Wien Cod. 13647

[Jorge_Stolfi]

The mansucript: Wien, Österr. Nationalbibl., Cod. 13647, could be interesting for the study of the VMS. 

But some of the similarities are not as remarkable as they may seem.  Some are actually dissimilarities.

Pisces as two fish connected by a line  is how the actual constellation has always been "parsed" and often depicted in illustrations.  (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. cites some myths that explain why there are two fish, but not where the idea of a cord came from.)

IIRC, others have posted other examples of Gemini being depicted as two people facing each other and holding crossed hands; and some were a man and a woman, as in the VMS.  But in that example you posted the two people are two soldiers.

That Sagittarius -- with a fish tail, or being swallowed by a fish, or coming out of a fish -- seems unusual, but that is not what we see in the VMS zodiac.  We see a similar fish-person composite on f79v, but it is not a  Sagittarius. (The word means "archer" or "bowman".  It comes from "sagitta" = "arrow", so literally it should mean arrow maker or trader or something like it; but "sagittarius" in the Roman army was a mounted archer.) 

On the other hand, Capricorn -- the next sign in the Zodiac -- for some reason was sometimes depicted as half-goat, half-fish.  Maybe some artist in the copying chain had one beer too many and conflated the two signs?

The month for april is interesting: The bar over the b may be for an e?

I think that bar belongs to the letter on the previous line, just above the "b".

All the best, --stolfi