What i see in quire 13 is an older ecumene than would be current in the 15th century. It goes as far as Gujarat in India, yet with mnemonics that indicate far greater knowledge of the shapes of the shorelines, more along the lines of portolan chart information.
This could be possible commentary on old maps being difficult to compare to the portolan charts, this being a hybrid of the two, kind of like a mnemonic portolan marginal map. It might be trying to give common ground to people who understand one but not the other. Or it could just be a factor of information trickling, not everyone catches up. Late 14th century maps like the
The Psalter map is being pretty close to showing that same ecumene, except the Ganges would take it a bit farther. I think that is what the nymphs with rings are about, they point in the directions of areas not outlined, like anything north of Lake Constance, or east of Gujarat, again showing that there was knowledge of more, albeit not shown. I am thinking that the east of India is not shown because there is not much precedent for showing it, and the north of Constance area is not shown because it is the area most familiar to the makers. Ie you don't generally need a map of your home town.
It is thought to be a smaller copy of the Ebsdorf map, and both of these have parts that look like tubes for rivers, which would fit as precedents for the tube rivers of quire 13. The Ebsdorf, i just learned, was interested in bishoprics. When i just now saw a map of bishoprics from 400AD, they also looked familiar, and seem to match the regions i speak of with regard to the nymphs of quire 13. It is also interesting because the region surrounding Ceuta was included in Hispaniae, and the Alps were included with Genoa and Venice in Italia annonaria, just as the vms has suggested to me. So i will look into that further.
I think the four or five rivers of paradise have been eschewed in the vms in favour of those that are known to actually exist, although i see hints at possibilities for the other two. Pishon might be the now dry water erosion in Arabia, shown as the spray on fish nymph's hand, Geon might now be the Persian gulf, shown as the tube or log within that water body. I do think the Indus is included, and the Nile, among others.
Thank you also for the Oracle tree information, i see them everywhere now!