F70V1

[Jorge_Stolfi]

The VMS zodiac has 12 signs of "exactly" 30 "days" each. Although at some point the Scribe tried a layout with 24 diagrams of 15 "days" each.  But after doing Aries and Taurus that way, he got back to diagrams of 30 "days" each.  He tried to draw them more compactly, but even so he sometimes had to put 4-5 "days" on top of the diagram, outside it.

I put quotes on "days" because, since there are 360 "days", not ~365.25, those items must be degrees of angle on the Ecliptic, not really days.

I put quotes on "exactly" because the three things that apparently should go together -- labels, nymphs, and stars -- are one off each other on a couple of diagrams.  These discrepancies do not seem to be significant; they seem to be merely mistakes by the Scribe.  

For instance, on f72r2 ("Gemini") the Scribe drew 30 nymphs with 30 labels, but forgot to draw the left arms of the outer band nymph at 04:00 and the inner band one at 01:30.  He then forgot to draw the stars that those left arms were supposed to be holding. He also forgot to draw the star of the outer band nymph at 09:30, even though she has a left arm.  Later someone (presumably not him) added two of the three missing stars -- but only painted in light yellow, without the penned outline.  So that diagram has 30 nymphs, 30 labels, 30 right arms, but only 28 left arms and 29 stars, two of them without the outline.

On f72r3 ("Cancer") again the Scribe forgot to draw the left arm of two of the nymphs, and thus also the respective stars.  The Painter who provided two missing stars on page f72r2 did not correct these two.

On f72v3 ("Leo") the Scribe apparently forgot to draw the left arm of the nymph at 09:00 in the inner band; and then he forgot to draw the star that she was supposed to hold with that arm.  So, in that diagram, there are 30 labels and 30 nymphs and 30 right arms, but only 29 left arms and 29 stars. 

And on f70v2 ("Pisces") the scribe apparently omitted a nymph entirely -- lock, stock, barrel, label, and star.  He must have realized the mistake at the end, because he apparently over-corrected by adding two stars in the central medallion -- but only one label.  Thus on that diagram there are 29 nymphs, 30 labels, and 31 stars...