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• RE: f57v

  Jorge_Stolfi > 19-09-2025, 02:16 AM

  (27-03-2024, 08:21 PM)pjburkshire Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Has any argument been presented that would refute the claim that "dairol" is the Pole star / North Star (Polaris)?

  
  I can't refute that argument.  But I can't see any reason to think it would be.  In fact, nothing in this page suggests that it is about astronomy, astrology, or celestial navigation. 
  
  In fact, AFAIK this page is assigned to the "Cosmo" section only because it has a diagram with concentric rings of text, like most other pages of Cosmo.
  
  Instead I can offer another theory for that lone word outside the diagram.
  
  First, some objective observations:
  
    The diagram has four rings of text, R1 to R4 from the outside in.
    (Ring R2 is the 4x17 sequence.)
  
    Faint radial lines, roughly aligned with each other but not with the
    diagram's center, run across the bands of these four text rings, from
    circle to circle, passing through word gaps. The line across R1 is at
    ~10:10, that across R4 is at ~09:45. Ring R2 has two parallel
    strokes ~1 mm apart, while those across the other rings are single.
    All strokes are tilted ~20° CW from the radial direction.
  
    The three innermost rings R2, R3, and R4 have extra-wide word gaps
    surrounding these radial lines. The outermost ring R1 does not have
    such gap. At ~10:45 there is a sudden reduction in "font size" between
    the words v,sa,l,y and saeas (or soeos). The o-height changes from 
    ~2 mm to ~1 mm and the nib width changes from ~0.6 mm to ~0.35 mm.  
    The o-height then increases gradually as one goes CW from that point, 
    being ~1.3 mm at ~06:00 and ~1.7 mm at ~10:00.
     
    There is a similar reduction of font size at the start of ring R3,
    which similarly recovers along the ring.
   
  Now the speculation:
  
    The starting point for reading the text rings R1-R4 has traditionally
    been assumed to be the faint single or double radial line crossing
    each band in the NW sector. For rings R2-R4, this choice seems pretty
    safe since each of those rings has an extra-wide word space crossed by
    the corresponding radial line.
  
    There is no similar gap in ring R1 around its radial line, but label
    L1 (dairal) outside the diagram, at 10:15, has traditionally been 
    interpreted as a title or "start here" key, confirming that the start 
    of the text is the v just after the radial line. However, the drastic 
    and sudden reduction in "font" size at about 10:45, by almost 50%, 
    makes it more likely that the start of R1 is actually at that transition. 
    The similar reduction of font size at the start of ring R3 seems to
    confirm this interpretation.
   
    Then label L1 is probably the last word of ring R1 -- placed outside
    the diagram because the Scribe miscalculated and ran out of space at
    the end of that text ring.  A hack that he apparently used also
    on some Zodiac pages, when he ran out of space for the nymphs
    inside the diagram.
  
    That would confirm the suspicion that the radial strokes across the
    text rings are not original, but additions by a later reader who made
    the same incorrect assumption about the R1 starting point that we have
    been making all along.
  
  All the best, --jorge
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