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Time Reckoning: Medical Astrology (p. 103b)


Time Reckoning: Medical Astrology (p. 103b)


Bloodletting was a routine medical procedure during Michael's time. Since blood is a liquid, it was believed that the moon created different "tides" in the blood as it moved through the zodiac each month. The signs of the zodiac were also thought to govern different parts of the body, as Michael depicts here. The idea is that it would be unwise to let blood from a part of the body when the moon was in its ruling sign, since there would be a "high tide" of blood there at that time. To properly schedule a bloodletting, the physician needed to know where the moon was in the heavens. Michael provides a table for tracking the moon through the zodiac later in his manuscript.

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+ Ihesus + Pissis. Segno per li pie. E se fuse ferido algun al membro, fusse la Lu- na, non se ossarave a desligar inchina la Luna fusse in quel segno, chomo vedirì qui de sotto depentto lo homo e li segnali. //

+Jesus+ Pisces. Sign for the feet. And if someone has been wounded in a limb in a period of moon, do not dare to unbind until the moon is in this sign. As you shall see the man and the symbols depicted below.