Quadrivium Miscellany with Rithmomachia

Rules

original Greek: "κανονασ" (kanonas); refers to the standards or geometric rules used for the construction.

Individual months are arranged accordingly. I divide the aforementioned six intervals of the signs into two parts again using small lines, so that twelve intervals are created in the total circumference. I assign the first of these—which contains the end of Sagittarius and the beginning of Capricorn—to the month of December, in the middle of which the winter solstice The shortest day of the year, when the sun reaches its lowest point in the sky. occurs. I grant the following two intervals to January and its counterpart, November. I assign the fourth and fifth to February and October.

The sixth and seventh intervals belong to March and September, in the middle of which the two equinoxes The two times of year when day and night are of equal length. occur, and where the signs of Aries and Libra take their beginning. Then, the eighth and ninth intervals belong to April and August. Let May and July hold the tenth and eleventh. The twelfth interval which remains—which carries the end of Gemini and the first parts of Cancer—receives the month of June, with the summer solstice The longest day of the year, when the sun reaches its highest point. in its middle.

With these intervals thus distributed among the signs and months, you must find how to observe the final lines of the individual hours according to the daily or monthly ascent and descent of the sun. But so that I may remove the labor from anyone seeking these details with precision, [I shall state] how many degrees at the end The text breaks off here; the author is beginning to describe the specific degree measurements required to mark the hour lines on the cylinder's surface.