29-12-2025, 09:09 PM
@ R. Sale, I just read your post. Thanks. I agree with you regarding the difficult of knowing what the labels mean when related to the nymphs, because we don't know exactly what they are referring to. I think no image in the VM has a more universally recognizable meaning than those seven stars, so it can serve to explore the label's meaning more reliably.
Regarding your statement, "This from an artistic astronomer who omitted all the planets from the VMs representation of the cosmos and put a headband on the sun," I think is something that requires rethinking and I have seen this kind of judgment made by many about something not being in the VM. We keep on forgetting that so many folia and pages have been removed from what we have today.
So, in my view, nobody can claim definitively that what you find missing in the existing VM was not there originally. This is a most important "does it exist?" question and hopefully I can comment on that more in the future.
Regarding your statement, "This from an artistic astronomer who omitted all the planets from the VMs representation of the cosmos and put a headband on the sun," I think is something that requires rethinking and I have seen this kind of judgment made by many about something not being in the VM. We keep on forgetting that so many folia and pages have been removed from what we have today.
So, in my view, nobody can claim definitively that what you find missing in the existing VM was not there originally. This is a most important "does it exist?" question and hopefully I can comment on that more in the future.