20-07-2015, 05:04 PM
David,
This is extremely interesting. I'm not sure if you follow Stephen Bax' blog, but about ten days ago, I left a note encouraging people to study the anwa' system. I was thinking of the astronomical matter, but this is great.
Couple of questions - what made you decide to concentrate on Claudius Ptolemy's weather-lore, rather than Homer's or Hesiod's, or the King's Mirror, or al-Biruni or Manilius, or the Arabs' system etc.etc.?
Since the usual custom has always been, everywhere, to describe a wind by the direction from which it comes, and then its associated natural phenomena, how can you tell the "nationality" of the system on that folio [MS Beinecke 408 fol.86r-2] Why are they not Indian, or English, or ...
And it's a small thing, but I find reduction to four winds a bit puzzling if you're positing Claudius Ptolemy's time. An eightfold system had become standard some time before.
Thanks for posting this, though. Really interesting.
PS - I meant to raise it as a policy matter, but if referring to foliation for MS Beinecke 408, the standard across the board in every area of study (except Voynich-land) is to use the holding library's foliation first (right or wrong). If you wish to correct, or modify or use a more casual notation, then it ought to do into brackets, with an explanation:
folio 86r-2 [ = 86v-3 JR.]
J.R. stands for Jim Reeds who, as far as I can find out created in mailing-list's inhouse system which then Rene put on his personal website, and under the influence of ... whoever... then Jason Davies provided his very idiosyncratic listings. - Just a bit of history.
It's bad manners all round to ignore the holding library's foliation. Sounds as if a small number of "researchers" had developed an over-blown sense of self-importance and, in addition, implies that any newcomer *must* become a mailing list member and read this person's blog or that in order to know what the hell people are talking about.
All anyone should need to understand what we talk about is the Beinceke library's website and new scans, I think. So please - Beinecke foliation first and any other you like afterwards, ok?
This is extremely interesting. I'm not sure if you follow Stephen Bax' blog, but about ten days ago, I left a note encouraging people to study the anwa' system. I was thinking of the astronomical matter, but this is great.
Couple of questions - what made you decide to concentrate on Claudius Ptolemy's weather-lore, rather than Homer's or Hesiod's, or the King's Mirror, or al-Biruni or Manilius, or the Arabs' system etc.etc.?
Since the usual custom has always been, everywhere, to describe a wind by the direction from which it comes, and then its associated natural phenomena, how can you tell the "nationality" of the system on that folio [MS Beinecke 408 fol.86r-2] Why are they not Indian, or English, or ...
And it's a small thing, but I find reduction to four winds a bit puzzling if you're positing Claudius Ptolemy's time. An eightfold system had become standard some time before.
Thanks for posting this, though. Really interesting.
PS - I meant to raise it as a policy matter, but if referring to foliation for MS Beinecke 408, the standard across the board in every area of study (except Voynich-land) is to use the holding library's foliation first (right or wrong). If you wish to correct, or modify or use a more casual notation, then it ought to do into brackets, with an explanation:
folio 86r-2 [ = 86v-3 JR.]
J.R. stands for Jim Reeds who, as far as I can find out created in mailing-list's inhouse system which then Rene put on his personal website, and under the influence of ... whoever... then Jason Davies provided his very idiosyncratic listings. - Just a bit of history.
It's bad manners all round to ignore the holding library's foliation. Sounds as if a small number of "researchers" had developed an over-blown sense of self-importance and, in addition, implies that any newcomer *must* become a mailing list member and read this person's blog or that in order to know what the hell people are talking about.
All anyone should need to understand what we talk about is the Beinceke library's website and new scans, I think. So please - Beinecke foliation first and any other you like afterwards, ok?