Harry Bober, The Zodiacal Miniature of The Très Riches Heures of The Duke of Berry

The Zodiacal Miniature of the Très 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
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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

T incomplete by the brothers Limbourg at the death of the Duke in I416,
contains an intriguing miniature showing two figures standing back to back
at the centre of a zodiacal mandorla (PI. I). In I904, when M. Durrieu
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?
"
Ily a la un tres interessant probleime de bibliographie resoudre; nous nous bornons
a le signaler aux chercheurs.
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 Among others whose help is here gratefully
teacher, Professor Erwin Panofsky, for in- acknowledged, I wish also to thank M. Jean
spiration, encouragement and generous help Adhemar, Miss Gertrude L. Annan, Dr.
during frequent discussions of the problems Curt F. Biihler, Mr. H. Creswick, Mrs.
involved in this article. He wishes also to Estelle Fields, Miss Meta P. Harrsen, Mr.
express his appreciation to the Belgian- Bernard Karpel, Dr. Karl Lehmann, M.
American Educational Foundation, N.Y., Jean Porcher, Dr. Guido Schoenberger, and
and especially to its President, Mr. Perrin C. Mr. Francis Wormald.
Galpin, for having provided the opportunity [In citing manuscripts, the verso of a folio
to study in European libraries the manu- is indicated by a stroke after the f. number
scripts bearing on this research. (e.g., f. 8'), the recto, by the number alone.]
To the late Professor Fritz Saxl, for his 1 Paul Durrieu, Les Tres riches Heures de
unqualified magnanimity in making acces- Jean de France, Duc de Btrry, P1. XIII, and
sible the rich resources of his photographic pp. 29-30.
collection, for his keen and provocative criti- 2Fernand de M6ly, "Les 'Tres riches
cism, and the privilege of presenting the Heures' du Duc de Berry et les 'Trois Graces'
substance of this work in a talk at the War- de Sienne," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Paris,
burg Institute, I wish to offer warm thanks. LIV, 19122, pp. 195-201 .-Idem, Les Primitifs
A preliminary study of this same material et leurs Signatures, Les Miniaturistes, Paris, 1913,
was presented as a lecture at the Graduate p. i88 ff.-W. Deonna, "A propos de quel-
Fine Arts Club, Institute of Fine Arts, New ques articles recents," Revue Arche'ologique,
York University, in the spring of 1946.
I Paris, 4e ser., XXI, 1913, PP- 307-I I.-Idem,
2 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 manu-
scripts 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 astro-
logical 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 (Studies of the Warburg Institute, No. 7),
Heures' du Duc de Berry," Revue de l'histoire London, 1939, p. 301, n. .--Jean Seznec,
des religions, Paris, LXIX, I914, pp. 182-93. La survivance des dieux antiques (Studies of the
-Franz Cumont, "Astrologica," RevueArchio- Warburg Institute, No. I ), London, 1940,
logique, Paris, 5e str., III, I916, pp. I-I I. pp. 63-4-
The earliest references to this illustration 1 Karl Sudhoff, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der
are: Gustave F. Waagen, Galleries and Cabinets Chirurgieim Mittelalter (Studien zur Geschichte
of Art in GreatBritain, London, 1857, p. 254.-- der Medizin, X), Leipzig, 1914, p. 206 and
Eugene Mtintz, "Notice sur un plan inedit P1. LVIII, 2 (hereafter referred to as Studien
de Rome," Gazette Arche'ologique,Paris, X, X).-An article in Aesculape (Revue Mensuelle
1885, p. 172. Illustrie des Lettres et des Arts dans leur rapports
Notices, descriptions and mention of the avec les sciences et la medecine), Paris, N.S.,
illustration are also to be found in: Chantilly, XVII, 1927, p. 264, entitled "Une Image des
Le Cabinet des Livres (Institut de France, Musde' 'Tres riches Heures' du Duc de Berry:
Condi), introd. by H. d'Orleans, Paris, I900, l'Homme Astrologique," repeats M. de
I, p. 59 ff.-Jacques de Meurgey, Les Mdly's theory and adds, incorrectly, that
Principaux Manuscrits & Peintures du Musie' "Ici le dos se reflete en un miroir et nous
Condi a Chantilly, Paris (S.F.R.M.P.), 1930, avons deux images."-Dr. Benjamin Bord,
notice 3o, p. 59 ff.-Franz Boll and Carl "Six Images des Tres riches Heures du Due
Bezold, Sternglaubeund Sterndeutung(3rd ed.), de Berry," Aesculape, N.S. XXII, 1932, pp.
Leipzig and Berlin, 1926, p. 137.--Henri 283-5, also repeats M. de M6ly.-Laignel-
Malo, Les Tres riches Heures du Duc de Berry, Lavastine ed., Histoire Ginirale de la Midecine
Paris, 1933, P. 15, and fig. on p. 37.-Unfor- . , Paris, 1938, II, p. Ioo and ill. p. 97.
tunately this miniature was not included in 2C. G. Jung, Psychologie und Alchemie
the colour facsimile reproduction of the (Psychologische Abhandlungen, V), Ziirich,
calendar edited by M. Malo in Verve, Paris, 1944, p. 414 and fig. 156.
3 A.
No. 7, 1940.--Jean Adhemar, Influences Bouch&-Leclercq, L'Astrologie grecque,
Antiques dans l'art du Moyen Age franfais Paris, 1899, PP- 76-7, 319-20.-F. Cumont,
1
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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 3
early years of the Christian era. Descriptions of the scheme are found through-
out 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 accom-
paniment of the popular astrological ephemeridesand the innumerable
ANATOMYOF MAN'S BODY AS SAID TO BE GOVERNEDBY THE TWELVECONSTELLATIONS.
Arms, TheHeadandFace,
SGEMINI.L w ARIES.
Heart, Neck,.
SLEO. TAURUS
Reins, Breast,
SLIBRA. CANCER.
Thighs, Bowels,
SSAGITTARIUS & VIRGO.
Legs, Secrets,
. AQUARIUS. SCORPIO.
The Feet, Knees,
a PISCES.- CAPRICORN.
Fig. I -Zodiac Man from J. Baer's Sons Agricultural Almanac 1946, Lancaster, Pa.
Farmer's Almanacs to-day (Fig. I).2 The current dubious repute of such
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,
.
Paris, I877-I919, V, p. 1059 ff.-Sudhoff, p. 179.-Cf. below, p. 17 and note 3.
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, duXXe siecle," Bulletin de la Socilti franfaise
I933-34, PP. 471-85. d'Histoire de la Midecine, Paris, X, I9I I, pp.
1 Paul Chacornac, ed., Almanach
Leopold Delisle, Le Cabinet des Manuscrits 26-39.-Cf.
de la Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, I88I, III,
astrologique 1935, Paris, I1934, p. 24.-John
p. 185, item. 177, "Un petit livre d'astrologie
Baer's Sons, Inc., Agricultural Almanac for the
en latin, ouquel sont les quatre elemens et year of Our Lord, 1946, Lancaster, Pa., fig.
les douze signes figures et les planettes, lequel on rectoof last page.
1'abbe de Bruges donna a monseigneur a
4 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 Marcus Manilius in which the system is fully described in the
Astronomicon
second book (chap. XI); "Accipe divisas hominis per sidera partes . .,"1 It is
also preserved in the mid-fourth century Astronomicon of Julius. Firmicus
Maternus (II, xxvii); "Superhumanocorporesignorumdominia. . ."2 Judging
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 denuncia-
tions 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
1 Marcus Manilii Astronomicon, Venice, the prevalent belief in the idea of lunar origin
Aldus Manutius, Oct. I499, Lib. II, cap. xi, and influence in this disease. But Origen, in
"De signis membris hominum his Commentary on Matthew (c. 246-8 A.D.),
attributis...."
-See Sudhoff, Studien X, p. I99.-For texts seized upon such a "false" interpretation
and bibliography of Manilius, see George which would impute a malignant influence
Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science to the moon, for neither that light which
(Carnegie Institution of Washington, Pub- God had appointed to "rule over the night,"
lication No. 376), Baltimore, I927, I, pp. nor any of the stars for that matter, could
237-8. possibly work evil. The affliction (lunacy),
2 ulii Firmici Astronomicorumlibri octo . . . he explained most ingeniously, was caused by
,
Venice, Aldus Manutius, June I499, Lib. II, an impure spirit which observed the phases
cap. xxvii.-The text is quoted in Sudhoff, of the moon and timed his mischief accord-
Studien X, p. 199.-See also Lynn Thorndike, ingly, causing people to blame the evil on
A History of Magic and Experimental Science, that "planet" and thus on God. (Migne,
N.Y., I925, I, p. 525 ff. Patrologiae ... Series Graeca, XIII, col. I102
3 Cf. E. Lienard, Thorndike, op. cit., I, Bk. II.
op. cit., p. 48I. ff.).-Cf.
4 In the Liber de Idolatria (ix), Tertullian 5 Perhaps the most thoroughgoing denun-
wrote, early in the third century, "non potest ciation is found in the Philosophumena of
regna coelorum sperare, cuius digitus aut Hippolytus (d. c. 230 A.D.) who rejects not
radius abutitur coelo" (Migne, Patrologia only the manifestly pagan and gnostic
Latina, I (I844), col. 673). The author of systems, but also astronomy, naming Ptolemy
the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitiones, of the and his followers as men toiling vainly in
first half of the same century, assails at length misguided efforts. (See Hippolytus, The
both astrologers and their beliefs, as the work Refutation of All Heresies, in the Ante-Nicene
of demons and a blasphemy against God. Fathers, V.).
6 Titus Flavius Clemens, The Excerpta ex
(The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. by Alexander
Roberts and James Donaldson, New York, Theodotoof Clementof Alexandria, ed. with text,
I925, VIII, ch. iv, p. I85 ff.).-Matthew iv, notes and trans. by Robert Pierce Casey,
24, in its mention of Christ's healing of the London, I934, frag. 25. 2.
lunatic, reflects, in the use of the latter word,
THE TRES RICHES HEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY 5
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 nominibuspatriarchumadscriptadicunt, anathemasit."'4
The more patent superstitious astrological practices such as necromancy,
hydromancy and related systems of divination received fairly consistent con-
demnation 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. where instead of Aries they now had the
xxxix, p. 94.-Cf. Gonzague Truc, "L'hdresie Lamb of God, in place of Taurus, Christ as
gnostique de Marcus," in Revue des Ides, VII, the gentle calf, and so on. Virgo, of course,
1910o, pp. 404-36. became the Virgin Mary, and Libra an
2St. Augustine, De Haeresibus ad Quodvult- allusion to the justice which Christ brought
deum, Liber Unus, cap. LXX (Migne, P.L., to mankind. (Migne, P.L., XI, cols. 492-6).
XLII, col. 44): "-. . astruunt etiam fatalibus -A similar allegory, somewhat enlarged, is
stellis homines colligatos, ipsumque corpus offered in the twelfth-century Liber de
nostrum secundum duodecim signa coeli esse Creaturisof Philip of Thaon (Thomas Wright,
compositum, sicut qui mathematici vulgo Popular Treatises on Science written during the
appellantur; constituentes in capite Arietem, Middle Ages . . , London, 1841, p. 39 ff.)-
Taurum in cervice, Geminos in humeris, Cf. Seznec, op. cit., pp. 41-4, and p. 50, n. i.
Cancrum in pectore, et caetera nominatim 4 Cumont, Rev. Arch., p. 6.
signa percurrentes, ad plantas usque per- 5 Seznec, op. cit., p. 44 ff.-Cf. Thorndike,
veniunt, quas Piscibus tribuunt, quod ulti- op. cit., I, ch. xxi, "Christianity and Natural
mum signum ab astrologis nuncupatur. Science," p. 480: "the opposition of Early
Haec et alia fabulosa, vana, sacrilega, quae Christianity to natural science has been
persequi longum est, haeresis, ista contexit." rather unduly exaggerated."
See also Orosius (Migne, P.L., XLI, col. 667), 6 Origen (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, IX, p.
quoted in E. Lidnard, op. cit., p. 48I. 295), in a letter of c. 235 A.D., to the recently
3 St.
Philastrius, fourth century Bishop of converted Gregory of Neocaesarea, "And I
Brescia, in the Liber de Haeresibus, Cap. would wish that you should take with you on
CXXIII (Migne, P.L., XII, cols. I248-9), the one hand those parts of the philosophy of
discusses the false belief in the system of the Greeks which are fit, as it were, to serve as
correspondence between the zodiac and general preparatory studies for Christianity,
parts of the earth, seasons, qualities and and on the other hand, so much geometry and
temperaments. astronomy as may be helpful for the interpre-
The popularity of genethliac astrology is tation of the Holy Scripture." (Migne, P.G.,
reflected in one of a series of tracts of St. XI, col. 37.)-Cf. Thorndike, op. cit., I,
Zeno (d. 371 A.D.), addressed Ad neophytos pp. 456-7.
post baptisma, IV, De duodecimSignis (II, 43). 7 Migne, P.G., XXIX, cols. 142-3.-Cf.
The neophytes, reborn in baptism, appar- Thorndike, op. cit., I, p. 48I ff., and pp.
ently required an interpretation of this new 492-3 where Homily VI, io is quoted, deal-
birth in terms of the horoscope, a need which ing with the pervasive influence of the moon
to them did not appear inconsistent with on all living things, which was almost a
their new faith. St. Zeno therefore offered maxim of mediaeval astrology.
them an allegorized Christian horoscope
6 HARRY BOBER
among the seven liberal arts by Cassiodorus.1 In the Etymologiae,Isidorus

distinguished not only between astronomy and astrology, but found it neces-
sary to qualify astrology as partly "natural" and partly "superstitious."2 The
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,
imitated and elaborated in the centuries following.5 Bede's De Temporum
Ratione, also commonly known as the Computus,set a pattern for the tremendous
production of computi, composed by churchmen throughout the Latin world
and used not only for instruction but primarily for the preparation of the
ecclesiastical calendars.6 These computi set forth general astronomical data
concerning the planets and constellations, their characteristics, movements
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 problem of attribution one of lively debate.
the many uses of astronomy he finds (col. The astronomical interest of the Carolingian
1218), "Is etiam, et canones quibus cursus, schools, encouraged by Charlemagne and
astrorum inveniantur instituit: ex quibus, ut guided by Alcuin, owes a considerable debt
mihi videtur, climata forsitan nosse, horarium to Bede, which may be recognized in Alcuin's
spatia comprehendere, lunae cursum pro own treatise "De cursu et salta lunae" (Migne,
inquisitione paschali . . ." P.L., CI, cols. 979-1000), and in his letters
2 Isidorus, Etymologiae, Lib. III, De Astro- to the Emperor (cf. Migne, P.L., C, letter
nomia, cap. xxvii, De differentia astronomiaeet LXXXV, cols. 278-81). From this time on,
astrologiae. (Migne, P.L., LXXXII, col. kings, bishops, and councils explicitly recom-
169 ff.-Cf. Thorndike, op. cit., I, p. 632 ff.) mend the study of astronomy to the clergy
3 Charles W. Jones, "The Victorian and (Thorndike, op. cit., I, p. 762).
Dionysiac Paschal Tables in the West," 6 Cf. the excellent summary of the com-
Speculum, Cambridge, Mass., IX, 1934, putists in Charles H. Haskins, Studies in the
p. 408 ff. History of Medieval Science, Cambridge, Mass.,
4 Wilhelm Levison, "Bede as Historian," 2nd ed., 1927, pp. 83-7, 290-I, p. I13 ff., and
in Bede, His Life, Times and Writings, ed. by 336 ff.-C. J. Fordyce, "A rhythmical
A. Hamilton Thompson, Oxford, I935, pp. version of Bede's De Ratione Temporum,"
S110-51. See p. I 3 on the Paschal contro- in Archivium Latinitatis Medii Aevi (Union
versy. Acadimique Internationale, Bulletin DuCange),
5 Bede, De Natura Rerum (Migne, P.L., XC, Paris, III, 1927, pp. 59-73.-T. Wright, op.
col. I87 ff.), De TemporumRatione (Ibid., col. cit., p. 7 ff., gives the text of a late tenth-
293 ff.), De Ratione Computi(Ibid., col. 579 f.), century Anglo-Saxon version which begins:
Computus Vulgaris,. . (Ibid., col. 727 ff.). "I would eke if I durst pick some little infor-
Cf. M. L. W. Laistner, A Hand List of Bede mation out of the book which Bede the skilful
Manuscripts, Ithica, N.Y., 1943.-C. W. master formed."-See George Sarton, op. cit.,
Jones, Bedas Opera de Temporibus, Cambridge, II, 1931, p. 992 ff. and indices.-Lynn
Mass., 1944.-Of Bede's own computistic Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, A Catalogue of
texts at least I125 manuscripts of De Natura Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin,
Rerum, 65 of De TemporibusLiber, and 135 of Cambridge, Mass, 1937, under "Computus."
De TemporumRatione are known, dating from -See also, M. Manitius, Geschichteder lateini-
the ninth into the fifteenth century. The schen Literatur des Mittelalters, Munich, 19I 1-
pseudo-Bedeian manuscripts often copy and 1923, indices.
imitate the master so closely as to make the
THE TRPS RICHES HEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY 7
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 what-
ever 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 "mad-
I
Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Le proprietaire table of the signs in the trigone grouping.
des choses . . . , Lyons, Jehan Dymantier, On the versoof this leaf is a "Tabula signorum."
April 17, I500oo.-Cf. Batman vpponBartholome, While this instance is rare for a Breviary,
his booke De proprietatibus rerum, London, unique to my knowledge, this schematic
Thomas East, 1582, and list of printed edi- diagram, too, may be derived from a Com-
tions of Bartholomaeus in Avenir Tchemer- putus. For example, a similar scheme of this
zine, Bibliographie d'ouvrages sur les sciences et diagrammatic character is found in an early
les arts iditis au XVe et au XVIe siecles, Courbe- 14th century Computus, containing calendars
voie (Seine), II, I933, p. 39 f. and tables of Peter of Dacia and Gerlandus
2An unpublished Breviary in the Grand (Oxford, Ashmole MS. No. 360, VIII, f. 159'
Seminaire of Tournai contains obituary --described in the catalogue of William H.
notes in the calendar for the years I484 and Black, A Descriptive, Analytical and Critical
1485, suggesting a terminusconsistent with the Catalogue of the Manuscripts Bequeathedunto the
general character of the manuscript which University of Oxford by Elias Ashmole . . . ,
appears to date in the third quarter of the Oxford, I845, pp. 275-6).
century. The calendar is preceded by a 3 Lynn Thorndike, Science and Thought in
circular diagram divided into twelve sectors, the Fifteenth Century, New York, 1929, ch. II,
each containing the name of one zodiacal "Medicine versus Law at Florence," dis-
sign together with the anatomical part which cusses an interesting series of polemic treatises
it governs. Above and below the circle is a which debate the relative aspects of superi-
8 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 pre-
dictable orderof the heavens. The basic principlesof this mediaeval"scien-
tific" medicine,2stemming directly from late classical formulations,3held
that: (a) man the microcosm,like the macrocosm,is composed of four
primary elements (earth, air, fire and water), and qualities (heat, cold,
moistnessand dryness);4 (b) his characteristicnature and peculiartempera-
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
physical make-upcorrespondsin 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
anthropocentricscheme,has a preponderantinfluenceon the terrestrialfluids
(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. XIX), see Introduction.-Charles
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 temper-
and the contrarieties of the elements, the atum corpus, imitantibus nimirum singulis
contrary properties of things growing in the iis, quibus constat humoribus, modum tem-
earth, and the venomous disposition of porum quibus maxime pollet ... .").
animals: all of which vex the human body 5 An excellent art-historical discussion of the
continually. For these afflictions the di- temperaments-theory with emphasis on the
vinely constituted remedy is medicine, which melancholic will appear in the revised (Eng-
therefore ranks second after theology." lish) edition of E. Panofsky and F. Saxl, Diirers
(Thorndike, op. cit., pp. 46, 56.) Kupferstich "Melancolia I"; Eine quellen-und
1 Thorndike, A History of Magic . . . , I, typengeschichtliche Untersuchung (Studien der
ch. XXXI, pp. 719-41.-See also, Idem, Bibliothek Warburg II), Leipzig and Berlin,
"Magic and Medicine," Medical Life, I923. I was privileged to read the proofs of
XXXVI, 1929, pp. 148-55. the revised edition through the kindness of
2Cf. Arturo Castiglioni, A History of Medi- Professor Panofsky.-Cf. Erwin Panofsky, Al-
cine (tr. by E. B. Krumbhaar), New York, brecht Darer, Princeton, 1943, I, pp. 157-8.
1941, ch. XIV-XV.-Sir William Osler,
THE TRS RICHES HEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY 9
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, garden is when the earth is in a good sign,
Livre VIII, cha. XXIX, "De la Lune."-On and the day to plant is when the moon is in
the moon in medicine see P. Saintyves (pseud. the sign . . . The hair should be cut on the
of Emile Nourry), L'Astrologie Populaire increase of the moon if you want a thick
itudiee spicialement dans les doctrineset les tradi- head of hair; on the decrease if the reverse.
tions relatives a l'influencede la lune, Paris, I 937, The same applies to sheep. ."
2 See Wickersheimer, Bull. .... Soc.
esp. ch. IV, pp. 127-I48.-Idem, "L'enseigne- fr. Hist.
ment des Almanachs du XVe au XXe Mid., X, where a variety of such diagrams
siecles sur l'influence de la lune," Hippocrate, are reproduced.
3
Paris, IV, I936, pp. 256-66, 330-43. Isidorus, Etymologiae, Lib. IV, De Medi-
Theories of general lunar influence on cina, cap. V, De quatuorhumoribuscorporis;
earth are part of a deep-rooted farm lore, "Morbi autem omnes ex quatuor nascuntur
governing planting, etc., and already found humoribus . . ." (Migne, P.L., LXXXII,
in Hesiod's Works and Days (see Hesiod, The col.
I84).-
Homeric Hymns and Homerica, ed. and trans. by 4Francis R. Packard and Fielding H.
Hugh G. Evelyn-White, London, and Cam- Garrison, The School of Salernum,Regimen
bridge, Mass., I943, in the Loeb Classical Sanitatis Salernitanum (the English version by
Library, pp. 6o-i). Sir John Harington, history of the school,
In the modern farmer's Almanac it and a note on the prehistory of the Regimen
flourishes unabated. Cf. John Baer's Sons Sanitatis), New York, 1920, p. 147.
Inc., Agricultural Almanac, i3ist year (1946), 5 R. T. Gunther, Early Science in Oxford,
Lancaster, Pa., p. I5: "The time to plant the Oxford, 1925, p. 19.
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 astro-
nomical 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 moon-
in-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 2 Packard and Garrison, op. cit., p. 148.
Practiceof Medicine,New York, 6th ed., 1907, 3 Claudius Ptolemy Centiloquium(in
Iulii
p. I90, still recommends in cases of lobar Firmici Materni . . . Astronomicon), Basle,
pneumonia, that "to bleed at the very onset Johann Herwagen, 1551, sentence No. 20o.
in robust, healthy individuals in whom the "Memnbrum ferro ne percutio, cum luna
disease sets in with great intensity and high signum tenuerit, quod membro illi domi-
fever is . . . a good practice." natur."-Cf. Karl Sudhoff, "Iatromathe-
One of the few diseases for which blood- matiker vornehmlich im 15. und I6. Jahr-
letting is still the generally accepted practice hundert," Abhandlungenzur Geschichteder
is polycythemia (excessive development of Medizin, II, 1902, p. 7 ff.-Thorndike, Hist.
red blood corpuscles); cf. M. Fishbein, ed., of Magic, I, p. i ii.
Modem Home Medical Adviser, New York, 4 Cf. Osler, IncunabulaMedica,p. 6 ff.
1942, p. 478.
THE TRES RICHES HEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY II
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
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 ecclesi-
astical computuswas a practical necessity. Nor is it an accident that one of
the most characteristic products of the first century of printing in Germany
is the Aderlasskalender,
extant in such great numbers.4 The practice of phle-
botomy 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 physi-
1 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
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 Medi-
1922, 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)
blood-letting.-Cf. Osler, Incunabula Medica, is quoted: "It is a foolish and widespread cus-
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
Populaire, p. 290 ff. who are phlebotomized on that day are safe
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 blood-
Books 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
sidcle, Paris, 1907, pp. li-lii. return to the phlebotomist as before, until
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 60Ordonnancesdes Rois de France de la Troisieme
(Studien zur Geschichte der Medizin, Heft Race, ed. 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
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 ville de Beaune . . . Apres l'espreuve ainsi
Barbier ni Barbiere, garqon ou gargons, faicte, il sera examine lesdicts maistres sur le
n'entreprennent de saigner aucune personne fait des saignees et cirurgies, savoir s'il scet
quelle qu'elle soit, sinon en bonne Lune, ou l'art et le mesure de bien seigner, et la oii
bien en cas de necessit6, comme pour chfites, gisent les veines oi 1'on doit seigner, a quoy
qu'aucun n'ose tenir devant sa maison ni elles servent, et quant il fait bon seigner, et
aux environs pour saigner aux jours auxquels quant les seign~es sont necessaires et quant
la Lune ne seroit pas bonne, des &6cuelles ou non, et en quel temps est bon pour seigner.
autres ustensiles pour saigner
1 OrdonnancesdesRoisdeFrance ...."
dela Troisieme Cf. R. T. Gunther, Early Science in Cam-
Race, ed. M. le Comte de Pastoret, Paris, bridge, Oxford, 1937, p. 246: "The education
1814, XVI, pp. 467-71. Louis XI at Orleans, of the [pre-Reformation, Cambridge] Barber-
March I465, article 18 (p. 470): "Pour le surgeon did not need to be very profound.
bien de la chose publicque et pour pourvoir He had to learn the twenty points on the
a la sante du corps humain, sera tenu nostre- body where blood could be drawn from the
dict premier barbier de bailler a tous les bar- veins, to learn the proper vein for each
biers de nostredict royaulme tenans ouvrouer disease, and the proper hour of the day when
la coppie de l'armenat (l'almanach), faict de phlebotomy should be performed according
l'anne . to the accepted Table of the signs of the
2Cited .."
by M. A. Van Andel in "De Ader- Zodiac.
lating in Theorie en Practijk," in Bijdragen His instruments were often limited to a
tot de Geschiedenisder Geneeskunde, Amsterdam, single set of lancets in a case, and the wills of
1932, XII, p. 236; "van 8 November, 1465, three Cambridge surgeons of the sixteenth
van het Gorcumsche COSMAS end DAMI- century do not disclose much else of operative
ANUS gilde wordt den gildenbroeders value."
uitdrukkelijk verboden: pannen voor deur 4 A Physician's quadrant of the early fif-
te zetten, tenzij dattet een getijkende dag is teenth century is preserved at Merton
van goet aderlaten." College, Oxford.-See R. T. Gunther, Early
3 Ordonnances des Roys de France. . . , 1828, Science in Oxford, Oxford, I923, II, p. 170o-
XVIII, p. 257, Louis XI at Arras, March Cf. below, p. 23.
1476; "Confirmation des privilkges accordes 5 This astrological health regimen survives
aux Maitres Chirurgiens et Barbiers de la to-day among the countless enthusiasts of
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 warn-
ing of the Centiloquium,suggests the possibility that diagrams or pictorial
representations of the scheme were known at the time, although none is now
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
Signorum,for 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 indica-
astrology. Cf. Pamela C. Hugenot, "Health hoff, introduction to The Fasciculus Medicinae
and Astrology," in Horoscope, New York, of Johannes de Ketham, Facsimile of the First
XIII, No. 7, July 1947, pp. I I, 2o: "Since (Venetian) Edition of i49; (Monumenta Medica
all creative forces depend on the seasons, ed. by Henry E. Sigerist), trans. by Charles
governed by the motion of the Sun and cycles Singer, Milan, 1924, p. 55: "The male blood-
of the Moon, it is perfectly logical to base our letting figure was probably in use in later
health conditions on the same planetary Alexandria as it has been handed down in
influences that brought us into being." To Persian and Greek through Syrian sources."
this is added the guiding moon-in-signs warn- 3 Franz Textes et Monuments
Cumont,
ing of the Centiloquiumand as a final touch, the Figurde's relatifs aux Mysteres de Mithra, Brussels,
religious stamp: "When man looks to the 1896, monument #281, II, p. 403 and fig. 325.
signs in the heavens, God is revealed, and -Cf. also note 4 below.
when God is revealed, man is healed."-Cf. 4 Idem, "Notice sur deux bas-reliefs Mith-
Robert Eisler, The Royal Art of Astrology, raiques," Revue Archdologique, Paris, XL,
London, 1946, ch. XXXI, where some 1902, pp. I-1 3.-Robert Eisler, Weltenmantel
interesting contemporary survivals of astro- und Himmelszelt, Munich, I910, II, p. 400 ff.,
medicine are discussed, of which the most and fig. 47.-Erwin Panofsky, Studies in
extraordinary evidence is furnished by the Iconology, New York, 1939, p. 72 ff., and
Encyclopediaof Medical Astrology, published in Plate XXII.-Cf. Cumont, Textes et Monu-
Los Angeles, and London, 1933, by a Dr. ments. . . , II, p. 395, mon.
273.
Howard Leslie Cornell (Honorary professor 5 Cf. for example, in The Pseudo-Clementine
of Medical Astrology at the First National Literature (Ante-Nicene Fathers, VIII, I925, the
University of Naturopathy and Allied Recognitiones,X, chap. xx, p. 197) the follow-
Sciences, Newark, N.J.). ing passage on the Phanes: "The wise men,
1 Walter Pagel, "Prognosis and Diagnosis; then, who are among the Gentiles, say that
A comparison of Ancient and Modern first of all things was chaos; that this, through
Medicine," Journal of the Warburg Institute, a long time solidifying its outer parts, made
London, II, I938-9, p. 396. bounds to itself and a sort of foundation,
2Boll and Bezold, op. cit., p. 136 ff., speak- being gathered, as it were, into the manner
ing of the Manilian text: "Das beweist doch and form of a huge egg, within which in the
dass der Dichter hier eine Darstellung vor course of a long time, as within the shell of
Augen gehabt haben muss . . ."-Karl Sud- 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 Signorumlies in the fact that the former portray divinities,
integral with and dominating their universe according to their respective
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 any-
thing, 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 illustra-
tions of the medical-astrological celestial and human correlation are not met
with until the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.2 The exception is a draw-
ing 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]rfrons hominis,through all the amusing, naively conceived con-
stellations, to the fanciful Pisces who dominates the feet. Later examples of the
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 con-
necting lines to indicate the interrelation between the signs, planets and
certain animal; and . . . from the solidifica- of zodiacal and planetary figures.-For the
tion of the outer parts of chaos was formed a Mithraic works of this class, in addition to
huge egg, and from it came forth this figure, Cumont, see Fritz Saxl, Mithras, Typenge-
called 'Phanetas,' the source of creation of the schichtlicheUntersuchungen, Berlin, I93I.
heavens and earth." 2 Ernest Wickersheimer, "Figures
M6dico-
1 Cf. F. Cumont, "Zodiacus," in Darem- Astrologiques des IXe, Xe, et XIje si&cles,"
berg-Saglio, Dictionnaire . . ., V, 1912, Fig. in Janus (Archives Internationales pour
7588 (p. 1049), bust of Serapis surrounded 1'Histoirede la M6decine.. .), Leyden, XIX,
by zodiac; Fig. 7597 (p. I057), Zeus sur- 1914, pp. 157-77.
rounded by zodiac; Fig. 7598 (p. 1057), Pan 3 Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. lat.
surrounded by zodiac, etc.-W. Deonna 7028, miniature on f. 154.-See also, Wickers-
(Rev. Arch., 4e ser., XXI, 1913, PP. 307-I1) heimer, op. cit., fig. 6 and pp. 163-4.-Boll
finds in the Chantilly zodiac a confirmation and Bezold, op. cit., fig. 22.
of his interpretation of a little gold statuette 4 Many examples are discussed and re-
in the Geneva Museum as a solar divinity, produced in Karl Lehmann, "The Dome
symbolizing the world. But the Geneva of Heaven," The Art Bulletin, New York,
figure is planetary,and does not bear upon the XXVII, 1945, pp. 1-27; and Doro Levi,
Manilian zodiacal harmony of the Limbourg "The Allegories of the Months in Classical
Imagosignorum,except in such a broad sense Art," The Art Bulletin,XXIII, 1941, Figs. 2,
as to be useless in determination of the essen- 3, 12, etc., and p. 280 ff. (calendars with
tial distinctions within the general category radial schemes).
2
a--Kronos, Mithraic b Phanes, 2nd cent., Modena c-The Three Graces, Cathedral
Sculpture, Arles (p. 3) (PP.-13, 8) Library, Siena (p. 18)
e-Sol, Mithraic Relief, 4th

cent. (?) (p. 14)
d-Zodiac, Floor Mosaic, Beth Alpha
Synagogue, Palestine (p. 14)
f-Terra cotta Disc from Tarentum g-Apotheosis of Hercules,

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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 con-
centric 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 "DominiumSignorum"(Pls. 4e, 5d), but in either case he
is delimited in his function, encompassing only the zodiacal correspondence.
While the HomoSignorummay be found in the same manuscript as the Micro-
cosmic 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 micro-
cosmic 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 Karl Sudhoff, introd. to FasciculusMedi- 2 The largest single published collection of
cinae . . . Facsimile, p. 50, considers this such figures is that of Sudhoff, StudienX, esp.
circular type as the oldest form of the zodiac Pls. LXII-LXV.-Cf. Idem, FasciculusMedi-
illustrations. cinae ... Facsimile, p. 50.
Such Microcosmic illustrations are to be 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.
Vienna, Nat. Bibl., Cod. 5327, f. i6o, 2357, f. 65 (Ibid., II, P1. XII, and pp. 90-91);
and Cod. 2359, f 52', both described and compare also Munich, Cod. lat. 2655, f. 104'
reproduced in Fritz Saxl, Verzeichnisastro- (photo in files of the Warburg Institute).
logischer und mythologischer illustrierterHand- 5 Munich, Cod. lat. 5595, f? 51', Planet
schriftendes lateinischenMittelalters,II. Hand- Man, and f. 56, Zodiac Man.-Cf. Sudhoff,
schriftenin der National-BibliothekWien (Sit- StudienX, p. 208 ff., and P1. LXV, I and 2.-
zungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie Bouch&-Leclercq,op. cit., pp. 320-5, on "la
der Wissenschaften), 1927, Pl. XI; also, melothesie planetaire."
London, Br. Mus., Sloane MS. 282, f. I8, 6 See below, pp. 19-20.
and Paris, Bib. Nat., MS. Gr. 2419, f. 7 See below, pp. 27-8.
I,
repr. in Sudhoff, StudienX, P1. LXI.
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.
ProposedTheories: (A) ManuscriptSources

In seeking the possible manuscript sources upon which the brothers
Limbourg might have drawn for their miniature, the most obvious indica-
tion 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, in-
sufficient consideration was given to the content of the manuscripts. One of
these, a fourteenth-century work in the Bibliotheque Nationale (MS. lat.
7351),2 while containing some sections on judicial astrology, presents a Homo
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).
The illustration appears on f. 2, while the versoof the same leaf offers a
tabulaad sciendumin quosigna sit luna. Obviously then, both illustration and
accompanying text are direct quotations from medical astrology.
The other manuscript adduced by M. Durrieu is a fifteenth-century
Computus in 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
calendar.5 He composed an ecclesiastical computusand calendar ca. 1293-94
which survives in numerous examples.6 Such treatises provided tables and
method for the preparation of calendars in liturgical works, where the com-
putist is often quoted specifically. For instance, in the Missal and Pontifical
1
Durrieu, op. cit., p. 29. 4 N. C. L. Abrahams, Descriptiondes Manu-
2F. Cumont, "Astrologica," pp. 9-Io: "Il scritsfranfais du Moyen Age de la Bibliothque
n'est pas impossible que ce Parisinus 7351 Royale de Copenhague,Copenhagen, 1844,
. . . ayant appartenu a quelque prince de la #XXXI, p. 53-
famille royale soit un de ceux qui ont inspire 5 Thorndike,
History of Magic . . . , III,
I'illustration des Riches Heures . . ." From 1934, Appendix I, pp. 647-9.-Sarton, op.
the discussion in the present article it will be cit., II2, pp. 996-7.
evident that, whereas any number of manu- 6 Oxford, MS. Ashmole 360, VIII, early
scripts with the simple standing Homo Sig- 14th c., and MS. Ashmole 1522, before mid-
norumcould be cited, this particular example 14th c. (both described in Black, Catalogue,
(Paris, lat. 7351) contains none of the other cols. 275-6, and col. 1425 ff.); also, Oxford,
pictorial components which must be expected MS. Can. Lat. Misc. 248, dated
1330o.-
in the manuscript or manuscripts which Milan, Ambrosiana, Cod. N. 55 sup., late
might have served as a source for the Lim- XIV c. Other MSS. are listed in Thorndike
bourg miniature. and Sarton.
S See Lacombe, op. cit., p. Ivi ff.
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
ImagoSignorumin the computusof 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
signorum,the qualities of the signs, the temperaments, the warning against
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
masculinus,andfemininus,forming a sort
side by side, illustrating the microcosmus
of cosmological illustration (P1. 4f). But unlike the ordinary Sign' Man,
these figures also show the planetary correspondence with the capital open-
ings, 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.
Leroquais, Les PontificauxManu- J. Pierpont Morgan Library, MS. 785. See
scritsdesBibliothiquesPubliquesde France,Paris, L6opold Delisle, "Notice sur un livre d'astro-
1937, 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'viairesManuscrits and identified it with this manuscript. Cf.
.. , Paris, 1934, I, p. xvi), as well as Sacra- Erwin Panofsky, Gothic and Late Medieval
mentaries (Idem, Les Sacrementaireset les IlluminatedManuscripts,with specialreferenceto
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 manu-
in medical works. script in lectures I-III.-See also p. 3,
3 This always present
practically
manuscript is now in New York, note I above.
18 HARRY BOBER
(B) The Double Figure

The most enigmatic aspect of the Chantilly Imago Signorumis the fact
that the figure is doubled. His counterpart, seen from the back in a mirror-
like 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 signi-
fying "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 manu-
scripts, 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 con-
stitute 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 embellish-
ment 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., the zodiacal constellations by means of signs
2
p. 172.
F. de Mdly, Gaz. des B.-A., LIV, p. 196.
3 Deonna, Rev. de 1' hist. des rel., LXIX,
just off the figure itself. (See A. Hauber,
p. Planetenkinderbilder und Sternbilder, zur Ge-
181 ff. There are, apparently, female schichte des menschlichen Glaubens und Irrens
zodiacal figures. One is to be found in the (Studien zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte),
Tiubingen, Universitaitsbibliothek, MS. d. 2, Heft 194, Strassburg, 1916, p. 14
4 Deonna, op. cit., f.f
a German manuscript of the early fifteenth p. 192.
century. While on f. 12' there is a male 6Jung, op. cit., loc. cit.
Homo Signorum, a back-view female zodiacal 6 F. Cumont, "Astrologica," p. I.
figure appears on f. 42'. The latter shows
of each sex as they are represented throughout the Tris richesHeures. It would
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 com-
plementary 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 two examples of manuscript Horaewhich do
Curdy, The Notebooks of
Leonardo da Vinci, New York, (Garden City contain such a miniature, but both examples
edition), I941-2, p. o097:"Pleasure and Pain show, beyond doubt, their dependence on
are represented as twins, as though they were the printed examples.
joined together, for there is never the one The first is in Cambridge, Fitzwilliam
without the other; and they turn their backs Museum, MS. I o, Skeletal Planet Man with
because they are contrary to each other." Temperaments, preceding the calendar. (See
But there is a distinctive attribute by which M. R. James, A DescriptiveCatalogueof the
this pair might be recognized, for, "accord- Manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cam-
ingly it is represented here with a reed in the bridge, 1895, PP- 254-6.)
right hand, which is useless and without The other is in Paris, Bib. Nat., Fonds
strength, and the wounds made with it are Smith-Lesoeuf, MS. 39, f. 3, Heures l'usage
poisoned." de Chartres,early I6th c., with similar illus-
I am indebted to Miss Jane Costello for tration. (See Chanoine V. Leroquais,
having called my attention to this note. Supplimentaux Livresd'HeuresManuscritsde la
2
Durrieu, op. cit., pp. 29-30. I have found 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) The Visceral Planet Man with Temperaments (P1. 5e).
(B) The Zodiac Man, and (a separate cut) the Temperaments.
(C) The Zodiac-Planet Man (P1.
(D) The Skeletal Planet Man with5f).
Temperaments.
This classification applies mainly to the French and English books, whereas
the Spanish' and Netherlandish2 examples do not use any illustration of this
kind. In its place they usually show a Tabulasignorumseu Minutionum,which
gives the moon place in the signs, and an index of those which are favourable,
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 phle-
botomy manikin. Type "D"5 is practically the same as "A" but for the sub-
stitution 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
PP. 34-8). 2 Ibid., Nos. 1386-1423-
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
fusion is found in a French Compostet 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 4 Hugh William Davies, Catalogueof a col-
is also to be seen (f. 38'). The ordinary lectionof Early GermanBooks in the Libraryof
standing Homo Signorum(f. 35'), the Planet C. Fairfax Murray, London, 1913, No. 129,
Man without temperaments (f. 103), as well p. 255 ff.-Bohatta, op. cit., Nos. 417, 4I8,
as the Four Temperaments separately illus- 499, and 502.
trated (f. 77' and 78) are also among the 5 Used in the Hours printed under the mark
miniatures of this work. This would seem to of Simon Vostre, (Lacombe, op. cit., Nos. 77,
indicate that, however much such figures I 13, I14, I 6, etc.); Gillet Hardouyn, (Ibid.,
might be used interchangeably later, or even Nos. 189, 195, 199, etc.), and others.
earlier, these were recognized as distinct 6 Horaead usumSarum,Paris, F. Regnault,
types. 1526, London, British Museum Library,
1Hanns Bohatta, Bibliographiedes Livres C. 46. d. 9, cut used on sig. Bi'.
d'Heures, Vienne, I9og, Nos. 1424-47.
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.
Cyclesof MedicalIllustrationsand the "HomoVenarum"

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 astro-
logical 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 manu-
script of La GrandeChirurgieof 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
Venice in 1491.4 The manuscripts of this series employ a variable number of
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
Populaire,sec. IV, p. 288 ff. Medicinae. . . Facsimile....
2 K. Sudhoff, TraditionundNaturbeobachtung 5 Ibid., p. 50.--In the list which follows,
in den IllustrationenmedizinischerHandschriften all but (C) and (D) are used in the
und Friihdruckevornehmlich des 15. Jahrhunderts printed edition. I49I
(Studien zur Geschichte der Medizin, I), For other reproductions of the Ketham MS.
Leipzig, 1907; Idem,Ein Beitragzur Geschichte cycles, see K. Sudhoff, "Neue Beitriige zur
der Anatomieim Mittelalterspeziell der anatom- Vorgeschichte des 'Ketham'," Archiv. fiir
ischen Graphik nach Handschriften des g. bis 15. Geschichte der Medizin, Leipzig, V, I91I-I2,
Jahrhunderts (Studien . . , IV), Leipzig, pp. 280-301.-Idem, Archiv.,II, Igog, P1. IV
19O8; and Ludwig Choulant, History and (reproduces five figures and urine circle from
Bibliographyof AnatomicIllustration(trans. by the Paris "Ketham," Bib. Nat. MS. lat.
M. Frank), Chicago, 1920. II1229).
3 London, BritishMuseum, MS. Sloane 965.
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 fifteenth-
century worksbelong within this typology, for they select one or several accord-
ing 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
of any kind. But that unmarked figure is surrounded by a text giving the
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 representa-
tional 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
ymago in the Liber Cosmographiae of 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 Chirurgiein the Bibliotheque Nationale (P1. 7c).5 That such figures
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."
1 Paris, Bibl. Mazarine, MS. lat. Cod. Pal. Germ. 644, f. 63 (names for zodiac,
3599,
ff. i I6, I 6', c. 1320.-K.
Sudhoff, StudienX, numbers for the veins), repr. Sudhoff, Archiv.,
P1. LXII, and IV, P1. VII. V, P1. III; Munich, Staatsbibl., Cod. Lat.
2 Munich, Cod. Lat. 4394, f. 115 (photo 206, f. 35, c. 1400 (zodiac names, vein text in
in collection of Warburg Institute) -repr. circles), repr. Fasciculus Medicinae . . . Fac-
Sudhoff, Archiv., V, P1. VI, No. I. 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.
Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, 4London, Br. Mus., MS. Harley 2719,
Cambridge, Cambridge, 1901, II, No. 943, Warburg Inst. photo.
pp. 358-6I.-A variant of this type is to be 5 Paris, Bib. Nat., MS. lat. 69I A, f. 2'.-Cf.
seen in London, Br. Mus., Cod. Harley 2719, K. Sudhoff, "Eine Aderlassinstruktionaus dem
a Vein-Man, with the zodiac names written Anfang des 15. Jahrhunderts," Archiv. .
beside his body. I, 1907/8, pp. 157-9 and P1. I.-Idem, Studien
Other examples of the fused Zodiac-Vein- I, P1. VIII.
Man are: Heidelberg, Universitatsbibliothek,
6
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69IOA, f. I (p. 22)
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 con-
densed 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.
MedicalCalendarsand 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 posi-
tion 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 Lunariumor the Kalendarium,the former found as early as
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 manu-
script 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.- the top of the leaf and five smaller ones at
J. W. S. Johnson, "Zur Geschichte des the sides; and that this may somehow be
Rothaarigen Mannes im Manuskript Ny connected with the great bath reform in the
K. S. 84b in der K6niglichen Bibliothek zu monasteries at this time, requiring bathing
Kopenhagen," Janus, XXXI, 1927, PP. 304- every fourteen days instead of twice yearly
317.-K. Sudhoff, Archiv, V, p. 292, Pl. IV, 2. as previously required.
2Johnson, op. cit., p. 315 ff., discusses the Cf. Thorndike, Science and Thought in the
fact that compared with the Ketham text Fifteenth Century, p. 50o, and n. I04.
from which the content of this leaf is copied, 3 See p. 12, note 4 above.
it is to be noted that nearly all references to 4Thorndike, History of Magic, I, p. 68o ff.
blood-letting in women are omitted; that the 5 Amiens, Fonds Lescalopier 2 (Thorndike,
verso is blank and that there is a large hole at op. cit., I, p. 676).
24 HARRY BOBER
leaves, and (b) a folded, "pocket" edition, a vademecum, often in a case, with
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 repre-
sented 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.
The usual content of such Kalendaria,after the regular calendar for the
year, includes the following (although in no fixed sequence): tables of the
movable feasts; lunar and solar eclipses; planetary and zodiacal aspects,
conjunctions, and positions; the canon for phlebotomy, purgation and bath-
ing; 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. Circular calendar diagram (or Volvella).

2. HomoSignorum.
3. Homo Venarum.
4. Circle of urine glasses.
Most significant for the present problem is the fact that in this class of manu-
scripts, the same two figure types emerge as the essential concomitant illus-
trations of the medical calendar as were noted in the general medical treatises,
namely the HomoSignorumand the Homo Venarum.In these manuscripts the
integral interrelationship between the two is made explicit by the fact that the
figure of the DominiumSignorumis accompanied by a text which instead of
merely tabulating sign and organ correlations, expresses each in terms of the
medical warning: "Aries-cave ab incisionein capitevel infacie et ne incidesvenam
capitalem."etc. (P1. 9b). It was understood, of course, that this warning
applied to the time when the moon was in that sign. Because of the com-
plementary functions of the two figures they are usually found in close
2 For detailed
1 Thorndike, op. cit., III, 1934, PP- 523-4, descriptions of contents of
lists several of these MSS.-Cf. Black, Cata- such works see Black, Catalogue, Nos. 5, 370,
logue . . . Ashmole, No. 5, cols. 3-4. The 391 V, 789 VIII.
Lynn calendar continues tables composed by Sudhoff, StudienX, reproduces Vein-Men
Walter of Elvenden for three cycles ending and Zodiac-Men from these and other manu-
in 1386 (MS. Digby I76).-A similar scripts (cf. his Pls. XLIII, XLV, LI, ff.).
calendar is the Calendarium fratris Ricardi The HomoSignorumsometimes precedes the
Thorppepro 532 annispost annum 1386, Oxford, Calendar, as, for example, in Br. Mus. MS
Ashmole 2io, latter 14th century (Black, Sloane 282, Calendariumad meridiem Universi-
Catalogue, cols. 172-4). tatis Oxon. compositumi38o.
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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 manu-
script the calendar ends on f. 49', and is followed immediately by the Homo
Venarumon 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
the rectoand versoof the same leaf (P1. 9c, d).4 Here the veins are numbered,
1 In the Oxford, MS. Ashmole 789 VIII, 3 London, Br. Mus., MS. Egerton 2572
early I5th century, the arrangement is as (for detailed description see Br. Mus.,
follows: Egerton Catalogue). A brief outline of
f. 360-362' Calendar contents follows:
f. 363 Volvellaand Sign Man f. 44-49' Calendar
f. 363' Tables of Movable Feasts, f. 50 Homo Venarum
f. 364 and Eclipses of Sun and f. 50' HomoSignorum
Moon (begins on 363' f. 5I Volvella
and ends 364) f. 5' Complexions with Christ at
f. 364' Urine circles centre
f. 365 VeinMan f 52 Zodiac, planets, and their
f. 365' Table of reigning planets reign
2 Oxford, MS. Ashmole 391 V: f 52' Tables of Planets and Moon
f. 7 Volvella f. 53 Tables of Zodiac and Moon
f. 7' Table of Moon place in signs, 4 London, Br. Mus., Add. MS. I7, 987,
sphere of Pythagoras German calendar for the year 1446 (cf.
f. 8 Table of Movable feasts detailed description in Br. Mus. Catalogue
f. 8' Homo Venarum of Additional Manuscripts). In brief, its
f. 9 HomoSignorum contents are:
f. 9' Table of reigning planets f. 1-24' Calendar
f. Io Urine circle f. 25-25' Movable feasts
Cf. Oxford, MS. Digby 48: f. 26 Moon place in signs
f. 1-13' Calendar f. 26'-49 Signs, their character: (Aries
f. I3' Table of Movable feasts from das zeichenhatt an des men-
1438 schengeliderdas hoft .. .)
f. I4 Table of reigning planets f. 49'-58' Tables of moon for each day
f. I4' Table of Moon place in signs f. 59-80' Tables of planets for year
f. I5 Table of Moon positions f. 85-88 Temperaments
f. 5' Homo Signorum f. 88' Hier nach vindet man eigenlich
f. 16 Homo Venarum wannmanlassensol ...
f. I6' Table of Eclipses of Sun f. 90' each Vein discussed by
f. 17-17' Table of Eclipses of Moon number
Cf. Oxford, MS. Ashmole 2 o0: f. 91 Homo Venarum(front view)
f. I Volvella f. 91' Homo Venarum(back view)
f. 2-7 Calendar (Tables of eclipses f. 92-95' continuation of vein and
below calendar) bleeding data
f. 8-8' Table of Movable Feasts f. 96 HomoSignorum
f. 9 HomoSignorum f. 96-Io3 Canon for blood-letting,
f. 9'-1o' Tables of Moon in signs and favourable signs, times, etc.
planets f. 1o3' ff. Regimen for health, exercise,
f. I x Homo Venarum 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 bisym-
metrical, 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
bears a HomoSignorumwith the names of the signs written in small characters
across the members (P1. Ioa).l The versoof the same leaf shows a dorsal view
of the Homo Venarum,with the vein text, but no lines to the body (P1. Iob).
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
which we must allow. While the figure and text of the versoare 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, some-
times 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, Sheets 3-6 Calendar
ff. 99, 99'.-Cf. Sudhoff, StudienX, pp. 134-5, 7 Table of planets, moon, cir-
I60-I, and Pl. LVI. cular diagram (zodiac?)
2 Since the text of this leaf is a Vein-text, and HomoSignorum
it may be that the cupping dots marked on 8 Eclipses of moon
the body (for they do seem to be cupping 9 Table for blood-letting and
locations), were added later. In any case it Homo Venarum
illustrates the use of such manikins for spot- Io Urine circle
ting by the surgeon or barber. Other portable calendars with both Zodiac
3 Sudhoff,physician,
op. cit., P1. XLIII, reproduces Man and Vein Man, are: London, Br. Mus.,
Breslau Universitaitsbibl. MS. Fol. I. 334, MS. Additional 28725 (mid-15th century);
end I4th century, Zodiac Man, with vein Harley 5311 (early I5th century); Stowe
circles and cupping text. 1065 (late I5th century). Some calendars
4Wolfenbtittel, Bibl., MS. 81. 4, Aug. 20, have only one figure, for example, Br. Mus.
c. 1400 (Sudhoff, op. cit., P1. XLII). MS. Sloane 2250 (early 15th century), with
r See Sudhoff, only the Zodiac Man; and Harley 3812
op.cit., p. i55 f., and P1. LI.
6 An excellent description of one of these (I5th century), with Vein-Man only.
manuscripts is given by M. R. James, in Still another form of this type of manuscript
A DescriptiveCatalogueof the Libraryof Samuel is that made up of a single long sheet of
Pepys (Bibliotheca Pepysiana, Part III), vellum, folded into small squares, making a
London, 1923, p. 31 ff., No. 1662 (early 15th compact, portable packet. One example is
century). In brief, its contents are: to be found in Oxford, Ashmole 8 (early 14th
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(p. 26)
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
frontal HomoSignorumas 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 interpre-
tation, 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 HomoSignorumas he appears in this miniature have already been traced.
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. 1 Paris, B.N., MS. lat.
69IOA, where the
Black, Catalogue,col. 5); another example Zodiac Man is also used for Vein locations,
exists in the British Museum, MS. Egerton and therefore the signs are represented in
2724 (mid-I5th century), showing an un- small scale to allow for spotting.
usual variation of the Zodiac Man, for the 2 Cumont, Rev. Arch., III,
pp. 6-7, and
signs surrounding his body are each framed implied in Boll and Bezold, op. cit., P1. XI.
by a crescent moon.
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, un-
corrected diagram, like the ideal orientation of the compass-card, following
such standard descriptions as that found in Bede's De TemporumRatione
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 sugges-
tion 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 counter-
clockwise 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: of the miniature which is the subject of the
"Singulis autem signis XXX partes, ternae present article. But he has overlooked the
vero decades deputantur, eo quod sol XXX fact that the great zodiac circle of f. 14' is
to be regarded as an instrument which gives
diebus et decem semis horis illa percurrat,
a medio mensis, id est, XV kalendarium dietheoretical readings, just as does the Volvella
semper incipiens" (Migne, P.L., XC, col. (cf. note 2 below), or the physician's quad-
232). rant (cf. p. 12, note 4 above).
Cumont,Rev.Arch.,II, pp. 4-5, observed 2 See discussion and description of mediae-
a discrepancybetweenthe calendricalarches val Volvellaein R. T. Gunther, Early Sciencein
over each month, and the mid-monthentry Oxford, Oxford, 1923, 11, pp. 234-42, with
of the sun in the signs of the zodiacal circle many illustrations.
THE TRJS RICHES HEURES OF THE DUKE OF BERRY 29
One particular aspect of the Chantilly zodiac, affecting its place in rela-
tion 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 signi-
ficance in itself it provides another detail of circumstantial evidence towards
the elucidation of the problem as a whole. From the diagram (Fig. 2), it
may be seen that our miniature appears on the versoof 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-zodiac-
at-end, and the possibility that some text might have been originally planned
to accompany the zodiac. The precedent analogy for this general make-up
1 Henri
Focillon, Art d'occident, le moyen P. Durrieu, op. cit., ch. VIII, p. 15 if.-
age roman et gothique, Paris, 1938, p. 268: Durrieu noted (pp. 28, 119) that there are
"L'image exemplaire de l'homme nu, debout in the manuscript eight such full-page, hors-
dans l'ovale du zodiaque inaugure ce livre texte miniatures, including the zodiac. In
des merveilles, ainsi qu'un nouvel ordre des all but the latter, the other half of the leaf
temps." While this may be interpreted to has been cut away, leaving a small tab of
refer to the fact that this miniature precedes vellum. It is a matter of conjecture as to
the Book of Hours proper, strictly speaking whether the other half of the Zodiac Man
it follows the calendar of which it does form sheet would have been cut away upon com-
an acceptable part. pletion of the manuscript.
2For detailed description of contents and 3 Cf. Durrieu, op. cit., Pls. I-XII, and p. 2o
collation, see J. Meurgey, Les Principaux ff.; or H. Malo, Les T. r. H., 1933, or Idem,
Manuscrits... Chantilly, 1930, notice 3o, and Verve, No. 7.
3
30 HARRY BOBER
of zodiacal figures with text, following the calendar, is that of the medical
calendars. The same pattern is also to be seen in certain ecclesiastical
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 Title page.

Aii Calendar (ending on A7').
A8 Table of movable feasts (ending on A8').
Bi Table of moon place in the signs and in man.
Bi' Planet-Zodiac-Man with table of aspects of signs and planets.
Bii Table of signs and relation to blood-letting.
Bii' Complexions text.
Biii 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 neces-
sary 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 manu-
scripts of the prevailing astrological medicine. Unlike the uninspired, often
1 New York, J. Pierpont Morgan Library, Man with Blood-letting locations on f. I6
MS. 355.-Cf. Kalender der DiOzese Augsburg, (Hans Wegener, BeschreibendeVerzeichnisseder
for I1458-77, in Berlin, Preuss. Staatsbibl., Miniaturen-Handschriftender PreussischenStaats-
MS. Germ. fol. 557, containing also a Vein bibliothek zu Berlin, V, Leipzig, 1928).
Man and Zodiac Man on f. Io', and Vein 2 Cf. p. 20, note 6, above.
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 under-
taken 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 grace-
fully 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 con-
tained in their prototypes.
While the idea of covering the mandorla background with conventional-
ized cloud forms was already in use in Carolingian painting,4 their rhythmic
arrangement repeating the shape of the frame was an innovation. The result-
ing 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, neverthe-
1 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 seventeenth- 4 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
Brendel, "Origin and Meaning XXXVI B.). Such cloud forms were in
of the Mandorla," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, wide current use in the early fifteenth century,
N.Y., 6 Ser., XXV, I944, pp. 5-24. See as in the Heures de Rohan.
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 re-
over 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 com-
position from such illustrations.1 From such assumptions one might proceed
one step further into an entirely hypothetical realm, and the attractive sug-
gestion 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'
0
4.
Fig. 3-Diagram of Zodiac Frame, Tris richesHeures,f. 14, Mus6e Conde, Chantilly
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 lunar-
conditioned 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 TrdsrichesHeuresmay, then, be roughly
outlined as follows (* existing portions):
*A. Calendar.
B. (Table of movable feasts).
*C. Illustration: Zodiac-Vein Man.
D. (Table of Moon-place in the signs).
E. (Canon for complexions).
F. (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 repre-
1 If, as is also conceivable, the other half this outline of the content might be condensed
of the zodiac leaf was meant to be cut, then 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 TrdsrichesHeures,preceding the liturgical
portion whose appeal is to the world of the spirit, is the temporal and material
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 prayer-
book.
1
Durrieu, op. cit., p. 21. Jahrbuch, Frankfurt-am-Main, IX (1935/36),
2 In addition to points previously made,
pp. 167-247, p. 202; cf. Odell Shepard, The
it may be further added that within the Lore of the Unicorn, Boston and New York,
arches over each month the details of the 1930). The unicorn horn was supposed to
moon's ascension, descension, apogee and have the extraordinary prophylactic power
perigee have been carefully entered for each of detection of poisons in food or drink. While
month. it was certainly not exceptional for a man of
3 Dr. Guido Schoenberger has called my the Duke's power and position to possesssuch
attention to the interesting fact that the a unicorn horn, it is worth noting in this
inventory of the Duke of Berry of 1416 lists particular case for its possible relation to the
"une corne entiere d'une unicorne" (see Guido question of his concern over his health in
Schoenberger, "Narwal-Einhorn, Studien these last years.
iuber einen seltenen Werkstoff," Staedel-

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The Zodiacal Miniature of the Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry: Its Sources and Meaning

Author(s): Harry Bober

he exquisitely illuminated Tris richesHeuresof the Duke of Berry, left

The frontal figure of the Limbourg miniature recalls an image familiar

-;'i-i- i i--:- i - -i-ii---"--

?i! 0 'Alm:: :iiiiiiiiiiiii-i

!iiii-ii 4'k: - iii'iiii,--i~:iiiiii~~hiijiiiii:

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

But it could not be indiscriminately applied wherever or whenever desired.

English monastic practice, for instance, called for bleeding in February,

e-Sol, Mithraic Relief, 4th

f-Terra cotta Disc from Tarentum g-Apotheosis of Hercules,

b'ZodiAcl anatomcl I Ith

a-cent.sicMa, Paris, Bibl. Nat., MS. lat. 7028, f. 154 <••?1

-Microcosmic Man Paris I Bibi.,n Vinnat Sloane28,f Brit. Mus., Zda

b Zodiac Man, 4th cent.,

ProposedTheories: (A) ManuscriptSources

(B) The Double Figure

Relation to the Printed "Hours"

Cyclesof MedicalIllustrationsand the "HomoVenarum"

a-Zodiac-Vein Man, Munich, Staatsbibl., b-Zodiac-Vein Man, Cambridge, Trinity

M., .... ....

c-Zodiac-Vein Man, British Museum, MS. Harley 2719 (p.UTC 2)

MedicalCalendarsand the "HomoVenarum"

I. Circular calendar diagram (or Volvella).

'.: ~~-- '''4'

5)b-Zdic sip.. 01,

i-iit:ie stiivttoi::-:-::: :::

::::: ,: ---- :_i

a-Zodiac Man (p. 26) b-Vein Man (p. 26)

4444 4'4444 441

a-Zodiac Man (p. 26) b-Vein Man (p. 26)

The DoubleFigureof the "Tris richesHeures"

Returning to the miniature of the Tris richesHeuresit is now possible to

According to one hypothesis, the Chantilly composition of figure within

Signature Ai Title page.

There is no demonstrable connection between these later printed Horae and

If the analysis proposed in this article is correct, the Chantilly zodiac is

less, without unwarranted presumption, interpret in the overtones of the

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