%0 Journal Article
%T "Through the stars to health", or Iatromathematics in Rescue of the Ailing Body. A Review of Late Medieval Sources from Kraków
%A Konarska-Zimnicka, Sylwia
%J Studia Historica Gedanensia
%V 2024
%R 10.4467/23916001HG.24.027.20455
%N Tom 15 (2024)/2
%P 182-196
%K medicine, astrology (iatromathematics), melothesy, Ptolemy, Kraków iatromathematical texts
%@ 2081-3309
%D 2024
%U https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/studia-historica-gedanensia/artykul/through-the-stars-to-health-or-iatromathematics-in-rescue-of-the-ailing-body-a-review-of-late-medieval-sources-from-krakow
%X Healthcare has always been one of the key elements of human existence. The issue of the prevention of diseases and all kinds of ailments was taken up by scholars who represented various disciplines. Iatromathematics, combining medicine and astrology, offered excellent possibilities. The interpretation of this knowledge can be found in various astrological treatises, notes, calendars and prognostics, or strictly iatromathematical works. It is in these works that the manner and scale of the influence of the elements of the lunar world on man in the context of his health and illness are described. It is also here that a description of a rich array of diseases and ailments that affected the human body can be found. This gives us the possibility to deduce what type of diseases they were, but also how frequently they occurred. All this is placed in the context of the parallels between the macro‑and the microcosm.