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Open book showing on left a disease horse chart with lines leading from different parts of the horse’s body to numbers indexed on the facing text page
Woodcut chart showing nude male figure facing front surrounded by disease labels linked to body parts.
Woodcut chart showing a male figure facing front with the twelve symbols of the zodiac linked over the body parts and labeled with effects.
Woodcut chart showing a horse in the middle of the page with the twelve symbols of the zodiac linked to parts of the horse’s body.
Woodcut chart showing a man facing forward with torso and chest open to show internal organs 48 lines labeling pointing points on the body for bloodletting.
Woodcut illustration set in the text showing a horse with cuts releasing blood from its face, neck and hip.
Copperplate engraving showing a woman, sitting on a bench supported by another woman having her right ankle bled by a surgeon while a woman holds a candle.
Copperplate engraving showing a man having his right arm bled by the surgeon applying the lancet and an assistant with a bowl.
Copperplate engraving showing a woman reclining on a bed extending her arm while a surgeon oversees others with a knife, bowl and cup.
Book open showing on left a disease cow chart with lines leading from different parts of the horses body to numbers indexed on the facing text page.
Disease chart showing a rearing horse with a great many lines leading from different parts of the horse’s body to disease names arranged around the edge of the page.
Woodcut illustration set in the text showing a horse facing left with a parasitic worm infection on its hind quarters.
Woodcut illustration set in the text showing a horse facing right with cuts releasing blood from its neck, front legs, and belly.
Woodcut illustration set in the text showing a horse facing right inhaling a medicated vapor from an urn.
Woodcut bloodletting illustration showing a horse facing right with cuts releasing blood from its face and front legs, all surrounded by text.
Woodcut horse illustration showing one horse at the top of the page facing left with an infection on the back of its hind quarters and a horse in the lower portion of the page with a skin disease.
Woodcut illustration showing a horse facing left with lines indicating different parts of the horse body affected by the different zodiac constellations
Woodcut illustration of a horse skeleton facing right with text above in Italian

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Woodcut chart showing a male figure facing front with the twelve symbols of the zodiac linked over the body parts and labeled with effects.

“Zodiac Man” from Fasiculo de medicina by Johannes de Ketham, 1493

Medical astrology was based on the belief that the body's “microcosm” corresponded to the “macrocosm” of the planets and stars and gave order to the seemingly random course of life and health. Thus, it assisted the physician in prescribing treatment, in predicting the course of a disease, and in casting horoscopes. This woodcut shows which constellation, symbolized by a sign of the zodiac, governs each region of the body. Aries governs the head as well as March (which was once the first month of the year), and so on. Consequently, the table advises that a region of the body should not receive medication when the corresponding sign is dominant. Thus, it is bad to treat the head in March, and “anyone who does so will cause a concussion or die.”

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About the Book

A woodcut illustration of sick people in a doctor’s office where he sits reading from a book. Many other books are on shelves and tables.
Fasiculo de Medicina by Johannes de Ketham, 1493
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Woodcut chart showing nude male figure facing front surrounded by disease labels linked to body parts.
“Disease Man” from Fasiculo de medicina by Johannes de Ketham,1493