Page f68v1
[f68v2] [index] [f69r]
Identification
Title: ???
Page: f68v1 = IJ (Rene) = p128 (Stolfi)
Folio: f68
Panels: f68v1
Bifolio: bI1 = f67+f68
Quire: I (Rene) = IX (Beinecke)
This page is the innermost verso panel of an eight-panel fold-out.
Color reproduction in Frank Smythe's book [1].
Attributes
Language: ? (Currier)
Hand: ? (Currier)
Subsets: A (Rene), cos (Stolfi)
Subject: astronomical
Colors: blue(vanes),yellow(stars) (Reeds)
Description
The page contains only a circular diagram, framed by two faint
mechanically drawn circles, each surrounded by a ring of text.
The whole is surrounded by another thin circle, about 1cm further
out, that begins looking mechanically drawn but at some point
wanders off and fails to close on itself, as if the fixed leg of the
compass had skipped a bit.
A thick radial stroke at 10:30 connects this outermost circle to
the next one, through the gap between two words of the outer text
ring. Another pair of thick radial strokes at 10:00 connects the
second and third circles, breaking the second text ring.
At the center of the diagram is a sun, with narrow flipped
S-shaped rays (yellow-colored) and a human face (with neutral
expression, straight light-colored or uncolored hair combed back
at the sides, held by a narrow headband with dots.)
Surrounding the sun is a "starry windmill": a fat star with
serrated outline, consisting of 16 sectors shaped like narrow
kites, each split radially into a "light" (clockwise) half,
uncolored, with a dotted line and some small stars; and a "dark",
painted a solid dark blue. Clockwise from the 10:00 point, the
light half-sectors contain the following counts of
(yellow-colored) stars:
4 4 4 3 4 4 5 6 6 6 7 7 6 5 5 5
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * *
* * ?
?
The "?" are splotches that may be stars. All told there are probably
66 stars, possibly 67 or 68.
Thin radial lines connect each point of the star to the inner edge
of the frame. The 16 sectors defined by these lines are
alternatingly filled with unnamed yellow-colored stars, or labeled
with a radial text line, reading outwards. Clockwise from the
10:00 ray, the sectors contain the following counts:
8 7 7 8 9 9 8 7
* * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * *
* * * * *
* *
There are 63 stars in total.
There is a comet-tail-like object behind one of the stars in
the 03:00 sector.
All these details are visible on Smythe's color plates.
Comments
It is not clear whether the "start here" strokes at 10:00-10:30
are original, or later scribbles. If the
latter, then they seem wrong, because those word gaps are quite
ordinary and not aligned.
Another possible starting place is at 01:15, where both rings have
aligned, extra-wide word breaks.
On the other hand, the EVA "p" on the the 10:30 radial line suggests
that that is indeed the first line.
The center figure is probably female.
Note that the small and large star counts are almost the same (67
and 63); perhaps 64 was the intended number. Note also that the
small star counts are unimodal. The big star counts would be
unimodal too if the 11:00 sector had 7 stars, or the 09:30 sector
had 8. The latter seems more likely as it would have bumped the
number of big stars to 64. In both sequences the minimum is around
01:10 (the aligned breaks!) and the maximum around 07:00.
The "tail" in the 03:00 sector may mean that one of the stars is a
comet. (It could be a vellum defect, but no trace of it is visible
on f68r1.)
References
[1] Smythe, Frank. "A Script Full of Secrets" and "The Uncrackable
Code" in "Mysteries of Mind, Space & Time: The Unexplained", pp.
3062-3069. H. S. Stuttman, Inc., Westport, Connecticut, USA.
Copyright 1992 by Orbis Publishing, Inc. [Originally published in
"The Unexplained" in the UK.]
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