Sky & Telescope article

[Zandbergen@xxxxxxxxxxx (Rene Zandbergen)]

Dear Brad and all others,

I finally secured my copy of the November issue of S&T and 
enjoyed the article. It was quite a long time ago that I
first saw it and I can't exactly remember now what my comments
were. Probably I suggested that the attribution to Dee was
contested, but this was well before Rafal presented his
counter-evidence and certainly the Dee handwriting identification
presents the official viewpoint of Yale, based on the opinion
of a relevant expert. So, even though I am now be even
less inclined to believe it was sold by Dee, I cannot find
fault with how it's presented in the article.

On the images on pp. 41 and 42, I am at a loss to decide whether
it's the Sun or the Moon in the centre. Especially fol.67r1 on
page 41 really seems to show the Moon (given that there are two 
crescents), but then again there are the red triangles that 
could be the Sun's rays. In most other images of Sun/Moon in the
MS, the Sun is identified by short, wavy rays, such as on
f68r1 (top) and f68r2 (bottom).

Fol. 68r3, which is on p.42, also looks more like a moon, even
though the symbology of the wavy line to the Pleiades would
make sense if it were the Sun. It would indicate the heliacal
rising of the Pleiades, a major astronomical event in ancient
times.
The idea, suggested by various readers of S&T, that the four
quadrants indicate four equally spaced asterisms, is very 
interesting, but we should realise that the coordinate in
which they are equally spaced can still be chosen. Beside
right ascension it could be (ecliptic) longitude, but also
oblique ascension. That last one would be related to the
'time of rising' and depends on the latitude of the observer.

My problem with all these suggestions is, however, that first
of all it seems too much of a coincidence that there are
one, then two, then three and then four stars, and that they
seem to have been drawn just to evenly fill the available space.
The other 'coincidence' is that there are in all twelve labels,
a number that would seem to favour other theories.

There is one cosmo images in the VMs that has 28 items
or 28-fold symmetry (f69v) - an excellent crib for the
mansions (or lodges) of the moon. We do have a possible
one for the seven planets, on f67r2 and also that has not
led to any breakthrough...

My favourite responses from the S&T readers so far are:

- the one about the 'liber floridus' which supposedly has
  invented plants. I can see one shining through an image I
  have of a cosmological illustration from the book. This MS is
  discussed on the web because it also has an early world map.
  I wonder if it is mentioned in Arber or Blunt&Raphael. 
  Does anyone know of a publication about it?

- the reference to the recently-appeared books about zodiac
  images and the Polish author. It would be great if Rafal
  managed to get a reply from her.

That's all for now,
          Cheers, Rene