Astro/Zodiac symmetry on recto/verso

[Jorge_Stolfi]

Except that on the last two Zodiac diagrams, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and f73v, me must have been told to leave a blank margin on all sides.

Surely f72v3 must be a mistake though, the wheel collides with the previous one, like they didn’t leave enough space, and despite this they did the same on the other side as well.

He usually tried to keep each diagram confined to its panel, barely touching the side edges.  But on f72r3 (Cancer) he clearly goofed.  I suppose that he only realized that the outer circle was going to run into the f72r2 diagram (Gemini) after he had already started drawing it. Since he was using an ink attachment, he could not erase it and try again a bit further out.  He just decided to leave a gap in the outer text band.

Or maybe he drew f72r3 before f72r2, but made the same mistake on the latter, not realizing that the outer circle of f72r3 had overflowed into the r2 panel.  This version might explain why he did not correct the mistake on f72v3 and instead reused the same center pinprick.

Or maybe he drew all the diagrams without the outermost circles and without the outermost text rings. Then later he added these to all diagrams -- and found that f72r2 and f7r3, as well as the verso diagrams, would run into each other.

Do I understand you theory, in that you think they didn’t have these numbers set in stone before they started creating the diagram, leading to the awkward instances of the first 4-5 nymphs aligning perfectly with the radial text while the next 4-5 do not? Do you think the actual structure and number of elements could have been looser?

I believe that the Author's sketch specified all important things like the general shape of the diagram and the number N of rays/sectors/nymphs etc.  But the Scribe had difficulty using that information when spacing things out in the drawing.  Thus, even if N was 9,10,11,12, he tended to start near 12:00 and use 45 degree sectors at first, and then adjust the spacing near the end to get to the number N.  That would explain the initial alignment.

In your other post you hypothesized the author may have gotten several of the sheets, especially some of these odd shaped foldouts as a group. Do you think they were created before dividing the vellum vertically?

I believe that the Scribe worked on each bifolio separately.  Unlike @npcompl33t, I do not think that he looked at one bifolio while working on the next one.  

I believe that he was not aware that books are sewed by quires, and assumed that the book would be bound with one bifolio per quire.  Thus I think that he first folded each bifolio as he imagined it would be in the book, then unfolded it and proceeded to draw and write the pages in what he assumed would be the reading order: the right half of one side of the bifolio, flip over, left half then right half, flip over, then left half of the first side.

He did not do "one whole side of the bifolio, flip over, then the whole other side".  If he had done that, the pages would be out of order when bound, even if with one bifolio per quire.  Like, the "table of contents" of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. would become page 2, and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. would be either You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. or f116r.

It does not look like the Author was constantly checking the Scribe's work.  The Scribe may have copied 5-10 bifolios per day, and maybe handed them over to the Author at the end of each day.  Or maybe even at the end of each week, or each section.  

Perhaps the Author was half-blind (like Marci by the time he sent the book to Kircher) and could not read the tiny Voynichese writing produced by the Scribe. That could explain why he hired a fourth-rate Scribe to make the vellum copy, instead of doing it himself -- which would be expected given his inability to buy good vellum.  And why he did not have the Scribe correct his obvious mistakes.

All the best, --stolfi