Tres Riches Heures: March

    Caption: "Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, Mars (i.e., March), Musee Conde, Chateau de Chantilly. Chateau de Lusignan." The Chateau de Lusignan is in the background.

    The month is March as lunette shows---if you can fathom the funky lettering.

    The lunette shows a lot of calendrical detail that is all rather complex to us---but it meant a lot to the Medievals.

    But we can see that the wagon of the Sun passes from being in the sign of Pisces to being in the sign of Aries.

      The zodiac signs are not zodiac constellations, but twelve 30-degree segments along the ecliptic measured from the vernal equinox.

      The zodiac constellations were located in those zodiac signs, more or less, about 2000 years ago, and gave the signs their names.

    The inner arc of numbers are the days of the month---that much is clear. The change from sign of Pisces to that of Aries happens on the 12th which is probably related to the fact that the Medievals were using the Julian calendar. In modern custom, the change happens on about Mar21 (Wikipedia: zodiac sign).

    Credit/Permission: Brothers Limbourg (fl. 1385--1416) for their patron Jean, Duc de Berry (1340--1416), 1412--1416, source/photographer: R.M.N./R.-G. Ojeda (uploaded to Wikipedia by User:Petrusbarbygere, 2005) / Public domain.
    Image link: Wikipedia: File:Les Tres Riches Heures du duc de Berry mars.jpg.
    Local file: local link: tres_riche_heures_03_march.html.
    File: Art_t file: tres_riche_heures_03_march.html.