No text, but a visual code

[Jorge_Stolfi]

I don’t really like this approach — “it’s somewhat similar to an Oresme map,” but the diagram in VMS and the Oresme map are similar ONLY IN FORM.

But that is the premise of this thread, no?  That the illustrations are a "visual code"?  That is, their FORM is essential?

You apparently really want to believe that the VMS depicts the Oresme map.

I believe that many illustrations of the VMS were copied (quite ineptly) from other books that would be found in a well-stocked library at that time; either at a monastery or university, or in the private library of a scholar.   

We have identified several such "inspiration sources", including the Balneis Puteolanum, Taccola's notebook (or some "cousin" thereof), and that German almanac with the lady carrying a chain and a doctor examining an urine flask.  

And Oresme's "Genesis" diagram.  The points of similarity include the same orientation (which is different from that of "T-O" maps that depict the three continents), the starry area surrounding the "T-O", the squiggly border of that area, and the outer round framing circle. These features were a rather literal illustration of the Biblical account:

6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” ... 9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” ... 11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. ... 14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth ...

Each case by itself could be dismissed as mere coincidence.  But together they make this "artistic inspiration" theory the most likely explanation.

Find at least an image of water within this T‑O map on the VMS diagram.

In the version of Oresme's diagram that most closely resembles f68v3, the "inverted T-O" has waves in the bottom half (the "waters below"), houses in the top right quarter, and a green pattern in the top left quarter.  The VMS version has text instead of those graphical codes.  In the original, the "waters above" are a featureless blue area outside the cloudband.  Which matches the featureless area outside the squiggly line of f68v3.

I am not sure, but I seem to recall that some of the lower-quality versions of Oresme's book had text in the three areas of the "inverted T-O map".

The most banal and provable one was meant.

But it is not provable, is it?

All the best, --stolfi