I wonder if the aspect of Chiron as physician may have been
considered by the author of the VMS. Reference to Jason
(Golden Fleece) and also the Nine Muses may be of
interest.
Chiron:
Chiron mentored Jason: (Golden Fleece may appear at the bottom right of
f79v)
Nine Muses:
Saggitarius as Crossbow Archer:
Apparently "Jupiter was in Saggitarius in October 1486".
More on Mythology:
Regards,
Dana Scott
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2003 8:05
AM
Subject: Re: VMs: crossbow
Sagittarius
Hi Rafal,
At 01:53 14/12/2003 +0100, Rafal Prinke
wrote:
>I have found (finally!) some examples of Sagittarius
>as
crossbow man. Some of the German calendars reproduced
>on the site of
Herzog August Bibliothec display such
>"icon" when showing the sign in
which the Moon would
>be on a given date.
<...>
>
>Unfortunately, they are admittedly very
simplistic
>and all are quite late for the estimated VMS
date,
>but still they point to an iconographic tradition
>of such
representation - in Germany.
Great, thanks - the only question I have
is (as they are so simplistic)
whether they stylistically represent a man
aiming a bow (which fires
arrows?) or a crossbow (which fires
bolts?)
However, given that I know nothing about toxophily (beyond its
Greek
etymology), this may of course be a stupid question.
:-)
Looking again at the VMs Sagittarius crossbowman, perhaps we should
to try
to understand the history of the crossbow. Here are some sites to
get
started on (though there are plenty to choose from)...
The
Internet Archery Society (which seems to be the centre of the modern
archery universe), and some of their pages on the
crossbow:-
http://www.archerysociety.org/
http://www.archerysociety.org/CrossbowHistoryA.html
http://www.archerysociety.org/CrossbowDesignA.html
The
Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries has some articles online,
plus an extensive bibliography (but which seems to have been subsumed by
the next website):-
http://thunder.prohosting.com/~guarana/saa/articles/misc/bibliography.html
TheBeckoning
website has a lot more details on (and references to)
crossbows:-
http://www.thebeckoning.com/medieval/crossbow/crossbow.html
http://www.thebeckoning.com/medieval/crossbow/xbow-def.html
http://www.thebeckoning.com/medieval/crossbow/xbow-resources.html
The
expert referred to here is Jens Sensfelder (
mailto:Jens.Sensfelder@xxxxxxxxxxx
) - whom I've emailed a picture of the
VMs crossbow man... we'll see what
he can tell us about it (fingers
crossed). :-)
Here's a (very)
short list of crossbow-related articles and papers, if you
happen to be
going past a library and want to read more:-
* Foley, V., Palmer, G., &
Soedel, W., 'The Crossbow', Scientific American,
cclii, 1985
* Harmuth,
E., Die Armbrust [The Crossbow], Graz, Austria, 1975.
* Payne-Gallwey, Sir
R., The Crossbow, Medieval and Modern Military and
Sporting. Its
Construction, History and Management, with a treatise on the
Balista and
Catapult of the Ancients, London, 1958.
* Alm, Josef, European Crossbows,
Royal Armouries, London 1994
Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....
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