The Zodiacal Miniature of the Trs Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry: Its Sources and Meaning Author(s):

Harry Bober Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 11 (1948), pp. 1-34 Published by: The Warburg Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/750460 . Accessed: 12/09/2011 11:48
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THE ZODIACAL MINIATURE OF THE TRJS RICHES HEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY-ITS SOURCES AND MEANING By Harry Bober
Dedicated to the Memory of Fritz Saxl

he exquisitely illuminated Tris richesHeuresof the Duke of Berry, left incomplete by the brothers Limbourg at the death of the Duke in I416, contains an intriguing miniature showing two figures standing back to back

published his monumental work on this manuscript, the interpretation of the miniature was still a complete mystery concerning which the author could only offer a series of questions :'
Comment les Tres riches Heures constituent-elles ainsi parmi les manuscrits un exemple unique? Comment l'image de 'l'homme anatomique,' s'y est-elle glissee? Est-ce un temoignage du grand credit dont les astrologues ... ont joui aupres du roi Charles V et de ses freres? A-t-elle 6te inspir6e par un des manuscrits qui se trouvaient dans la bibliotheque du duc Jean? Comment plus tard, une image analogue a-t-elle fait fortune 'a Paris pour les livres d'heures imprimes? " resoudre; nous nous bornons Ily a la un tres interessant probleime de bibliographie a le signaler aux chercheurs.

at the centre of a zodiacal mandorla (PI. I).

In I904, when M. Durrieu

Not only the fact of its presence in the manuscript, but also the unique iconography of this miniature attracted the attention of art historians and archaeologists. Many studies have been published since that of M. Durrieu, adding provocative questions and theories about various aspects of this unusual representation.2 The interpretation of the two figures in particular
The writer is indebted to his friend and teacher, Professor Erwin Panofsky, for inspiration, encouragement and generous help during frequent discussions of the problems involved in this article. He wishes also to express his appreciation to the BelgianAmerican Educational Foundation, N.Y., and especially to its President, Mr. Perrin C. Galpin, for having provided the opportunity to study in European libraries the manuscripts bearing on this research. To the late Professor Fritz Saxl, for his unqualified magnanimity in making accessible the rich resources of his photographic collection, for his keen and provocative criticism, and the privilege of presenting the substance of this work in a talk at the Warburg Institute, I wish to offer warm thanks. A preliminary study of this same material was presented as a lecture at the Graduate Fine Arts Club, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, in the spring of 1946. Among others whose help is here gratefully acknowledged, I wish also to thank M. Jean Adhemar, Miss Gertrude L. Annan, Dr. Curt F. Biihler, Mr. H. Creswick, Mrs. Estelle Fields, Miss Meta P. Harrsen, Mr. Bernard Karpel, Dr. Karl Lehmann, M. Jean Porcher, Dr. Guido Schoenberger, and Mr. Francis Wormald. [In citing manuscripts, the verso of a folio is indicated by a stroke after the f. number (e.g., f. 8'), the recto, by the number alone.] 1 Paul Durrieu, Les Tres riches Heures de Jean de France, Duc de Btrry, P1. XIII, and pp. 29-30. 2Fernand de M6ly, "Les 'Tres riches Heures' du Duc de Berry et les 'Trois Graces' de Sienne," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Paris, LIV, 19122, pp. 195-201 .-Idem, Les Primitifs et leurs Signatures, Les Miniaturistes, Paris, 1913, p. i88 ff.-W. Deonna, "A propos de quelques articles recents," Revue Arche'ologique, Paris, 4e ser., XXI, 1913, PP- 307-I I.-Idem,

HARRY

BOBER

has been especially favoured as a subject of most intensive research and some of the most ingenious hypotheses. Historians of astrology and medicine have been drawn to this miniature, reproducing it frequently and adding their observations.' One eminent psychologist has pondered over it too, and brought forth an interesting theory as to its meaning.2 Almost no detail has escaped notice and yet, upon reviewing all the interpretations offered, one still feels that in some of its essential aspects, and therefore too in its totality, the riddle remains but imperfectly solved. Least convincing are the suggested explanations of the two principal figures. The present writer believes that they may be reasonably interpreted in terms of late mediaeval medical doctrine and offers evidence in detail in the pages which follow. The manuscripts adduced in the elucidation of this hypothesis also provide material for a consistent and coherent derivation of the elements which constitute the elusive miniature, singly considered or in their total configuration. In the course of this analysis it will be necessary to retrace certain aspects of astrological and medical history well known to the specialists in these fields. The frontal figure of the Limbourg miniature recalls an image familiar to most people in one guise or another, and illustrates the doctrine of the domination of the twelve signs of the zodiac over the anatomical regions indicated, beginning with Aries for the head, Taurus the neck, Gemini the shoulders and arms, and so on in sequence down to Pisces for the feet. The system, evidently a Hellenistic inheritance,3 was already standardized by the
"L'Homme Astrologique des 'Tres riches Heures' du Duc de Berry," Revue de l'histoire des religions, Paris, LXIX, I914, pp. 182-93. -Franz Cumont, "Astrologica," RevueArchiologique, Paris, 5e str., III, I916, pp. I-I I. The earliest references to this illustration are: Gustave F. Waagen, Galleries and Cabinets of Art in GreatBritain, London, 1857, p. 254.-Eugene Mtintz, "Notice sur un plan inedit de Rome," Gazette Arche'ologique,Paris, X, 1885, p. 172. Notices, descriptions and mention of the illustration are also to be found in: Chantilly, Le Cabinet des Livres (Institut de France, Musde' Condi), introd. by H. d'Orleans, Paris, I900, Principaux Manuscrits & Peintures du Musie' Condi a Chantilly, Paris (S.F.R.M.P.), 1930, Boll and Carl notice 3o, p. 59 ff.-Franz Bezold, Sternglaubeund Sterndeutung(3rd ed.), Leipzig and Berlin, 1926, p. 137.--Henri Malo, Les Tres riches Heures du Duc de Berry, Paris, 1933, P. 15, and fig. on p. 37.-Unfortunately this miniature was not included in the colour facsimile reproduction of the calendar edited by M. Malo in Verve, Paris, No. 7, 1940.--Jean Adhemar, Influences Antiques dans l'art du Moyen Age franfais (Studies of the Warburg Institute, No. 7), London, 1939, p. 301, n. .--Jean Seznec, La survivance des dieux antiques (Studies of the Warburg Institute, No. I ), London, 1940, pp. 63-41 Karl Sudhoff, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Chirurgieim Mittelalter (Studien zur Geschichte der Medizin, X), Leipzig, 1914, p. 206 and P1. LVIII, 2 (hereafter referred to as Studien article in Aesculape (Revue Mensuelle X).-An Illustrie des Lettres et des Arts dans leur rapports avec les sciences et la medecine), Paris, N.S., XVII, 1927, p. 264, entitled "Une Image des 'Tres riches Heures' du Duc de Berry: repeats M. de Astrologique," l'Homme Mdly's theory and adds, incorrectly, that "Ici le dos se reflete en un miroir et nous avons deux images."-Dr. Benjamin Bord, "Six Images des Tres riches Heures du Due de Berry," Aesculape, N.S. XXII, 1932, pp. 283-5, also repeats M. de M6ly.-LaignelLavastine ed., Histoire Ginirale de la Midecine . , Paris, 1938, II, p. Ioo and ill. p. 97. 2C. G. Jung, Psychologie und Alchemie (Psychologische Abhandlungen, V), Ziirich, 1944, p. 414 and fig. 156. 3 A. Bouch&-Leclercq, L'Astrologie grecque, Cumont, Paris, 1899, PP- 76-7, 319-20.-F.

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Zodiac Man and Vein Man in Zodiac Circle, Tris riches Heures of the Duke of Berry, f. 14v, Musee Conde, Chantilly (p. I ff.)

THE TRPS RICHESHEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY

early years of the Christian era. Descriptions of the scheme are found throughout the Middle Ages, in astronomical, theological, philosophical and medical treatises and encyclopaedias. Several tracts on this general subject were to be found in the library of the Duke of Berry.1 With extraordinary persistence both text and, from the thirteenth century, illustrations, survive throughout the centuries to modern times. An image of this type is the common accomand the innumerable paniment of the popular astrological ephemerides
OF ANATOMY MAN'S BODY AS SAID TO BE GOVERNED THE TWELVECONSTELLATIONS. BY

Arms, L SGEMINI. Heart,

TheHeadandFace, ARIES. Neck,.

SLEO.
Reins, SLIBRA. Thighs, SSAGITTARIUS Legs, . AQUARIUS. The Feet, a PISCES.
Fig. I -Zodiac

TAURUS

Breast, CANCER. Bowels, & VIRGO. Secrets, SCORPIO. Knees, CAPRICORN.

Man from J. Baer's Sons Agricultural Almanac 1946, Lancaster, Pa.

illustrations makes it little wonder that, when confronted by one in the private prayer book of the Duke of Berry, it should strike the modern student as redolent of superstitious credence and spurious science. In the early years of Christianity, too, such figures were severely censurable, for their postulated predestination appeared inconsistent with the new faith. But the rejection by modern science is irrelevant and the disapprobation of the early Fathers not immediately pertinent to a historical appreciation of the meaning of such figures in the early fifteenth century where they represented the epitome of an exact "science," culminating centuries of practice of its peculiar techniques.
"Zodiacus," in C. Daremberg and E. Saglio, Paris, le 7 juin I403." The Trts riches Heures Dictionnaire des antiquitdsgrecqueset romains . . , is entered in this same inventory, item Io i, . V, p. 1059 ff.-Sudhoff, Paris, I877-I919, p. 179.-Cf. below, p. 17 and note 3.
duXXe siecle," Bulletin de la Socilti franfaise d'Histoire de la Midecine, Paris, X, I9I I, pp.

Farmer's Almanacs to-day (Fig.

I).2

The current dubious repute of such

StudienX, pp. 199-200oo.--EdmondLienard, 2Ernest Wickersheimer, "La Medecine "La M 0lothesiezodiacale dans l'antiquite," Astrologique dans les Almanachs Populaires
Revue de l'Universiti de Bruxelles, XXXIX, I933-34, PP. 471-85. 1 Leopold Delisle, Le Cabinet des Manuscrits de la Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, I88I, III, p. 185, item. 177, "Un petit livre d'astrologie

26-39.-Cf.

Paul Chacornac, ed., Almanach

les douze signes figures et les planettes, lequel on rectoof last page. 1'abbe de Bruges donna a monseigneur a

astrologique 1935, Paris, I1934, p. 24.-John Baer's Sons, Inc., Agricultural Almanac for the en latin, ouquel sont les quatre elemens et year of Our Lord, 1946, Lancaster, Pa., fig.

HARRY BOBER

The extant textual sources for the interrelations between zodiac and man may be traced back to the early first century of the Christian era, to the of Astronomicon Marcus Manilius in which the system is fully described in the
second book (chap. XI); . of also preserved in the mid-fourth century Astronomicon Julius Firmicus dominia. . ."2 Judging Maternus (II, xxvii); "Superhumano signorum corpore from the frequency and fervour with which the Church Fathers raged against astrology and astronomy, and in particular against the "doctrine of the twelve signs," it is remarkable that these texts did survive, but it is also indicative that popular preoccupation with these subjects must have been distressingly widespread.a At first the new religion was set at one pole, and any other cognizance of the heavens at the other.4 The doctrinal struggle was not lessened by the presence of numerous syncretist sects which reconciled Christianity with the old pagan cosmologies. It is largely from the denunciations of these "heresies" that we know some details of their beliefs.5 The late second century Clement of Alexandria quoted the Valentinian Theodotus as saying: "that the Apostles were substituted for the twelve signs of the zodiac, for, as birth is directed by them, so is rebirth directed by the Apostles."'6 The Gnostic Marcosian cosmology entailed a mystical numerical correlation with the zodiacal system, and the "Veritas" of Marcus was conceived as a nude figure with Greek letters distributed over her body, starting with A and n
Manilii Astronomicon, Venice, Aldus Manutius, Oct. I499, Lib. II, cap. xi, "De signis membris hominum attributis...." -See Sudhoff, Studien X, p. I99.-For texts and bibliography of Manilius, see George Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science (Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication No. 376), Baltimore, I927, I, pp. 237-8. 2 ulii Firmici Astronomicorum libri octo . . . , Venice, Aldus Manutius, June I499, Lib. II, text is quoted in Sudhoff, cap. xxvii.-The Studien X, p. 199.-See also Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, N.Y., I925, I, p. 525 ff. 3 Cf. E. Lienard, op. cit., p. 48I. 4 In the Liber de Idolatria (ix), Tertullian wrote, early in the third century, "non potest regna coelorum sperare, cuius digitus aut radius abutitur coelo" (Migne, Patrologia Latina, I (I844), col. 673). The author of the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitiones, of the first half of the same century, assails at length both astrologers and their beliefs, as the work of demons and a blasphemy against God. (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, New York, iv, I925, VIII, ch. iv, p. I85 ff.).-Matthew 24, in its mention of Christ's healing of the lunatic, reflects, in the use of the latter word,
1 Marcus

"Accipe divisas hominis per sidera partes .

.,"1 It is

the prevalent belief in the idea of lunar origin and influence in this disease. But Origen, in his Commentary on Matthew (c. 246-8 A.D.), seized upon such a "false" interpretation which would impute a malignant influence to the moon, for neither that light which God had appointed to "rule over the night," nor any of the stars for that matter, could possibly work evil. The affliction (lunacy), he explained most ingeniously, was caused by an impure spirit which observed the phases of the moon and timed his mischief accordingly, causing people to blame the evil on that "planet" and thus on God. (Migne, Patrologiae ... Series Graeca, XIII, col. I102 Thorndike, op. cit., I, Bk. II. ff.).-Cf. 5 Perhaps the most thoroughgoing denunciation is found in the Philosophumena of Hippolytus (d. c. 230 A.D.) who rejects not only the manifestly pagan and gnostic systems, but also astronomy, naming Ptolemy and his followers as men toiling vainly in The (See Hippolytus, misguided efforts. Refutation of All Heresies, in the Ante-Nicene Fathers, V.). 6 Titus Flavius Clemens, The Excerpta ex Theodotoof Clementof Alexandria, ed. with text, notes and trans. by Robert Pierce Casey, London, I934, frag. 25. 2.

THE

TRES RICHES HEURES OF THE DUKE

OF BERRY

on her head, B and ? on her neck, and so forth down to her feet.1 The heretical Priscillian retains the zodiacal doctrine, saying that just as the bodily members may be assigned to the twelve constellations of the zodiac, so the human soul is related to the twelve patriarchs.2 Although most of the Fathers joined the fray against alleged zodiacal influence, some sought by allegory to assimilate it to the new Christianity.- A strong and seemingly final proscription was pronounced in the council of Braga (563 A.D.): "Si quis duodecim signa quae mathematici observaresolunt, per singula animae vel corporis membradisposita creduntet nominibus patriarchumadscriptadicunt, anathemasit."'4 The more patent superstitious astrological practices such as necromancy, hydromancy and related systems of divination received fairly consistent condemnation from official clerical quarters, but astrology had been too deeply ingrained in the body of "scientific" knowledge to be long held in disfavour and there emerged slowly, even from those who had condemned it, admissions of various aspects of the old pagan doctrine.5 This may be observed, for example, in a third-century letter of Origen,6 and in the fourth-century Hexameron of Basil.' By the sixth century, astronomy is allowed its place
1 Hippolytus, op. cit., Book VI, chap. xxxix, p. 94.-Cf. Gonzague Truc, "L'hdresie gnostique de Marcus," in Revue des Ides, VII, 1910 pp. 404-36. o, 2St. Augustine, De Haeresibus ad Quodvultdeum, Liber Unus, cap. LXX (Migne, P.L., XLII, col. 44): "-. . astruunt etiam fatalibus stellis homines colligatos, ipsumque corpus nostrum secundum duodecim signa coeli esse compositum, sicut qui mathematici vulgo appellantur; constituentes in capite Arietem, Taurum in cervice, Geminos in humeris, Cancrum in pectore, et caetera nominatim signa percurrentes, ad plantas usque perveniunt, quas Piscibus tribuunt, quod ultimum signum ab astrologis nuncupatur. Haec et alia fabulosa, vana, sacrilega, quae persequi longum est, haeresis, ista contexit." See also Orosius (Migne, P.L., XLI, col. 667), quoted in E. Lidnard, op. cit., p. 48I. 3 St. Philastrius, fourth century Bishop of Brescia, in the Liber de Haeresibus, Cap. CXXIII (Migne, P.L., XII, cols. I248-9), discusses the false belief in the system of between the zodiac and correspondence parts of the earth, seasons, qualities and temperaments. The popularity of genethliac astrology is reflected in one of a series of tracts of St. Zeno (d. 371 A.D.), addressed Ad neophytos post baptisma, IV, De duodecimSignis (II, 43). The neophytes, reborn in baptism, apparently required an interpretation of this new birth in terms of the horoscope, a need which to them did not appear inconsistent with their new faith. St. Zeno therefore offered them an allegorized Christian horoscope where instead of Aries they now had the Lamb of God, in place of Taurus, Christ as the gentle calf, and so on. Virgo, of course, became the Virgin Mary, and Libra an allusion to the justice which Christ brought to mankind. (Migne, P.L., XI, cols. 492-6). -A similar allegory, somewhat enlarged, is offered in the twelfth-century Liber de Creaturisof Philip of Thaon (Thomas Wright, Popular Treatises on Science written during the Middle Ages . . , London, 1841, p. 39 ff.)Cf. Seznec, op. cit., pp. 41-4, and p. 50, n. i. 4 Cumont, Rev. Arch., p. 6. 5 Seznec, op. cit., p. 44 ff.-Cf. Thorndike, op. cit., I, ch. xxi, "Christianity and Natural Science," p. 480: "the opposition of Early Christianity to natural science has been rather unduly exaggerated." 6 Origen (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, IX, p. 295), in a letter of c. 235 A.D., to the recently converted Gregory of Neocaesarea, "And I would wish that you should take with you on the one hand those parts of the philosophy of the Greeks which are fit, as it were, to serve as general preparatory studies for Christianity, and on the other hand, so much geometry and astronomy as may be helpful for the interpretation of the Holy Scripture." (Migne, P.G., XI, col. 37.)-Cf. Thorndike, op. cit., I, pp. 456-7. 7 Migne, P.G., XXIX, cols. 142-3.-Cf. Thorndike, op. cit., I, p. 48I ff., and pp. 492-3 where Homily VI, io is quoted, dealing with the pervasive influence of the moon on all living things, which was almost a maxim of mediaeval astrology.

HARRY

BOBER

set Ratione, also commonly known as the Computus, a pattern for the tremendous of computi, composed by churchmen throughout the Latin world production and used not only for instruction but primarily for the preparation of the These computi set forth general astronomical data ecclesiastical calendars.6 the planets and constellations, their characteristics, movements concerning and interrelations, and especially on the sun and moon as bearing on the calendar and the determination of dates of movable feast days. Beyond these basic requirements the content was not absolutely fixed and so they often include meteorological data on the winds, rains and thunder, as well as
1Migne, P.L., LXX, cols. 1216-19. Among the many uses of astronomy he finds (col. "Is etiam, et canones quibus cursus, 1218), astrorum inveniantur instituit: ex quibus, ut mihi videtur, climata forsitan nosse, horarium spatia comprehendere, lunae cursum pro inquisitione paschali . . ." 2 Isidorus, Etymologiae, Lib. III, De Astronomia, cap. xxvii, De differentia astronomiaeet col. astrologiae. (Migne, P.L., LXXXII, Thorndike, op. cit., I, p. 632 ff.) 169 ff.-Cf. 3 Charles W. Jones, "The Victorian and Dionysiac Paschal Tables in the West," Mass., IX, Speculum, Cambridge, 1934, p. 408 ff. 4 Wilhelm Levison, "Bede as Historian," in Bede, His Life, Times and Writings, ed. by A. Hamilton Thompson, Oxford, I935, pp. See p. I 3 on the Paschal controS110-51. versy. 5 Bede, De Natura Rerum (Migne, P.L., XC, col. I87 ff.), De TemporumRatione (Ibid., col. 293 ff.), De Ratione Computi(Ibid., col. 579 f.), Computus Vulgaris,. . (Ibid., col. 727 ff.). Cf. M. L. W. Laistner, A Hand List of Bede W. Manuscripts, Ithica, N.Y., 1943.-C. Jones, Bedas Opera de Temporibus, Cambridge, Bede's own computistic Mass., 1944.-Of texts at least I125 manuscripts of De Natura Rerum, 65 of De TemporibusLiber, and 135 of De TemporumRatione are known, dating from The the ninth into the fifteenth century. pseudo-Bedeian manuscripts often copy and imitate the master so closely as to make the

imitated and elaborated in the centuries following.5 Bede's De Temporum

distinguished not only between astronomy and astrology, but found it necesThe sary to qualify astrology as partly "natural" and partly "superstitious."2 cumulative confusion in the Paschal controversy could only be resolved by standardized calendrical techniques and uniform tables.3 Thus it was the Venerable Bede who, in composing clear workable computistic treatises and extensive tables, established, with unshakable finality, the importance of astronomy to the Church.4 His texts became the indispensable standard for the calculation of Easter and other movable feasts, and were copied, recopied,

Isidorus among the seven liberal arts by Cassiodorus.1 In the Etymologiae,

problem of attribution one of lively debate. The astronomical interest of the Carolingian schools, encouraged by Charlemagne and guided by Alcuin, owes a considerable debt to Bede, which may be recognized in Alcuin's own treatise "De cursu et salta lunae" (Migne, P.L., CI, cols. 979-1000), and in his letters to the Emperor (cf. Migne, P.L., C, letter From this time on, LXXXV, cols. 278-81). kings, bishops, and councils explicitly recommend the study of astronomy to the clergy (Thorndike, op. cit., I, p. 762). 6 Cf. the excellent summary of the computists in Charles H. Haskins, Studies in the History of Medieval Science, Cambridge, Mass., 2nd ed., 1927, pp. 83-7, 290-I, p. I13 ff., and J. Fordyce, "A rhythmical 336 ff.-C. version of Bede's De Ratione Temporum," in Archivium Latinitatis Medii Aevi (Union Acadimique Internationale, Bulletin DuCange), Paris, III, 1927, pp. 59-73.-T. Wright, op. cit., p. 7 ff., gives the text of a late tenthcentury Anglo-Saxon version which begins: "I would eke if I durst pick some little information out of the book which Bede the skilful master formed."-See George Sarton, op. cit., II, 1931, p. 992 ff. and indices.-Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin, Cambridge, Mass, 1937, under "Computus." -See also, M. Manitius, Geschichteder lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, Munich, 19I 11923, indices.

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TRPS RICHES HEURES OF THE DUKE

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general hygienic instruction so far as it is affected by the calendar, notably in the relation of the zodiac to the body of man for bleeding, purgation and bathing. There is no evidence that this latter application of the doctrine of the signs was other than acceptable practical information to churchman and layman. A final instance to show how normal and commonplace was this science may be found in the extremely popular mediaeval encyclopaedia of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, an outstanding thirteenth-century theologian, in whose De ProprietatibusRerum the same system is presented.1 It appears therefore that the tenets of the system underlying the use of the zodiacal figure in the Trds riches Heures derive from conventionalized canons of mediaeval natural science which, though at first hesitantly admitted by the Church, eventually became the entrenched conservative science which lagged anachronistically after the Copernican disproval of the old astronomy upon which it had been predicated. However extraordinary the presence of such an illustration in a manuscript Book of Hours might seem, it is not an entirely capricious intrusion but a logically related aspect of calendrical data which had already been used so often in the ecclesiastical computus. For whatever reasons, it was simply not customary to use such an illustration in the manuscript book of private devotion, but certainly there was neither "scientific" nor religious objection to it and such schemes could even be placed at the beginning of the calendar of the liturgically correct Breviary.2 "Homo Signorum": Medical Application The survival of this particular aspect of the doctrine of the twelve signs should not be credited to any fortuitous embodiment in astro-literature, where it might have been carried along by the currents of renewed interest in astronomy as the early zealous attacks subsided. It belonged specifically to a body of medical doctrine whose reason and orderliness, for the mediaeval man of learning, was of the same high order as his computistic science, in fact a branch of the latter.3 When viewed against the background of the "madI Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Le proprietaire des choses . . . , Lyons, Jehan Dymantier, April 17, I500oo.-Cf. Batman vpponBartholome, his booke De proprietatibus rerum, London, Thomas East, 1582, and list of printed editions of Bartholomaeus in Avenir Tchemerzine, Bibliographie d'ouvrages sur les sciences et les arts iditis au XVe et au XVIe siecles, Courbevoie (Seine), II, I933, p. 39 f. 2An unpublished Breviary in the Grand Seminaire of Tournai contains obituary notes in the calendar for the years I484 and 1485, suggesting a terminusconsistent with the general character of the manuscript which appears to date in the third quarter of the The calendar is preceded by a century. circular diagram divided into twelve sectors, each containing the name of one zodiacal sign together with the anatomical part which it governs. Above and below the circle is a

table of the signs in the trigone grouping. On the versoof this leaf is a "Tabula signorum." While this instance is rare for a Breviary, unique to my knowledge, this schematic diagram, too, may be derived from a Computus. For example, a similar scheme of this diagrammatic character is found in an early 14th century Computus, containing calendars and tables of Peter of Dacia and Gerlandus (Oxford, Ashmole MS. No. 360, VIII, f. 159' --described in the catalogue of William H. Black, A Descriptive, Analytical and Critical Catalogue of the Manuscripts Bequeathedunto the University of Oxford by Elias Ashmole . . . , Oxford, I845, pp. 275-6). 3 Lynn Thorndike, Science and Thought in the Fifteenth Century, New York, 1929, ch. II, "Medicine versus Law at Florence," discusses an interesting series of polemic treatises which debate the relative aspects of superi-

HARRY BOBER

medicine" of charmed potions, hell-broths and magical incantations, the prevalentpopular medicationof the early and even the later middle ages,' this astrologicalmedicine presentsan aspect of most preciselyco-ordinated and sound knowledge, founded upon an accurately determined and predictable orderof the heavens. The basic principlesof this mediaeval"scienheld tific" medicine,2stemming directly from late classical formulations,3 that: (a) man the microcosm,like the macrocosm,is composed of four primary elements (earth, air, fire and water), and qualities (heat, cold, nature and peculiartemperamoistnessand dryness);4 (b) his characteristic ment (Sanguine, Choleric, Phlegmatic or Melancholic) results from the predominanceof one of his four constituentvital fluids (blood, yellow bile, phlegm and black bile), compoundedof the four elements;5(c) his entire in physical make-upcorresponds a dependentand sympatheticrelationship to the celestial spheres,the zodiac (outermostbelt), governinghis external anatomy, and the planets (the inner circles), dominating the viscera, or inner organs; (d) of all the planets, the moon, closest to the centre of this fluids influenceon the terrestrial scheme,has a preponderant anthropocentric (viz., the tides); and in man, causes increase or decrease of the humoral fluids: La lune donne croissancea toutes humeursainsicommeil appert des os
ority of Medicine v. Law. One of the cogent Incunabula Medica, Oxford, I923 (Illustrated arguments for medicine was that it was Monographs of the Bibliographical Society, founded on immutable nature as compared No. see Introduction.-Charles XIX), with endlessly changing law. In one of these Singer, The Evolution of Anatomy, London, treatises, dated I415, the physician praises 1925, p. 27 ff.-Maurice Rollet, Mddecins medicine as a science second only to theology: Astrologues (These pour le doctorat en "Since the fall of our first parent," he says, m6decine, No. io09, Faculte de M6decine de "seven continual wars have gone on within Paris), Paris, 191o0. man without hope of peace, but a remedy 3 Cf. Bouch&-Leclercq, op. cit., ch. XV, has been divinely provided in each case. The "La Medecine Astrologique," p. 517 f. first war is between reason and the senses, and 4 Cf. Bede, De TemporumRatione, XXXV its remedy found in theology, which therefore (Migne, P.L., XC, col. 457, "de quatuor ranks as first and foremost of the sciences. temporibus, elementis, humoribus . . ." and The second war is caused by conflicting col. 458: "Se et homo ipse, qui a sapientibus states of the humours and members of the microcosmos, id est, minor mundus appelatur, human body, by the influences of the stars iisdem per omnia qualitatibus habet temperand the contrarieties of the elements, the atum corpus, imitantibus nimirum singulis contrary properties of things growing in the iis, quibus constat humoribus, modum temearth, and the venomous disposition of porum quibus maxime pollet ... ."). 5 An excellent art-historical discussion of the animals: all of which vex the human body For these afflictions the di- temperaments-theory with emphasis on the continually. vinely constituted remedy is medicine, which melancholic will appear in the revised (Engtherefore ranks second after theology." lish) edition of E. Panofsky and F. Saxl, Diirers Kupferstich "Melancolia I"; Eine quellen-und (Thorndike, op. cit., pp. 46, 56.) 1 Thorndike, A History of Magic . . . , I, typengeschichtliche Untersuchung (Studien der ch. XXXI, also, Idem, Bibliothek Warburg II), Leipzig and Berlin, pp. 719-41.-See Medical Life, I923. I was privileged to read the proofs of and Medicine," "Magic the revised edition through the kindness of XXXVI, 1929, pp. 148-55. Erwin Panofsky, Al2Cf. Arturo Castiglioni, A History of Medi- Professor Panofsky.-Cf. cine (tr. by E. B. Krumbhaar), New York, brecht Darer, Princeton, 1943, I, pp. 157-8. William Osler, 1941, ch. XIV-XV.-Sir

THE TRS

RICHES HEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY

qui sont plus plains des humeurs quant elle est plaine que en aultre temps et ainsi est il des aultres humeurs du corps . . . Et pource le phisicien qui ne congnoist les ceuures de la lune en corps humain ne peult parfaictement mettre difference entre les mutations des
maladies. 1x

Thus the science of man could be, and was, geared to the regular order of the universe and elaborate correlations between their mutual components were deduced.2 The pathology consequent upon these general principles regarded illness primarily in terms of disruption of a person's given humoral balance.3 Ordinary hygiene called for the preservation of a man's peculiar humoral composition, while medical treatment necessitated the correction of their balance, once disturbed by extreme fluctuations. This could be done in various ways:
Against these severall humors overflowing, As severall kinds of physicke may be good, As diet, drinke, hot baths, whence sweat is growing, With purging, vomiting, and letting bloud: Which taken in due time, not overflowing, Each malladies infection is withstood. The last of these is best, if skill and reason, Respect age, strength, quantity and season. Of seventy from seventeene, if bloud abound, The opening of a veine is healthful sound.4

Such cures by purgation are amusingly proposed by the punning, early nineteenth-century Oxford physician, Dr. Lettsom:
When any sick to me apply, I physicks, bleeds and sweats 'em; If after that they choose to die, What's that to me, I. Lettsom.5
1 Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Le proprietaire, Livre VIII, cha. XXIX, "De la Lune."-On the moon in medicine see P. Saintyves (pseud. of Emile Nourry), L'Astrologie Populaire itudiee spicialement dans les doctrineset les traditions relatives a l'influencede la lune, Paris, I 937, esp. ch. IV, pp. 127-I48.-Idem, "L'enseignement des Almanachs du XVe au XXe siecles sur l'influence de la lune," Hippocrate, Paris, IV, I936, pp. 256-66, 330-43. Theories of general lunar influence on earth are part of a deep-rooted farm lore, governing planting, etc., and already found in Hesiod's Works and Days (see Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns and Homerica, ed. and trans. by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, London, and Cambridge, Mass., I943, in the Loeb Classical Library, pp. 6o-i). In the modern farmer's Almanac it flourishes unabated. Cf. John Baer's Sons Inc., Agricultural Almanac, i3ist year (1946), Lancaster, Pa., p. I5: "The time to plant the garden is when the earth is in a good sign, and the day to plant is when the moon is in the sign . . . The hair should be cut on the increase of the moon if you want a thick head of hair; on the decrease if the reverse. The same applies to sheep. ." .... 2 See Wickersheimer, Bull. Soc. fr. Hist. Mid., X, where a variety of such diagrams are reproduced. 3 Isidorus, Etymologiae, Lib. IV, De Medi-

cina, cap. V, De quatuorhumoribus corporis;

"Morbi autem omnes ex quatuor nascuntur humoribus . . ." (Migne, P.L., LXXXII, col. I84).4Francis R. Packard and Fielding H.

Sanitatis Salernitanum (the English version by Sir John Harington, history of the school, and a note on the prehistory of the Regimen Sanitatis), New York, 1920, p. 147. 5 R. T. Gunther, Early Science in Oxford, Oxford, 1925, p. 19.

Garrison, The School of Salernum,Regimen

0o

HARRY BOBER

In modern practice the application of phlebotomy is quite limited,' and its efficacy debated, but for the Middle Ages it was the most common operation in preventive as well as curative medicine, and understandably so, for it was believed that:
Of bleeding many profits grow and great, The spirits and senses are renewed thereby: . . . By bleeding, to the marrow commeth heat, It maketh cleane your braine, relieves your eye, It mends your appetite, restoreth sleepe, Correcting humours that do waking keepe: All inward parts and senses also clearing, It mends the voyce, touch, smell and taste and hearing.2

But it could not be indiscriminately applied wherever or whenever desired. Several considerations guided the most effective application of this technique, such as the age and strength of the patient, his blood supply, and certain astronomical factors. The relation of the moon to the sign governing the affected part had to be ascertained for it was said to be dangerous, if not fatal, to treat that member if the moon was in its sign at the time. The ever-present slogan accompanying texts of phlebotomy warns that neither knife nor medication may be applied to the afflicted member if the moon is in the sign governing the said organ. This maxim of astrological medicine can be traced back without interruption to the Centiloquium,3a pseudo-Ptolemaic work of the early centuries of the Christian era, which had coined pithy medical doctrine (after the fashion of the Hippocratic aphorisms) the authority of which was widely credited in the early and late Middle Ages. Whereas this basic moonin-signs principle was the universally accepted guide to the mediaeval phlebotomist, numerous other restrictions affected the practice, but these varied at different times and in the separate regions. But it was agreed that certain days or months were categorically unfavourable, or favourable, to blood-letting.4 For example:
Three speciall months (September, April, May) There are, in which 'tis good to ope a veine; In those three months the moone bears greatest sway, Then old or young that store of bloud containe, May bleed now, though some elder wizards say Some dayes are ill in these, I hold it vaine:
1 Sir William Osler, The Principles and Practice Medicine,New York, 6th ed., 1907, of p. I90, still recommends in cases of lobar

pneumonia, that "to bleed at the very onset in robust, healthy individuals in whom the disease sets in with great intensity and high
fever is . . . a good practice."

Firmici Materni . . . Astronomicon), Basle, Johann Herwagen, 1551, sentence No. 20o.

2 Packard and Garrison, op. cit., p. 148. 3 Claudius Ptolemy Centiloquium (in Iulii

One of the few diseases for which bloodletting is still the generally accepted practice is polycythemia (excessive development of red blood corpuscles); cf. M. Fishbein, ed., Modem Home Medical Adviser, New York,
1942, p. 478.

"Memnbrum ferro ne percutio, cum luna signum tenuerit, quod membro illi dominatur."-Cf. Karl Sudhoff, "Iatromathematiker vornehmlich im 15. und I6. Jahrhundert," Abhandlungenzur Geschichteder Medizin, II, 1902, p. 7 ff.-Thorndike, Hist.
of Magic, I, p. i ii.
4

Cf. Osler, Incunabula Medica,p. 6 ff.

THE TRES RICHES HEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY September, April, May, have dayes a peece, That bleeding do forbid, and eating geese, Of those are they forsooth of May the first, Of other two, the last of each are worst.1

II

English monastic practice, for instance, called for bleeding in February, April, September and October, but prohibited it for Harvest, Advent, Lent, and the three days following Christmas, Easter and Pentecost.2 According to one popular formulation, for each person, according to his temperament, there were three times especially favourable:
Quant la lune est en aries, leo et sagitarius, II fait bon saigner au colerique.
....3

So, for everyday knowledge concerning this most common operation, tables of reference were needed and the incorporation of such data in the ecclesiwas a practical necessity. Nor is it an accident that one of astical computus the most characteristic products of the first century of printing in Germany is the Aderlasskalender, extant in such great numbers.4 The practice of phlebotomy became the subject of civic concern, causing local and national statutes to be proclaimed requiring the doctor to consult such almanacs before cutting a vein, thus protecting the public from his, or even their own, excessive enthusiasm for this therapy, while also assuring its most "scientific" application.5 A law of I400, in Carcassonne, permits the practice only in a favourable moon.6 A royal ordinance of Louis XI, in I465, requires physi1 Packard and in Archivfar Geschichteder Medizin, Leipzig, I, Garrison, op. cit., p. 149. 2Dr. Conrad Brunner, Ober Medizin und 1908, pp. 219-88. Krankenpflegeim Mittelalter in Schweizerischen 5 Cf. Saul Jarcho, "Guide for Physicians

Ordonnances Rois de France de la Troisieme des 60 Secousse, Paris, 1750, VIII, 2/3), Leipzig, I908, sec. H: Aderlass- pp. 399-405. Charles VI, at Paris, December kalender und Verwandtes.-Idem, "Lass- 9, 1400oo, "Confirmation des statuts des tafelkunst in Drucken des 15. Jahrhunderts," Barbiers du Bourg de Carcassonne," article

Landen (Veroffentlichungen der Schweizer- (Musar Harofim) by Isaac Judaeus (88o?ischen Gesellschaft fir Geschichte der Medi- 932?), Translated from the Hebrew, with zin und Naturwissenschaften, I), Zuirich, Introduction," Bulletin of the History of Medi1922, p. 19 ff., and pp. 38-47, quotes in cine, XV, 1944, p. 187, where the following extenso a tenth-century monastic rule on revealing section from Isaac Judaeus (No. 47) Osler, Incunabula Medica, is quoted: "It is a foolish and widespread cusblood-letting.-Cf. pp. 11-13.-Cardinal F. A. Gasquet, English tom that the sons of mankind band together Monastic Life (The Antiquary's Books, ed. and go to have their blood drawn, even if they by J. Charles Fox), London, 6th ed., 1924, need not. One tells the other that a certain pp. 88-90.-Saintyves (Nourry), L'Astrologie day is good for blood-letting, and that all who are phlebotomized on that day are safe Populaire, p. 290 ff. 3 This is the formula which is used with from a certain disease. And so they gather the astrological illustration in the printed by the hundreds at the house of the bloodBooks of Hours, to be found in almost any letter. After he draws their blood he tells of the Horae printed by Philippe Pigouchet, them, in order to obtain an additional fee, Thielman Kerver, etc.-See Paul Lacombe, that he sees by their blood that they will Livres d'Heures Imprime'sau XVe et au XVIe need another blood-letting. And the fools return to the phlebotomist as before, until sidcle, Paris, 1907, pp. li-lii. 4 Paul Heitz and Konrad Haebler, Hun- the blood has poured into his receptacles, dert Kalender-Inkunabeln, Strassburg, 1905.which are carried away full."
K. Sudhoff, Deutsche medizinische Inkunabeln

(Studien zur Geschichte der Medizin, Heft Race, ed.

12

HARRY BOBER

cians, barbers and surgeons to possessthe current almanac or calendar.-' In the same year the Guild of Cosmas and Damian in Gorcum, Holland, forbids the practice except on days expressly indicated as favourable.2 In 1476, the doctors' examination in Beaune requires that the candidate should know when to bleed, and when not, as well as the location of the veins.3 Therefore, conditioned by so many calendrical considerations, the mediaeval practitioner had constant recourse to the changing tables of the moon, signs and planets, which could not be memorized and without which strictly correct treatment would have been impossible. When the system was at its very best, by the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, exact calculations by means of precision instruments with fine calibrations, similar to those of the astronomer or navigator, were employed in the determination of data preliminary to medical treatment (P1. 7a, b).4 This applied not only to blood-letting but to other widespread practices of general medicine and hygiene as well, particularly purgation, bathing, medication and surgery. Prognosis and treatment depended on the humoral constitution of the patient, the day of the moon at the commencement of the malady, and the relation of that "planet" to the sign of the ailing member. The predictability of the macrocosm provided the basis of order in the excogitation of the disorders in man, the microcosm.5 "Logical deduction of diagnoses and remedies
3 (P- 401): "Que d'ici en avant aucun Barbier ni Barbiere, garqon ou gargons, n'entreprennent de saigner aucune personne quelle qu'elle soit, sinon en bonne Lune, ou bien en cas de necessit6, comme pour chfites, qu'aucun n'ose tenir devant sa maison ni aux environs pour saigner aux jours auxquels ou la Lune ne seroit pas bonne, des &6cuelles autres ustensiles pour saigner ...." 1 Ordonnances RoisdeFrancedela Troisieme des Race, ed. M. le Comte de Pastoret, Paris, 1814, XVI, pp. 467-71. Louis XI at Orleans, March I465, article 18 (p. 470): "Pour le bien de la chose publicque et pour pourvoir a la sante du corps humain, sera tenu nostredict premier barbier de bailler a tous les barbiers de nostredict royaulme tenans ouvrouer la coppie de l'armenat (l'almanach), faict de l'anne . 2Cited .." M. A. Van Andel in "De Aderby lating in Theorie en Practijk," in Bijdragen der tot de Geschiedenis Geneeskunde, Amsterdam, 1932, XII, p. 236; "van 8 November, 1465, van het Gorcumsche COSMAS end DAMIANUS gilde wordt den gildenbroeders uitdrukkelijk verboden: pannen voor deur te zetten, tenzij dattet een getijkende dag is van goet aderlaten." 3 Ordonnances Roys de France. . . , 1828, des XVIII, p. 257, Louis XI at Arras, March 1476; "Confirmation des privilkges accordes aux Maitres Chirurgiens et Barbiers de la
ville de Beaune . . . Apres l'espreuve ainsi faicte, il sera examine lesdicts maistres sur le fait des saignees et cirurgies, savoir s'il scet l'art et le mesure de bien seigner, et la oii gisent les veines oi 1'on doit seigner, a quoy elles servent, et quant il fait bon seigner, et quant les seign~es sont necessaires et quant non, et en quel temps est bon pour seigner. Cf. R. T. Gunther, Early Science in Cambridge, Oxford, 1937, p. 246: "The education of the [pre-Reformation, Cambridge] Barbersurgeon did not need to be very profound. He had to learn the twenty points on the body where blood could be drawn from the veins, to learn the proper vein for each disease, and the proper hour of the day when phlebotomy should be performed according to the accepted Table of the signs of the Zodiac. His instruments were often limited to a single set of lancets in a case, and the wills of three Cambridge surgeons of the sixteenth century do not disclose much else of operative value." 4 A Physician's quadrant of the early fifteenth century is preserved at Merton R. T. Gunther, Early College, Oxford.-See Science in Oxford, Oxford, I923, II, p. 170oCf. below, p. 23. 5 This astrological health regimen survives to-day among the countless enthusiasts of

THE TRPS RICHESHEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY

13

from tables finally constituted the paramount method of the mediaeval physician."1 "HomoSignorum" Illustrations : The text of the zodiac and man, as found in Manilius and Firmicus Maternus, especially when considered together with the moon-in-signs warning of the Centiloquium, suggests the possibility that diagrams or pictorial of the scheme were known at the time, although none is now representations extant.2 A second-century Mithraic sculpture from Arles, showing signs distributed on a figure between the spirals of a serpent which entwines the body (P1. 2a), bears only a superficial relationship to that of the Homo for Signorum, the Mithraic figure is a divinity, Kronos, belonging to a religious cosmology.3 He signifies unending time, the serpent alluding to the course of the sun through the signs which are shown in groups of three, symbolizing the year. Similarly, a second-century work at the Museum in Modena, showing a winged being entwined by a serpent and framed by an oval belt of the zodiac, might seem to be an early prototype of the Limbourg miniature (P1. 2b).4 But again, the Modena relief represents a divinity, the Orphic Phanes, just born of the cosmic egg which is shown at his head and feet and suggested by the ovoid shape of the frame.5 Furthermore, there are no indicaastrology. Cf. Pamela C. Hugenot, "Health and Astrology," in Horoscope, New York, XIII, No. 7, July 1947, pp. I I, 2o: "Since all creative forces depend on the seasons, governed by the motion of the Sun and cycles of the Moon, it is perfectly logical to base our health conditions on the same planetary influences that brought us into being." To this is added the guiding moon-in-signs warnand as a final touch, the ing of the Centiloquium religious stamp: "When man looks to the signs in the heavens, God is revealed, and when God is revealed, man is healed."-Cf. Robert Eisler, The Royal Art of Astrology, where some London, 1946, ch. XXXI, interesting contemporary survivals of astromedicine are discussed, of which the most extraordinary evidence is furnished by the Encyclopediaof Medical Astrology, published in Los Angeles, and London, 1933, by a Dr. Howard Leslie Cornell (Honorary professor of Medical Astrology at the First National of Naturopathy and Allied University Sciences, Newark, N.J.). 1 Walter Pagel, "Prognosis and Diagnosis; A comparison of Ancient and Modern Medicine," Journal of the Warburg Institute, London, II, I938-9, p. 396. 2Boll and Bezold, op. cit., p. 136 ff., speaking of the Manilian text: "Das beweist doch dass der Dichter hier eine Darstellung vor Augen gehabt haben muss . . ."-Karl Sudhoff, introduction to The Fasciculus Medicinae of Johannes de Ketham, Facsimile of the First (Venetian) Edition of i49; (Monumenta Medica ed. by Henry E. Sigerist), trans. by Charles Singer, Milan, 1924, p. 55: "The male bloodletting figure was probably in use in later Alexandria as it has been handed down in Persian and Greek through Syrian sources." 3 Franz Textes et Monuments Cumont, aux Mysteres de Mithra, Brussels, Figurde's relatifs 1896, monument #281, II, p. 403 and fig. 325. -Cf. also note 4 below. 4 Idem, "Notice sur deux bas-reliefs Mithraiques," Revue Archdologique, Paris, XL, 1902, pp. I-1 3.-Robert Eisler, Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt, Munich, I910, II, p. 400 ff., and fig. 47.-Erwin Panofsky, Studies in Iconology, New York, 1939, p. 72 ff., and Plate XXII.-Cf. Cumont, Textes et Monuments. . . , II, p. 395, mon. 273. 5 Cf. for example, in The Pseudo-Clementine Literature (Ante-Nicene Fathers, VIII, I925, the Recognitiones,X, chap. xx, p. 197) the following passage on the Phanes: "The wise men, then, who are among the Gentiles, say that first of all things was chaos; that this, through a long time solidifying its outer parts, made bounds to itself and a sort of foundation, being gathered, as it were, into the manner and form of a huge egg, within which in the course of a long time, as within the shell of the egg, there was cherished and vivified a

14

HARRY BOBER

tions of interdependence between the bodily members and the constellations of the frame. The crux of the difference between such late antique figurations and the Homo Signorum lies in the fact that the former portray divinities, with and dominating their universe according to their respective integral pagan and mystical cosmologies.' The latter shows Man, whose figure has a specified dependent relation to that universe and is absolutely subordinate to it. In some of the mediaeval representationsthis idea is rendered explicitly by the accompanying legend "microcosmos" (P1. 4f). The distinction is borne out by the presence of wings, sceptre, thunderbolt, keys and other attributes of the gods in the antique works. The Zodiac Man holds, if anything, plant sprigs or flowers, the vegetable complement to the animal life of the microcosm (P1. 4e). But for an isolated instance late in the eleventh century, pictorial illustrations of the medical-astrological celestial and human correlation are not met with until the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.2 The exception is a drawing in a medical miscellany including works of Celsus, Galen and Hippocrates, which rudely depicts a compartmented zodiacal circle with a Christ-like Sol at the centre (P1. 3b).3 The compositional plan in general, as well as the bust-length central figure, follows a late classical tradition well represented in mosaics (cf. P1. 2d, e), ceiling decorations, sepulchral monuments (P1. 2g), and portable objects (P1. 2f).4 Judging from the manuscript, however, this is not an ordinary calendrical diagram but one of medical nature, as the writing which borders on the circle proves. The text under each sign relates it to the anatomical, area which it controls, in the canonical sequence from Ariesd[ominato]r frons hominis,through all the amusing, naively conceived conto the fanciful Pisces who dominates the feet. Later examples of the stellations, circular scheme have in common with it only the radial plan and, in one case, the bordering text as well (P1. 3a, c, d). Otherwise the difference lies principally in the substitution of the figure of a man at the centre, and connecting lines to indicate the interrelation between the signs, planets and
tion of the outer parts of chaos was formed a huge egg, and from it came forth this figure, called 'Phanetas,' the source of creation of the heavens and earth." 1 Cf. F. Cumont, "Zodiacus," in Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire . . ., V, 1912, Fig. 7588 (p. 1049), bust of Serapis surrounded by zodiac; Fig. 7597 (p. I057), Zeus surrounded by zodiac; Fig. 7598 (p. 1057), Pan certain animal; and . . . from the solidifica-

surrounded by zodiac, etc.-W.

(Rev. Arch.,
4e

Deonna

finds in the Chantilly zodiac a confirmation of his interpretation of a little gold statuette in the Geneva Museum as a solar divinity, symbolizing the world. But the Geneva and does not bear upon the figure is planetary, Manilian zodiacal harmony of the Limbourg Imagosignorum, except in such a broad sense as to be useless in determination of the essential distinctions within the general category

ser., XXI,

1913, PP. 307-I1)

of zodiacal and planetary figures.-For the Mithraic works of this class, in addition to Cumont, see Fritz Saxl, Mithras, Typengeschichtliche Berlin, I93I. Untersuchungen, 2 Ernest Wickersheimer, "Figures M6dicoAstrologiques des IXe, Xe, et XIje si&cles," in Janus (Archives Internationales pour 1'Histoirede la M6decine.. .), Leyden, XIX, 1914, pp. 157-77. 3 Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. lat. 7028, miniature on f. 154.-See also, Wickersheimer, op. cit., fig. 6 and pp. 163-4.-Boll and Bezold, op. cit., fig. 22. 4 Many examples are discussed and reproduced in Karl Lehmann, "The Dome of Heaven," The Art Bulletin, New York, XXVII, 1945, pp. 1-27; and Doro Levi, "The Allegories of the Months in Classical Art," The Art Bulletin,XXIII, 1941, Figs. 2, 3, 12, etc., and p. 280 ff. (calendars with radial schemes).

Mithraic a--Kronos, Sculpture, Arles (p. 3)

b Phanes, -13, 8) (PP.

2nd cent.,

Modena

Three Graces, Cathedral c-The Library, Siena (p. 18)

cent. (?) (p. 14)

d-Zodiac, Synagogue,

e-Sol,

Mithraic Relief, 4th

Floor Mosaic, Beth Alpha Palestine (p. 14)

f-Terra (p. '4)

cotta

Disc

from

Tarentum

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Planet Man (p. 15) Staatsbibl.,

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e Zodiac Man, Bern, Stadtbibl., 17) Cod. B. 524, f. 2 (p. 14-5,

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THE TRES RICHESHEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY

15

anatomy. In the later schemes (P1. 3a, c, d), the planets are shown as concentric circles inside the belt of the zodiac and sometimes (P1. 3c) four additional zones immediately around the figure indicate the elements.1 These complete figurations of the cosmos and microcosm may well be called the Microcosmic Man. A similar circular form is used to express the zodiacal correlations alone by contorting a man's body within the enframing circle, so that his feet almost touch the back of his head in acrobatic fashion, making each anatomical part contiguous with one sector of the zodiac containing the appropriate sign (P1. 4a, b). However, the theme is more frequently represented by a simple standing figure bearing the signs (often only their names, or symbols) on his body.2 This type, known from the thirteenth century on, is the "HomoSignorum" and is so named in contemporary manuscripts (P1. 8d). Sometimes he appears under the heading of "Dominium Signorum" (Pls. 4e, 5d), but in either case he is delimited in his function, encompassing only the zodiacal correspondence. While the HomoSignorum may be found in the same manuscript as the Microcosmic Man (P1. 3c, e), suggesting a deliberate distinction in the meaning of the two types, they are also used interchangeably.3 An amplified version of the standing type shows the alleged correlation of the planets with the seven openings of the head of man (P1. 4f).4 Sometimes a separate illustration of the dominion of the planets over the internal organs is added to supplement the usual Sign Man (P1. 4c, d).5 In the printed Books of Hours, a Planet Man related to this latter variety is used almost exclusively, as an independent illustration prefacing the book (cf. P1. 5e).6 The frontal figure in the Tris richesHeuresbelongs to the class of the most common standing HomoSignorum, the simple figure with the twelve signs on his body. The surrounding zodiacal mandorla makes the composition as a whole reminiscent of the circular microcosmic scheme, but it will be seen that the derivation of this framing element lies elsewhere.7 For the present it is sufficient to note that while the Chantilly miniature lacks the circles and web of the planets and elements, peculiar to
1

cinae .

Karl Sudhoff, introd. to FasciculusMedi.

3 The two types are found together in found in Paris, Bib. Nat., MS. lat. II229, London, Br. Mus., Sloane MS. 282, while in f. 45 (reprod. in Karl Sudhoff, "Eine Pariser the Ketham-series of manuscripts, either 'Ketham'-Handschrift aus der Zeit K6nig type may be used to serve the same purpose. Karls VI (1380- 1422)," in Archivfir Geschichte 4 See also Munich, Cod. lat. 13002 (reprod. der Medizin, II, I9o9, pp. 84-0oo and P1. IV, 6 ; in Saxl, op. cit., II, p. 42), and Vienna, Cod. astroreproduced in Fritz Saxl, Verzeichnis illustrierterHandlogischer und mythologischer Mittelalters,II. Handschriftendes lateinischen Wien (Sitschriftenin der National-Bibliothek zungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie
der Wissenschaften), Vienna, Nat. Bibl., Cod. 5327, f. i6o, and Cod. 2359, f 52', both described and

circular type as the oldest form of the zodiac illustrations. Such Microcosmic illustrations are to be

. Facsimile, p. 50, considers

this

2 The largest single published collection of such figures is that of Sudhoff, Studien esp. X, Pls. LXII-LXV.-Cf. Idem, FasciculusMedicinae ... Facsimile, p. 50.

London, Br. Mus., Sloane MS. 282, f. I8, and Paris, Bib. Nat., MS. Gr. 2419, f. I, repr. in Sudhoff, StudienX, P1. LXI.

1927,

Pl. XI;

also,

(photo in files of the Warburg Institute). 5 Munich, Cod. lat. 5595, f? 51', Planet Man, and f. 56, Zodiac Man.-Cf. Sudhoff, Studien p. 208 ff., and P1. LXV, I and 2.X, Bouch&-Leclercq,op. cit., pp. 320-5, on "la melothesie planetaire."
6 See below, 19-20. 7 See below, pp. 27-8. pp.

2357, f. 65 (Ibid., II, P1. XII, and pp. 90-91); compare also Munich, Cod. lat. 2655, f. 104'

16

HARRY BOBER

the microcosmic figurations, the latter lack the graduated scale for the zodiac and calendar which are so essential to the frame of the former. Sources Theories: (A) Manuscript Proposed In seeking the possible manuscript sources upon which the brothers Limbourg might have drawn for their miniature, the most obvious indication would be the frontal ImagoSignorum.M. Durrieu was able to cite only two other examples of such figures to substantiate his belief that the Chantilly miniature might have been "inspirdede certaines illustrations analogues, qui se trouvent dans des ouvrages d'astrologie judiciaire."' Unfortunately, insufficient consideration was given to the content of the manuscripts. One of these, a fourteenth-century work in the Bibliotheque Nationale (MS. lat. Signorum (P1. 5a) in the perfectly normal context of medical astrology. The MS. opens (f. i): "Quando voluis scire in quo signo et in quo gradu signi sit luna . . ." and is followed by a table with the health regimen for each sign, just as it often appears in the printed Books of Hours:3
Nil capiti facias aries cum luna refulget Et venas minuas et balnea tutius intres Non tangas aures nec barbam radere cures. (etc. for each sign).

7351),2 while containing some sections on judicial astrology, presents a Homo

The illustration appears on f. 2, while the versoof the same leaf offers a in tabulaad sciendum quosigna sit luna. Obviously then, both illustration and text are direct quotations from medical astrology. accompanying The other manuscript adduced by M. Durrieu is a fifteenth-century in Computus the Copenhagen library (P1. 5b).4 In this case, there is no question of judicial astrology, the treatise being the work of Peter of Dacia, Canon of Ribe in Denmark, rector of the University of Paris in 1326, a distinguished follower of Bede who himself became a standard authority on the Church and calendar ca. 1293-94 calendar.5 He composed an ecclesiastical computus which survives in numerous examples.6 Such treatises provided tables and method for the preparation of calendars in liturgical works, where the computist is often quoted specifically. For instance, in the Missal and Pontifical
1

Durrieu, op. cit., p. 29.

2F.

n'est pas impossible que ce Parisinus 7351 famille royale soit un de ceux qui ont inspire
I'illustration des Riches Heures . . ." From . . . ayant appartenu

Cumont, "Astrologica," pp. 9-Io: "Il

a quelque prince de la

des 4 N. C. L. Abrahams, Description Manuscritsfranfais du Moyen Age de la Bibliothque Royale de Copenhague,Copenhagen, 1844, #XXXI, p. 53History of Magic . . . , III, 1934, Appendix I, pp. 647-9.-Sarton, op. cit., II2, pp. 996-7. 6 Oxford, MS. Ashmole 360, VIII, early 14th c., and MS. Ashmole 1522, before midcols. 275-6, and col. 1425 ff.); also, Oxford, MS. Can. Lat. Misc. 248, dated 1330o.late 5 Thorndike,

the discussion in the present article it will be evident that, whereas any number of manuscripts with the simple standing Homo Sigcould be cited, this particular example norum (Paris, lat. 7351) contains none of the other pictorial components which must be expected in the manuscript or manuscripts which might have served as a source for the Limbourg miniature. S See Lacombe, op. cit., p. Ivi ff.

14th c. (both described in Black, Catalogue,

Milan, Ambrosiana, Cod. N. 55 sup., XIV c. Other MSS. are listed in Thorndike and Sarton.

THE TRAS RICHESHEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY

17

of Etienne Loypeau, Bishop of Lugon (1388-1407), the calendar is prefaced on f. I by the "Canon super kalendarium magistri Petri de Dacia dicti Philomena."1 In view of the significance of medical doctrine in relation to the calendar, already discussed, the brief outlines of astrological medicine found in computistic collections should not be surprising. The use of an in of ImagoSignorum the computus Peter of Dacia is thus consistent with the character of this work, and in fact appears in at least two other copies of it (P1. 5c, d), in one of them as a kind of frontispiece to the manuscript. The figure is accompanied by a text explaining the doctrine of the dominium the qualities of the signs, the temperaments, the warning against signorum, cutting when the moon is in the sign of the part involved, and tables of the moon place in the signs. There can be no question but that here again is an abstract from proper medical sources. It seems that in most cases, perhaps all, where the Zodiac Man appears, with or without the text of the correlation of signs, qualities and temperaments, the manuscript turns out to be a medical work, or somehow derived from one.2 When the figure is explicitly intended to portray an extra-medicaltheme, that fact is usually made evident by some modification of the traditional figure. In a planetary tract, for example, a male and female zodiac figure are shown side by side, illustrating the microcosmus masculinus, andfemininus, forming a sort of cosmological illustration (P1. 4f). But unlike the ordinary Sign' Man, these figures also show the planetary correspondence with the capital openings, an appropriate elaboration for a treatise on the planets. In another tract on the planets, the sign figure lacks the planets, but is accompanied by a rich and unusual efflorescence of plants and trees (P1. 4e). In spite of this change, the original medical affiliation is distinctly preserved in the text, which recounts the sign and body doctrine as well as the moon warning. In final contrast to M. Durrieu's allegation of sources in judicial astrology there is in the Morgan Library in New York a detailed exposition of that subject, the famous treatise of AbUi-Masr,which is known to have been presented to the Duke of Berry on June 7, 140o3,and was still in his library at the time of his death.3 But nowhere in its extensive programme of illustrations is there any representation of the Sign Man, for the relevance of that figure was considered to be primarily medical and surgical rather than horoscopic.
1 Abb6 V. Manu- J. Pierpont Morgan Library, MS. 785. See Leroquais, Les Pontificaux scritsdesBibliothiques de Publiques France,Paris, L6opold Delisle, "Notice sur un livre d'astro1937, I, p. 69, No. 24 (Bayeux, Bibl. du logie de Jean Duc de Berri," Bulletin du Chapitre, MS. 6 I).-Tables of the Computus Bibliophile, Paris, 1896; Delisle found the are found preceding or following the calendar entry in the inventory of the Duke's library in Breviaries (Idem,Les Bre'viaires Manuscrits and identified it with this manuscript. Cf. .. , Paris, 1934, I, p. xvi), as well as SacraErwin Panofsky, Gothic and Late Medieval mentaries (Idem, Les Sacrementaires les Illuminated et to with specialreference Manuscripts, Missels . . . , Paris, 1924, I, p. 71, etc.). manuscriptsin the Pierpont Morgan Library 2 Hist. Gin. de la Mid., ed. Laignel-Lavas- (mimeographed text of lectures, New York tine, II, p. 97, refers to this figure as University, 1935), who gives a detailed l'Thomme astrologique," which, he says, is iconographic and stylistic study of this manualso p. 3, practically always present in medical works. script in lectures I-III.-See 3 This manuscript is now in New York, note I above.

18

HARRY BOBER

(B) The Double Figure is The most enigmatic aspect of the Chantilly Imago Signorum the fact that the figure is doubled. His counterpart, seen from the back in a mirrorlike reflection, differs in his lack of the zodiacal signs, his auburn hair, and the posture of his arms. E. Miintz, who first suggested the classical derivation of the kneeling Adam in the Paradise Garden miniature, felt strongly that the central figures of the zodiac also showed "undeniable" influence of antique models but could cite no examples.' M. de Mfly, pursuing this idea, proposed that the model must have been the Three Graces of the Cathedral of Siena (P1. 2c), which, he claims, the painter could have seen during a trip to Italy. According to this supposition, the nudes of the miniature would be female and the composition derived by combining the front view of one, and the back view of the other figure which still preserves her head, the group signifying "Humanity."2 This whole approach was sharply disputed by Deonna who concluded, after meticulous scrutiny, that the figures must be male after all.3 Their antique derivation, he found to be affiliated with such figures as the Modena relief (P1. 2b) and similar figures, such as the solar god of the Geneva museum, Sol, Jupiter, or other central divinities similarly framed. As for the double figure, he reasoned that this might be ultimately derived from the Roman double-faced Janus in his dual role, presiding over time and the celestial path of the sun. Through the intermediary of mediaeval manuscripts, where the double-faced visage often appears in the January miniature of the Books of Hours, Janus allegedly passed to the Chantilly artist who added another body to eliminate the otherwise monstrous appearance of the original.4 As for the iconographic significance of the figures, he concluded from their opposed attitudes and contrasting hair colour, that they were meant to indicate an astronomical orientation, a polar opposition of Orient and Occident, Night and Day, connoting the principle of Light as against Darkness. Dr. C. G. Jung holds a similar view to the effect that they constitute a dyad composed of Day and Night, equivalent to Good and Evil.5 F. Cumont thought rather that the second figure was added as an embellishment of the composition for aesthetic reasons, "dfi au desir du peintre de montrer son habilete a modeler le nu de dos comme de face."6 As for the theory of the Three Graces the formal similarity is indeed close, but wanting in conclusive documentation. The figures are surely male, as can be seen from M. Deonna's investigation or more directly ascertained by reference to the enframing zodiac where Gemini typifies the characteristics
1 E. Miintz, op. cit., p. 172. 2
F. de Mdly, Gaz. des B.-A., LIV, p. 196. 3 Deonna, Rev. de 1' hist. des rel., LXIX, p.

the zodiacal constellations by means of signs just off the figure itself. (See A. Hauber, (Studien zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte),

181 ff. There are, apparently, female zodiacal figures. One is to be found in the Tiubingen, Universitaitsbibliothek, MS. d. 2, a German manuscript of the early fifteenth century. While on f. 12' there is a male
Homo Signorum, a back-view female zodiacal

Planetenkinderbilder und Sternbilder, zur Geschichte des menschlichen Glaubens und Irrens Heft 194, Strassburg, 1916, p. 14 f.f 4 Deonna, op. cit., p. 192. 6Jung, op. cit., loc. cit.

figure appears on f. 42'.

The latter shows

6 F. Cumont, "Astrologica," p. I.

THE TRES RICHESHEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY

19

Heures. It would of each sex as they are represented throughout the Tris riches be difficult to justify the relevance of a representation of "Humanity" in the context of a calendar, nor does M. de Mely consider this problem. Most significant, however, is the fact that this approach ignores entirely the essential attributes by which the Zodiac Man is distinguished from the sign-less complementary figure. Furthermore, if those figures form a duality, then why does "Day" alone bear the zodiac? This could be the case only if it be argued that from his blond hair an allusion to Sun and, consequently, to his annual course through the signs may be deduced. Then "Night" becomes the equivalent of Moon, even though he shows no lunar indications or suggestion. The cycles of the moon through the zodiacal constellations, as a primary index for all astrological medicine, might have justified the signs on the "Moon" figure too, but no trace of any attribute is to be found. As for the possibility of "Orient and Occident," it is plain from the text in the corners of the leaf that the underlying doctrinal requirements of the miniature call for a cardinal tetrad,not dyad. Instead of twelve signs given to "East" and none to "West," the text itself assigns three for each direction, Oriental (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius), Occidental (Taurus, Virgo, Capricornus), Meridional (Gemini, Aquarius, Libra), and Septentrional (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces). As for the psychological interpretation in terms of Good and Evil, one might with more justification find in this pair of figures the Pleasure-and-Pain dyad described by Leonardo, although even that could not be supported.' So also does each of the proposed dualities lack any indication which might give finality to such interpretations and therefore, while all of them seem to possess some element of possibility, there is nothing which might effectively argue for any one to the exclusion of any of the others. Relation to the Printed "Hours" In the face of these debatable conjectures it becomes necessary, first, to establish if possible the primary significance of such an illustration in a Book of Hours. The problem is complicated by the curious circumstance that this is the only example of a manuscript Livred'Heureswith such a miniature, a fact first observed by M. Durrieu.2 The printed Horae,from the late eighties
1 Cf. Edward Mac Curdy, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, New York, (Garden City edition), I941-2, p. o097:"Pleasure and Pain

are represented as twins, as though they were joined together, for there is never the one without the other; and they turn their backs because they are contrary to each other." But there is a distinctive attribute by which this pair might be recognized, for, "accordingly it is represented here with a reed in the right hand, which is useless and without strength, and the wounds made with it are poisoned." I am indebted to Miss Jane Costello for having called my attention to this note. 2
Durrieu, op. cit., pp. 29-30. I have found

two examples of manuscript Horaewhich do contain such a miniature, but both examples show, beyond doubt, their dependence on the printed examples. The first is in Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS. I o, Skeletal Planet Man with Temperaments, preceding the calendar. (See M. R. James, A DescriptiveCatalogueof the
Manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1895, PP- 254-6.)

The other is in Paris, Bib. Nat., Fonds Smith-Lesoeuf, MS. 39, f. 3, Heures l'usage de Chartres, early I6th c., with similar illustration. (See Chanoine V. Leroquais, aux de Suppliment Livresd'HeuresManuscrits la
Bibliothtque Nationale, Mayon, 1943, No.
21,

2o

HARRY

BOBER

of the fifteenth century until well into the sixteenth, used, interchangeably, four different types of representations of this subject: (A) (B) (C) (D) The The The The Visceral Planet Man with Temperaments (P1. 5e). Zodiac Man, and (a separate cut) the Temperaments. Zodiac-Planet Man (P1. 5f). Skeletal Planet Man with Temperaments.

This classification applies mainly to the French and English books, whereas the Spanish' and Netherlandish2 examples do not use any illustration of this which kind. In its place they usually show a Tabulasignorum Minutionum, seu the moon place in the signs, and an index of those which are favourable, gives unfavourable or indifferent to bleeding, purgation, etc. Type "A" of the above classification is the most common of the fifteenth century and is found in the French Horae.3 It always precedes the calendar and stresses the planetary dominion over the visceral organs. In function it is a phlebotomy diagram, for the ever-present text in the corners tells when to bleed a person according to his complexion and the moon place in the signs. The second, type "B," also precedes the calendar, and its use is restricted to a rather small group of German printed Hours which imitated the French.4 For this illustration, however, the artists reverted to the traditional type of figure already current in the single-sheet Aderlasskalender which was the accepted Germany phlebotomy manikin. Type "D"5 is practically the same as "A" but for the substitution of a skeletal figure for the visceral, and the fact that it came into current use only towards the very end of the fifteenth century. "C" is found almost exclusively in a group of Hours for the use of Sarum, of which the earliest may be that printed by F. Regnault in 1526,6 and is of exceptional interest for it shows (P1. 5f) a figure combining the planetary andthe zodiacal correlations, while the cut is placed at the endof the calendar together with an abstract of bleeding, complexions and hygiene texts. None of the printed
2 Ibid., Nos. 1386-1423PP. 34-8). The usual cut in the printed Horae shows 3 Used in the Hours printed by Jean Du the Planet Man with Temperaments. This Pre (Lacombe, op. cit., No. I5); Philippe et fusion is found in a French Compost Calen- Pigouchet (Ibid., Nos. 5, 49, 50, etc.); drier des Bergers, in Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Anthoine V6rard, (Ibid., Nos. 12, 19, 131, Museum, MS. 167, f. Io2, dateable before etc.); Thielmann Kerver (Ibid., Nos. 43, 52, 1487, the earliest manuscript prototype of 80, etc.), to name only the most outstanding this representation. In the same manuscript, printers and publishers. the earliest manuscript Skeletal Planet Man of 4 Hugh William Davies, Catalogue a colBooks in the Libraryof is also to be seen (f. 38'). The ordinary lectionof Early German standing Homo Signorum(f. 35'), the Planet C. Fairfax Murray, London, 1913, No. 129,

as the Four Temperaments separately illustrated (f. 77' and 78) are also among the miniatures of this work. This would seem to indicate that, however much such figures might be used interchangeably later, or even earlier, these were recognized as distinct types. 1Hanns Bohatta, Bibliographiedes Livres
d'Heures, Vienne, I9og, Nos. 1424-47.

Man without temperaments (f. 103), as well

5 Used in the Hours printed under the mark of Simon Vostre, (Lacombe, op. cit., Nos. 77, I 13, I14, I 6, etc.); Gillet Hardouyn, (Ibid.,
Nos. 189, 195, 199, etc.), and others.
6 Horaead usumSarum,Paris, F. Regnault, 1526, London, British Museum Library, C. 46. d. 9, cut used on sig. Bi'.

p. 255 ff.-Bohatta, 499, and 502.

op. cit., Nos. 417, 4I8,

THE TRES RICHESHEURESOF THE DUKE OF BERRY

21

examples corresponds exactly to the Limbourg zodiac, yet all have one common denominator, namely, that they pertain explicitly and primarily to phlebotomy in the regular terms of astrological medicine. Such text and illustrations were not only commonly accepted, but apparently as much expected in the calendar of the printed Hoursas were the almanac and table of movable feasts. General health precepts of this character were already a commonplace feature in the calendar pages of the manuscript Livred'Heures and were continued in the printed ones.1 The use of the blood-letting manikin in the printed Hours is a logical extension of this idea, however difficult it may be to explain just why it was adopted at that time. and Cycles MedicalIllustrations the "HomoVenarum" of If it be accepted as a working hypothesis, from the aspects of the miniature thus far considered and the corroborative evidence of the analagous printed illustrations, that the key to the whole problem might indeed lie in astrological medicine, then a fresh beginning may be made in the examination of the back-view figure of the Tris richesHeures. Is there, in the cycles of medical illustration, any precedent for such a figure which would also be iconographically consistent with the other elements of the Chantilly zodiac? The profusion of illustrations in this realm might, at first glance, seem endless and without any intelligible order. But from the excellent studies which exist,2 and from an examination of the works themselves, it is clear that we may eliminate from the discussion the more specialized treatises on advanced medical and surgical practice, examining only those pertaining to the more commonplace general techniques. These latter present a limited programme, restricted to the most essential pictorial typology. Sometimes there is only a single illustration, as in a mid-fifteenth-century English manuof script of La GrandeChirurgie Guy de Chauliac, with a Zodiac Man as "frontispiece."3 At the other extreme, perhaps the most extensive programme of illustrations is found in the treatises assigned to Johannes de Ketham, out of which there emerged finally the famous FasciculusMedicinae, printed in

figures, ultimately fixed at six in the printed edition, but always selected from the following types :5 1See P. Saintyves (Nourry), I'Astrologie 4 Cf. K. Sudhoff, introd. to The Fasciculus sec. IV, p. 288 ff. Medicinae. . . Facsimile.... Populaire, 2 K. Sudhoff, Tradition Naturbeobachtung 5 Ibid., p. 50.--In the list which follows, und in den Illustrationen Handschriften all but (C) and (D) are used in the I49I medizinischer und Friihdrucke des vornehmlich 15. Jahrhunderts printed edition. For other reproductionsof the Ketham MS. (Studien zur Geschichte der Medizin, I), Leipzig, 1907; Idem,Ein Beitragzur Geschichte cycles, see K. Sudhoff, "Neue Beitriige zur der Anatomieim Mittelalterspeziell der anatom- Vorgeschichte des 'Ketham'," Archiv. fiir
pp. 280-301.-Idem, Archiv.,II, Igog, P1. IV (reproduces five figures and urine circle from the Paris "Ketham," Bib. Nat. MS. lat.
Geschichte der Medizin, Leipzig, V, I91I-I2,

Venice in 1491.4 The manuscripts of this series employ a variable number of

Illustration(trans. by Bibliography Anatomic of

M. Frank), Chicago,

ischen Graphik nach Handschriften des g. bis 15. . . , IV), Leipzig, Jahrhunderts (Studien 19O8; and Ludwig Choulant, History and

3 London, BritishMuseum, MS. Sloane 965.

1920.

II1229).

22

HARRYBOBER (A) The Vein Man, (B) The Zodiac Man, (C) The Planet Man, (D) The Disease Man, (E) The Wound Man, (F) The Pregnant Woman, (G) The Skeletal Man, (H) The Urine Circle.

In general, the medical figures encountered in the fourteenth- and fifteenthcentury worksbelong within this typology, for they select one or several according to the nature of the treatise, sometimes combining or modifying them. For example, in an early fourteenth-century French medical miscellany four illustrations appear, all on a single leaf.' Those on the verso(P1. 5h), show a nude man and a skeletal man, both belonging to the Ketham branch "De Anathomia," usually illustrated by the Skeletal Man alone. The figures on the recto(P1. 5g), show two frontal nude male figures side by side, one of them clearly the regular ImagoSignorum, while the other has no markings is surrounded by a text giving the of any kind. But that unmarked figure location of the veins, making it evident that he was intended as a manikin for vein spotting, hence, the Homo Venarum. The Sign Man and the Vein Man, correlative indices of time and place for the application of phlebotomy, could be easily combined for representational purposes and were thus shown with great frequency. The two are thus merged in a Munich "Ketham" manuscript (P1. 6a),2 and as the Quinta of ymago in the Liber Cosmographiae 1408 by Johannes de Foxton, now in Cambridge (P1. 6b).3 Another English manuscript shows the Vein Man with the Zodiac text just off his body, "aries ye hede" etc. (P1. 6c).4 Often the fused type is used only when one illustration is to be shown, thus effecting an economical and concise presentation of all the necessary visual data. An unusually fine illustration of this character serves as the frontispiece to a Chauliac Chirurgie the Bibliotheque Nationale (P1. 7c).5 That such figures in as the latter were intended as compact reliable summations, is seen from the text, which starts by quoting Isidorus, who, on the authority of Hippocrates, warned that three particular days were unfavourable to phlebotomy. There follows a list of veins, their related diseases, and lines to the Sign Man figure to show the vein locations. Then there is also a table of Rasis (secundum Rasym in septimoAlmansoris),the zodiacal correlations with the body, and finally the warning not to cut the member in whose sign the moon "hangs."
ff. i I6, I 6', c. 1320.-K.

1 Paris, Bibl. Mazarine, MS. lat. 3599, X, Sudhoff, Studien P1. LXII, and IV, P1. VII. 2 in collection of Warburg Institute) -repr.
Sudhoff, Archiv., V, P1. VI, No. I. Munich, Cod. Lat. 4394, f. 115 (photo

simile, P1. III, and Sudhoff, Studien X, 3Cambridge, Trinity College, MS. 943, P1. LIII; Cologne, Hist. Stadtarchiv, MS. f. 28'.-Montague RhodesJames, The Western W. 144c, repr. StudienX, Pl. XXXV.
4London, Br. Mus., MS. Harley 2719, Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, Cambridge, 1901, II, No. 943, Warburg Inst. photo. 5 Paris, Bib. Nat., MS. lat. 69I A, f. 2'.-Cf. pp. 358-6I.-A variant of this type is to be

206, f. 35, c. 1400 (zodiac names, vein text in circles), repr. Fasciculus Medicinae . . . Fac-

Cod. Pal. Germ. 644, f. 63 (names for zodiac, numbers for the veins), repr. Sudhoff, Archiv., V, P1. III; Munich, Staatsbibl., Cod. Lat.

seen in London, Br. Mus., Cod. Harley 2719, a Vein-Man, with the zodiac names written beside his body. Other examples of the fused Zodiac-VeinMan are: Heidelberg, Universitatsbibliothek,

aus K. Sudhoff, "Eine Aderlassinstruktion dem I, P1. VIII.

Anfang des 15. Jahrhunderts," Archiv. . I, 1907/8, pp. 157-9 and P1. I.-Idem, Studien

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d-Zodiac-Vein Man, c. 1400, Copenhagen, MS. Ny. Kgl. S.84b, f. 6 (p. 23)

THE TRPS RICHESHEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY

23

The Copenhagen Library possesses a single sheet of vellum, written and illuminated on one side, which similarly offers the quintessence of the humoral pathology as it pertains to blood-letting, and an illustration of the fused Zodiac-Vein Man (P1. 7d).1 Various indications noted by Mr. Johnson, who published this document, point to the possibility that this sheet was used as a placard in a monastic bath-house.2 The evidence of these cycles of medical illustrations, especially when seen in the light of the character of the condensed single figures, points unmistakably to the primacy of the Zodiac Man and the Vein Man in the pictorial repertoire of general medicine and surgery during this period. and MedicalCalendars the "HomoVenarum" The complex calendrical requirements of astrological medicine gave rise to tabular compilations for immediate practical reference by the physician. Whether in his "office" or on visit, such tables became the indispensable "instrument" of his technique, often, as has been seen, required by statute. The highest perfection of this method is represented by the use of a physician's quadrant, of which one example is extant (P1. 7a, b).3 With this instrument the physician could measure angular altitudes of the celestial bodies with astronomical exactitude and by means of a rotary index, determine the position of the sun or moon in the zodiac for any given time. In addition to the quadrant and index, this instrument has the Zodiac Man engraved on one face. The more usual practice, however, was to consult one of two closely related works, the Lunarium the Kalendarium, former found as early as or the the ninth, the latter from the eleventh century. Although of variable content, the Moon Books, in essence, indicated the favourable and unfavourable days of the moon for phlebotomy and medication throughout the year, or a cycle of years.4 While some branch off into judicial astrology and divination, most of them tend rather to develop elaborations of medical data on the locations of veins, the bearing of the heavens on health, and so forth. One of the earliest of the medical calendars, an eleventh-century manuscript in Amiens, gives for each month, the regimen for bathing and bleeding, herbs and the ailments for which they are beneficial.5 By the fourteenth century this type of manuscript had evolved into a distinctly independent work, in one of two possible formats: (a) an ordinary codex of about a dozen
1 Copenhagen, MS. Ny. Klg. S. 84b, f. 6.J. W. S. Johnson, "Zur Geschichte des Rothaarigen Mannes im Manuskript Ny K. S. 84b in der K6niglichen Bibliothek zu Kopenhagen," Janus, XXXI, 1927, PP. 304317.-K. Sudhoff, Archiv, V, p. 292, Pl. IV, 2. 2Johnson, op. cit., p. 315 ff., discusses the fact that compared with the Ketham text from which the content of this leaf is copied, it is to be noted that nearly all references to blood-letting in women are omitted; that the verso is blank and that there is a large hole at the top of the leaf and five smaller ones at the sides; and that this may somehow be connected with the great bath reform in the monasteries at this time, requiring bathing every fourteen days instead of twice yearly as previously required. Cf. Thorndike, Science and Thought in the Fifteenth Century, p. 50o, and n. I04. 3 See p. 12, note 4 above. 4Thorndike, History of Magic, I, p. 68o ff. 5 Amiens, Fonds Lescalopier 2 (Thorndike, op. cit., I, p. 676).

24

HARRY BOBER

often in a case, with leaves, and (b) a folded, "pocket" edition, a vademecum, a string for suspension or attachment. From the form of this latter type, and the suggestion inherent in the nature of the physician's quadrant, we may be reasonably sure that they accompanied the doctor on his calls. The regular codex form, too, may well have been used in the same way, but would have been the preferred form for "office" use by the physician, or home use for the well-to-do lord and his household. For example, one of the best represented of the surviving codex calendars is that composed for John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, by Frater Nicolas of Lynn for a cycle from 1387-1463, commissioned to continue an old one which had expired.' Such works as these provide an invaluable key to what was considered an authoritative condensation of astro-medicine to its essential minimum. after the regular calendar for the The usual content of such Kalendaria, includes the following (although in no fixed sequence): tables of the year, movable feasts; lunar and solar eclipses; planetary and zodiacal aspects, conjunctions, and positions; the canon for phlebotomy, purgation and bathing; the dominion of the signs and planets; the veins, their location and related diseases; and, usually, urinalytical tables.2 Because the Kalendarium was generally illustrated, it is this type rather than the Lunariumwhich concerns us. The illustrations, all falling within the Ketham typology, include the following: I. 2. 3. 4. Circular calendar diagram (or Volvella). HomoSignorum. Homo Venarum. Circle of urine glasses.

Most significant for the present problem is the fact that in this class of manuscripts, the same two figure types emerge as the essential concomitant illustrations of the medical calendar as were noted in the general medical treatises, In and the Homo Venarum. these manuscripts the namely the HomoSignorum integral interrelationship between the two is made explicit by the fact that the is figure of the DominiumSignorum accompanied by a text which instead of merely tabulating sign and organ correlations, expresses each in terms of the in medical warning: "Aries-cave ab incisione capitevel infacie et ne incidesvenam etc. (P1. 9b). It was understood, of course, that this warning capitalem." applied to the time when the moon was in that sign. Because of the complementary functions of the two figures they are usually found in close
lists several of these MSS.-Cf.
1 Thorndike, op. cit., III, 1934, PP- 523-4, 2 For detailed descriptions of contents of Cata- such works see Black, Catalogue, Nos. 5, 370, Black, The

calendar is the Calendarium fratris Ricardi Thorppe 532 annispost annum 1386, Oxford, pro

Lynn calendar continues tables composed by Walter of Elvenden for three cycles ending similar in 1386 (MS. Digby I76).-A

logue . . . Ashmole, No. 5, cols. 3-4.

Ashmole 2io, latter 14th century (Black,

Catalogue, cols. 172-4).

Sloane 282, Calendariumad meridiem Universitatis Oxon. compositumi38o.

Sudhoff, StudienX, reproduces Vein-Men and Zodiac-Men from these and other manuscripts (cf. his Pls. XLIII, XLV, LI, ff.). The HomoSignorum sometimes precedes the Calendar, as, for example, in Br. Mus. MS

391 V, 789 VIII.

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THE TRPS RICHES HEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY

25

proximity in the manuscript (P1. 8c, f),1 often on leaves facing each other as companion pieces, or on opposite sides of the same leaf. One example of such confronted figures is illustrated by a calendar of Nicolas of Lynn at Oxford (P1. 9a, b).2 The "adossed" type is found in the "Guild Book of the Barbers and Surgeons of York," in the British Museum, really a medical calendar of the general class under consideration (P1.8a, d).3 In that manuscript the calendar ends on f. 49', and is followed immediately by the Homo on Venarum f. 50, while on the versoof the same leaf is the HomoSignorum. The Vein Man is usually represented frontally, surrounded by twenty or so medallions or ribbons bearing the vein names and diseases which they affect, with lines leading to the points on the body where the veins are located (P1. 8a, c). Sometimes the figure is shown in front and back view, as in a German calendar for the year 1446, where these appear respectively on of the rectoand verso the same leaf (P1. 9c, d).4 Here the veins are numbered,
1 In the Oxford, MS. Ashmole 789 VIII, early I5th century, the arrangement is as follows: f. 360-362' Calendar and Sign Man Volvella f. 363 Tables of Movable Feasts, f. 363' and Eclipses of Sun and f. 364 Moon (begins on 363' and ends 364) Urine circles f. 364' VeinMan f. 365 Table of reigning planets f. 365'
2 Oxford, MS. Ashmole 391 V:

3 London, Br. Mus., MS. Egerton 2572 (for detailed description see Br. Mus., Egerton Catalogue). A brief outline of contents follows: f. 44-49' Calendar Homo Venarum f. 50 HomoSignorum f. 50'
f. 5I Volvella

f. 7 f. 7' f. 8 f. 8' f. 9
f. 9' f. Io f. 1-13' f. I3'

Volvella Table of Moon place in signs, sphere of Pythagoras Table of Movable feasts Homo Venarum HomoSignorum
Table of reigning planets Urine circle

Complexions with Christ at centre f 52 Zodiac, planets, and their reign Tables of Planets and Moon f 52' Tables of Zodiac and Moon f. 53 4 London, Br. Mus., Add. MS. I7, 987, German calendar for the year 1446 (cf. detailed description in Br. Mus. Catalogue of Additional Manuscripts). In brief, its contents are: f. 5'
f. 1-24' f. 25-25' Calendar Movable feasts

Cf. Oxford, MS. Digby 48:

f. I4
f. I4' f. I5 f. 5'

Calendar Table of Movable feasts from 1438

f. 26 f. 26'-49

Table of reigning planets Table of Moon positions Homo Venarum Table of Eclipses of Sun
Homo Signorum

Table of Moon place in signs

f. 16 f. I6'

Moon place in signs Signs, their character: (Aries das zeichenhatt an des menschengeliderdas hoft .. .) f. 49'-58' Tables of moon for each day f. 59-80' Tables of planets for year f. 85-88 Temperaments f. 88' Hier nach vindet man eigenlich wannmanlassensol ...
f. 90' each Vein discussed

f. 17-17' Table of Eclipses of Moon Cf. Oxford, MS. Ashmole 2 o0: f. I Volvella

f. 2-7 f. 8-8' f. 9
f. 9'-1o'

Tables of Moon in signs and

Calendar (Tables of eclipses below calendar) Table of Movable Feasts HomoSignorum planets Homo Venarum

f. 91 f. 91' f. 96

f. 92-95' f. 96-Io3

number Homo Venarum (front view) Homo Venarum (back view)

continuation Canon of vein

by

and

bleeding data HomoSignorum

for blood-letting,

f. I x

favourable signs, times, etc. f. 1o3' ff. Regimen for health, exercise, diet, etc.

26

HARRY BOBER

and the illustration shows that while for the frontal aspect the right and left halves of the body differ, for the dorsal aspect, the venous system is bisymmetrical, being the same for either half of the figure. Thus, for the back view, each vein number is given twice, once at the right and again at the left, except for No. 27, which is in the middle. Still another combination exists, known from an inserted leaf in a medical miscellany, where the recto with the names of the signs written in small characters bears a HomoSignorum of across the members (P1. Ioa).l The verso the same leaf shows a dorsal view with the vein text, but no lines to the body (P1. Iob). of the Homo Venarum, This pairing of a front-view Zodiac Man and a back-view Vein Man is a unique but nevertheless significant indication of the range of possibilities for are which we must allow. While the figure and text of the verso in a different and somewhat later hand, it still dates from a time when the leaf was in practical use by some physician who felt the need of a figure to supplement the Sign Man. The only markings on the body of the back-view man are tiny dots which Dr. Sudhoff believed to be locations for cupping (cf. P1. I od).2 Because of the close relationship between cupping and blood-letting, sometimes a triple fusion is found in which the illustration combines the zodiac, vein, and cupping figures.3 Independent illustrations of the back-view cupping man are also known (P1. Iod).4 It must be noted that vein manikins showing only dots, or even no body markings, were also used (P1. Ioc).5 The folded medical calendars present a similar combination of basic elements, textual and pictorial, the calendar, the calendar-circle, Sign Man, Vein Man, and urine circle. The only figural illustrations are, therefore, again the same as those which were present in the codex form (P1. I I a-d). Here, too, the Vein Man may be shown with or without lines for the vein locations (P1. Iib, c), and may appear on the same sheet as the Sign Man or on a separate leaf.6
1 London, Br. Mus., MS. Sloane 433, ff. 99, 99'.-Cf. Sudhoff, Studien pp. 134-5, X, I60-I, and Pl. LVI. 2 Since the text of this leaf is a Vein-text, it may be that the cupping dots marked on the body (for they do seem to be cupping locations), were added later. In any case it illustrates the use of such manikins for spotting by the physician, surgeon or barber. 3 Sudhoff, op. cit., P1. XLIII, reproduces Breslau Universitaitsbibl. MS. Fol. I. 334, end I4th century, Zodiac Man, with vein circles and cupping text. 4Wolfenbtittel, Bibl., MS. 81. 4, Aug. 20, c. 1400 (Sudhoff, op. cit., P1. XLII). r See Sudhoff, op.cit., p. i55 f., and P1. LI. 6 An excellent description of one of these manuscripts is given by M. R. James, in A Descriptive of Catalogue the Libraryof Samuel Pepys (Bibliotheca Pepysiana, Part III), London, 1923, p. 31 ff., No. 1662 (early 15th century). In brief, its contents are:

Sheets 3-6 Calendar 7 Table of planets, moon, circular diagram (zodiac?) and HomoSignorum 8 Eclipses of moon 9 Table for blood-letting and Homo Venarum Io Urine circle Other portable calendars with both Zodiac Man and Vein Man, are: London, Br. Mus., MS. Additional 28725 (mid-15th century); Harley 5311 (early I5th century); Stowe 1065 (late I5th century). Some calendars have only one figure, for example, Br. Mus. MS. Sloane 2250 (early 15th century), with only the Zodiac Man; and Harley 3812 (I5th century), with Vein-Man only. Still another form of this type of manuscript is that made up of a single long sheet of vellum, folded into small squares, making a compact, portable packet. One example is to be found in Oxford, Ashmole 8 (early 14th

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d-Cupping Man, Wolfenbtittel, Bibl., MS. 81.4, Aug. 2 (p. 26)

11

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From Sheet 7 of Folded Medical Calendar, I5th cent., Brit. Mus., MS. Add. 28725

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d-Zodiac Man, Sheet 6 of Folded Medical Calendar, 15th cent., Brit. Mus., MS. Sloane 2250 (p. 26)

THE TRES RICHESHEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY

27

The DoubleFigureof the "Tris richesHeures" Returning to the miniature of the Tris richesHeuresit is now possible to reconsider the double figure. In view of the predominant function of the as frontal HomoSignorum a guide to the dominion of the signs in phlebotomy, one may with ample justification seek a related significance for his adossed companion. The lack of signs on that figure is not a hindrance to its interpretation, but on the contrary, a negative attribute which points directly to the only other figure type to which it might be related within such a context, the Homo Venarum.In the medical works discussed above, these two illustrations were always to be found as practically inseparable complements to each other. It has been observed, moreover, that a back-view Sign Man may be used, but he never appears without the signs. Whereas the Vein Man may be shown as front or back-view, either view alone, or both together, and may be shown with, or without, guide lines, spots or markings for vein locations. The fact that only half of the back figure is visible in the Limbourg miniature presents no obstacle to this interpretation since either half of the back-view could serve equally well for showing the vein places in the dorsal aspect. For the frontal view, the relatively small scale of the signs on the body make the Sign Man adaptable for similar vein spotting, as a kind of dual-purpose figure akin to the fused types.' Assuming this medical approach to be correct, it should be added that the Duke would obviously have had the benefit of expert medical advice for the content of such an illustration and that from the manuscripts studied, we can be reasonably sure that the figures described would be classified as the most essential for contemporary theory and practice. The ZodiacalMandorla According to one hypothesis, the Chantilly composition of figure within enframing zodiac results from a coalescence of two types, the standing Sign Man and the circular Microcosmic Man.2 The general lines of derivation of the HomoSignorum he appears in this miniature have already been traced. as But the frame cannot be derived from the Microcosmic Man scheme, as an examination of its elements will reveal, for the former is a geometrically correct diagram of the calendar and zodiac which the latter is not. In the Chantilly zodiac frame, the outermost border shows the 360 degrees of the circle of the heavens, scaled and subdivided into twelve thirty-degree sectors, each corresponding to one zodiacal constellation. The graduations on the inner edge of the frame mark the days of each month for the whole year. The calibrations are precisely synchronized so that each month spans the
century), which shows the Zodiac Man (cf. Black, Catalogue,col. 5); another example exists in the British Museum, MS. Egerton 2724 (mid-I5th century), showing an unusual variation of the Zodiac Man, for the signs surrounding his body are each framed by a crescent moon. 1 Paris, B.N., MS. lat. 69IOA, where the Zodiac Man is also used for Vein locations, and therefore the signs are represented in small scale to allow for spotting. 2 Cumont, Rev. Arch., III, pp. 6-7, and implied in Boll and Bezold, op. cit., P1. XI.

28

HARRY BOBER

interval from the exact mid-point of one sign to that of its successor. Between these two border strips is a pictorial band of the zodiac where each sign, silhouetted against the deep blue ground in a mandorla-shaped opening in the frame, is confined precisely within its own sector of the circle. The whole belt reads in the canonical counter-clockwise direction, following its observed apparent daily westward motion. The scheme is that of a theoretical, uncorrected diagram, like the ideal orientation of the compass-card, following Ratione such standard descriptions as that found in Bede's De Temporum and other computistic works.' In our descriptionsof the illustrationsof the medical calendars the common use of the calendar-circle was noted. This appeared almost invariably at the end of the calendar proper, and was, in essence, a "scientifically" exact theorem of the zodiac and calendar, followed by the Zodiac and Vein figures (P1. 8b). This basic scheme could be elaborated by the addition of rotary discs for the sun and moon, in which case it became a Volvella,or circular scale for finding the place of the sun and moon in the signs (P1. 8e, f).2 The cardinal importance of these Volvellae,or Aequatoria,in the astrological medicine of the day is evident not only from their insistent presence in the manuscript examples, but also from the physician's quadrant previously discussed, one face of which has an engraved Sign Man and quadrant, while the other is just such a Volvella(P1. 7a, b). By contrast, none of the microcosmic illustrations alludes to the calendar as such, nor is the outer circle of the zodiac ever accompanied by any suggestion of precise scale or measure. The Microcosmic Man in his circle is meant to be read in a radial sense, as a web with twelve points on its circumference (the zodiac), seven intermediary points (the planets), and an innermost circle (man), upon which the radii converge (P1. 3a, c, d). The Volvella,like the compass or astrolabe, is meant to be read as an accurately calibrated counterclockwise rotary index, whose circular motion is primary and independent of its centre. If the Chantilly miniature were meant to be read as one of the microcosmic variety, the scaling of the frame would be superfluous (above all, the fine precision would have been unnecessary), while the signs on the frontal figure would be inexplicably redundant in an otherwise clear and logically constituted illustration. According to the arguments of the present article the miniaturist of the Tris richesHeurescombined not only the Sign and Vein figures, but also the calendar-circle, all three of which were the basic illustrative elements of the medical calendar, functioning together in a closely integrated context of meaning.
1 Cf. Bede, De Natura Rerum, XVII: "Singulis autem signis XXX partes, ternae vero decades deputantur, eo quod sol XXX diebus et decem semis horis illa percurrat, a medio mensis, id est, XV kalendarium die semper incipiens" (Migne, P.L., XC, col. of the miniature which is the subject of the present article. But he has overlooked the fact that the great zodiac circle of f. 14' is to be regarded as an instrument which gives theoretical readings, just as does the Volvella (cf. note 2 below), or the physician's quadrant (cf. p. 12, note 4 above). 232). 2 See discussion and description of mediaeCumont,Rev.Arch.,II, pp. 4-5, observed in in arches val Volvellae R. T. Gunther, Early Science betweenthe calendrical a discrepancy
234-42,

over each month, and the mid-monthentry Oxford, Oxford, 1923, 11, pp. of the sun in the signs of the zodiacal circle many illustrations.

with

THE TRJS RICHES HEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY

29

One particular aspect of the Chantilly zodiac, affecting its place in relation to the calendar and the make-up of the manuscript, has been completely neglected in the literature on this miniature.1 Although not of crucial significance in itself it provides another detail of circumstantial evidence towards the elucidation of the problem as a whole. From the diagram (Fig. 2), it of may be seen that our miniature appears on the verso folio 14, preceded by two and followed by four bare sides. The rectoof the first leaf of the quire
1 41 35 7
9 10 I J2 1.3 1+

15

16

17

~7
2~

Fig. 2-Arrangement

of Quires 1-3, Tris riches Heures, Musie CondO, Chantilly

containing this miniature concludes the calendar for December, thus making it fairly certain that this sequence is correct.2 It is to be further noted that six leaves of the calendar itself were left more or less unfinished at the Duke's death. These include the November miniature, the foreground of the October scene, and the zodiacal arches above the January, April, May and August paintings.3 We are therefore faced with an incomplete calendar-with-zodiacat-end, and the possibility that some text might have been originally planned to accompany the zodiac. The precedent analogy for this general make-up
"L'image exemplaire de l'homme nu, debout dans l'ovale du zodiaque inaugure ce livre des merveilles, ainsi qu'un nouvel ordre des temps." While this may be interpreted to refer to the fact that this miniature precedes the Book of Hours proper, strictly speaking it follows the calendar of which it does form an acceptable part. 2For detailed description of contents and collation, see J. Meurgey, Les Principaux
Chantilly, 1930, notice 3o, and
1 Henri Focillon, Art d'occident, le moyen P. Durrieu, op. cit., ch. VIII, p. 15 if.Durrieu noted (pp. 28, 119) that there are age roman et gothique, Paris, 1938, p. 268:

in the manuscript eight such full-page, horstexte miniatures, including the zodiac. In all but the latter, the other half of the leaf has been cut away, leaving a small tab of vellum. It is a matter of conjecture as to whether the other half of the Zodiac Man sheet would have been cut away upon completion of the manuscript. 3 Cf. Durrieu, op. cit., Pls. I-XII, and p. 2o
ff.; or H. Malo, Les T. r. H., 1933, or Idem, Verve, No. 7.
3

Manuscrits...

30

HARRY

BOBER

of zodiacal figures with text, following the calendar, is that of the medical The same pattern is also to be seen in certain ecclesiastical calendars. calendars. For example, a fourteenth-century Italian calendar for the use of Milan, ends on f. 8' with the December text, and is followed by a Volvella on f. 9 and a Homo Signorumon f. 9'.1 But such works as these must be, in turn, dependent on more amplified works (perhaps these same medical calendars), and do not provide sufficient material for the derivation of the Chantilly scheme. There is another interesting analogy in the make-up of a group of early sixteenth-century printed Books of Hours for the use of Sarum, previously mentioned. In these the zodiacal figure is placed after the calendar, instead of before, as in other printed Horae. Furthermore, in place of the customary Planet Man with Temperaments of the usual printed Hours, this group uses a cut of a figure surrounded by medallions of the zodiac and planets, but with no temperament-figures (P1. 5f), hence closer to the Tris riches Heures than any of the other printed types. The cut is used in the following context :2 Signature Ai Aii A8 Bi Bi' Bii Bii' Biii Title page. Calendar (ending on A7'). Table of movable feasts (ending on A8'). Table of moon place in the signs and in man. Planet-Zodiac-Man with table of aspects of signs and planets. Table of signs and relation to blood-letting. Complexions text. CursusEvangelii, prefacing the Hours proper.

There is no demonstrable connection between these later printed Horae and the Tris richesHeures, nor is this analogy intended to suggest one. It is meant to illustrate a parallel situation, for, when a more extended presentation of the Zodiac Man and his concomitant health regimen was required in a Book of Hours, such medical calendars as those cited, or some variants thereof, could be drawn upon, since they alone could provide completely the necessary model for the calendar, figures, and condensed medical doctrine of the general practice. Obviously the printed Sarum Hours of this group could not have been patterned, in this respect, after any other printed Books of Hours, for only the former use that make-up and cut. Conclusions If the analysis proposed in this article is correct, the Chantilly zodiac is fundamentally a medical illustration whose component elements are readily identifiable from the regular and familiar diagrams in contemporary manuscripts of the prevailing astrological medicine. Unlike the uninspired, often
Kalender der DiOzese Augsburg, MS. 355.-Cf. for I1458-77, in Berlin, Preuss. Staatsbibl., Man and Zodiac Man on f. Io', and Vein

1 New York, J. Pierpont Morgan Library,

MS. Germ. fol. 557, containing also a Vein

(Hans Wegener, BeschreibendeVerzeichnisseder Miniaturen-Handschriftender PreussischenStaatsbibliothek zu Berlin, V, Leipzig, 1928). 2 Cf. p. 20, note 6, above.

Man with Blood-letting locations on f. I6

THE

TRES RICHES HEURES OF THE DUKE

OF BERRY

31

repulsive and repetitious manikins in the hack professional medical works, here the same given material, in the hands of a creative artist, could be merged to form a new and entirely original iconographic and aesthetic synthesis. It has been seen in the examination of the medical manuscripts that attempts at combining the Sign and Vein figures had often been undertaken on the relatively primitive level of adding to the Zodiacal Man the guiding lines and text for the venous system. It should hardly be surprising that an artist of the calibre of the brothers Limbourg could not only gracefully resolve the compositional fusion of the two figures,1 but in addition combine them with the otherwise matter-of-fact and prosaic circular calendar. The extreme contrast between the routine, homely figures of the medical manuscripts and the rare elegance and beauty of the Limbourg miniature, together with the supremely successful integration of so many ingredients in the latter illustration, make it exceedingly difficult, at first, to distinguish the constituent elements of the Chantilly leaf. One might reasonably expect to find somewhere, a similar pair of figures, or such a group already in a mandorla frame, as the antecedent for this composition, but it appears that this was an absolutely original invention by the Chantilly miniaturist and remains unique. The old zodiac circle of the Volvella type was transformed into a mandorla shape (familiar to artists from the religious iconography of such subjects as the Ascension, and the Majesty of Christ),2 without any sacrifice of content or accuracy. The compositional preference of such a shape over the original circle for enclosing the vertical axis of the figures can be readily appreciated, for it also makes for a more effective use of the long rectangular page area while at the same time providing deeper corner space for the text of the signs and temperaments trigone. The remaining space between text and frame was filled with the arms of the Duke and the "VE" monogram which he favoured.3 In place of two stereotyped, separate figures the artist created a single harmonious group preserving all of the data contained in their prototypes. While the idea of covering the mandorla background with conventionalized cloud forms was already in use in Carolingian painting,4 their rhythmic arrangement repeating the shape of the frame was an innovation. The resulting composition is not without strong suggestion of that of the Microcosmic Man.5 Although it has been stated above that such a derivation cannot be substantiated from the point of view of specific content, one may, neverthe1 The only other instance of a similar the zodiacal circle. solution of a double-figure composition by a Durrieu, op. cit., pp. 4-5. back-to-back overlap occurs in a seventeenth4 As in the so-called Prtim gospels, a Tours century work, the Specimen Medicinae Sinicae, manuscript of the mid-9th century, Berlin, 1682, where the figures serve to locate the Staatsbibl., MS. Lat. Theol. Fol. 733, f. 17', pulse in various parts of the body (see reprod. Christ in Majesty (reprod. A. Boinet, La in Castiglione, Hist. of Med., p. io6, fig. 37).- Miniature Carolingienne, Paris, 19I13, P1. 2 Cf. Otto XXXVI Such cloud forms were in Brendel, "Origin and Meaning B.). of the Mandorla," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, wide current use in the early fifteenth century, See as in the Heures de Rohan. N.Y., 6 Ser., XXV, I944, pp. 5-24. notes 12 and 13, p. 8, referring to Prof. Saxl's 5 As suggested in a general sense by F. theory that the Christ in the mandorla took Cumont, "Astrologica," p. I, "le fond reover the form, and to some extent the mean- pr6sentant 6videmment la vouite c6lleste . . ." ing, of pagan representations of a divinity in and referring to "le cristal de la sphere . . ."

32

HARRY

BOBER

less, without unwarranted presumption, interpret in the overtones of the whole configuration an implied allusion to the cosmic diagrams, for therein were contained the underlying philosophy and science of this scheme. The Chantilly artist might indeed have got the original formal idea for his composition from such illustrations.1 From such assumptions one might proceed one step further into an entirely hypothetical realm, and the attractive suggestion that in the concentric cloud patterns one may find a reminiscence of the planetary and elemental circles which surround the Microcosmic Man. As a practical project the illustration is simply and logically coordinated. The frame shows, in principle, the date of entry of the sun into the signs and the standard circuit of the zodiac and calendar (the solar and lunar months) (Fig. 3). The dominion of these signs over the body of man is exemplified by the frontal figure, governing the timesfor medication and surgery. Both
%iIA\S P/sc,

ul'

4.

Heures,f. 14, Mus6e Conde, Chantilly Fig. 3-Diagram of Zodiac Frame, Tris riches

figures together serve as models for locating the veins, front and back, the guide to places to be cut, cupped, or treated. The corner texts, with their concise canon of phlebotomy in relation to the zodiac, tell who, according to his complexion, may be bled at these times. In the light of astrological medicine there is nothing unusual in such a reading of the miniature, neither in any of the individual details, nor in their combination. At this point, the make-up of the calendar and its incompleteness must be referred to again, for all present indications suggest that here too may be sought certain data which might complement the theory outlined for the
II am indebted to Dr. Saxl for the suggestion of this possible derivation.

THE TRAS RICHES HEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY

33

miniature. In particular, the place of the zodiacal figure after the calendar, and among ruled, but unused leaves, points to the likelihood that some text was originally intended there. Although the problem of reconstructing this supposedly missing text brings the discussion to the verge of pure conjecture, certain factors make the attempt feasible without having to resort to completely arbitrary suppositions. From the unfinished calendar miniatures it seems evident that first the large scene of the month was painted, and then the zodiacal semi-circular band. The number of years required for the writing and decoration of this unusually magnificent Book of Hours would have made it a practical matter to postpone to the very last the writing of the tables of astronomical data, both to allow time for their preparation and to insure the use of the most up-to-date cycles possible. The same would be true of tables which one might expect to accompany the zodiacal miniature, for they would be composed only when the manuscript was nearing completion so that the cycles might begin with that year. The analogy of other works with such calendar-plus-zodiac combinations, like the medical, ecclesiastical calendars, and Books of Hours, and also the doctrines outlined in the Computus, provide the broad outlines of subject matter to be expected in this context. First, one would look for a table of movable feasts, rendering the rest of the calendar serviceable for any number of years or cycles. Secondly, the accepted importance of the moon in medicine, and the strong emphasis on lunarconditioned health and hygiene of the miniature itself, make it almost an absolute necessity that there be tables of the moon place in the signs, without which the general principles behind the illustration could not be effectively applied. Perhaps, too, although not necessarily, a tabular summary of the correlation between signs, planets, and man's body, might have accompanied the miniature. A brief complexions text could also be expected, as well as the canon for phlebotomy and, possibly, a vein text to make absolutely clear the use of the figures. An approximation of the typical content which might have accompanied this portion of the TrdsrichesHeures may, then, be roughly outlined as follows (* existing portions): *A. Calendar. B. (Table of movable feasts).
*C.

Illustration: Zodiac-Vein Man.

D. E. F.

(Table of Moon-place in the signs). (Canon for complexions). (Canon for blood-letting, and venous system).1

The unusually large format and magnificence of the manuscript already earned it the inventory description which is to-day its name-the Trdsriches Heures. M. Durrieu has commented on the extreme degree of personalization
of the calendar of this book in which, from the January scene, where the Duke himself is shown with his entourage and intimate properties, through the separate scenes of each mbnth where his own castles and estates are repre1 If, as is also conceivable, the other half of the zodiac leaf was meant to be cut, then

this outline of the content might be condensed or reduced accordingly.

34

HARRY BOBER

sented, his personal mark is in evidence.' The authenticity and precision in the portrayal of the Duke's chateaux is qualitatively of the same high order as the authoritative use of medical-astrological science in the zodiacal miniature, and the minute technical detail of the calendrical arches over the scenes of the individual months.2 Only the expert advice of the court physician, and not the astrologer, could have given the impressive authority to the zodiacal leaf to such a fine degree as to have made it baffling to those who sought its explanation outside the documents of fifteenth-century medical doctrine. Here, then, in the calendar of the Trdsriches Heures, preceding the liturgical whose appeal is to the world of the spirit, is the temporal and material portion world of Jean de France, Duke of Berry, each month with its changing climates, its pleasures and hardships, the world where the physician, guided by the zodiacal miniature, might still alleviate bodily suffering. The fact that this was the very last of the splendid Books of Hours to have been made for him, and that he died before its completion, might suggest the probability of an unusual preoccupation with his health at this time.3 Beyond these general suggestions it would be impossible to fathom the particular reasons for the Duke's decision to have the miniature of the zodiac in his last prayerbook.

2 In addition to points previously made, it may be further added that within the arches over each month the details of the moon's ascension, descension, apogee and perigee have been carefully entered for each month. 3 Dr. Guido Schoenberger has called my attention to the interesting fact that the inventory of the Duke of Berry of 1416 lists "une corne entiere d'une unicorne" (see Guido Schoenberger, "Narwal-Einhorn, Studien iuber einen seltenen Werkstoff," Staedel-

Durrieu, op. cit., p. 21.

1930). The unicorn horn was supposed to have the extraordinary prophylactic power of detection of poisons in food or drink. While it was certainly not exceptional for a man of the Duke's power and position to possesssuch a unicorn horn, it is worth noting in this particular case for its possible relation to the question of his concern over his health in these last years.

Jahrbuch, Frankfurt-am-Main, IX (1935/36), pp. 167-247, p. 202; cf. Odell Shepard, The Lore of the Unicorn, Boston and New York,