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clockwise from there: summer (aestas) in the south (meridem), autumn
(autumnus) in the west (occidens), and winter (hiems) in the north
(septentrio); placing seasonal pairs (winter/summer, spring/autumn) as
rational opposites around the
rota
. The seasons are bounded by intertwined
semicircular arcs encompassing pairs of qualities or humours: wetness
(humidur), dryness (sicca), coldness (frigidus), and hotness (calidus)
.
Each
pair characterizes a season. Spring is hot and humid; summer hot and dry;
autumn cold and dry; and winter cold and wet. Despite the diagram's
unorthodox orientation, its format expresses the unity and diversity of the
seasons with a simple clarity.
The third
rota
from Isidore's
De natura rerum
in Fig. 1.8 builds upon
the
rota anni
. It is an
Annus-Mundus-Homo
diagram from a manuscript
produced during the second third of the ninth century at St. Gall (MS Cod.
Pa 32, fol. 62r, Zofingen, Stadtbibliothek) [31]. It articulates a
combination of Greek thought on the nature of the universe and the state
of mankind. It begins with the
rota anni
and, in contrast to Fig. 1.7, it
reorients the yearly cycle of four seasons so that spring corresponds to
map-compass East, and then traverses the circle by moving anticlockwise
through summer, autumn, and winter. It builds upon the ancient Greek
cosmology of Empendocles, Pythagoras, and Plato, beginning with two
properties of matter and their oppositions - hotness and coldness,
moistness and dryness. When taken in combination, these properties form
the four basic elements: earth (terra), air (aer), fire (ignis), and water
(aqua), displayed in logical opposition along the cardinal directions. Fire
and water are opposites, as are earth and air. These elements are linked by
shared properties. For example, fire and air share the property hotness
(calidus); water and air share the property moistness (humidus), and so on.
A second set of relations is based on the concept of the four humours of
Hippocratic medicine used to describe the human temperament. These are
exhibited clockwise within the innermost ring of the
rota
as
colera
(bile),
sanguis
(sanguine),
phlegmatic
(here incorrectly given as
humor
instead of
pituita
), and
melancholia
(melancholy).
This
rota
aligns the cosmic with the human, promulgating both the
ancient Greek notion and Isidore's thesis that man is a small scale
(microcosm) parallel of the universe (macrocosm) [36] [37]. It is also a
visual schema for guiding multilevel thought. The
rota'
s
centre points to
three levels of engagement: the observer (homo), the world (mundus), and
the year (annus). The concentric rings of information underscore the
dynamic relationships therein, such as the mobility of elements from
ignis
to
aer
to
aqua
to
terra
; the cycles of the seasons; or the transitions in
qualities from
calidus
(hot) to
humida
(humid) to
frigida
(cold) to
sicca
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