The 'Chinese' Theory: For and Against

[Jorge_Stolfi]

Well.. there is also the horoscopes found in Alfonso's manuscripts, and later the Astrolabium Planum, which splits each zodiac sign into 30 separate sub-characters. Alfonso's works also contain zodiacs in the middle of large circular diagrams surrounded by 30 drawings[

Indeed, I grant that Alfonso could have been the source for the 12x30 scheme.  (The Atrolabium however is too late,  after 1480.)

But if the VMS Author got his Zodiac scheme from Alfonso, why did he think it was OK to split Aries and Taurus into two 15-thing parts?  

As far as I know, there is no evidence of any link with Chinese solar terms apart from the fact that it is split as 12x30 or 24x15.

I don't mean that it is sufficient proof of the Chinese Theory.  It was just one more bit of evidence supporting it.

But now the coincidences between SPS and SBJ make that detail unimportant.  The 24x15 bit would only suggest that the Zodiac section too may be a copy of a Chinese astronomy/astrology book.

I'm also unaware of any examples of eastern imagery that depict solar terms alongside zodiac symbols in any way, let alone in a way relevant to the VMS imagery.

Again: apart from the plant images in Pharma and possibly in the Herbal too, the drawings in the VMS were provided in large part provided by the Scribe, often (badly) copied from other books.  

In the Zodiac section, the illustrations are just decoration, even if it was the Author who determined their general form and contents.  The information in each page is only the circular text, the ordered list of 30 labels, and the names of the approximate Western sign and calendar month that somehow correspond or overlap the 30° arc of the Ecliptic being referred to.  Even if the poses of the nymphs are encoding some information, that would be only a few extra bits per label.  All this information could  be more economically and practically given by a table and 2-3 short parags.

In any case, if the Zodiac section is a copy of a Chinese book, the correspondences with the Western Zodiac and Calendar would have been added by the Author.  

All the best, --stolfi