Six onion-roof towers supporting heavens

[Jorge_Stolfi]

The author was also just a child of his time

That is a theory, that I would dispute...

I believe that most of the decorative elements -- like the nymphs, Zodiac symbols, merlons, towers, dragons -- were  almost certainly provided by the Scribe, who presumably was a "child of his time" (and maybe even literally a child...) 

But the Author may well have been from anywhere, from Constantinople to Timbuktu to Mars.  It is unclear what exactly he asked the Scribe to draw, and what he left to his discretion; and those parts of the contents that are likely to be "his" can't be recognized as "things of his time"...

All the best, --stolfi