar orientation to the rosettes at a diagonal, even both suns are there.

The rosette then does double duty as central Europe by itself, with the world mountain now becoming the Alps. The rosette to the southwest is the Pyrrenes, indicated by rock iconography, with France as the causeway, to the southeast is the Aegean Sea, indicated by water motif, with the Black Sea as the causeway. At the bottom, we have Africa, specifically the source of the Nile, as indicated by the triangular motif in the small circle below it, as the furthest southern extent, or southeast, given the TO orientation, and as the case actually is when compared with the location of the upper rosette coverage. At the time, and previously, as shown by these maps, south of this location the geography was unknown.