Re: astrological iconography

["Rafal T. Prinke" <rafalp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Rene Zandbergen wrote:

> What is even odder is of course the fact that they're
> there at all. The Sun is in the sign of Aries (roughly)
> from 21 March to 21 April. Of course, in the middle
> of the 15th C, they were 10 days out, so it was
> (roughly) from 11 March to 11 April.
> That is, most of March (associated in the VMs with
> Pisces) is covered by Aries. This explains neither the
> fact that the zodiac starts with Pisces nor that
> a zodiac sign is associated with a month.

Unless the basis of the Zodiacal sequence is not
astronomical but calendaric. As Prof. Sniezynska-Stolot
suggested, the iconography indicates the signs were
redrawn from a calendar (as her name is Eva! <g>).

There were 3 styles of beginning the year in March:

1) Venetian - 1st March
2) Florentine and Pisan - 25th March (with a year's difference)
3) Gallic - Easter Sunday (ie. not always in March)

The Venetian style was also used in Ruthenia (but not in Poland,
which used exclusively Christmas and 1st January, along with
Germany, Bohemia and Sweden). Russia changed to the Byzantine
style in 1492 (1st September), also used in other Orthodox
countries and in southern Italy.

The Florentine style was used in England, while the Gallic
style - in France and the Netherlands.

So - if we accept the calendaric basis for the VMS Zodiac,
it points either to Venice (and thus Northern Italy, which
is the favoured hypothesis now) or pre-1492 Ruthenia,
which might suggest further possibilities of a connection
with Cyrillic, Greek, Georgian, Armenian or Turkish
influences on the VMS script and content.

Best regards,

Rafal