Six faint, mostly concentric, mechanically drawn circles delimit three rings of text. The outer ring crosses the fold into page f72v3, and runs under that page's diagram, so the text is interrupted between 08:30 and 09:30. There are notable gaps on the other two rings at about 09:30.
The two outermost circles are not exactly concentric, and the third one doesn't quite close on itself (at 06:30).
Inside the inner circle there is a woman (with breasts) standing, wearing a long pleated dress with flaring sleeves, and a hat or hat-like hairdo. With her right hand she is holding a star, by its tail; the left hand is empty and half-stretched forward. At her feet there is a tuft of grass and a daisy-like flower. Above the flower is a word in a dark, different script (possibly "septe~br" with the tilde over the "e").
Between the bands of text, there are two bands of naked figures ("nymphs"), 12 in the inner one, 18 in the outer one. Most of them are clearly female, but some have undefined sex (no breasts but also no genitals). The inner ring figure at 04:00 is smaller and is standing on a tub or platform of some sort.
Each nymph is holding or pointing to a star, some by its tail --- except for the inner nymph at 00:30, who is just looking at the star, and the inner nymph at 01:30, who has no star. There is a label under each star.
Comments:
The gaps at 09:30 suggest the text should be read starting from there.
The way f72v3 overlaps f72v2 indicates that they were drawn in that order.
Rene [27 Mar 1996] observes similarities between the zodiac symbols in the VMs and those in a 1440 german manuscript [1]. Says in particular that Virgo in that manuscript holds a flower and not a star.
Adams Douglas [28 Mar 1996] thinks the star held by the symbol-woman is Spica, the brightest star in Virgo, usually on the her head or a sceptre.
References:
[1] Manuscript Palat. Lat. 1369. Samples in [2].
[2] Fritz Saxl, book about astronomical and astrological images in medieval manuscripts.
Paragraph: R1 Outer ring of text, starting from wide gap at 09:00 (on the crease) Last edited on 1998-12-19 19:14:47 by stolfi
