RE: A random rant about the VMS
R. Sale > 10 hours ago
Yes, it is a simplified structure. That's the point. The cosmic diagrams of BNF Fr. 565, Harley 334, and the interior part of the VMs illustration all share the same simplified, atypical, cosmic structure.
The pictorial representations of the Earth are not geographical. They are elemental. Wavy line patterns in the lower half represent water, while the upper half is divided between land and air. (Fire is omitted.) This is particularly clear in the first image of Post #20, where air is represented by nebuly lines. However, this image is not a *cosmic* diagram.
The VMs Earth is not pictorial; it is linguistic. The VMs stars are not golden asterisks; they are inked and polygonal. The VMs cosmic boundary is not the elaborated, scallop-shell pattern of BNF Fr. 565 nor the unembellished, plain line of Harley 334: it is a somewhat less than smooth version of a regular nebuly line, with 43 undulations (playing hide and seek) - structurally the same as the 43 undulations of BNF FR. 565. VMs is the same *cosmic structure* with a different appearance.
Both BNF and Harley were made in Paris between 1400 and 1450. Their structural similarity to the VMs seems clear. Additionally. the Berry Apocalypse [MS M. 133] has illustrations that consistently use nebuly lines as cosmic boundaries and it, along with BNF Fr. 565, was in the Duke of Berry's library before his death in Paris in 1416. It's a simple case of mix and match.
The wheel with eight curved spokes has only one historical source (AFAIK) and that is Shirakatsi's Eight Phases of the Moon, which, despite its origins (7th C. Armenia), is not that far out of touch as it might seem. The Genoese were in the Black Sea a century before the VMs C-14 dates. Diplomatic contacts with Europe only increased as Muslim forces threatened Byzantine Constantinople. Even the Burgundians had ships in the Black Sea during the C-14 era. And those contacts continued till the fall of Trebizond in the early 1460s.
If there is an alternative, let's see it! Otherwise, it is what it appears to be - a combination of two unrelated astronomical elements to form a unique, cosmic oxymoron and an indicator of what to expect in other VMs illustrations. The hangup seems to be that the "experts" failed to identify the historical parts.