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volvelle

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Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

noun A small and generally circular movable plate affixed to an engraving containing a dial or lottery, and made to carry the index-hand or pointer; any movable engraving superimposed on another for the purpose of showing variations.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

noun A type of slide chart, a paper construction with rotating parts, formerly used for organization and calculation in astronomy and other subjects.

Etymologies

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Examples

Doctors and barbers used wheel diagrams like a 1486 volvelle from the guild book of the Barber Surgeons of York (also in Circa 1492) to determine propitious occasions for surgery.

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008
20One of Publicius's wheels includes a vermiform serpent as its central volvelle rather than moveable rings, a detail perhaps conceived as a metonymic means to open and close the vermis valve in the brain, activating cogitation and recollection.

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

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ruzuzu commented on the word volvelle

Leibniz’s central argument was that all human thoughts, no matter how complex, are combinations of basic and fundamental concepts, in much the same way that sentences are combinations of words, and words combinations of letters. He believed that if he could find a way to symbolically represent these fundamental concepts and develop a method by which to combine them logically, then he would be able to generate new thoughts on demand.
The idea came to Leibniz through his study of Ramon Llull, a 13th century Majorcan mystic who devoted himself to devising a system of theological reasoning that would prove the “universal truth" of Christianity to non-believers.
Llull himself was inspired by Jewish Kabbalists’ letter combinatorics . . . which they used to produce generative texts that supposedly revealed prophetic wisdom. Taking the idea a step further, Llull invented what he called a volvelle, a circular paper mechanism with increasingly small concentric circles on which were written symbols representing the attributes of God. Llull believed that by spinning the volvelle in various ways, bringing the symbols into novel combinations with one another, he could reveal all the aspects of his deity.
-- https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/robotics/artificial-intelligence/in-the-17th-century-leibniz-dreamed-of-a-machine-that-could-calculate-ideas

November 4, 2019
bilby commented on the word volvelle

I thought this was a fuflun filled with custard.

November 4, 2019
bilby commented on the word volvelle

I was about go all jolly and 'roll up, roll up, let me fill you with custard' but that sounded lewd-ish as I practiced it out loud in my living room so now I think I'm just going to have coffee.

November 4, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word volvelle

Uh, I think the best coffee to accompany custard-filled fufluns is definitely kopi-LEWDwak. Amirite? (Wocka wocka.)

November 5, 2019