Re: Greek Astrology

Byzantine authors had a great penchant for ligatures. Although I do not have expertise in Greek astrology, I do have some competence in other aspects of Byzantine literature (including some familiarity with manuscripts and inscriptions). Based on that experience, I feel I can safely say that any attempt to encode the four ligatures on the grounds discussed here would be an invitation to encode a host of other Byzantine Greek ligatures (for example, the standard cruciform invocative monograms: V. Laurent, La collection Orghidian [Paris, 1952], pl. lxx).

A formal proposal for these four ligatures would be premature. One should first understand the entire culture of Byzantine ligation, then determine what parts of that culture should be encoded, and which not.

Sincerely,

jk

--
Joel Kalvesmaki
Editor in Byzantine Studies
Dumbarton Oaks
1703 32nd St. NW
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 339-6435
From: <Szelp>, "A. Sz." <a.sz.szelp_at_gmail.com<mailto:a.sz.szelp_at_gmail.com>>
Date: Thursday, November 1, 2012 3:56 AM
To: CE Whitehead <cewcathar_at_hotmail.com<mailto:cewcathar_at_hotmail.com>>
Cc: "unicode_at_unicode.org<mailto:unicode_at_unicode.org>" <unicode_at_unicode.org<mailto:unicode_at_unicode.org>>
Subject: Re: Greek Astrology
Is there evidence that these have been used consistently, on most charts of the time? These could be ad-hoc notations (as given the contemporary praxis, ligation per se does not make a "symbol").
--
Szelp, André Szabolcs
+43 (650) 79 22 400
On Thu, Nov 1, 2012 at 2:38 AM, CE Whitehead <cewcathar_at_hotmail.com<mailto:cewcathar_at_hotmail.com>> wrote:
Hi.
From: Raymond Mercier <rm459_at_cam.ac.uk<mailto:rm459_at_cam.ac.uk?Subject=Re:%20Greek%20astrology>>
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:52:43 -0000
> I think I had somehow assumed that the symbols used in Greek Horoscopes had already been encoded, but it seems not.
> The four signs used to mark the principal corners (ascendant, etc) of the horoscope diagram are shown in the attachment, taken from
> http://www.skyscript.co.uk/greek_horoscope.html
> These four signs should be encoded along with the zodiacal signs U+2648 to U+2653.
> Perhaps they are already in the pipeline ?
Perhaps these should be in the pipeline, as the online templates I could find for astrological charts do not have them; they have to be added in  (although it would be possible to have these built into the chart template also, as the houses are always in the same place and the ascendant is always located between the 12th and the 1rst, etc.); see:
http://www.skyscript.co.uk/charttemp.html
Similarly Paul Wade's copiable template is void of the symbols
http://books.google.com/books?id=WY8hjKtSaP0C&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=natal+charts+astrological+charts+templates&source=bl&ots=By-xF3UGWB&sig=KvomOKgo999CwuJPKaq1LmeoqHc&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=oMCRUK-wF5Sc8gTWi4DYAg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=natal%20charts%20astrological%20charts%20templates&f=false
(I'll try to check an offline guide, too, but the few actual online templates, not sample charts, seem void of the symbols for the ascendant, midheaven, etc., so they seem to be separate from the actual chart of the houses, so go for it. Happy Halloween in any case.)
Best,
--C. E. Whitehead
cewcathar_at_hotmail.com<mailto:cewcathar_at_hotmail.com>
> Best wishes
> Raymond Mercier