Cannons versus Pipes

[Jorge_Stolfi]

Some interesting imagery from the Rosenwald5+6 mentioned above

Interesting indeed!

But the "telephone game" problem shows... In the second image, the water screw of Archimedes and the water-raising wheel are depicted as spewing water from both ends.  At some point in the copying chain there was an "artist" who had no idea of how those devices worked or what was their purpose...

A notable feature of the Rosenwald6 De rei militari is the 3-dimensional wolkenband-like structure indicating ground. In Taccola's manuscripts it often designates coastline, much like the border of VM waterbodies.

I would not call those lines "wolkenbands"   There does not seem to be any connection -- not in original inspiration (edges of clouds vs edges of water bodies),  conventional meaning (Heaven-Earth boundary vs. land-water boundary) or from just copying for decorative effect (like VMS f68v3 from that Oresme T-O diagram) . 

In fact it seems that the VMS Scribe or BEEEP mistook the wolkenband of that Oresme diagram for the edge of a pool, or maybe the edge of a thick plate.

I would say that drawing the edge of a natural water body as "a wavy line with swollen crests and throughs" and vertical cliffs is a handy simplification/stylization that an artist could have "invented" on his own.  The VMS Scribe may have copied the edge of the pool at the bottom of f82r from some book, but he may also have invented it on his own.  Like the use of similar lines to indicate splashing water instead -- at the NW corner of f79r, and around the "footbaths" at the top of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and f80v.

All the best, --stolfi