Does this happen in other medieval zodiacs? Yes, sometimes. Here are some examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goat-Like Aries or Misplaced Figures<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In the first example, extracted from a wheel illustration, the constellation Aries is somewhat goatlike, especially considering that medieval sheep were often drawn with long tails. However, it can still be distinguished from the goat by having slightly more curved horns:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The following drawings are a bit degraded, so it’s hard to see clearly, but the goat and ram have been transposed. The drawing in Aries has long horns and a short, upturned tail (goat-like), and the one in Capricorn has shorter, curved horns and a longer down-turned tail:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In this example, the figures are out of order. The illustrator mistakenly drew Capricorn (goat) and Sagittarius (centaur) in the months for Aries (ram) and Taurus (bull).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the next example, Aries has a goatlike beard and the traditional goat-fish has been used for Capricorn:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In this example, Aries has sheep-like wool combined with a goat-like tail and beard:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes the drawings are so similar, it’s difficult to tell the sheep from the goat. In this case the bodies are almost the same (Aries is slightly thicker, but not much). The main difference is the curl of the horns:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Summary<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In general, in medieval zodiacs, Aries is depicted with curly horns and a puffy or long tail (usually pointing down), Capricorn usually has a shorter tail, sometimes upturned, with straighter horns and often a beard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn’t happen often, but Aries is sometimes drawn like a goat, and Capricorn is occasionally transposed with Aries. The VMS goat-like sheep in the Aries slot is somewhat unusual, but it’s not unprecedented, so it’s difficult to know if the deviation is lack of experience, a mistake, or a deliberate choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

J.K. Petersen<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 Copyright February 2021 J.K. Petersen, All Rights Reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

11 February 2021 I have to make this quick. My time for blogging is very limited (and I have many mostly-finished blogs I need to get posted). But I thought this quirk in some medieval zodiacs might be interesting to Voynich researchers. Mislabeled or Misunderstood In a cruise through eBay a couple of years ago […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,39,164],"tags":[495,494,159,53,274],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voynichportal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10846"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voynichportal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voynichportal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voynichportal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voynichportal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10846"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/voynichportal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11049,"href":"https:\/\/voynichportal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10846\/revisions\/11049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voynichportal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voynichportal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voynichportal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}