Witchcraft and the Occult, 1400-1700
Renaissance astrological medicine

anonymous Italian woodcut of zodiac man
from Johannes de Ketham (fl. 15th century),
Fasciculus medicinae (Venice, 1522)
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This striking woodcut embodies two related cosmological theories. The first is that the body and mind of man (microcosm) is identical with the whole universe (macrocosm). In other words,   "the macrocosm is the universe as a whole, whose parts are thought of as parts of a human body and mind. The microcosm is an individual human being whose parts are thought of as analogous to the parts of the larger universe." The second belief involves astrology, in which the heavenly bodies, including those of the zodiac, control vital aspects of human life. The zodiacal entities, connected with the months in which they appeared, had long ago received names and symbols, many of which are identified with animals. An important correlation is that certain parts of the body are ruled by specific zodiacal signs, beginning with Aries (the ram) at the head and ending with Pisces (the fish) at the feet. The present image, known as a melothesia, belongs to the realm of astrological medicine, in which forms of treatment depended on the position of the moon "in the heavens, since it was a medieval commonplace . . . that one neither touched with iron nor with medication the part of the body in whose zodiacal sign the moon was at that particular moment."

The zodiacal man, a naked male figure with arms and feet spread apart, whose body parts were inscribed or associated with the twelve signs, appears with growing frequency in illustrated manuscripts beginning in the fourteenth century.  The zodiac man was consulted by physicians, barber-surgeons, and laymen for favorable times to conduct bloodletting, surgery, or other popular forms of medical therapy. The signs of the zodiac and their relationship to the months and the parts of the body emphasize the times for refraining from treatment. This information appears in the inscriptions starting with the head at the upper left and then moving to the right in descending order ending with the feet.


A 15th-century Yorkshire manuscript
almanac which contains astrological
and historical material, including a zodiac man

Summary of the associations: the Ram, Aries, March (the head); the Bull, Taurus, April (the neck, eyes, and throat); the Twins, Gemini, May (the shoulders, arms, and hands); the Crab, Cancer, June (the chest and spleen); the Lion, Leo, July (the stomach); the Maiden, Virgo, August (the abdomen and ribs); the Scales, Libra, September (the hips, haunches, and what lies below the private parts); the Scorpion, Scorpio, October (the male organs); the Centaur, Sagittarius, November (the buttocks and thighs); the Goat, Capricorn, December (the knees and their nerves); the Water Bearer, Aquarius, January (the shins and lower legs); the Fish, Pisces, February (the feet and their nerves, the pains of gout, etc.)

The present image is one of six woodcuts illustrating a series of medical tracts, the Fasciculus medicinae, ["little bundle of medicine"] first published in Venice in 1491. This Latin edition was followed by Sebastiano Manilio's Italian translation two years later. The volume, with other treatises gradually added, enjoyed great popularity; many later editions followed in both languages, as well as in other vernacular translations. The authorship of the text is usually attributed to Johannes de Ketham, considered to have been a German physician residing in Venice.  The text consists of a group of texts commonly used in the university teaching of medicine.  It replaced the expensive manuscript collections previously used by medical students.

His name may be a corruption for that of Johann von Kirscheim, a professor of medicine in Vienna around 1460. The zodiac man above comes from a Latin edition of the Fasciculus medicinae dated 1522, although the image is identical with the woodcut from the 1493 Italian translation.  The image, the third illustration in this edition, occurs after the treatise on phlebotomy, or bloodletting. Explanations of the signs appear on the preceding folio. The figure of the zodiac man follows the traditional diagrammatic mode, but the influence of antique sculptural forms and naturalistic representation of the body lends added authority and pathos to the linear design of the figure, particularly in the stoic expression of the head and the prayerlike position of arms and hands. The figures of Gemini and Aquarius, as well as that of Sagittarius, reflect further influence of ancient sculpture. Also noteworthy is the sketchy landscape on which the zodiac man firmly plants his feet. This terrain contains plants and a small pool occupied by twin dolphins symbolizing Pisces and Aquarius. The latter, fulfilling his astrological function, empties his water pitcher into the pool.  The placement of animal and hybrid zodiacal signs, although dictated by anatomical considerations, shows ingenuity and wit. Particularly attractive are the ram atop the figure's head and the goat, whose tail is wound around his knee. Scholarly opinion connects the style of the woodcuts with the contemporary workshops of the leading Venetian painters and to book illustration.


wound man, from Hans von Gersdorff,
Feldtbuch der Wundartzney (Strasbourg, 1530)
While the zodiac man and other illustrations in the various editions of the Fasciculus medicinae preserve medieval anatomical types, such as the wound man, the full-page woodcuts are the first to appear in medical books and complement the beautiful graphic design of these masterpieces of early Venetian printing. The cognitive value of the illustrations in teaching sets an important precedent for the anatomical textbooks of Berengario da Carpi and Vesalius. While the zodiac man vanished from medical books after the seventeenth century, the image continues to appear in calendars and almanacs to the present day - a testimony to an undiminished loyalty to the macrocosmic-microcosmic world view and astrological belief systems.

Riders British Merlin first appeared in 1656 and continued to be published
well into the nineteenth century.  It contained medical and farming advice,
and blank pages for diary entries or accounts.  These images are from the 1701 edition.

The main text above is slightly adapted from a catalogue entry in Claire Richter Sherman, Writing on Hands: Memory and Knowledge in Early Modern Europe (University of Washington Press for The Trout Gallery at Dickinson College, 2000).  The illustrations have been added for this webpage.

George Boas, "Macrocosm and Microcosm," in Dictionary of the History of Ideas, ed. Philip P. Wiener (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973) 3:126.

Donald Levy, "Macrocosm and Microcosm," in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Paul Edwards (New York: Macmillan and Free Press, 1967) 5:121-125.

David Pingree, "Astrology," in Dictionary of the History of Ideas, 1:118-126.

T. S. Pattie, Astrology as Illustrated in the Collections of the British Library and The British Museum (London: British Library, 1980).

Harry Bober, "The Zodiacal Miniature of the Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry-Its Sources and Meaning," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 11 (1948):1-34

Fritz Saxl, "Macrocosm and Microcosm in Mediaeval Pictures" in Lectures (London: Warburg Institute, University of London, 1957) 1:58-72

Facsimile of the 1491 edition: Karl Sudhoff, Der Fasciculus medicinae des Johannes de Ketham, Alemannus (Milan: Lier, 1923)

The first Italian edition: The Fasciculo di Medicina, Venice, 1493, intro. Charles Singer, 2 vols. (Florence: Lier, 1925)

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