Don't forget that Apuleius gives the same list, not paired on couches, with the notion that these are for contemplation and intellectual qualities. Note that Apuleius says "contemplate by our keenness of mind" ( acie mentis .. contemplantes ), and Marziano virtually paraphrases it for Filippo Maria...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Peter_Paul_Rubens_-_The_Birth_of_the_Milky_Way%2C_1636-1637.jpg/1280px-Peter_Paul_Rubens_-_The_Birth_of_the_Milky_Way%2C_1636-1637.jpg Somebody might ask, why I call Hercules the "Astronom". Hercules started this career as astronom at a very...

Phaeded, ... :-) "Central part of a large floor mosaic, from a Roman villa in Sentinum (now known as Sassoferrato, in Marche, Italy), ca. 200–250 C.E. Aion, the god of eternity, is standing inside a celestial sphere decorated with zodiac signs, in between a green tree and a bare tree (summer and win...

Livy is sufficient explanation in my opinion because Decembrio singles this author out of all the ancient authors as Filippo Maria's favorite. The dii consentes also makes superfluous the question of whether they conceived of the "Twelve Olympians." There was no need, these gods are named as such i...

I wrote: The 6 pairs of Livius lead also not to new insights in the Visconti order. But good, that I looked for the background. In 217 BC the temple of the Venus Erycina was founded, as described by Livius. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Plan_Rome_-_Temple_of_Venus_Erycina.png O...

The upper 2 rows (virtues and riches) contain 7 male figures. This looks, as if somebody had originally the idea to have 8 male figures in the 2 top rows and 8 female figures im the 2 bottom rows. The Dii consentes in Livy were six male-female pairs, and Vesta's companion was Vulcan. Marziano repla...

I actually think it would be a worthwhile endeavor to construct Filippo Maria's natal chart, as well as June 16 1412 at 9 am, to compare them. We know they did it for him, and that he consulted Dondi's clock regularly. One would have to be an expert in historical astrology, though, or know the sour...

"Hercules is opposed to Jupiter in the same category (virtues)." ... hm ... what is difficult in this sentence? The category is given (virtues, that is the group Jupiter-Apollo-Mercury, a ranking is given: first-Jupiter, second-Apollo, third-Mercury, last-Hercules and the "first" and the "last" of s...