THE BEGINNINGS OF MEDIEVAL INFORMATION VISUALIZATION - Information Visualisation: Techniques, Usability and Evaluation - page 13

The contents of Fig. 1.6 differ in a number of ways from Fig. 1.5.
January begins at approximately nine o'clock on the rota , rather than five.
Its inner ring displays the number of days per month according to the
Julian calendar, rather than the Egyptian. And the rota 's centre contains an
illustration instead of being blank. Although rotae centres are typically
blank, as in Fig. 1.5, many contain text or illustrations. For example, a rota
in a St. Gall manuscript from the second third of the ninth century (MS
Cod. Pa 32, fol. 59r, Zofingen, Stadtbibliothek) [31] displays at its centre
the word “menses” - Latin for month. The letters are arranged in the form
of a cross, with a single letter “e” at its centre. It is then read top-to-
bottom, and left-to-right. The central medallion of Fig.1.6 portrays an
individual flanked by two birds. It has been suggested that this represents
Christ as a young man, but it may as easily represent the document's
author, or perhaps the scribe's abbot, or scriptorium director. Lending
credence to the former proposition is that if these birds represent raptors,
perhaps eagles, 4 they symbolize someone of rank or authority.
Fig. 1.5 Calendar, De natura rerum , Isidore of Seville, c. 800 ( MS Cod. Sang. 240,
fol. 124, St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek).
4. Here the birds are reminiscent of a Visigothic design. See, for example, a pair of
sixth century eagle fibula from southwest Spain in the collection of the Walker Art
Museum (54.421, 54.422) [32].