29-01-2020, 06:36 AM
The problem with this, and in fact with most image comparisons, is that this is not strong evidence for several reasons.
To start with a more reliable one: the zodiac cycle. The judgement from an authority has some weight, and still it allows a very wide range of dates - about a century.
However, most others are coming from people who are not experts in the field and have only seen a fraction of all surviving examples. For the Oresme illustration, how certain can we be that there are no extant earlier ones? That there are no lost earlier ones?
For others: how certain can we be that the observed feature is actually an indicator of style, delimiting either the time frame or the region?
I am, as so often, highly skeptical.
To start with a more reliable one: the zodiac cycle. The judgement from an authority has some weight, and still it allows a very wide range of dates - about a century.
However, most others are coming from people who are not experts in the field and have only seen a fraction of all surviving examples. For the Oresme illustration, how certain can we be that there are no extant earlier ones? That there are no lost earlier ones?
For others: how certain can we be that the observed feature is actually an indicator of style, delimiting either the time frame or the region?
I am, as so often, highly skeptical.