Medieval medicine was based on the belief that the human body was composed of four humours, identified as blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile. A good balance between the humours was essential for a healthy body, and the dominance of one over the others was corrected by blood-letting, which released pressure in the appropriate part of the body. One diagram identifies the various veins, and when they should be opened.
The parts of the body were directly related to the heavenly spheres, and on the page shown here the signs of the zodiac are superimposed on specific areas of the human figure. When the moon was in a particular sign, then blood should not be let from the corresponding part of the body. A knowledge of celestial movements was thus a requirement for barber-surgeons, and charts such as this were commonly displayed in their shops.
The earliest illustration of a ‘zodiac man’ identifiable in manuscript collections now at Oxford appears to be in St. John’s College MS. 178, fol. 143r, part of a scientific miscellany and bestiary made in London (Westminster Abbey), c. 1300 or shortly afterwards. An example in a Bodleian manuscript dating from some decades later (perhaps c. 1330, English or French) is MS. Canon. Misc. 248, fol. 42r, in a small section of mostly astronomical diagrams (fols. 42-45). Examples of the late 14th and 15th centuries are much more common. We cannot speak for earlier holdings in other libraries, but this might indeed make a fruitful topic for research, as a vivid manifestation of astrological medicine.
I hope that this is of some help. Best wishes.
Posted by Bodleian Libraries
On 01/03/2013
I would like to know when the first images of the zodiac man appeared in the Middle Ages, more particularly whether such images are known dating from the 12th century? I thank you very much. Best regards.
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The earliest illustration of a ‘zodiac man’ identifiable in manuscript collections now at Oxford appears to be in St. John’s College MS. 178, fol. 143r, part of a scientific miscellany and bestiary made in London (Westminster Abbey), c. 1300 or shortly afterwards. An example in a Bodleian manuscript dating from some decades later (perhaps c. 1330, English or French) is MS. Canon. Misc. 248, fol. 42r, in a small section of mostly astronomical diagrams (fols. 42-45). Examples of the late 14th and 15th centuries are much more common. We cannot speak for earlier holdings in other libraries, but this might indeed make a fruitful topic for research, as a vivid manifestation of astrological medicine.
I hope that this is of some help. Best wishes.
Posted by Bodleian Libraries
On 01/03/2013
I would like to know when the first images of the zodiac man appeared in the Middle Ages, more particularly whether such images are known dating from the 12th century? I thank you very much. Best regards.
Posted by Johan R. Boelaert, MD
On 28/02/2013