Prallent after Dodd

View of the Celestial Influx on the Body of Man as illustrated in Culpeper's Family Physician and Sibley's Occult Sciences, circa 1810

Line and stipple engraving printed in black and bistre with hand colored added later

Image dimensions:  8.375 x 6.5 in (21.2 x 16.5 cm)

An early 19th C. representation of the purported influences of the signs of the Zodiac on the body.

Custom framed our in 22k yellow gold lead cassetta profile frame with hand sgraffito, 8ply depth continuously wrapped silk matting and museum anti-reflection glass.

Physician, astrologer and occult philosopher, Ebenezer Sibly (1751-99) wrote popular works of medical theory and advice, including Culpepers English Physician (1789) and this companion volume of 1795. A synthesis of theology, natural philosophy and medical science, the book argues for a microcosmic understanding of the human body as a composite of the four essential elements. An ambitious work, it bears witness to an important era in the development of modern medicine, as Sibly looks to combine an older hermetic tradition with new Enlightenment-era insights into the physical universe. In the final section of the work, Sibly touts his remedies, Lunar Tincture and Solar Tincture, developed to act upon female and male ailments, respectively. Composed from the pabulum of the universe, these medicines, Sibly claims, cure everything from gunshot wounds to dog bites.