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Three-section orbs

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Three-section orbs
Three-section orbs

-JKP- > 04-11-2017, 10:31 AM
RE: Three-section orbs

-JKP- > 26-11-2017, 04:46 AM

Egerton 845:

This manuscript is sparse (only 4 sides available) and seems primarily dedicated to classifying things in terms of their elements and attributes.

It's in the British Library now, but appears to have gone from Trinity College to the hands of a bookseller (Denley), to a book collector (J. Orchard Halliwell, who was accused of stealing it from Trinity College) to the British Library. I think it's more likely that either the bookseller or someone (maybe a student?) who supplied manuscripts to the bookseller is responsible for lifting it from Trinity.
RE: Three-section orbs

R. Sale > 28-11-2017, 11:29 PM

Excellent idea. Including the Von Bingen and Antwerp illustrations gives a indication of the variety of possibilities, but the natural focus, based on VMs f68v, is going to be the inverted T-O format.

There appear to two different situations where the inverted format is found. One is cosmic and materialistic and the other is religious. In the cosmic format the three sections are visually distinguishable as representations of water, earth, and air - three 'elements' of classical science. While in the religious format, the three sections, as seen so far, have no distinguishing characteristics.

The VMs orb of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. contains a third option. The three areas of its inverted T-O are labeled. Do the VMs labels designate three elements? If religious representations are characteristically featureless, how is it possible to label blankness?

Below is the Oresme cosmos from BNF fr. 565. Earth and air are reversed from BL Harley 334.
RE: Three-section orbs

-JKP- > 29-11-2017, 02:16 AM

In some of the Hebrew manuscripts, I've noticed that the elements are sometimes listed as air, fire, water (three, instead of two). These were not necessarily diagrammed, but were in written lists.
RE: Three-section orbs

-JKP- > 29-11-2017, 03:19 AM

I noticed BNF Fr 565 also uses this basic inverted format to describe solstice and the sun's relation to the horizon (and to the local point of reference):

A few pages later (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) is quite an unconventional "T-O" map in which Asia is to the left and the "O" has been chopped in half such that the T is pushed into the lower half of the implied circle. The following climatic zones chart is drawn the same way, a half-sphere with seven named zones, rather than the traditional full sphere.
RE: Three-section orbs

VViews > 08-12-2017, 03:09 PM

This one is from Harley 334, f.72v, and although it actually has four sections rather than three, I find it relevant due to the overall composition in a "cloudband" surrounded with clockwise-swirling "arms":
RE: Three-section orbs

-JKP- > 08-12-2017, 07:31 PM

VViews, LOL!!

I guess those of us who read Nick's blog are all paging through Harley 334.

P.S., I think it was a very good idea to post it. Even though it's drawn in a completely different style, if one looks past the style to the content, there are many commonalities.
RE: Three-section orbs

-JKP- > 22-12-2017, 06:58 PM

From Yates Thompson collection Dante's Divine Comedy,, small inverted T sphere in bottom left corner of initial:
RE: Three-section orbs

Searcher > 23-12-2017, 02:55 PM

A You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. from the 15th century depicting the emperor Charlemagne.

Now it rather relates to the Sovereign's orb, but it has much earlier roots. Actually, an orb itself was depicted in different ways: as a transparent or not transparent orb, as an orb with a horisontal line, as an orb with a cross, as a three-section orb. Personally I think, they have the same meaning, but the question is considered to be open.
An interesting article concerning this theme: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
RE: Three-section orbs

R. Sale > 04-01-2018, 01:04 AM

Here is a three part orb of the religious type - but the T division is *not* inverted. (below Christ's feet) Just to show that both variations are possible in religious images.
The image is the central panel of the Beaune altarpiece (Beaune, France 1445-1450)
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