From all these objects, from the spheres of the elements, from the sun, moon, and other planets, from the four winds each with their two collaterals, from the fixed stars, and from the clouds, descend influences, indicated by lines, towards the figure of the macrocosm.
The microcosm is then introduced.
‘And again I heard the voice from heaven saying, “God, who created all things, wrought also man in his own image and similitude, and in him he traced [signavit] all created things, and he held him in such love that he destined him for the place from which the fallen angel had been cast.”’[75]
The various characters of the winds are expounded in a set of curious passages in which the doctrine of the macrocosm and microcosm is further mystically elaborated. An endeavour is made to attribute to the winds derived from the different quarters of heaven qualities associated with a number of animals.[76] The conception is illustrated and made comprehensible by the miniatures in the Lucca MS. (Plates [VII] and [VIII]).
‘In the middle of the disk [of the universe] there appeared the form of a man, the crown of whose head and the soles of whose feet extended to the fortis et albus lucidusque aer, and his hands were outstretched right and left to the same circle.... Towards these parts was an appearance as of four heads; a leopard, a wolf, a lion, and a bear. Above the head of the figure in the zone of the purus aether, I saw the head of the leopard emitting a blast from its mouth, and on the right side of the mouth the blast, curving itself somewhat backwards, was formed into a crab’s head ... with two chelae; while on the left side of the mouth a blast similarly curved ended in a stag’s head. From the mouth of the crab’s head, another blast went to the middle of the space between the leopard and the lion; and from the stag’s head a similar blast to the middle of the space between the leopard and the bear ... and all the heads were breathing towards the figure of the man. Under his feet in the aer aquosus there appeared as it were the head of a wolf, sending forth to the right a blast extending to the middle of the half space between its head and that of the bear, where it assumed the form of the stag’s head; and from the stag’s mouth there came, as it were, another breath which ended in the middle line. From the left of the wolf’s mouth arose a breath which went to the midst of the half space between the wolf and the lion, where was depicted another crab’s head ... from whose mouth another breath ended in the same middle line.... And the breath of all the heads extended sideways from one to another.... Moreover on the right hand of the figure in the lucidus ignis, from the head of the lion, issued a breath which passed laterally on the right into a serpent’s head and on the left into a lamb’s head ... similarly on the figure’s left in the ignis niger there issued a breath from the bear’s head ending on its right in the head of [another] lamb, and on its left in another serpent’s head.... And above the head of the figure the seven planets were ranged in order, three in the lucidus ignis, one projecting into the ignis niger and three into the purus aether.... And in the circumference of the circle of the lucidus ignis there appeared the sixteen principal stars, four in each quadrant between the heads.... Also the purus aether and the fortis et albus lucidusque aer seemed to be full of stars which sent forth their rays towards the clouds, whence ... tongues like rivers descended to the disk and towards the figure, which was thus surrounded and influenced by these signs.’[77]
The third vision is devoted to an account of the human body, the microcosm (Plate [VIII]), with a comparison of its organs to the parts of the macrocosmic scheme, together with a detailed account of the effects of the heavenly bodies on the humours in man, the whole brought into a strongly theological setting. Some of these views are set forth below in the chapter on anatomy and physiology.
The fourth vision explains the influence of the heavenly bodies and of the superior elements on the power of nature as exhibited on the surface of the earth. It is illustrated by a charming miniature in the Lucca MS. (Plate [IX]).
‘I saw that the upper fiery firmament was stirred, so that as it were ashes were cast therefrom to earth, and they produced rashes and ulcers in men and animals and fruits.’ These effects are shown in the left upper quadrant of Plate [IX], where the ashes are seen proceeding from the lucidus ignis, the ‘upper fiery firmament’. Two figures are seen, a female semi-recumbent, who lifts a fruit to her mouth, and a male figure fully recumbent, on whose legs a rash is displayed. The trees also in this quadrant show the effects of the ashes, two of them being denuded of fruit and foliage.