The Zodiac Man and Medieval Surgery

Yesterday I wrote about a certain physician, John of Arderne, who wrote an amazingly forward-thinking text about how to perform a surgery on anal fistula. Unique for his time in the 1300s, he emphasized the importance of hygiene and correct methods to prevent blood loss during the painful operation. Lest you think that anyone, even the best of medics, was able to operate outside his own particular culture and era, I wanted to also show you this illustration from one of Arderne’s works: this is Zodiac Man.

You can see an even prettier rendition in the next image (from the 14th century), but the zodiac man was a commonplace depiction in medical writings of the Medieval period. In it, parts of a human body are connected with various astrological signs. For instance, the chest was usually associated with the sign of Cancer; Leo went with the stomach; Aries was attached to the eyes, etc . . . .

Physicians and surgeons used these zodiac men to guide their operations. For instance, if the moon was in the sign of the body part associated with a certain astronomical sign, then doctors thought that surgery should be avoided. Surgeon-barbers’ could look up to see whether the moon was in a certain zodiac sign by consulting a rotating calendar called a volvelle (see third photo, dating from 15th c).

So John of Arderne might have been the most accomplished medic of his day . . . But he was still of his day.