VMs: RE: Farming calendar

["John Grove" <4groves@xxxxxxxxx>]

Some information on a medieval Farming calendar...

http://www.minarsas.demon.co.uk/harn/farming/calendar.htm

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-voynich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-voynich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Nick Pelling
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 11:56 AM
To: Voynich Ms. mailing list
Subject: VMs: Re:


Hi everyone,

At 10:55 13/08/02 -0400, John Grove wrote:
>Now, why would someone divide up the spring months into eight alternating
>half and full decades? Some method of calculating Easter? I don't think so,
>because Easter can never fall into May... Perhaps, there is an agricultural
>reason - four half decades represent planting dates? Oh well...

Two more sites on Gregorian / Julian calendars:
         http://europeanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa041301a.htm
         http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/7671/gregory.htm

Note that the Ancient Egyptians had both an administrative calendar and an
agricultural calendar, the latter of which was triggered by the arrival
into view at dawn of the star "Sopdet" at some time during July: this
marked the start of the Nile flood season. A little more about this is here:
         http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/time/story/what.html

And no, I can't see any particularly plausible candidates for Sopdet on the
VMS' volvelles - but feel free to look for yourself. :-)

Certainly, astrology was originally based on a Sumerian agricultural
calendar: and the Chinese and Ancient Greeks also had agricultural
calendars - the Israelis, too, have a similar tradition.

I, for one, certainly don't see anything inconsistent with the proposal
that the VMS' astrological volvelles are arranged in the form of a (now
lost) European agricultural calendar - there were probably several such to
choose from circa 1500. Splitting Aries and Taurus might make sense, as
that was when there'd be a lot of activity, after the spring frosts?

Unless someone has made a special study of European agricultural calendar
traditions, all this is probably lost (except in the VMS, of course).
:-)  Do we have any farming historians on the list? :-)

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....