Zodiac Man
Liber Cosmographiae
John de Foxton, 1408
The Wren Library, Trinity College R.15.21
This compendium of popular science presents a medieval conception of the body - as the microcosm which replicates the macrocosm of the wider world. The hand-painted illustrations on parchment range from astronomical tables to elaborate figures of the temperaments and the planets. They depict an astrological understanding of the body, showing the ways that the planets influence the four worldly elements and the bodily humours.
In Zodiac Man the planets, signs of the Zodiac and the humours are mapped onto the human body. Positioning the body in relation to the cosmos was often used to illicit information about a person’s health and well-being
