VMs: Re: Libro de Astromagia

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

Hi Nick,

> >I have just bought a new book by Prof. Ewa Sniezynska-Stolot
> >on the iconography of zodiacal degrees in the Middle Ages

> Great book - I presume it's "Ikonografia znako´w zodiaku i gwiazdozbioro´w
> w s´redniowieczu"? - and also thanks for the scan of Libra. :-)

No, that was her first book on the subject - and this one is
her 4th (I gave the biblio details at the end of previous
message).

> Can you please tell me which degree on the Libra diagram is the first one?

It is the one on the left (the ascendent) - and they go down and right,
with the wolf being the last.

> Also: the properties of each degree seems quite prosaic - the "degree of
> seabirds", for example. Modern degree attributions I've seen are rather
> more, well, esoteric. :-)

These are - I believe - just the mnemonic images, like those
of the zodiac, where you can also say "it is just the sign of scales"
while there is a wealth of symbolic meaning behind it.

> I thought that in a lot of Arabic astrology each degree was often
> associated with a specific star in that constellation - or is that
> something quite different from the traditions described in this book?

No, here they are related to other (non-zodiacal) constellations
and some to planets.

Best regards,

Rafal