Re: Sky & Telescope article

[Zandbergen@xxxxxxxxxxx (Rene Zandbergen)]

Thanks to Brad for sharing these replies.

Having a deadline for a paper today, I have only time for
a few brief comments. Brad, I think that it might not be a bad idea
to make a summary of the most interesting replies and offer them
on the Hist.of Astronomy mailing list (if the senders agree). I am
sure that Dr. E. Krupp would be willing to comment.

I am also intrigued by the Polish source. I wouldn't be able to read the
text very well (even though I managed to guess what 'potrzebie' means
:-) )
but Rafal may be able to tell us more about its illustrations.
The source for this I am more familiar with is Fritz Saxl: Verzeichniss
astrologischer und mythologischer Handscriften .... (etc) 1915, also
cited
by D'Imperio. There were a few interesting illustrations in that,
showing e.g. that the style of Sun, Moon, star and planet faces as drawn
in the Voynich MS are completely 'normal' or 'typical' for this time
period.

The Dendera zodiac is quite famous. I may have an illustration of it
somewhere but can't quickly find it. Now unless I am much mistaken,
it is circular so its starting point may not be obvious.
And in AD 30 the starting point for the zodiac should really still be
Aries. Also, is there any connection between this buiding or site
and the Hermetic teachings? Or did all Egyptian science fall under the 
Hermetic Corpus by default?
Interesting in this aspect is also that Toresella's article about 
alchemical herbals shows an illustration of a whole array of medicinal
herbs on one of the walls of another Egyptian temple...
  
Of the Liber Floridus by Lambert of St. Omer I have two illustrations
(in A. Roob: Alchemie und Mystik). The book is dated 1120. None of 
the two illustrations is herbal. I can only call them 'cosmological',
one being more of a religious nature while the other allows an extremely
interesting comparison with some VMs drawings (taking into account the
style difference from >400 years).

Well, that already isn't very short anymore, I'll have to stop now.

Cheers, Rene