Zodiac Man: Rauner Special Collections

If you perceive of the body as a microcosm of all of creation, you had better pay attention to the universe when you are treating a patient.  The medieval sensibility closely linked the stars and the humors of the body. This famous, hand-colored illustration of “zodiac man” comes from a 1500 printing of Joannes de Ketham’s Fasciculus Medicinae. Originally printed nine years earlier, it is thought to be the first medical textbook in the era of print (click here for more).